COMPETITION TIME! Foodies Festival at Tatton Park

It’s that time of year again – no not the one where we get a few small days of sunshine and all the fat lasses get their wobbles out; not the one where we finally get a rest from overpaid roustabouts kicking a pig’s bladder round a field and no, not the one where I stop drinking for a bit (that never happens, nor even when everyone else hates themselves in January. I never hate myself).

No, much better than my self love - Foodies Festival has once again returned to the North West, hurrah! The UK’s largest celebration of all things food and (more importantly for Nosh) drink is once again popping up at Tatton Park from the 17-19 May; cross fingers for the return of the sunshine!

Expanding on the well-loved format, this year sees a bigger and better festival, with new stages and areas for you all to explore – including a zeitgeist-y Cake and Bake theatre where, you guessed it, baking and cake chat will happen; including a participant lead bake-a-long, Great British Bake Off’s Ruth Clemens and steampunk Emilly Ladybird whizzing up some Hendrick's inspired treats.

Much to my delight, other new areas for this year include a theatre dedicated to Chocolate, with daily demos from David Greenwood-Haigh of Divine (wonder if he’s single…?); a dedicated BBQ area (another big trend, may go for a snoop with my Guerrilla Eats head on…) and a theatre dedicated to BOOZE, including a cocktail area (dear organisers, please reserve me a seat next to the demonstrator...).

As well as all the new stuff, there’s the usual Producers’ Market, selling all sorts of wonders to take home with you; al fresco dining areas with food served by places such as Ning, Chaopraya and Stolen Lamb; the Kid’s Cook School, so we can get the little ones interested and the Street Food Market (yup, another Guerrilla Eats snoop a comin’) with some wonderful traders like my good friend and producer of actually addictive ice-cream, Ginger’s Comfort.

All in all it’s going to be a great weekend of gluttony and sheer unliscened bacchanalian fun – so get your tickets HERE.

BUT STOP PRESS – I’ve got 2 x pairs of tickets to give away BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (read – am good at blagging things). All you need to do is comment BELOW or on my twitter feed (@northwestnosh) about why I should pick you, funnier the better. I’ll get one of my amazing work colleagues to randomly pick you out of a hat (probably a yoghurt tub, glamorous!) on Wednesday 15^th May.

GET ENTERING!

The Plough and Flail - Mobberly, Cheshire

Sometimes I think I expect too much from restaurants – maybe they bring it on themselves, maybe it’s the setting, maybe I just have high standards.

The Plough and Flail in Mobberly, Cheshire is set in the middle of sparrow laden hedgerows, lush fields and picturesque villages; stepping in, you’re surrounded by light wood, slate floors, exposed brick and comfy cushions. There’s also a wine cube, a special room for all their amazing stock of wine and their food is all locally sourced and seasonal.

Plough and Flail - idyllic setting - with thanks to themselves

On paper this is somewhere I’m going to love – commitment to local sourcing, drinks I’ll actually enjoy drinking, natural materials and period features, all set in an idyllic setting.

It’s just that the meal wasn’t quite right – it was almost a meal of two halves. The pâté for the starter was bland and livery, tasting as if it was bought in. However t’boy’s homemade hash brown and poached egg was a salty, crunchy, carby delight and the egg was cooked spot on – dribbling warm orange juices all over the hash, softening up the palate and just generally scrummy.

Corned beef hash brown and egg

Pheasant three ways was dry, stringy and tasteless bar the cute little pie; however this was horrendously salty and drowned out any other taste and was more pastry than filling. The dish was served with a scoop of lumpy mash potato (yes, an actual ice cream scoop, see picture) and some chopped carrots – very school dinner and not at all appetising.

Pheasant three ways - very dry

Again t’boy scored with his Gressingham duck – pink, soft, sweet and absolutely cooked to perfection, it also looked beautiful on the plate and tasted pretty much like that too.

Beautiful Gressingham duck

Would t’boy score a hat trick? He did indeed with a buttery, crunchy, sweetly sharp berry crumble. Gorgeous and generous I was left eating my overly lemony treacle tart with a lump in my throat – and that wasn’t just from heavy pastry under the custardy lemony filling I was swallowing. I appreciate a treacle tart needs a lemon tang to lift it up, however I’m sure this was actually just a lemon tart masquerading on the menu as treacle. I can only presume they a) ran out of treacle and thought I wouldn’t notice b) have a confused chef that isn’t quite au fait with the differences or c) were sent a wrongly marked lemon tart from the catering company they use.

