The Easter weekend is nearly upon us…hooray, four days to chill out and cook! Yes, a long weekend is just the motivation I need to start conjuring up menus to try in my head. Watch this space.
To get those creative juices flowing, take a look at these stunning recipes from Castello cheeses.
They’ve teamed up with foodie adventurer Stefan Gales and I just love these fantastically creative Easter egg recipes with a twist. Enjoy and Happy Easter everyone.
Tickler and cider fondue served in an eggshell with Tickler soldiers fried in beurre noisette
Serves 4
350g Castello Tickler Extra-Mature Cheddar (grated)
200ml fine strong cider
1 tablespoon of cornflour, mixed to a paste with 2tbsp cold water
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
1tbsp truffle oil
Soldiers
8 slices sourdough
200g Castello Tickler Extra-Mature Cheddar thinly sliced
100g butter for frying
Juice of 1 lemon
Put a thick-bottomed saucepan on a medium heat, add the cider and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat, mix in the grated cheese, cornflour paste and Worcestershire sauce. Stir gently until all the cheese has melted. It should be as thick as Greek yoghurt, so if you need to thicken or loosen it add more cheese or cider. Keep it warm until you’re ready to serve
Lightly toast the sourdough slices, then make four unbuttered sandwiches with cheddar slices inside
Heat a large knob of butter in a frying pan until sizzling, then just as the butter turns brown, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and turn one of the sandwiches in it to coat and continue frying until slightly crispy. Repeat with the rest of the sandwiches, then slice them into soldiers and put them on plates
Stir ½ tbsp. truffle oil into the fondue, taste and add another ½ tbsp. if you need to (truffle oils can vary in strength). Put each egg-shell in an egg cup and fill with the fondue (there’ll be more leftover for seconds!) and serve.
Pineapple Halo mixed with creme fraiche in a chocolate egg with orange zest
Makes 2 eggs
2 hollow chocolate eggs
½ wheel of Castello Pineapple Halo
4tbsp crème fraiche
Zest of one orange
Carefully slice the top off the chocolate eggs using a hot knife dipped in water from a boiled kettle. Put them into egg cups
Put the cheese, crème fraiche and ¾ of the orange zest into a bowl and mix it together with the back of a fork. Fill each eggshell with the mixture, and then put the remaining orange zest on top to look like the yolk.
To find out more about the Castello cheese range visit www.castellocheese.co.uk
