The quark article
ADELICIOUSLY seasonal savoury twist on a sweet classic. The beginning of spring is five days away, and we seem, thankfully, to have escaped the second Ice Age for which many of the more demented tabloids had us preparing.
There’s a sense of things really getting moving in the garden, after the sluggish cold weeks.
If you’ve been reading these little meanderings of mine over the years, you’ll know that, as the first hints of spring appear, I go in search of my first freshly-foraged ingredient of the year – wild garlic.
From the days around my birthday in early February, as I drive through my favourite little forest, I look for those first emerald shoots poking up through the dead bracken and brambles.
What looks like a messy tumble of brown twigs now will soon be a sea of green, as the wild garlic carpets the forest floor, filling the air with its unmistakable onion-y scent, and the lucky few foragers among us can get to work and harvest all that goodness.
Wild garlic is a brilliant ingredient, adding a piquancy and fragrance to all sorts of soups, sauces and stews.
It can be strewn raw into a salad, or shredded into an omelette.
I’ve made many things over the years, from savoury pannacottas to tartlets, from soups to risottos.
But never this recipe, which came to me as I was leafing through a Christmas present book, the wonderfully titled Strudels, Noodles and Dumplings by Anja Dunk.
It’s a great collection of modern domestic recipes based around the cuisine of her homeland in Germany.
German food is often mistakenly overlooked when it comes to the great cuisines of Europe, for it has a wonderful range of dishes; terrific fish and seafood in the coastal north, hearty roasts and literally hundreds of sausages in the central regions, and the cured hams, cheeses and pickles of the Alpine south.
Add to this their love of cakes (Black Forest Gateau, anyone?), pastries and breads, not to mention their talents at brewing and wine making, and perhaps it’s time we all re-evaluated the German contribution to world cuisine.
I’d vote for them for the currywürst alone, but that’s typical me.
Anyway, as I was leafing through, I noticed the frequent and generous use of an ingredient to which, hitherto, I’d not really paid much attention – Quark.
The Germans love Quark.
A soft, lightly-set cheese, it’s made with sour milk, and has a delicious acidic edge that lends its use to all manner of dishes, sweet and savoury. It’s almost indistinguishable from crème fraîche to look at.
In taste, it’s not dissimilar either, sharing the same creamy yet tangy notes as our cottage cheese, or Middle Eastern labneh.
You can find Quark in most supermarkets, and it’s this sour flavour that we want in our savoury cheesecake.
The delicate cheesy flavour of this wonderful baked custard is the perfect home for some fresh wild garlic, imparting that delicate onion-iness to proceedings, and the whole thing sits on top of a nutty, oaty base that adds plenty of texture and flavour.
I fancied something sharp to counterbalance the creaminess, so I’ve added my recipe for a brilliant carrot jam/chutney, which is rarely out of our fridge at home.
Along with a decent wedge of Wensleydale and a few gem lettuce leaves, for instance, it makes one hell of a sandwich. It has a lovely sweet-sour tang and ever-so-slightly crunchy texture that enlivens demure flavours. Add in a few crunchy green salad leaves and you have a plate of springtime sunshine a little early.