Creating a stunning cheese platter for your next gathering

If you are having a gathering of friends or are hosting a dinner party, then having the perfect cheese platter to offer your guests is crucial. Components you will need to consider to make your cheese platter suitable for guests are; the right dishes, cheese knives, mix of cheeses, and garnishes.

Dishes and Knives

Make sure that you have enough plates for each guest – even if not everyone opts for cheese, it’s always nice to know that they could! Also, make sure there is a suitable knife for each cheese. Many cheese knives are odd shapes, with metal curves at the end of the blade, or where the blade is a lot thinner than regular chopping knives. Make sure your cutlery is sharp to make the cheese-cutting experience as problem free as possible.

Types of Cheese

Variety is good, but try not to overwhelm your guests. Five types of cheese is definitely enough. Make sure that the varieties of cheeses that you choose have a mixture of textures; this will invariably mean that they each have a different strength of flavour too.  A creamy, soft type cheese such as Brie, a firm cheddar cheese and hard cheese such as Gouda are three great ones. Arrange them in terms of strength and maybe add a blue cheese to the mix just so you can help your guests experience different strengths of flavour.

How Much to Buy?

If you are serving a cheese platter as a main course, aim for between two and three ounces of cheese per guest. If it is being served as a dessert, aim for between one and one and a half ounces of cheese per guest.

Extra Touches to your cheese platter

To accompany your variety of cheeses, you will inevitably need some suitable garnishes to compliment your food. Fruity bread or a selection of crackers are great for placing different cheeses on and can make the platter seem more appealing. If you want to add colour to your platter as well as flavour, then wine jellies, a few small bunches of grapes, or a few slices of apple, olives, honey, chutney and nuts can bring out the flavour of the cheese and make the platter more visually appealing too. Pick a nice port or wine to go with your cheeses and you’ll keep your guests very happy.

What to Do with Leftovers

Make a macaroni and cheese dish, make a cheese sauce to pour over a steak, make some cheesy rice, make cheese sandwiches, make cheese soup, or make cheese soufflé – whatever you like. If you have so much cheese leftover you will know to buy less next time, but in the mean time you can enjoy your leftovers in any form that you want!

Find recipes for a cheese platter and its accompaniments on Recipebridge.

Putting Together a Cheese Platter is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Celebrating everything Nutella today

An Italian company’s creation, Nutella has been around since 1963 and is a chocolate hazelnut spread which has gained popularity as a sweet spreadable treat on toast. It has also been used as a main ingredient in a variety of recipes over the years. More recently, advertising campaigns have promoted Nutella using the fact that it is slow burning, and therefore a great breakfast.

To celebrate this creamy hazelnut spread, February 5th is World Nutella Day and is a great day to try new recipes which include Nutella from pies, to cakes, to cookies, to mousses!

On RecipeBridge we’ve got lots of Nutella recipes. However as we’ve said you can try numerous creative recipes with Nutella than just using it as a spread.

Ways to use Nutella

• Crepes with Nutella recipes
• French toast with Nutella recipes
• Nutella Brownie recipes
• Nutella Fudge recipes
• Nutella Cheesecake recipes
• Nutella Cookies recipes
• Nutella bars recipes
• Cakes with Nutella recipes
• Hot chocolate with Nutella recipes

What other ways can you recommend for using Nutella?

World Nutella Day is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Throwing a winning Super Bowl party

The Super Bowl is the culmination of the NFL (National Football League) in the United States and is such a huge occasion that households all over America hold Super Bowl parties where friends can gather around a big screen to watch the final game of the season whilst drinking, eating and socialising with friends.

So if you are hosting your own Super Bowl party in February, make sure that you have a hearty Super Bowl feast to serve your guests. A sit-down meal is never going to work at this type of occasion – just get a buffet style selection of food spread across a large table and allow your guests to pick at leisure. Here are some of our favourite Super Bowl feast ideas that we are sure to be an instant hit:

Nachos

One of the easiest and yet delicious snack you will ever make – and they are loved by so many that the plate is guaranteed to be empty by the end of the evening! Buy some plain tortilla chips and scatter them over a plate then create a Chicken and Bean sauce to pour over them. Sprinkle some grated cheese over the top and place under the heat until the cheese melts. Serve with guacamole, salsa or sour cream dip.

Find Nachos recipes on Recipebridge.

Sliders

Also known as mini burgers, these little treats are the perfect finger food components to your Super Bowl feast. Make them as tiny as you like and make the meat out of whatever you like. Maybe even make lots of varieties to keep everyone happy. Barbeque Chicken, Jalapeno, or Corned Beef and Irish cheddar sliders can all be found on Recipe Bridge and are easy to make and cute to eat!

Find recipes for sliders on Recipebridge.