Lemon tart? Treacle tart?

How a meal eaten by two people on one table can be so different for the parties involved, I don’t know – the skill, balance, cookery, look and taste of our dishes was so far removed that we could have been eating at different restaurants. Having sampled (a lot) of t’boy’s meal I know it wasn’t just my conceptions – he had some absolutely belting dishes and I, to use modern parlance, ‘lucked out.’

If The Plough and Flail can bring the quality of all their dishes up to the same considerably high bar that they so obviously are capable of, then it would become the country idyll pub I’d originally imagined it to be.

Price for two starters, two mains, two puddings and two beers –

Food – 7/10 (6/10 for mine and 8/10 for t’boy’s)
Atmosphere – 8/10
Service – 6/10 (we struggled to catch peoples’ eyes as they whizzed past)
Value for money – 7/10

Total – 28/40

Go again? If my meal could be as good as t’boy’s, then yes, but as the food quality is variable I’d only go again if I was in the area.

Plough and Flail, Paddock Hill, Mobberly, Cheshire, WA16 7DB - 01565 873537 - ploughandflail@thedekersgroup.com - website

Essential Cuisine Stocks

Without a good stock we’d be nowhere in the kitchen; a proper stock adds body, depth and flavouring, it is the cornerstone to many a recipe. Where would we be without a stock? No gravies, no risottos, no consommes...

In the past, nothing was wasted in the kitchen – huge pots bubbled up on the stove with all the trimmings  popped in to create the basis of dishes we know and love; lob scouse, Lancashire hot pot, soup. However those days are gone and with them the need to save every last penny. With long hours worked and less meals cooked from scratch, many home cooks find there’s no time to prepare this liquid gold.

Apart from a monthly chicken stock (family tradition) I don't have the time for stock making (ie I'm lazy) or we never eat enough meat to stockpile the bones for something like beef stock. My freezer’s already full to burst, so meticulously adding in bone after bone to a stock bag and then remembering to use them just doesn’t happen in our household. So it’s to the trusty prepared stocks, mainly cubes and powders, that I turn.

Usually it’s a Kallo cube – it’s all organic so I know what I’m getting and can eat easy, but it's a pain in proverbial to dissolve, or there’s the low salt Swiss bouillon for when I’m on a health kick. But a few weeks back an interesting parcel dropped on to my mat; a selection of stocks made by Essential Cuisine.

Essential Cuisine have been making stocks for the past 17 years, since Nigel Crane couldn't find anything on the market to suit his needs. The company has been selling mainly to professional kitchens and catering outlets, but are now opening up to the home market - their little pots make about six litres if you follow the instructions.

The first difference with this stock is the texture – it’s a very fine, loose powder with no lumps in or freeze dried vegetable bits. This means it dissolves in a flash with no loose bits floating on the top (annoying for a risotto or clear soup), plus if your seasoning’s not right you can put a bit more in with no fear of lumps forming or having to mash it in. Over the past weeks I’ve substituted the Essential Cuisine stocks and monitored the results, which I’ve been very happy with.

The veg stock is lighter than my usual two and has a less salty flavour. Essential Cuisine use celeriac in their stock and this flavour shines through rather than being drowned out by other flavours - there's also tomato and garlic; not traditional but they add a deeper, almost smokey flavour and a big hit of umami. There's also a pleasing ratio of oil - my other stocks have oils quite near to the top f the ingredients lists (meaning there's more in the recipe), but it's the last thing in the Essential cuisine stock. On an environmental note they use vegetable oil rather than palm oil as all my other stocks do (my issue with palm oil is enough to fill a blog, even supposedly environmentally sustainable palm oil). I’d say it was a little sweeter than my usual stock, but this wasn’t a bad thing; adding a rounded flavour to everything I made. Towards the end of the week I became a little lazy and started using the stock as a general seasoning to every dish I made. Tut tut.

I’ve never used a fish stock before as I’d usually use a veg stock, or maybe even chicken for a robust dish. Whilst t’boy was out I took the chance to cook up a squid risotto, not something he’d touch with a barge pole.

The fish stock is a bit of an odd colour, a dull dun pink; but this goes when added to water – the preparation you end up with looks a little like miso soup. I had worried this would be overly fishy, but the flavour was delicate and light with a hint of sweetness to balance everything out.

Making the risotto I was astonished at the flavour; sweetly salty, deeply savoury and a little fishy in a good way. Suddenly I was making restaurant tasting risotto in my little kitchen - a revelation! Towards the end of cooking the rice I switched to using the veg stock, so not to overpower the squid. This worked extraordinarily well, adding a little extra favour to the risotto.

