The Great British Cheese Festival

This weekend my friend George and I ventured off to the Welsh capital (town) Cardiff for the Great British Cheese Fesitval. Held in the grounds of the beautiful Cardiff castle it was a celebration of all things fromage, and British.

Was an amazing weekend and we took part in some of the tasting classes, namely The Science of the Ploughmans, Elegant Subtle and Nutty and Singing the Blues. We meet some lovely people who kindly let me take their photographs. The cheese was amazing, the weather was amazing, all in all it was pretty amazing.

Here are some of the polaroid from that weekend.



This lovely couple had packed in the London rat race and now make an amazing blue. And are happy as larry as you can see.



'I guess that's why the call it the blueeessss'



This delightful man had created an award winning goats cheese, similar to Pecorino. He also took us through the Elegant, Subtle and Nutty tasting class.



I fell off the Atkins wagon, but it was for homemade honeycomb ice cream.



Some mad Welsh birds.



Elegant, Subtle and Nutty. An exploration of the sheer variety of goats cheese. An education indeed.



The Science of the Ploughmans.



The AMAZING man that took us through The Science of the Ploughmans. It's all very technical. Note the blackboard!



Pints of Pimms. Thanks for a lovely weekend George.

More info about all British cheese related maters here.

After such a long time...

I hope to reinvigorate my foray into Meat & Cheese. The title of this blog has never been more apt as currently I am on the dreaded Atkins diet. Both Jaimie and I are on the way to sexy slim-dom, and have been consuming more than our fair shall of the above mentioned ingredients.



Its a bit of a shame though. As nice as meat and cheese are, man should not live by it alone. I've found it really hard to find decent low-carb recipies on the internet which got me to thinking that it would be great to keep all of my low-carb recipes in one place, and to share them with people.

We have had a few relative culinary triumphs whilst we've been on this seemingly ridiculous weight loss quest. And here is one that I particularly enjoyed. We served this dish with a garlic and lemon roasted chicked (and a few new potatoes and mint for the non-Atkins dinner guests)

This dish was inspired by Jaimie chatting really passionately about a dish his Dad made once. We couldn't find the recipe anywhere so I improvised. I think the cabbage cut this way into wedges makes it really attractive and somehow, more like a meal in itself.

Moro-inspired Spanish cabbage


(serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main)

1 pointed spring cabbage
1 lemon - juice of
1 tbsp capers
1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Cut the cabbage from the base to the pointed tip into quaters.
Blanche these quarters for a few minutes in salted boiling water until the tougher base of the cabbage is softened. Remove from the water and drain off the excess liquid from the cabbage quarters.

Turn the hob to a medium heat. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan and add the cabbage quarters. Squeeze the juice of one half of the lemon and add the capers and paprika. Leave to braise for a minute or two and then turn the quarters over. Squeeze in the remaining lemon juice.

To serve, place the quarters side by side on a large white plate and pour over the capers and juices from them pan. Season to taste.