Chili

I don’t know what it is about the Super Bowl, but spicy food seems to feature a lot. If the hot foods out there really appeal to you, try making a chili based dish to serve at your Super bowl feast. Chili Con Carne, Chili Bean Nachos, and Chili tomato dip all accompany your sliders and nachos really well and are perfect dishes to complement the sliders and nachos you already have on your table.

Find chili recipes on Recipebridge.

Guacamole

Made out of avocados, chilli peppers, garlic, tomatoes and various seasonings, the great thing about guacamole is the fact that it can be made to suit different tastes – for a more cooling and mild taste, chillies can be left out and this dip tastes great with tortilla chips, crackers, bread sticks or carrot sticks.

Find guacamole recipes here.

Margaritas

Usually thought of as a ‘girlie’ drink, the margarita is a tequila based drink which will wash down your Super Bowl feast really well. A Beer Margarita is great for both beer and tequila lovers and can be made with limeade concentrate, tequila, salt, beer, ice and lime. Great tasting but this drink creeps up on you so sip with caution!

Find margaritas recipes on Recipebridge.

What are your favorite dishes to serve for your Super Bowl feast?

You can find a large selection of recipes on Recipebridge to cater to your gathering this weekend. Tell us about your super bowl party on our Facebook page or Tweet us!

The Perfect Super Bowl Feast is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Delightful, spicy Chili for the Game Day

Chili is the short for world famous chili con carne, essentially spanish for ‘chili with meat’. It’s a hearty, simple dish-mild, dried chiles mellowed with garlic and sparked with cumin. This dish originated more so in the Norther Mexican region; cooking chiles with meat was in full gear when the Spainiards met the first American Indians.

There are many different varieties of chiles used in chili con carne. Chilli con carne is often served as a main dish with rice and lots of sour cream, however it is also known to be a great side dish for spicing up a bland meal or is great for serving on a buffet style spread with tortilla chips or nachos and has main ingredients of stewing steak or mince, chillies, onion and tomatoes. This has definitely evolved into many contemporary forms with many ingredients added.

Hearty chili recipes to try at your next tailgate

• Chicken chili recipes
• Vegetarian chili recipes
• Hearty bean and meat chili recipes
• Chili con carne recipes
• Quick and easy chili recipes

As always, we love to hear from you. Post your favorite chili recipes on our Facebook page or Tweet us!

The Perfect Chili is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

There’s no Super Bowl party without buffalo wings!

No, buffalo do not have wings. The ‘Buffalo’ referred to when we talk about buffalo wings is in fact the city in New York and is where this delicious dish came from. The spicy wings are in fact chicken wings and absolutely everyone loves them. They are great to pick at and make the perfect Super Bowl dish.

Did you know that Buffalo wings have been around since 1964? The dispute as to who first invented them still continues! Buffalo wings have become such a popular phenomenon over the years that there is even two days dedicated to them called the National Buffalo Wing Festival where there are cooking and eating competitions and various other events, all staged to celebrate the creation of buffalo wings. They are so popular that Hooters alone sell 30 million pounds of this chicken dish every year!

The Anchor Bar was said to have first created this snack and now sells the ‘original’ buffalo wing sauce for you to make your own Anchor Bar Style buffalo wings at home. However, if you want to try some recipes from scratch, then there are various homemade recipes that have been tried and tested by home cooks all over the globe which are so good that they even compete with the Anchor Bar’s recipe.

Recipes for buffalo wings

If you want to make your own buffalo wings to serve at a Super Bowl party or to share with guests at a buffet dinner, then look at Recipe Bridge’s wide variety of recipes for some tips. You’ll need at least 12 chicken wings (depending on how many you are catering for) and you will also need salt, paprika, melted butter, hot sauce and cayenne pepper. This delicious marinade needs to soak into the chicken wings for at least 30 minutes for you to benefit from its full flavour.

Alternative recipes may suggest that you cook the Buffalo wings in beef fat and incorporate other ingredients such as brown sugar or vinegar. The sweetness of the sugar beautifully contrasts with the spicy marinade and is a truly delicious addition to the recipe. Some recipes also give you alternative ways of cooking the chicken itself, so if you are looking at the slightly more healthy option, try baking your wings instead of frying them.

A Buffalo wings recipe wouldn’t be anything without its sharp tasting blue cheese dressing, celery and carrots. Use the blue cheese of your choice such as Gorgonzola or Stilton, and make sure you have the celery and carrot sticks ready for your guests to mop up their leftover marinade and sauce. It is also important to remember that Buffalo wings are quite spicy, so have plenty of sour cream to hand for those who prefer milder flavours!

Find the perfect buffalo wings recipe on Recipebridge.