Essential Cuisine’s stocks are brilliant; they’re very well put together, balanced and bring a touch of restaurant cooking to your own kitchen. The stocks are gluten free, low in salt, have no MSG and there's even a Halal range, so everyone can get in on the benefits!

Essential Cuisine - Website - Twitter - Facebook - Shop

Please note I was sent these stock samples for free, but it was under no expectation of writing nice things – I was just very impressed with what I received.

Ps check out the website for lots of interesting recipes.

Squid and Tomato Risotto – Serves 1 – Prep 5 mins – Cooking 20 mins

100g Risotto rice – I used carnaroli

200ml Essential Cuisine Fish Stock and 100ml Veg stock (or can just use all fish stock if you like)

One small glass of white wine (optional, I didn’t use as I didn’t have any in)

Half a small onion, diced small

One garlic clove, chopped small

15g Parmesan cheese (I actually used Gouda as I like the more farm-yardy taste, rich)

150g of squid (I used small squid tubes, but you can use more)

Left over tomato sauce from pasta (had tomatoes, roast pepper and smoked paprika in) or 6 cherry tomatoes
EV olive oil for finishing

Basil leaves

2. Make up the stock in a small pan on the stove – you need to keep the stock warm so keep it on a low heat whilst you cook your risotto.
3. Pop some olive oil (or butter) in a heavy based frying pan and put it on a low-middle heat, sweat the onions for about five minutes till soft. Do not brown them.
4. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes – do not catch or brown.
5. Add the rice to the pan and cook for a few minutes until the grains are coated with the oil and a bit translucent. Keep on a medium heat.
6. Add the wine (if using) and stir in to absorb – I just used an extra ladle of stock as I’d forgotten to get some wine in.
7. Keep adding stock a ladle at a time and stirring in until all the stock is absorbed.
8. Keep tasting the risotto and stop when there’s a little bite in the rice (al dente) and there’s a creamy texture to the whole thing.
9. Take the risotto off the heat and grate in some cheese, stir, then pop a lid on and put to one side.
10. Heat up your tomato sauce and while this is going on fry up your squid in a frying pan, don’t add too much to the pan or you won’t fry it, it’ll steam!
11. Add your tentacles first as they take a little more time to cook, then add the squid and cook for about 1-2 mins each side. Make sure you keep cooking time short, but with the tentacles, get them to brown slightly as it adds a really good flavour.
12. Taste the risotto and season as necessary (the cheese and the stock should be salty enough, but you might like to check). Add salt if needed.
13. Assemble your risotto on a plate, tomato sauce on top and around, squid on top, then topped off with basil leaves and some extra virgin oil.

Please note, if you are using the cherry tomatoes; pre-heat the oven to 180c, put the tomatoes in a baking try with some balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast for 25 mins and then top your risotto with them.

Chorizo and Butter Bean Homemade Pot Noodle (inspired by Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall)

Serves 2 – Prep 10 mins – Cooking 5 min

Two nests of noodles – I like to use medium egg

Half a red onion or four spring onions – sliced really fine

Eight cherry tomatoes

Two mushrooms

One pak choi – sliced

Two small green chillies – sliced

Half a tin of butter beans (please don’t put dry ones in, must already have been cooked)

Half a pepper – sliced – or can used roasted peppers from a jar

Some chorizo, diced – I buy a whole ring and slice bits off rather than the awful supermarket sliced stuff

Some fresh parsley

2 tsp smoked paprika (1 tsp each)

3 tsp Essential cuisine veg stock powder (1 ½ tsp each)

½ lemon cut in quarters

Salt and pepper

1. Get a container you can put all the ingredients in AND pour hot water in – we save the plastic soup cartons and use those.
2. In each container add the stock and paprika, add the smallest dash of salt and a good grind of pepper.
3. Add the noodles and break them up fine as you’ll need them to get soft with out stirring them up.
4. Layer up the veg in each pot – I tend to put the denser things nearer the noodles (pepper, pak choi stems) and the more delicate stuff at the top ie parsley leaves and the tops of the pak choi.
5. Add your butter beans, chorizo and lemon and pop the lid on.
6. When you want it, add hot water to the top, put the lid on, leave for five mins, stir, squeeze in the lemon and then eat.
7. Be careful of the chilli when you’re chomping down and take out if needed!

This can be amended to suit any tastes or any veg you have in the fridge. We often cook extra salmon and have a salmon ramen the next day, or go French and put in left over roast chicken and roasted garlic. Have fun!

