Sunday, March 10, 2013

Red Dragon



Here's a cheese I loved so much that I simply had to write about it! RED DRAGON! I think since my last post about cheese I pretty much established that my taste in cheese is savoury, tangy and strong.  

I've noticed through my visits to quite a few cheese shops and my exploration (thus far) into the "Cheese world" that many of our Middle Eastern cheeses are kinda left out, unknown, undiscovered and that's a little sad to me but of course that doesn't mean I'm missing out on them, a trip to an Arabic Grocer solves that problem! And you can always find a local Arabic or Turkish store in your area and see what you come across, you may find something entirely new!

 These are the cheeses that I grew up with and love, the ones I remember always having in our fridge, from all the different varieties of crumbly, soft and creamy fetas to string cheeses, strong hard almost Romano style Egyptian Cheese and lavishly shaped braids soaked in brine, my father often couldn't resist bringing buckets of these cheeses over the boarder with him from Turkey on his way back home from his travels.

Let's get back to Red Dragon, I picked this cheese up from Country Cheese in Durham, Ontario.  A very cozy little gem of a place. They like to focus on local and "home grown" cheese especially, which I think makes them quite unique but they also carry quite a variety, and seem to be offering more and more everytime I drop in. 

Red Dragon I'm told is an English cheese, it has mustard in it, a grainy mustard too for some texture and has that sharp dijon almost horseradish after taste.  Anyone who loves mustard or horseradish will love this.

It's a creamy medium textured cheese which is what I love about it so much because it melts so beautifully (we're not talking melting or anything) just on your tongue, it's as good in flavour as a condiment/sauce/ spread in itself paired with some roast beef in a sandwich, it's really all you need.  Creamy, pungent and oh so delectable!

I was craving some roast beef as soon as I left the shop but I had some lamb in my shopping bag and whipped up some home-made burgers which I grilled.  

Lamb appreciates some tanginess so this was perfect!

If you're wondering about the pickled okra, it's so easy to make, you'll find the recipe here on my blog and it's probably my new favourite pickle. 


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