How to graze the perfect cheese platter at home

Cheese is still an unfamiliar concept here in Malaysia. While Malaysians are generally curious enough to try most things, many are hesitant to fully dive into this vast world of artisanal cheeses. In hopes of encouraging such explorations, we released a medium-sized platter duo where customers can pick out which cheeses they’d like to try from a curated list. It’s a great choice for beginners. If you’re feeling adventurous, give blue cheese a shot. It’s really not as intimidating as it looks! If you’re feeling safe, you can’t go wrong with Brie or Gouda. This curated list consists of crowd-favourite cheeses, put together from the overwhelmingly positive feedback from past events.

As for personal preferences, Sue Ann loves their bestselling Chaource-style Opal soft cheese with a side of seedless grapes and creamy Stilton blue cheese from the UK. April loves a combination of black truffle-infused Manchego cheese from Spain with crunchy roasted almonds and raw honeycomb.

Chaource-style Opal

Soft cow’s milk cheese originating from Chaource, France. It has a soft velvety rind with a toothsome gooey texture and slightly crumbly centre. Its earthy aroma leads to a smooth, creamy flavour. Handmade in small batches by Milky Whey Cheese (on indefinite hiatus).

Stilton Blue

This award-winning cow’s milk blue cheese is made in Leicestershire, England by one of only six dairies in the world permitted to due to its PDO status. Blue veins radiate through its semi-soft body that offers bold, creamy yet distinctively tangy flavours.

Truffle Manchego

A semi-firm Spanish sheep milk’s cheese infused with luxurious black truffles! Beautiful dark veins lace through this nutty, buttery Manchego-style cheese with the earthy aroma of pure truffles. Never overpowering, an exquisite flavour to be enjoyed in every bite.

Balance is everything. You can only eat so much of one thing on its own before it starts to feel like it’s too much. Pairing potent food with other less intense ones lets you enjoy more of it by allowing more variety in flavour and texture – thus creating balance — just like how we enjoy flavourful side dishes better with plain white rice. That said, there is no right or wrong here. It’s really a matter of personal preference. Some like heaps of pairings with a bite of cheese, some like it plain with little “interference”. You do you!

First, set a theme and gather the food you love! 

Secondly, find a wooden board or large platter as a base.

Third, put the food onto the board and have fun arranging it as you like! Try a few different placements, move things around, get messy if you want to, stack neatly if that’s your thing, add some fresh herbs or edible flowers as garnish and you’re done.

There really isn’t any right or wrong, just a matter of personal preference. We’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and still try a few different arrangements before settling on our favourite one. Plattering is certainly not limited to cheeses, we’ve had plenty of fun with kuih-muih platters, Mediterranean mezze platters, chocolate and cakes platters, and even a platter of the traditional lemang and rendang this Raya.

Let’s start by getting a few kinds of cheese you like. Go for a mix of soft (brie, camembert, mozzarella, etc even cream cheese), semi-firm (gouda, cheddar, blue, Sarawak etc), and hard cheeses (parmesan, manchego, gruyère etc). Prepare any board or surface you like for its base, your favourite large plate works too! 

They generally pair well with fresh fruits like grapes (go seedless to save yourself the trouble), berries, and apples are staples. Dried fruits like apricots and figs work wonderfully too. Then we get into the savoury pairings. Cured meats are popular, as well as olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted nuts. Some like to have a spread or two like whole grain mustard, chutney, jam, or honey. Now we add an element of crunch with plain water crackers. Good bread is lovely too. If you’re feeling extra, finish with stalks of fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme or pretty little edible flowers!

On days when we don’t want to share, we go back to basics and make ourselves a personal platter with just one cheese of choice, a cute bunch of seedless grapes, roasted nuts, and crackers. Simple but so good, it makes our day!

Wash fresh produce at least twice! The amount of dirt and whatever else lodged in their skins that come off whenever we clean produce with a fruit and vegetable wash – it’s shocking! Also very satisfying to rinse off the murky water! We make it a point to clean thoroughly for every platter we send out.

Besides that, ensure that you use good quality ingredients — it makes a world of difference. We love choosing the artisanal route wherever possible – but we understand it’s not the most accessible option for everyone, so do try to seek out quality ingredients in general. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive, it doesn’t have to be the best. Just good is good enough!

(Main image credit: Anto Meneghini/Unsplash. All other images: Splatter)

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia KL.