I’ll be honest – this “cheesy” theme made for an outrageously indulgent week. I’ve eaten potatoes stuffed with raclette cheese and parma ham, courtesy of LeftoverLiz; a garlic and thyme pinwheel bread spun around a gloriously melty baked camembert, the brainchild of WorththeSalt; Angela Kim’s simple but utterly sophisticated fennel, goat’s cheese and grape tart; and have finished off proceedings with a sweet cheese pastry dish from Fadime Tiskaya.
They’re all winners in my book – every dish includes melted cheese, after all – but TwinnyDip’s recipe, inspired by a Hong Kong diner seafood bake, has pipped the others to the post. The combination of egg-fried rice, fish, leeks and copious amounts of mozzarella and parmesan might sound peculiar, but trust me, it’s a pretty unbeatable hangover cure.
The winning recipe: Cheesy seafood baked rice
As a former British colony, food in Hong Kong is heavily influenced by English cuisine. We love the famous fish pie, but you can’t replace rice with potatoes in a Chinese diet, hence baked rice. So here we share with you our take on this British classic, topped with a delicious and cheesy mixture of parmesan and mozzarella.
TwinnyDip, via GuardianWitness
Serves 4-6
3 eggs, beaten
Salt and black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
500g cooked rice (preferably refrigerated overnight)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 -3 garlic cloves, crushed
400g fruit de mer (defrosted, if frozen)
150g smoked haddock, cut into 1.5cm cubes
75g pecorino/parmesan, grated
125g mozzarella, grated
For the bechamel
40g butter
40g flour
375ml whole milk
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 Season the beaten eggs with salt and pepper. In a pan, heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil over medium heat. Pour the egg mix into the pan and scramble for a couple of minutes until cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
2 Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil in the same pan if needed. When hot, add the rice into the pan and stir-fry, until the rice is lightly coated with the oil. Add the scrambled eggs and toss. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3 For the bechamel, melt 40g butter in a saucepan, then add the flour. Whisk quickly and constantly to a smooth paste. Then add milk in 4-5 batches, mixing well before each addition. Once you have a smooth, creamy texture, add a small pinch of salt and pepper, to taste and mix in the chopped parsley. Set aside.
4 In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the leeks, then cook for 5 minutes or until softened, then add the crushed garlic. Cook for a further 2-3 mins, add the fruit de mer and smoked haddock, then cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the bechamel prepared in step 3 and mix well; remove from heat.
5 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. To assemble, pat the rice gently into a casserole dish to create an even surface. Evenly distribute the seafood-bechamel mixture on top of the rice. Sprinkle with grated cheese evenly to cover the seafood. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and put the dish into the hot oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the fish is cooked.
6 Remove the foil, brown the top under the grill slightly, and serve.
Fennel, goat’s cheese, and red grape tart
This recipe might not be as “cheesy” as other recipes here, but it’s no less delicious. I suggest serving this simple tart with a green salad on the side.
Angela Kim, via GuardianWitness
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter
160g (½ packet) ready-rolled puff pastry
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
1 small fennel bulb, or ½ of a large bulb, thinly sliced
Olive oil
A squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
100g soft goat’s cheese, with rind, sliced
A handful of red grapes
1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Mix the thinly sliced shallots with the fennel and a good drizzle of olive oil, some lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
2 Evenly distribute the fennel-shallot mixture on the puff pastry, leaving 1-2cm of the edges unfilled. Top with slices of goat’s cheese, grapes, and snippets of rosemary. Drizzle with more olive oil.
3 Bake for 15-20 minutes until the puff‑pastry is golden. Check the bottom of the pastry and make sure it’s fully cooked. Serve warm. Be careful when biting into grapes, though, as they are very hot!
Garlic and thyme pinwheel bread with baked camembert
This take on a “tear and share” bread is filled with thyme and garlic. The bread bakes at the same time as the cheese, which sits in the centre of the loaf. Eat it warm straight out of the oven while the cheese is still hot and gooey.
WorththeSalt, via GuardianWitness
Serves 4-6
300g strong white bread flour
2 tsp salt
7g dried fast-action yeast
200ml water
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
250g camembert wheel
1 In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt, yeast and water and mix until they form a dough.
2 Knead the dough on a clean, dry work surface dusted with a little flour for about 10 minutes. Let the dough rise in a clean bowl for about 2 hours.
3 Meanwhile, mix together the oil, garlic and thyme leaves, season with some salt and pepper and place to one side.
4 Once the dough has risen drop it on to a clean surface and roll into a long sausage shape, about 1m long. Now flatten the dough with a rolling pin to about 6cm wide all the way along. Using a pastry brush, brush the dough with the garlic-thyme oil. Now pinch together both sides of the flattened dough all the way down back to a long sausage shape. (Don’t worry if it looks a bit messy at this point).
5 Put the camembert in a small, round, ovenproof dish placed in the middle of a baking tray. To create the pinwheel stretch the dough around the cheese in a fairly tight spiral. Tuck the end underneath. Leave to rise for another half an hour. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
6 After the second rise of the dough get it in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy straight away.
Raclette potatoes
A new recipe that I tried this week – potatoes filled with raclette cheese and wrapped in Parma ham, then sandwiched together.
LeftoverLiz, via GuardianWitness
Serves 2-4
4 medium potatoes
4 thick slices of raclette or Gruyere cheese
4 slices of Parma ham or streaky bacon
Olive oil
1 Bake the potatoes until just tender in the microwave for 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool before slipping off the skins and halving lengthways.
2 Lay a slice of cheese on one half of each potato, then sandwich back together. Wrap Parma ham or streaky bacon around the ‘sandwich’. Hold together with a co*cktail stick and fry in oil until golden and the bacon/ham is crispy. Place in a hot oven for 6-7 minutes until the cheese has melted.
Kunefe (sweet cheese pastry)
Kunefe is a type of dessert made with thin strings of kadayif pastry, and filled with mozzarella cheese in the middle and baked until golden. The cheese is melted and gooey and served with syrup. You may think it is unusual to have mozzarella in a dessert, and some people absolutely love it! You can find kadayif in Middle Eastern bakeries or shops, but if you’ve no luck use shredded or thinly sliced readymade filo pastry instead.
Fadime Tiskaya, via GuardianWitness
Serves 2-3
For the syrup
140g sugar
140ml water
1 tsp lemon juice
For the pastry
200g uncooked kadayif
80g butter, melted
120g mozzarella, grated or thinly sliced
A handful of pistachios or walnuts, chopped
1 Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan, then heat it gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then set the heat to medium for about 7 minutes, until the syrup is reduced by a quarter. Add the lemon juice and turn the heat off. The syrup is ready if coats the back of a spoon. Let it cool completely.
2 Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. On a big tray or board gently pull apart the kadayif, making sure none of the strands stick together. Discard stuck together or soggy bits. Cut the strands into roughly 3cm pieces, using scissors or a sharp knife and transfer them in to a bowl.
3 Melt the butter and brush the bottom of an 18cm cake tin or a nonstick ovenproof pan. Drizzle the rest of the butter over the pastry. Gently rub it in with your fingertips, until the pastry is well coated. Divide the buttered kadayif into two equal amounts. Press one half into the bottom of the tin/pan, so it completely covers the base. Spread the mozzarella evenly over it, so it is completely covered. Cover the cheese with the remaining kadayif, pressing firmly into the edges of the tin/pan.
4 Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and light golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes, then pour the cold syrup over evenly and serve warm, scattered with chopped nuts if you wish.