Dilli Restaurant Cookery Course - Altrincham

Cookery courses - something I've always wanted to do, yet something I've never attempted. Paying £90 plus for (sometimes as little as) a half day with ten other people always seems a little over priced, just to learn a skill I already have or will never use - why learn to temper chocolate when I'll go to a chocolatier if I want something exquisite; I have no want to go into the chocolate business myself, I'd be dead by the time I'm 35.

However when an invite to learn how to make a selection of Indian foods at award-winning Altrincham restaurant Dilli, for free, popped in to my inbox I found myself strangely excited and leapt at the chance. Maybe it's because I cook a lot of Indian food, but stick to the usual basics from my stained and well-thumbed Madhur Jaffrey book. Or maybe I just like free things.

The day was run by Living Social, a newish voucher company aimed at the growing army of bargain loving Brits; their aim was to give a selection of bloggers an insight into what one of these days looks like and I think we can all agree they did just that.

Dilli’s an upmarket Indian based in the middle of busy Altrincham, after a bit of a parking issue I arrived flustered and was whisked upstairs to meet my fellow foodies and our teachers for the day. Chefs Ravi and Nayeem ran through their credentials (impressive), a brief history of Indian cookery (comprehensive) and what we would be learning (extensive).

Introduction from Chef Ravi

First things first; a mango lassi demonstration from Chef Nayeem and some wise advice about never mixing beer with lassi from Chef Ravi. Out came the glasses and we all sipped on the velvety, icy delight; bit cold for a January afternoon, but it was so thick and luscious that I’d knocked it back in no time.

Nayeem making the lassi

Whilst we were drinking Chef Nayeem demonstrated onion bhajias and his wonderful knife skills (cue much green eyes from us guys watching); whilst Chef Ravi described the difference between Southern and Northern cookery. Time to taste again and the bhajias were a revelation; crisp, flavoursome and nothing like the soggy, burnt offerings you get in most places. In the fifeteen minutes it took to make them I’d learnt so many tips and tricks relating to Indian and everyday cookery that I wondered why I hadn’t done this before.

Bhajias and two wonderful sauces

Time for us to get cracking – we were shown to our individual stations; a camping stove, a board, a knife and a spoon. There’s no official teaching kitchen at Dilli, but their improvised set up was practical, giving everyone an uninteruppted view of what was going on and underlined the fact that Indian cookery is very accessible and doesn’t require running home and shelling out on oodles of fancy gadgets that get used for the first month and then collect dust at the backs of cupboards; the skills you learn here are instantly replicable at home.

Dilli cookery class set up

For the next two hours we studiously crafted a chicken Murgh Kali Mirch (veg option was available), Dal Tarka and a Aloo Palak; Chef Nayeem was on hand at every point to make sure our sauces were thick enough and that our onions were small enough (no way near as good as his I have to say – he can even chop them without looking!). All the while, Chef Ravi wove interesting tales about the ingredients around the heady, intoxicating smells emanating from our pans; explaining the history, uses and folklore of each. Did you know that turmeric is a preservative and that if you buy lots of fresh herbs you should chop them small and freeze them in ice cubes?

Aloo palak - yum yum yum

The day was exciting, interesting and I learnt a great deal. The most amazing thing was the Chefs’ obvious care and love for the food they were helping us to create. Their added facts and tales made the day totally engaging and I felt as though I was not only learning new dishes, but also what’s behind the dishes; something you can’t always get from cookery books or recipes you pick up a long the way.

Mix of spices - if you get a cheap curry, there's no way there's this many ingredients in it

There was only one down point to the day and was that we didn’t mix the spices ourselves, the chefs popped them in our pans for us. I would have liked to get a little more hands on than chopping and stirring – I’m a practical learner so for me to remember I have to do something (we have been given recipes though so I know how much of each goes where!).

The day at Dilli was definitely well worth it and has made me reconsider the merits of cookery courses. I may not be tempering chocolate, but maybe an Italian or a Japanese course could be my next adventure?

Eating the spoils - t'boy was very pleased and said it was the best curry I've ever made

Please note I was offered this day free of charge by Living Social, however the day would have been offered at about 50% off, which makes it very affordable and very worth it.

Dilli, 60 Stamford New Road, Altrincham WA14 1EE - 0161 929 7484 - info@dilli.co.uk - Twitter - Facebook

http://www.dilli.co.uk/ http://www.livingsocial.com/

Planet Pavillion - Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield

Located in Jodrell Bank's new visitor centre, with excellent views across to the impressive Lovell radio telescope; the Planet Pavilion Cafe is the latest outpost of the Modern Caterer, a small company headed up by award winning chef Peter Booth, that has sustainability and seasonality as its core.

