Laphroaig Lasagne

Posted on 2008/07/20 18:33:03 (July 2008).

I love whisky, and I love cheese. Previously it hadn't really occurred to me that the two things might go together - until I was given some Laphroaig cheese. It is made by Inverloch Cheeses on the Kintyre Peninsula, which is of course the nearest bit of mainland Scotland to the whisky paradise that is the Isle of Islay, home of Laphroaig and many other great malts.

Whilst my first instinct for a fine product like this would be to enjoy it in its' raw and unspoilt state - perhaps with an oatcake or two to continue that Scottish theme - the particular specimens I got hold of had been on a very long journey and had suffered somewhat. So I thought it would probably be advisable to cook with it to be on the safe side. As it happens I was making a lasagne recently, and didn't have any of the usual cheeses I would cook it with in the fridge (more often than not just a good cheddar, sometimes perhaps a mixture involving some blue cheese, perhaps some emmental and perhaps some vegetarian Parmesan), and so I thought for an experiment I'd give the Laphroaig Cheese a go.

So I made the cheese sauce in the usual way I make cheese sauces - starting off with a roux of cornflour and butter, then continuously stirring in milk until I get the right consistency. I then usually bung in a load of grated cheese, in this particular instance the Laphroaig cheese. I was really pleased by the fact that the aroma of the Laphroaig was not lost by cooking, and remained there right through into the finished product. If you can't get hold of actual Laphroaig Cheese (I'm not sure it is actually available anywhere but on Islay at present), then you could probably achieve a similar result by just pouring a glug of your favourite dram into a standard cheese sauce - honestly, it sounds odd, but whisky in cheese sauce really works (assuming, that is, you actually like whisky!). I suppose it's not that different to fondue - the traditional recipe calls for kirsch. In fact a Scotch fondue (with whisky instead of the kirsch) sounds rather fantastic to me.

The rest of lasagne was then the standard recipe for me - a vegetarian bolognese sauce made by sautéeing some red onions and garlic in some olive oil, then adding in some Quorn mince and a good glug of red wine. After that a tin of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, some basil (fresh when I've got it, this time I had to settle for dried). I also like to add a splash of vegetarian Worcester sauce - my favourite is Bulldog available in Japanese stores. Then I assemble the lasagne by alternating between the tomato sauce, lasagne sheets, and the cheese sauce. In the lasagne dish I have I usually get through two iterations of this, possibly with another layer of lasagne sheets somewhere in the middle as I feel like it.

The end result was particularly good this time round - to my surprise and delight you could really smell and taste the Laphroaig in the finished dish - a really nice twist to a classic dish.

vegetarian Worcester sauce containing fish ??

"Bull-Dog Worcestershire Sauce (Wusta Sauce) 300ml
Our Price: £2.25 (14% off)
Item Detail
Manufacturer: Bull-Dog
Size: 300ml
Fish: Yes "

Posted by lord at 2010/01/06 10:00:31.

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