“Not Your Usual Potted Cheese”

(with Chilli Mayonnaise)

for

Grown-Ups ONLY

Christmas and New Year is but a fond and distant memory now, but somehow some of our “festive fare” lingers on, lurking in surprising and sometimes inappropriate places (such as half a Christmas pudding that I found still “cooling down” in the oven) and strange though it may seem to those who know me well, but the main protagonist on the “festive fare leftovers trail” is cheese. Why should a surfeit of cheese be so surprising, well just like “leftover wine” it doesn’t exist and is a cruel marketing ploy by viticulturists and cheese-makers to get you to “freeze any leftover wine in ice-cube trays” that is still perfectly quaffable as well as make “potted cheese” with cheese that is clearly ear-marked for “Midnight snacking” and the like.

So, why did I, as an avid cheese lover, make a batch of potted cheese and not scoff the lot in the dead of night ? Well, there’s several reasons why – firstly, the assorted cheeses in question were found lurking in a rather parlous state at the back of the fridge; secondly, I discovered an opened jar of Gran Luchito Chilli Mayo (aka “jar of crack”) hiding in the same place, and finally, I actually do love a spot of potted cheese of an evening (or morning) now and then. So, my fiendish and cunning plan to make a very unusual potted cheese was hatched and I have to say, it’s one of the best cunning (culinary) plans I have had of late.

This is NOT your usual potted cheese, as the title says, and it was the most amazing spread that has ever hit a slice of burnt toast in the Lavender and Lovage household. Unctuous and cheesy with more than a hint of teenage attitude, this is a potted cheese of an exceedingly high standard……with it’s little flecks of smoked Pasilla Oaxaca Chillies and free-range eggs mayo, not forgetting the assorted nuggets of cheeses that run through the spread like bulls through Pamplona, it’s a delectable and divine pot of spicy, creamy and cheesy goodness that quite frankly should come with a government health warning.

We ate the first batch, rather sedately, on some delicious Peter’s Yard Nordic Crackers – the spread adding a fiery heat to the cool and collected Scandi vehicles……we then went totally off-piste and had the potted cheese added to some freshly cooked pasta before we discovered the virtues of melting it on toast in the manner of Welsh rarebit (a separate post will follow about that delicacy). It didn’t matter what we added this addictive spread to, it was the magical ingredient, and even though it looked fairly benign sat in Mrs Moor’s vintage Potted meat pots, (thanks GG!) , it was obviously in a class of its own, as in class A drugs, and I am now thinking of patenting it.

But no more about this cheesy spread for now, the recipe (assembly job) is shared below and all I can say to finish this post, is for heaven’s sakes, MAKE SOME! TTFN, Karen

As this potted cheese makes a “hot to trot” sandwich filling, it fits into this month’s Tea Time Treats theme of Packed Lunches.…..hosted by myself and Janie on alternate months – Janie is in the staff dining room this month!