The Modern Caterer at The Planet Pavilion - with thanks to Relish Publications

Dominated by the large windows focused on the iconic white radio telescope; the cafe is a fresh, modern space with quirky facts along the walls and lines of clocks displaying various space related times such as the time on Venus and in a black hole (with handy explanations for the non-physicists underneath). There's the ubiquitous blackboard you find in many little cafes with piles of fresh veg underneath and heaps of homemade cakes on the counter.

Views out to the Lovell radio telescope - with thanks to Manchester University

The menu is a mixture of usual lunchtime fare; sandwiches, soups, wraps and whatever. It's was a bustling little space, even on a wet Tuesday afternoon and whilst we were there it was obvious that staff from Manchester University's Astrophysics Department often pop in. And who wouldn't?

Dishes displayed a simplistic elegance and a genuine care for the ingredients involved; the daily special of parsnip soup was creamy yet light, with a sweet whisper of sharp apple underlying the whole dish. Alongside was bread supplied by (fairly) local bakery, Barbakan of Chorlton - and, considering how much their loaves cost, there was a substantial amount of one on the side of the plate.

Parsnip soup and loads of bread

Potted Cheshire Pork (the meat supplied by award winning WH Frosts - also of Chorlton) was wonderfully soft and surrounded by the lovely, scrumptious fat and topped with the sharpest slivers of apple - a brilliant essay in why salty, sweet and sour works so well together. Could have done with a little more seasoning, but that was my only gripe.

Potted Cheshire Pork

We followed these tasty, simple lunch dishes with a full five minutes considering the distortion of space time round the hefty body of homemade cakes on offer. After much deliberation we chose a light and fragrant orange and poppy seed plus a dense and chewy brownie, which were eaten in three seconds flat; proving the point that space time does indeed slow down and then speed up round heavenly bodies.

Cakes - look boring, tasted fab

The Planet Pavilion is a great cafe for a museum, or for anywhere to be honest. There's no pre-packaged sandwiches; there's the excellent cooking; there's large portions, there's sensible pricing and there's an obvious commitment to deliver good tasting, sustainable food in line with their ethos rather than simply using it as a catchy and on-trend byline. I wish other establishments would take a leaf from Jodrell and realise overcharging for plastic crap is something that should only happen in the gift shop.

Ps - The Planet Pavilion Cafe also has a licence and serves Cains, so you can calm your nerves if contemplating the universe gets too much.

Pps - you don't have to visit Jodrell to go to the cafe; but I'd recommend it, just for a walk around the massive grounds and to stand by the radio telescope and pretend you're Brian Cox or (even better) Sir Patrick Moore.

Cost for two dishes, two cakes and a beer: £14.75

Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
Vale for money - 9/10

Total - 31/40

Go again? Yes, any excuse for sustainable, well cooked food AND learning about astrophysics. I'm there!

The Modern Caterer at The Planet Pavilion, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, Lower Withington, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL (sat navs use SK11 9DW) - 01477 571766 - jodrell.visitor.centre@machester.ac.uk

http://www.themoderncaterer.co.uk/

Burt's Blue Cheese - Altrincham, Cheshire

It's British Cheese Week; the time of year which fromageophiles such as myself use as an excuse to stock up on the good stuff, retreat indoors and only emerge after the last gooey globlet has been wiped out of the fondue.

So taking a break from the annual face stuffing, I'm resting my mandibles and sitting down to write a piece about the one cheese you should be searching out this week.

Burt’s Cheese is the new kid on the artisan cheese block. Handmade with all natural ingrediants by Claire Burt in Altrincham since 2009 it's since gained such critical acclaim that the cheese took Gold in the Specialist Cheese Makers Class at the International Cheese Awards 2010 in its first year and is now featuring on the menus of some of the best restaurants in the North West.

Claire Burt with her gold award

Focusing on quality rather than quantity, Claire Burt hand makes the cheese herself in small batches with pasteurised milk from the local dairy co-op, in a small dairy one mile from her house. The cheeses are pierced during maturation, which encourages the blue veins to develop, along with the cheese's flavour.

