One of my food resolutions for this year was to move out of my normal comfort zones and try new foods and ingredients in my cooking. Cheese was one of the first ingredients I wanted to experiment with; as I taught myself to cook, I stuck to the safe and traditional cheeses to begin with – supermarket bright yellow cheddar, shredded mozzarella, and maybe an occasional bar of Monterey Jack cheese. Over the past few months, I’ve begun experimenting with some goat cheese, fresh mozzarella (a revelation!) and different types of cheddar.

Once I figured out the difference between mild, medium and sharp cheddars, it opened up a large world of customized used for me: flavor for a quesadilla? extra sharp ofcourse. A delicate omelet? medium for body but not to overpower the eggs. And for light sandwiches where I wanted to taste of the main ingredients to come through? The New Zealand mild cheddar above suited me perfectly.

The cheese is truly a mild cheddar (don’t be fooled by the ‘to medium’ claim) – not a whisper of a bite, but the naturally aged taste of the cheddar came through enough to leave a nice cheesy taste in the sandwich. The texture, when melted, added a velvety, gooey layer that contrasted well with the crispy ciabatta I paired it with (recipe to follow). Definitely not a cheese that will blow your socks off, but good enough to top on some soup also I would think. Definitely a cheese I will keep around for its versatility.

• Tags: cheese, food review
• Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
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