Goat Cheese Balls: Not your regular Cheese Ball
Good evening everyone! Tonight I have a nice little treat for those goat cheese lovers. Earlier this week I posted about a Burnt Onion Dust and honestly I loved it. We are going to use that and the Beetroot powder from last week’s post, along with the blood orange Relish for our goat cheese balls. I’ve seen post’s where people call them goat cheese truffles, unless it’s a real truffle or truffle chocolate, I won’t call them that. These make a great snack and like all of my recipes or discussions so far, a great dish for a first impression. It doesn’t take a lot of time. Once you already have these powders, dusts, and relish made then it shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes to put together. I guess if you have a lot of people over or doing a large quantity it will take more time. Anyways! Let’s jump to it.
You’re going to need the following: -
- 1 Log goat cheese
- 1/3 Cup Dried Cranberries
- 1/3 Cup Cashews (get extra for you to snack on)
- Burnt Onion Dust
- Beet powder
- Dukkha*
- 1 bunch Oregano
- Blood Orange & Papaya Relish
- Black pepper
These are all things that I had already made in the kitchen and thought they would all be really good with the cheese. Besides the Dukkha, I have a recipe for all of those powders.
First thing is we are going to take the relish out of the fridge so that its room temperature. Take your cashews & give them a rough chop and put them in a pan on a medium heat. We are going to give them a toast on the stove. We just want to get the nuts a little brown, do not burn them, and constantly move them around. Once they are finished you can take them out and put them in something to cool down. Now we will give the Cranberries a rough chop also. We have our nuts and cranberries all done and in containers. Take the goat cheese and put it in a mixing bowl.
We then want to add our cranberries and cashews. I used half of what I had then checked to see if I wanted more. At the end of the day, if you want more just add it. Crack a small amount of Black pepper into the mix. Now with your spatula or wooden spoon, just work the mix for a bit. Get everything into the goat cheese. Put the mix in the fridge for the time being.
Pick your oregano leaves. Only use the small green leaves. We want everything to be elegant. There’s nothing worse than serving a nice snack with an ugly big green leaf that will be over powering in flavor. You want just a hint of the oregano when you bite into the balls.
Once we have everything together, take out the goat cheese and scoop a little over a tablespoon and roll it into a ball using your hands. Now just add your relish on your plate or board. Then place your goat cheese on top, we are then going to add a "dust" of your choice on top. Finish with your oregano and serve.
A nice elegant snack that you can use to impress loved ones, your partner or friends. At the end of the day you have changed your game by serving typical goat cheese in a different form and with different accompaniments.
*Dukkha is a Mediterranean spice & nut rub that has sesame seeds, coriander, cumin, dried mint leaves, Pistachio, Hazelnuts, cashews. There are many recipes online, and you don’t have to follow any single one to be exact. Don’t buy it in a supermarket. Try and make your own mix.
Please ask any questions or leave comments. Keep wanting to learn and try new things, don’t forget. Food is life!