Stomachs on legs are proud to present

In the week or two after the wedding we managed to stretch out the left-overs quite well. Boy, I enjoyed them!
Above is fresh soft goat cheese from France, coated in dried petals. Thanks to Alice, John and Mayuko for the endless cheese feast!

I'm not really an expert on cheese, especially not French cheese. If visiting Holland I would often try to bring back some aged Amsterdam gouda; and in London, there are nice hard English cheese like Wensleydale. But when it comes to the softer, riper genre of French cheeses, I'm a bit in the dark.

It turns out that French cheeses really are all that – and you don't even have to go for the really smelly stuff. I loved the St. Dominin lavender goat's cheese below, just spread on toast, I ate in about 2 days all by myself! A sort of honey vibe to the lavender, and the perfect balance of yielding crust and subtle melting vibe. Almost porno. I am definitely going to go back to Manufactum for this!





The dog's breakfast you can see above is what remained of a Peanut butter-almond-chocolate pie from the Fresh cookbook. I scooped it into a bowl to take up less space in the fridge. This decadent treat tastes a bit like Reeses Pieces - but you can sort of trick yourself that it might be healthy because it contains a few spoonfuls of tofu. It has a really good texture between pumpkin pie and toffee.

It's quite easy to make. Line a pie-dish or tart dish with crumbled dark chocolate cookies. Here is the recipe for vegan cookies (it's very easy).

Fresh's Double Choc Cookies

Combine 2 1/2 cups of maple syrup (or Agave cactus syrup, which is a lot cheaper, I got a gallon for 10 euros or something), a cup of oil and 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips. Combine 2 1/2 cups of dark cocoa with 5 cups of wholemeal flour and add to the wet stuff. Add a pinch of salt, and 2 tsp vanilla extract or to taste.

Scoop the batter in teaspoons onto a waxed cookie sheet, bake for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

Peanut-butter Choc Almond Pie

Combine cookie crumbs with 1 tbsp oil and 1/4 cup syrup (maple or Agave), don't mix too much, but don't worry too much if it turns into a paste. Line your dish and bake at 220 degrees for 10 minutes.

In a food processor, blend 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, 1/4 cup raw sugar, 1/4 cup syrup, just over half a cup of firm silken tofu, just over 1/4 cup soy milk, and a pinch of salt.
Pour into crust and bake for 15 minutes.
When it has cooled, top with more crushed dark chocolate and almonds (optionally toasted/chopped), then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

You can also freeze it without damage for a few nights.



I am not usually the type of person to buy ingredients without an idea of what I'm going to do with them, so I am not usually the type of person to search around online for a recipe idea. But I wanted to make sure we did something yummy with the Roquefort Carles blue cheese from the wedding, before it went to waste. I wanted something fresh, but a blue cheese and pear salad sounded too healthy. I found a great recipe from Mark Bittman online where you blanch a mixture of veges in boiling water (we used green beans, fennel and zucchini) - put into a flat dish, season, sprinkle with 2 bread-slices worth of bread crumbs and then 1/4 cup of crumbled or grated blue cheese. Then bake! Awwwwwwwesome.



Follow with several bottles of left over pink wedding champagne and a game of Shithead.