2011 Cooking Club Week 32: Irish_Goat's Cheese Crostini

irish_goat

Right folks, sorry about the delay.

You'se are lucky I got a week during the summer when I'm not at college too or it might not have been as fancy.

My recipe is Irish Goats Cheese Crostini with red onion marmalade. It's nice as a starter but I make it at lunch the odd time with a bit of rocket salad too.

My measurements aren't exact and are easily adaptable depending on taste/number of mouths to feed. You can add in extras or take out anything you don't like and with any luck, you usually have all the ingredients lying around the kitchen so it's a nice way to use things up. It's also a pretty easy dish to make but looks impressive.

You'll need:
100g Goat's cheese
Handful of sundried tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 scallion
Some garlic
70ml Balsamic vinegar
A fresh loaf of "nice" bread. (Not one with a thick or overly hard crust)

First off, you need to make the red onion marmalade (or you can skip this and buy a jar in the shops).

Red Onion Marmalade

1. Chop up as many red onions(I use 3 or 4)
as you want into slices (half moon shaped ones).

2. Melt some butter in a pan and fry the onions for 10 minutes until they're soft.

3. Add around 4 heaped tablespoons of sugar and let it caramelise for a minute or two.

3. Add around 250ml of red wine, 70ml of balsamic vinegar.

4. Simmer on a low heat, stirring occasionally until the liquid is evaporated and it's all shiny and sticky. Add a touch of salt + pepper after this.

This will store for about 5-7 days in the fridge and is good on burgers, chicken, pizzas, crackers and anything really.

Goat's Cheese Crostini

1. Whilst the marmalade is simmering, whack a red pepper rubbed with oil into a hot oven.

2. Roast it for about 25-30 minutes giving it a turn on the baking sheet every so often, take it out when it's starting to get blackened skin.

3. Pop the pepper into a sandwich bag so it can steam a little and make it easier to peel the skin off.

4. Slice the de-skinned pepper into thin slices and roughly slice your sun-dried tomatoes and scallions and finely slice a clove or two (or more!) of garlic.

5. In a bowl, crumble some goats cheese, add the sliced ingredients and a little pepper (no need for salt as the cheese should have a little in it). Give the ingredients a mix with a fork.

6. Slice your bread, put a good layer of the mixture on top and whack in the oven for 5-10 minutes until the top of the cheese starts to brown a little.

7. Plate up 2 slices per person and dollop the marmalade on top.

We've no goats cheese in the house at the minute but I promise to get a photo by tomorrow night.

TeletextPear

Oohh lovely! I had a really nice goats cheese starter in a restaurant lately and I've been meaning to try it something similar myself so I'll definately be giving this one a go

Little Alex

irish_goat wrote: »

I promise to get a photo by tomorrow night.

Beat ya to it! :pac:

This is what I came up with:



Very nice! Thank you!

irish_goat

Very nice, never thought about using ciabatta with it.

This is as fancy as I could make it. I used some balsamic creme for the presentation but you can just as easily use the syrup that will form when you're making the red onion marmalade.

TeletextPear

Made this last night, thanks OP, it was fantastic! Instead of the red onion marmalade I just sweated off some red onion slices to put on top of the crostini, and served it with a rocket salad as you suggested. In my haste to eat I forgot to take a photo. Absolutely delicious and will be making again very soon!