As I mentioned from last article that I lived in Taiwan, the food is among the world's richest and most varied sine the country had been colonized by Netherlands and Japan; moreover, many people who live in Taiwan came from other countries and make multiplicity of creation; even so, there are still a lot of food I haven't had a chance to try. Now, being a student of Chef School, I should start exploring new ingredients and really learn from that experience to enrich my creativity for my future career.
All right！Let's get started with Blue Cheese, an excellent ingredient. It is quite a peculiar food no matter taste, smell and appearance. I also found a recipe for blue cheese which is "Blue Cheese Columbine Dip"(Blue Cheese Columbine Dip (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015, from http://cheese.food.com/recipe/ blue-cheese-columbine-dip-21131) and made it by myself.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb Blue cheese,crumbled
1/3 cup Red onion,Chopped
1/3 cup Olive oil
1 tbp Lemon juice
1 tbp Red win vinegar
1/2 tsp Garlic,crushed
1 tsp Dry mustard
1/4 tsp Black pepper
1/3 cup Fresh parsley,chopped
water crackers
Direction:
Set blue cheese aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add blue cheese. Cover and let stand at room-temperature 2 hours. Serve on crackers.
Hui-Ling,Yu.Blue Cheese Dip.2015.Photography.Toronto
I noticed there are some special traits of this type of cheese. First of all, it's highly brittle and a bit of moisture when I took it out of plastic wrap. The aroma is grassy, rotten and tangy like vomit. In addition, it has a soft cream-coloured pasted moderately veined with blue-green mold so it tastes salty, gritty, moldy, and intense. This is a flavour that I can’t get used to without any dressing, honestly. Besides, I didn't find any similar flavour like this and that's why it is unique.
Well, let's move to the recipe. The overall taste of the finished product tastes better than the cheese itself. It is smoother and well-balanced and I think it is partially because other ingredients, such as parsley and a bit of lemon juice, balanced out this savoury dish and convert the sour moldy taste into creamy and spicy. The complex taste definitely impressed me although I still can't fall in love with it.
So, what experience do I gain from this trial? I got to explore different taste! For example, the fifth basic taste, Umami, which means delicious or yummy and could be found in meat, cheese, and mushrooms. However, I still wouldn’t consider Blue Cheese to be delicious. After all, we all have our own preferences and we might prefer some tastes over the others. But fortunately, depends on how the ingredient is processed, the taste and/or texture could be altered drastically to suit everyone’s interest. This is also what I learned from this trial. Now I know the taste of blue cheese could be changed when incorporating other ingredients.
Don't be afraid to try something new. It will be a great opportunity to grow and gain valuable knowledge just like what it did to me this time. Although blue cheese is still not appealing to me, at least I know what it taste and smell like right now. Perhaps I will try it again with another recipe. And who know? I might end up really enjoying it this time!
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