Marinated Camembert
This is my first Thanksgiving as an American citizen and the first to which I’m contributing a dish. I planned to make a Slovak desert, using a recipe from SlovakCooking.com, but because baking seems like a pretty major step in my Slovak cooking forays, I opted for a dish that requires no cooking.
The Ghost in the Pantry‘s final post was a recipe for marinated Camembert, a Czech pub specialty (the Czech recipe uses Hermelín cheese, which is closest to Camembert). Plenty of marinated Camembert recipes live online; I like this one because it asks to slice the cheese round in half to increase exposure to a wide variety of spices. It’s also beautiful when ready and supremely delicious. I’ve been altering the recipe with every iteration. The latest one, which I made on Tuesday and will serve with tonight’s San Francisco 49ers football game, you need
- 1 round of Camembert cheese
- 1/5 each of red, green, and yellow peppers
- 1/4 white onion
- 1/6 red onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- freshly ground pepper, sweet paprika (I’m going with smoked paprika next time), thyme, fresh rosemary chopped into tiny bits, bay leaves
- 3 parts sunflower oil / 1 part olive oil / 1 part red wine vinegar
Slice the cheese in half. Cover each half with spices and sliced garlic. Stick the halves back together and cut in quarters. Place a layer of pepper and onion stripes at the bottom of a wide-mouth glass container (I use a medium-sized Pyrex bowl). Place the cheese quarters in the container, fill gaps and cover with the vegetables and bay leaves. Mix the oils and vinegar together in a separate dish, add more spices, and pour over the cheese, making sure all of it and the veggies are covered. Let sit in the fridge for 48-72 hours (the longer, the tastier). Drain the oil, which you can use for another recipe, and serve cold as an appetizer with dark bread and lager.
Do you make a dish from your ‘old country’ for the Thanksgiving dinner? Please share in Comments.