Up for a cheese feast? In our family we love cheese, and having guests over is the perfect excuse to serve a cheese board. Whether it’s a substitute or a supplement for dessert or something you want to do for a casual Friday night get-together with friends, it’s fun and easy to put together. Well, maybe it’s not so easy to choose between all the great cheeses at your local cheese dealer?! Well, ask them if they’ll let you taste and then choose your favorites. If they all turn out to be favorites, another good pointer is to choose a variety of mild and mature cheeses, to include both soft and hard cheeses and to have both cow’s milk cheeses as well as maybe a couple of cheeses made of sheep’s or goat’s milk. Another great thing about cheese boards is the endless variety of interesting sides and condiments that you can add to spice up and enhance your cheeses. This flavorful and super easy treat will be a gorgeous accompaniment to your cheeses, adding a little sweetness and mildly fragrant taste that balances the fattiness of cheese really well. You might even want to double the recipe and then use the extra glass as a nice hostess gift. Or, you can of course just keep it all yourself 🙂
Honeyed pine nuts with fresh thyme and lemon
Ingredients
5 oz (150 g) pine nuts
About 6 oz (150-200g) clear honey (enough honey to cover the pine nuts)
4-5 fresh sprigs of thyme
Zest of about 1/2 an organic lemon
Directions
1. Gently roast the pine nuts in a pan over medium heat for about 5 min. Make sure to watch them and toss them around frequently to make sure they don’t burn. You want them to get a slight brown color, not blackened. When they are done, let them cool and rest in the pan for about 10 min.
2. Remove the little thyme leaves from the sprigs and add the leaves to the pine nuts.
3. Grate the zest of about half the lemon over the pine nuts and then just stir for a bit to mix the pine nuts with the thyme and lemon zest.
4. Pour the pine nut mix into a mason jar using a spoon or a funnel and then pour over the honey until the pine nuts are covered. Stir gently, seal with the lid and let it sit for a couple of hours. I usually store the honeyed pine nuts in the fridge where they’ll last for several weeks. However, if you do so you might want to take the jar out of the fridge at least half an hour before use, as the honey may get quite stiff.
Enjoy!