So, what's it like? Burt's is a small cheese; a dainty blue truckle, with an interesting blue mould bloom covering the surface. Each cheese comes in an individual paper wrapping and sealed with the date it was made and when it will keep to. On opening you are presented with a very pretty, lopsided, circular cheese with a faint aroma of mushrooms. As Burt's is handmade in small batches, each one tastes slightly different and looks unique. If you can face cutting open something of such beauty, revealed is a beautiful off-white, soft cheese with blue veins running through the middle.

Burt's Blue - with thanks to Smell My Kitchen Blog

This isn't a knock your socks of piquant blue that you can smell from the other side of the room; it's far more subtle than that. Burt's Blue is very creamy and soft, with a luxurious mouth feel. After the initial heavy dose of cream, there's a marked sharp top note, followed by a salty, warmer finish.

The creamy density and slight sweetness of Burt's Blue is great with the sharp fruit around now, some cox apples went particularly well, as did the slightly under ripe pears I 'borrowed' off the tree at work. I wouldn't suggest you pair the cheese with overpowering flavours, but sitting on top of an oatcake really shows off the full range of flavours in the cheese. Chef Jason Palin has also come up with quite a few recipes for cheese including the Welsh RareBurt - proving it's versatile as well as tasty. However, for me, simple is the best - wedges of Burt's on its own – pure and delicious.

Burt's Blue showing blue veins

So impressed was I with the cheese I managed to pin Claire down in between cheese batches and caring for her young son Noah to give me a brief insight into how Burt’s got started.

How did you get in to cheese making?
I was working for Dairygold Food Ingredients in Product Development and was lucky to be sent on a cheese making course, plus got to visit dairies across Ireland, UK, Italy and Denmark. I got really interested in it, then I made some cheese in my kitchen and it started from there.

What was your first cheese like?
It actually turned out like a cheese! But I didn't unfortunately get to taste it as I'd just found out I was expecting, so my husband had to be my guinea pig. Luckily it didn’t do him any harm so I carried on.

How it all starts - the curds and why of Burt's Blue

So how do you get from cheese making in the kitchen to a proper product on shelves?
I kept making cheese at home and when I worked out it was something I wanted to do, I spoke to Environmental Health about a fit for sale product. From there it was about getting into the local shops and luckily both Red House Farm and my local deli in Goosegreen, Altincham were impressed enough to take the cheese on. I did go back to work as I'd been doing this on my maternity, but my heart wasn't in it and now I produce Burt’s Blue full time.

Do you still turn out the cheeses in the kitchen?
No! I've been very lucky to find a small room that adjoins the Cheshire Cookery School just up the road from my house, which is very handy. I had a few false starts finding places, but this is my permanent home now. I've kitted the room out with plastic wall cladding, vats, moulds and all the other cheese making paraphernalia. It's a proper dairy. The cheese is both made, matured here and packaged here.

Any disasters?
Thankfully not too many and not what you term proper disasters. We initially used a single farm to produce the cream and the milk, however they couldn’t change their rounds to suit us and this was a big problem in the warm weather. We now buy off a local co-op instead and this suits us much better. I think the only proper has been during the cold weather all the pipes froze so we had no water to make the cheese with. As they thawed they burst and we had considerably too much water!

Burt's Blue at four weeks old

What have you learned in the last year?
It’s been a massive learning curve and I learned so much, each day I’m learning new things and think I always will. Finding the right suppliers, working with stockists, getting the cheese right, all the different coats on the cheese; it just carries on. However sometimes you realise things are beyond your control. There's a saying that cheese never sleeps; I think that goes for the cheese maker as well! I still very much feel like a beginner and am very excited about what the future holds.

Ps The cheese is suitable for veggies too, so we can all enjoy!
Burts is now stocked in the following places: Cheese Shop, Chester; Cheese Hamlet, Didsbury; Barbakan Deli, Chorlton; Cheese Emporium, Altrincham Market; Red House Farm, Altrincham; Cheshire Smokehouse; Good Cheese Company; Pendrills, wholesaler (supplies into Northcotes); Sam's Fresh and Local, Bramhall; Cheerbrook Farm Shop; De Fine, Sandiway; The Hollies Farm Shop, Cheshire; Hopley House, Middlewich; Williams & Sons, Holmes Chapel; Yellow Broom, Twemlow; Sextons, Lymm; Pokusevskis Deli, Heaton Moor; Ken's deli, Westhaughton. And you can catch Claire at the Altincham Producers Market, held every third Saturday of the month.
Burt’s Blue Cheese, 14 Grosvenor Close, Altincham, Cheshire WA14 1LA –
07709 394292 – Claire@burtscheese.com – Twitter

http://www.burtscheese.com/