Boyne Valley Blue Fritter

I have been living in Co. Meath since late 2002, “The Royal”, a County full of history, legends and myths. Home of some neolithic settlers, reminding me sometimes – and for obvious reasons- of the early art and petroglyphs both our cultures share. You probably heard of the cairns of Loughcrew, or maybe even Knowth and Dowth? But I am sure you have heard of Newgrange, Solstice and equinox sun beams getaway to the other world, another world. And right bang in the middle, lies the legendary Boyne River…

Something very exciting is happening in the County; near where this picture was taken, outside a little crossroad town some of my Rock’n’Roll readers might know simply as “Slane”. A new dawn for the food world of the region, a paradox some of you might say,  coming from a land rich in cattle and vast green pastures! A new cheese is born, the only one made in Co. Meath… Not only it is blue, like the proverbial blood once drawn on the banks of this very river – or for the sake of one crazy time that has taken us a very long time to shift and heal- but it is also made with goat’s milk…

Third generation dairy farmer Michael Finegan is now a goat farmer, with over 300 animals roaming the land. After getting legend Peter Thomas ( Bellingham Blue, Co. Louth) to make the cheese from the farm’s milk, Michael has now taken the jump and has become a full 2.0 cheesemaker/ “affineur”; and what an exciting start it has been!

So to celebrate this great news, and since Michael is a cheesy friend, I promised him that I would do a little recipe with his cheese; even though, it is lovely on its own after two and a half months of careful maturing; I wanted to reflect a little “je ne sais quoi”, jazz it up a bit? Or since we are in Slane, “Rock it up” might somehow make more sense. First, I decided to do a beetroot leaves pesto…

I chopped the leaves, and put them in my homemade hand blender, with garlic, olive oil, sea salt and the juice of a whole lime…

I got myself a nice wedge of a two months old Boyne Valley Blue ( I hope you enjoy this Irish Celtic triskel designed dish; a theme found in both Brittany and Ireland, the symbol for the Boyne valley). I took an oiled pastry ring, quite small in diameter, 3 inches, 5-6cm, and made a little ring out of the cheese. The idea is to egg wash it ( flour, one beaten egg and for the crumbs, I used blended spelt flakes).

Before you do the egg wash thingy, get yourself a nice blood orange. everything on this plate has a meaning after all; may it be history or taste, both will collide at some stage. Keep it whole and peel the orange with a knife, a sharp one. Remove the fleshy segments, no skins should be served…

For the final part; take your ring of Boyne Valley Blue cheese, dip it in flour ( I used buckwheat), then in the beaten egg and finally, cover well with fine spelt flakes ( you can also use a good bread crumb). Fry for two minutes on each side, very carefully and with a palette knife, gently place on a sheet of kitchen paper. Put a generous table spoon of the beetroot leaves pesto in the middle of the plate and the cheese fritter on top; I had one chicory left that I cut into quarters. I kept two for the side, as it goes incredibly well with cheese in general, blues in particular. Place the blood orange segments on the other side, crumble some fresh walnuts ( or dried), a generous drizzle of olive oil, and the zest of a whole lime. That about covers it…

Oh! And a fair tribute…

A little close up to finish…

Keep Well and Eat Happy,

Slán Tamall

Franck