Mastering Buffalo Wings is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Wattleseed to continue our focus on Australian foods this week

A wattleseed is the edible, aromatic and nutritious seed that comes from various types of Australian acacia trees. It was invented by Vic Cherikoff in 1984. Wattleseed is roasted before being used in cooking and has a flavour of coffee, hazelnut and cocoa making it suitable for use in both sweet and savoury dishes.

Purchase Wattleseed here

As the wattleseed is harvested in Australia, it is obviously included in many recipes that are native to the country down under. It is therefore a vital ingredient for many recipes served on Australia Day. The seeds were used in ancient recipes by the Australian aborigines and today can be found in other Aussie dishes such as pavlovas, and can also be found in baked recipes such as cookies, pancakes and waffles.

Here’s our pick of wattleseed recipes from Chef Benjamin’s corner:

Wattleseed Beef Tenderloin

Wattleseed Panna Cotta

Wattleseed Caviar

Wattleseed Palmier

Find these and more wattleseed recipes on Recipebridge.

Wattleseed From Our Global Pantry is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Celebrate the Australia Day with some classic dishes

Australia Day is all about celebrating what is great about Australia. Originally the 26th January was the first docking of the first fleet of British convict ships in Sydney and over the years has developed into a day of patriotism and a celebration of the Australian heritage.

Ceremonies, parades, fireworks displays, barbeques and parties are held on Australia Day to commemorate all things Australian. Most people tend to celebrate the day with private parties where plenty of traditional Australian dishes are served such as pavlovas, meat pies, lamingtons, and much more.

Here’s our pick of recipes for traditional Australian dishes on Recipebridge :

• Australian meat pie recipes
• Shrimp on the Barbie recipes
• Lamington recipes
• Pavlova recipes
• Lamb roast recipes
• Potato pie recipes
• Sausage roll recipes
• Kangaroo recipes

No Australia Day is complete with out using Native Australian Ingredients on your menu. Browse Vic Cherikoff’s online store

Wishing you a happy Australia Day celebration!

As always, we love to hear from you. Post your stories for Australia Day celebrations on our Facebook page or Tweet us!

An Australia Day Feast is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Pavlova - the magic of meringue

A meringue based dessert with a whipped cream topping; the pavlova is a sweet cake that was invented in the 1920s. Originally named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, Australians and New Zealanders both lay claim to having invented this world-famous dessert.

It is said that a chef in Wellington (New Zealand) OR a chef at the Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, (Australia) created and named the dessert after the dancer, but its origins are uncertain. Regardless of where it came from, it is very popular both down under and in the United Kingdom. Alongside its meringue base and whipped cream topping, it is often decorated with either fruit or chocolate pieces to give it different flavours, colours and textures.

A pavlova has two main basic ingredients which are eggs and sugar. Other than these two ingredients, recipes tend to vary. To make a traditional pavlova, you will need 8 oz cater sugar, 4 egg whites, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 ½ tsp white vinegar, 4 tsp cornflour, and 600 ml double cream.

Start by preheating your oven to 130C. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl. Continue to beat and gradually add the sugar. When this mixture has thickened, add the cornflour, vanilla and vinegar and beat well.

An array of toppings for your pavlova!

Once the mixture has stiffened, scoop it out onto the baking tray into a circle and create a slight well in the middle. Bake for 50 minutes until the meringue is crispy and is a slight golden colour, then turn the oven off and let it cool. Make whipped cream by whipping the double cream and sugar together then spread this on top of the meringue. Finally, decorate your pavlova with your topping of choice – fresh raspberries and some grated chocolate, or a variety of kiwi, peach and strawberry are all very popular traditional choices.

For a contemporary twist on traditional recipes, instead of a massive dollop on a plate, the Swiss roll style pavlova is very popular and is a lot more presentable. You can even use  wattleseed, the Australian herb to create a richer flavour. In this alternative recipe, sugar and lemon juice are added to the meringue mixture plus a layer of berry jam to neutralise the sweetness of the dish.

For further variations on this dessert, you can experiment with a good mixture of techniques and ingredients to make your perfect dessert. Plum pavlova, mixed berry pavlova, chocolate pavlova, and pavlova with crème anglaise are just a few recipes which have proven popular and offer a wide variety of flavoiurs and textures.

One type of pavlova you have to try is a Wattleseed Pavlova made with the unique ingredient wattleseed.

Find pavlova recipes on Recipebridge.

We do love to hear from you. Tell us about you favourite pavlova recipes on our Facebook page or Tweet us!

The Elegance of Pavlova is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Shrimp on the Barbie-an Australian stereotype!

Whenever people outside of Australia think of Australian stereotypes, the phrase “shrimp on the Barbie” springs to mind. Not only a stereotypical Australian saying, this catchphrase also depicts the Australian people as friendly people who like to engage in social activities such as barbeques.

