A No-Brainer Cheese Platter
The holiday season is special in ways more than one. As a child, it meant feasting my eyes on bright lights while taking a nighttime walk to the village chapel for Misa de Gallo. Now, as an adult, it means time to take a break from work and recharge, an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, and of course, good food! What’s nice about it is that these are not mutually exclusive. One can actually enjoy all of these all at the same time which, in my case, was my experience a few days back.
I come from a group of eight then-teenagers who met at June 13th of 2007. The meeting was nothing planned and spectacular: it was our first day in college, and it so happened that we shared the same class. Our university implements the block system, and so we were stuck with each other for the rest of our college life.
Ten years later, that day, in hindsight, proves to be providential. Never in my life have I met a bunch of people I can be crazy and dorky and limitlessly comfortable with, that despite the year-long gaps between meetups, no time seems to have passed. What’s even better is that they have tastebuds that takes no sweat to please! And so in our most recent gathering, I assembled what every time-pressed (and, uhm, lazy) gourmand would prepare: a cheese platter.
Cheese platters are perfect not just for holiday celebrations but also for any kind of gatherings. They are very versatile just as they are extremely convenient—you can add pretty much anything that you like, from chips to crackers to other fruits such as apples, olives and pears. If you prefer a heftier version, you can make it more filling by adding some protein. Try including slices of salami, prosciutto, jamon serrano or any cured meat.
The cheese platter I recently prepared is probably one of the easiest you can assemble. I took a variety of pre-sliced cheese from the grocery store, scattered bits of chocolate and nuts onto the serving dish, and finished it with frozen grapes. You don’t even need to know how to cook to do this well—all you need is a bit of creativity and a few slices of imagination.
The next question people would typically ask is what wine to serve with what cheese or chocolate or nuts. My simple answer is this: whatever feels right for you. Keeping yourself well-versed with wine, cheese and chocolate pairings requires some level of patience and scrutiny, and as I hinted earlier, I was a lazy gourmand this instance.
- Pre-sliced cheese (gouda, emmental, harvati or anything that you like)
- Black and milk chocolate
- Nuts
- Frozen seedless grapes
- Cut the cheese slices into smaller pieces.
- Arrange the cheese, nuts, chocolate and grapes in a dish.
- Serve with wine.
I freeze my grapes for three to four hours, but I think there really isn't any hard and fast rule here. I like my grapes cold but not rock hard, their juiciness retained, and my guests not cringing from sensitive teeth. 😛
As with many other food bloggers out there, I am no chef. I come with no culinary training whatsoever, and so it’s not at all surprising that my kitchen adventures are punctuated by frequent mishaps and blunders. Yet, there are recipes that I seem to make much better than others. And so, after years of prodding from family and friends, here I am, sharing the little that I know.
Why “gourmand,” you ask? Simply because I like making and eating good food. I can eat a lot, too—so there you go!