Cheesy, boozy goodness

This was a rare evening of nothing-planned. No gym, no climbing or classes or social happenings. We had a leisurely dinner, with a candle. We had car things and mortgage things and paperwork to discuss and fill out. Ryan wrote an email. All very ordinary.

But we had been saving an unordinary dessert. One of those recipes you see, that looks so decadent and delicious that you remember it for years, but never quite get around to making.

I made it. Next time I probably won't share it.

It was that good.

Camembert with port raisins

1 small camembert round

2 tablespoons of port

2 tablespoons of raisins

Heat the raisins and port in a small pot until just boiled. Set aside to cool. Cut the top off the cheese, and scoop out the middle. Put the raisins inside, squash in as much of the cheese as you can, and put the lid back on. Wrap the whole cheese in greased aluminium foil. Heat a frying pan on low, and put the cheese on the heat. Leave it there for 10 minutes, or until it's soft and warm all the way to the top. Eat with water crackers, and maybe some more of the port. Seeing as you opened it already.

I found some other great looking camembert recipes too! Check out Warm Camembert with Wild Mushroom Fricase or Brussel Sprout and Camembert Gratin in Butternut Squash.

Experiments in cheese

Or, how not to make palak paneer.
I found an awesome site about cheesemaking, here, via simplesavings. It's a very cool site, and has explicit instructions on making many cheeses, including panir, which is an Indian cheese. One of Ryan's favourite Indian curries is Palak Paneer, or Saag Paneer, which is this cheese in a spinach sauce. So I got all excited, thinking we could make the cheese and then the curry and it would be GREAT!
This was a great lesson in following instructions. I used the wrong sort of pot, treated the measurements as guidelines only, and finally, decided the texture looked funny. I pressed the cheese, even though the recipe only said to hang it. My cheese turned out dry, with a vinegary after taste, and a 'squeaky' texture. If you've ever eaten unheated haloumi, you'll know what I mean. But anything covered in a good curry sauce tastes ok, doesn't it?
I had to find a recipe for the curry. I eventually found one where I recognised most of the ingredients (still not sure what methi leaves are). There was no way that I could quit at this stage, so even though I only had half the required spinach, I pressed on. Normally, the spinach sauce for this curry is almost pureed, and a very lurid green. But mine was really only slightly mashed, and the spinach shortage made for quite a yellow result (almost as much onion as spinach).
The end result was edible. Not much like Ryan's favourite, but we both ate it. That could have been politeness though. Ryan made chapatti's from scratch to go with the curry, and they were fairly experimental as well.