We are getting to the pointy end of the year of cheese making.  This is the 9th Cheesepalooza challenge and we have made it to the final, advanced chapter of the book.  This months challenge was mould ripened cheese, the common or well known varieties being Brie and Camembert.

I have had some great success making a Camembert style cheese.  Although the first attempts weren’t perfect, they were more than worthy of eating. Then I tried to make some more last month and it failed miserably.  I followed exactly the same recipe that I’ve successfully used before.  It was a last minute make for a dinner party. I had just enough time to ripen the cheese, but not enough time to try it before serving it to my guests.  I broke my golden rule of cheese making: always try the cheese before sharing it with friends.  We cut into the slightly gooey Camembert, my friend took the first bite, and spat it straight back out again.  Somehow it had gone rancid.

Disheartened by last months disaster, I thought I would try something completely different for this challenge.  After perusing the recipes I settled on the Bloomy Robiola. This cheese has a completely different process to any other I’ve made and the part goat’s milk part cow’s milk appealed to me.

This cheese has very little rennet compared to others, this means it takes much longer to form the curd.  The recipe calls for the milk to be kept above room temperature for up to 18 hours, which meant a little clever thinking.  I picked up a great tip from The Cheese Making Workshop.  During their workshop we used a plastic tub paddling in a styrofoam box of warm water.

This method works a treat.  I managed to maintain the correct temperature for 18 hours.  It was difficult to time the making of this cheese so that the curd was ready to be cut at a sociable time of day.  The recipe did say the curd might be ready after 12 hours, but I was asleep at that point so had to let it go for 18 hours.  If I make this again I would ensure I time the making so that I can check it from 12 hours. I think my curd was a little too firm.

I cut the curds into large chunks to make it easier to scoop into the Camembert moulds. The curds then drain, and are flipped, to form a large mass under their own weight.  This was another part of the process that didn’t quite feel right to me.  As the curd was quite firm, it didn’t settle into the moulds as it does when making Camembert.  The curds did however taste delicious.

This is the cheese after it had drained and been flipped.  As you can see it was rather lumpy and had not shrunk as much as I expected it to, or as the book described.  Again I think it was due to the firm curds.

Into the fridge it went, ready to grow it’s layer of mould.  And it did.  I love watching the mould develop; each day as the cheese is flipped there is a little more skin preserving the stinky insides.

Then judgement day arrives. After ten days of ripening it was time to crack open the unknown cheese that is Robiola.  I’ve never tried this cheese so I have nothing to compare it to.  I could guess what it was meant to taste like from the description in the book and sadly I don’t think I achieved it.  It looked great, and the curd tasted fantastic when it was fresh, but yet again this cheese was on the verge of rancid.  I could tell it has potential. It had the acidic hint of a goats cheese; with the earthy tones of a stinky mould ripened cheese; followed by an after taste that left me running to the bathroom.  It also had an interesting, firm but chalky texture.

I think this is another cheese I will have to bin.  I’m not deterred though, as I can see great potential with this one.  I have two things to try to improve on next time.  I will be a little more vigilant with the cutting of the curd and I think I will buy some new starter culture.  I’m wondering if my culture is past it’s best as the common link between the rancid Camembert and the dodgy Robiola is the same batch of starter culture.  Watch this space for the new, improved Robiola.

I love the change in season for two reasons: firstly, I get to dig out a new set of clothes from the back of the wardrobe; secondly, I get to cook a different range of foods.  Move over salad and barbeque, it’s time for winter comfort food.  In Manchester it never got hot enough to worry about putting the oven on, so we enjoyed hearty food all year round, but in Sydney there are many months of the year when I refuse to put the oven on or it is simply too warm for hot food.  This means by April, I’m definitely ready for different foods.  Having said that, by October I’m ready for salads and barbeques again!

To start the comfort food festivities I’ve made some soup.  Not any old soup though, it’s my favourite, comforting, broccoli and blue cheese soup.  I like to use Stilton, as it’s my favourite blue cheese, but you can use any blue cheese you like.  I know blue cheese is not to everyone’s taste but this soup is a winner even if you are not a huge fan of mouldy cheese.  You can vary the amount of blue cheese to suit your taste.  I think 100g is the bare minimum you should use, otherwise you won’t even know it’s there, increase it to 150g or even 200g if you really do like the blue stuff.

Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup (serves 4)

1 large onion
1 head of broccoli
2 sticks of celery
20ml grapeseed oil
1 litre of good quality chicken or vegetable stock
1 small, floury potato (approx 100g)
100g – 200g Blue cheese, such as Stilton
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large saucepan on a medium heat.

Chop the onion, roughly into 1cm pieces. Chop the broccoli stems (reserve the florets for later) and celery sticks to a similar size. Add the oil to the pan and gently fry for 10 minutes until soft, but not brown. Stir regularly so it doesn’t brown too much or stick to the bottom of the pan.