The catchphrase originated from a series of 1986 Australian Tourism Commission adverts where Paul Hogan addressed an American audience to persuade Americans to come to Australia for a holiday. Throughout the course of the adverts, Hogan used many stereotypical idioms associated with the Aussies. These included how to say “G’day”, calling everyone “mate” and of course the immortal phrase “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the Barbie for you!”

Over the years, this expression has become well known not just amongst Americans, but also amongst many other people all over the world…despite the fact that Aussies call shrimps “prawns”!

When it comes to actually slipping a shrimp on the barbeque, it is easy enough to just fire it up and throw it on. However, if you are looking for a more unique taste or something extra special to soak up the Aussie culture, then there are many recipes which you can follow.

What do you need to create shrimp on the Barbie?

All you need for a basic recipe is 2 lbs shrimp or king prawns, 1 teaspoon Alpine pepper and four tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix the pepper and soy sauce in a bowl and marinate the shrimp for about 20 minutes. Make sure you leave shells on. Once the barbeque is heated up, place the shrimps on the Barbie and let them cook for 6 minutes on each side – simple.

For a more zesty alternative, combine 3 tbsp lemon juice, ¼ cup parsley and thyme, ¼ cup olive oil, ½ cup butter, 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tbsp minced shallot, salt and pepper. Ensure that all these ingredients are well mixed, and then add 1 ½ lbs large, unpeeled shrimp. Marinate for 1 hour.

After an hour, push narrow skewers through the shrimp and grill on the barbeque for 3 minutes on each side, turning occasionally. Garnish the shrimp with lemon and spinach to serve.

For a different sweeter flavour try the Shrimp on the Barbie with Orange Ginger. You will need 12 shelled giant prawns, 1 cup orange juice, ¼ cup butter, 2 tbsp sherry, 1 tsp orange zest, 2 tsp minced green onions, and 1 tsp ginger root. Skewer the prawns and then combine the rest of the ingredients and cook on a low heat until the butter has melted.

Cover the prawns in the sauce and place on the barbeque for 2 minutes, then baste again and barbeque the other side. Prawns will be a nice pink colour when done.

Whatever your preference, there are many different flavours for shrimp on the Barbie recipes – whether they are culturally accurate or not doesn’t matter when they taste this good! Find Shrimp on the Barbie Recipes on Recipebridge.

Shrimp on the Barbie is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog

Lamington – the traditional Australian sponge cake

A lamington is a traditional Australian sponge cake, usually covered in chocolate icing and sprinkled with coconut shavings. They originated in Australia and have since become one of the most traditional desserts from down under.

Lamington cakes are small cubes of sponge cake often layered with jam, smothered in chocolate and dusted with coconut. The lamington was named after Lord Lamington (Charles Wallace Baillie) who was the governor of Queensland from 1895 to 1901. Lord Lamington often wore homburg hats which were a type of hat similar to the trilby, but with a slightly squared top of the hat, however he never famously showed any love for the dessert itself.

National Lamington Day is celebrated on 21st July in Australia and is a chance for Aussies, New Zealanders and indeed anyone else to try making this traditional sweet treat. Whether you decide to opt for a traditional, large cake or many mini ones, the lamington is a great way to celebrate Australian cuisine.

How to make a lamington?

The traditional lamington can be made with 6 eggs, 1/3 cup self raising flour, 2/3 cup caster sugar, ½ cup plain flour and 1/3 cup corn flour. Begin by greasing a square cake tin with butter. Beat the eggs until creamy in texture then mix in the sugar. Fold in the sifted flours then evenly spread the mixture into the tin and bake at a medium heat for half an hour. After this time, place on a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, get 4 cups icing sugar, ½ cocoa, 2/3 cup milk and 15g melted butter. Sift the cocoa and the icing sugar into a heat proof bowl and stir in the milk and butter. Stir the mixture of a pan of simmering water. Cut the cake into 16 squares and dip them in the icing. Allow excess icing to drip off and then roll the pieces in the coconut until all sides are covered. Leave to set on a wire rack.

If you are looking for an even easier way of making lamington, then you could pre-buy two sponge slabs, add a layer of jam on one and place on slab on top of the other. This is easier if you are short of time or if you aren’t very experienced at making sponge cakes…Otherwise, this is a great recipe for everyone to try and can be a great one to do with the kids! You can find more recipes on Recipebridge.

Benjamin Christie’s more alternative recipe offers a variety of additional flavours to the traditional Australian dessert and is an ideal recipe to try if you are looking for something new that will impress your dinner guests. This recipe features wattleseed cream and rosella jam which add a whole new level of flavour for the lamington.

So if lamington sounds like your thing, then give it a try! Recipebridge features many lamington recipes. It’s sweet and delicious and you are guaranteed to fall in love with the rich flavours and variety of textures a lamington can feature.

A Lamington This Week! is a post from: RecipeBridge Blog