Cheese & wine

The weather on our last day together with our friends was gorgeous, so we decided to have an early dinner in the courtyard. Brian and Sharon had set the long table up whilst Pam helped me prepare dinner. We made a caramelised onion and cheese tart, local charcuterie, freshly made salads and prepared a rather interesting selection of French cheeses.

One of them I served was a ‘Livarot’ , which is a soft, pungent washed rind cheese made from Normande cow's milk. It’s the one you can see with a striped outer. The optimal months for tasting Livarot are from May to September. It was certainly one of the most talked about cheeses on the cheese board.

We finished it off with a tasty seasonal coupe of meringue topped with strawberries and cream, and remembering a very delightful few days spent together.