Renowned makers Quickes drew on their cheddar-making experience for this goats' cheese, created with the help of Val Bines, who offered her expert help and advice to Mary and the team over many years. The cheese, matured for 6-7 months, won Best Goats' Cheese in the 2009 British Cheese Awards - from a field of 127!
Pasteurised
More about Quickes
Quickes cheese definitely counts as 'artisan', i.e hand-made, but in terms of the people we deal with, they're also one of the larger concerns, with up to 400 tons of Cheddar being made each year, and a staff of around ten. The first time I looked into their biggest cheese store was quite a jaw-dropping moment, row after row of huge racks with hundreds of huge 15 kilo chedars slowly maturing. Qute a sight!
When Sir John Quicke and his wife Prue started making cheddar in the early 70s, really traditional cheese making in this country was perhaps at its lowest ebb. The Quickes instinctively went for the old methods and cloth-wrapped truckles rather than the rindless blocks emerging from big industrial creameries, with a 500-strong dairy herd providing the milk.
Today the firm is under the leadership of John and Prue's daughter Mary, whose focus is on the business of making 'world class cheese'. In The Cheese Shed we stock her 18 month old Extra Mature Cheddar, 2 year Vintage and Oak-Smoked Cheddar, as well as Double Gloucester and a very nice firm Goats Cheese. In addition there's a Red Leicester and a herb-flavoured Cheddar.
Oven Roasted Roots with Quicke’s Goats Cheese
Serves 4
Pre-heat oven 170c/325f/gas mark 3
Large gratin dish or roasting tin (greased)
225g potatoes
225g swede
225g celeriac (or a couple of sticks of celery)
225g parsnips
100g carrots
2 small leeks
200g Quickes goats cheese (cubed - not too small)
300ml double cream
300ml full fat milk
20g butter
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper
fresh basil (optional)
This mixture of roots and goats cheese (we’ve suggested Quickes but you could use Village Green or Ticklemore) is lovely on a cold night. If you’re very organised you could make it a day in advance.
Peel all the root vegetables and slice them into narrow strips, about 2½in long. Peel and thinly slice the leeks. Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. A handful of fresh basil leaves can be added at this stage if desired.
Tip all the vegetables into the prepared dish, dot with cubes of butter and goats cheese.
Mix the double cream and milk in a jug and gently pour over the vegetables, finally sprinkle on a little ground nutmeg.
Cook for 1 hour, middle shelf in oven until veggies are just soft, they should have a bit of a bite! Cover with foil if the dish browns too quickly.
Throw in a bit of basil if you fancy it and serve with warm bread.
Recipe devised by Annie Howes