Divide the remaining broccoli into florets and peel and roughly chop the potato into 2cm pieces.

Once the vegetables in the pan have started to soften add the stock, broccoli florets and potato.  Bring to the boil, and simmer for 15 minutes until all vegetables are soft and cooked.

Carefully blend the soup with a stick blender, then return to the heat. Break up the cheese into small pieces and add it to the soup. Heat gently to allow the cheese to melt. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Blue cheese can be quite salty so add a small pinch of salt first and taste before adding more if necessary.

Serve with bread for dunking.

This month the Cheesepalooza challenge was to make a washed rind cheese.  The options were Gouda, Fontina or Edam.  Having made Gouda, Fontina and Edam successfully in past I decided to make something new. The other suggestion was Havarti, not washed rind cheese but a washed curd cheese.

Havarti is a fairly straightforward cheese to make.  You add the starter culture, cut the curd and wash it with some warm water. It is then pressed.

I’ve had some difficulties applying enough, even weight to my cheese so I wasn’t very pleased when I cut into the final product to find some holes.  Holes suggest the cheese hasn’t been pressed with enough weight.  It also runs the risk of providing air pockets for unwanted mould to grow.  As much as I want to make blue cheese, the blue mould has to be intentional.

I’m not sure quite how to describe Havarti.  It is not that dissimilar to the texture of a mild cheddar. The recipe book said you can eat it young or age to taste.  This Havarti has confirmed that I like a mature cheese.  One week in and the cheese lacked flavour.  This is a cheese for those people that buy cheese slices and mild cheddar.  Despite the addition of the dill, it still lacked flavour.

I tasted the cheese because the recipe said you could eat it young but I have my doubts, so I have packaged it up to continue aging for a few more months. I am hoping to get a little more depth of flavour from the Havarti in the future.

• Appearance: Processed, with a thin rind
• Nose (aroma): Mellow
• Overall Taste: Bland
• Sweet to Salty: Mildly savoury
• Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): Mild
• Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): Plastic

*Edit thanks to information from Curds and Wine

I have been longingly admiring this section of the cheese book for a while.  This type of cheese involves a different type of starter and a slightly different process.  I was super keen to jump right in, which meant I didn’t have time to read any other posts before taking the plunge.

Had I waited another 24 hours (the perils of being ahead of time from my fellow participants) I would have learnt a few invaluable lessons from Ian that would have made this process less painful.  Although I often write about the trials and tribulations of home cheese making, I have been pretty successful in the last year.

This was the first cheese I thought I was going to have to bin.  I tried to take Mary’s advice and use some goat’s milk in the mix.  Although I tried to adjust the amount of rennet to ensure I got some curd, I underestimated and had to add the same amount again.  It finally set, but the curds were very weak.  I just about managed to press it, but I haven’t dared to try this crumbly looking cheese as yet due to the fear of a bitter result from the excessive amount of rennet.

Not happy with my first effort, I started again following the recipe to the letter.  This time I achieved that clean break, and thought it was going to plan, until I started to press.  By this time I had read that all important post from Ian recommending that we soak the cheesecloth but promptly forgotten this is what I should have done.

Mid way through the pressing, the sort after information  was remembered.  As I carefully unwrapped the cheese, it did exactly what Ian said it would and stuck to the cheesecloth.  I just managed to rescue enough, and re-press in my whey soaked cheesecloth.

And then there was the cracking. I thought I had pressed sufficiently, but after brining the cheese developed some Grand Canyon like cracks. Further research revealed I should have added a little whey to the brine to make it more acidic, thus not shocking the cheese into cracking.

What a frustrating process.  I had vowed it was one not to be repeated… until yesterday.

Asiago can be eaten young, like a Pecorino or aged to become more like a Parmesan.  I was not looking forward to the taste test. I thought I would have to cook with this cheese to get rid of it. How wrong I was.  I cracked into a small piece the other day to use in a Carbonara.  To my surprise it was exactly as the book described. A beautifully, crumbly, young Italian style cheese. Despite the stress, I did it. I said never again but with the lessons learnt from my Cheesepalooza community I think I can succeed with this cheese.

The idea behind the smoker is you make smoke; cool it down; pass it over food.  The claims of the A Maze N Pellet smoker is that it produces very little heat so can be used on the grill for smoking.  We tried it in a dustbin. Admittedly, it was a fairly hot day, but the temperature in the bin still rose to 40 degrees Celsius. Those sort of temperatures were fine for the ricotta I was smoking but would not be good for salmon.  Here are the photos from the smoking adventure part 1.

The home smoker part 2 involved 2 dustbins and a drain pipe.  The smoke generator is placed in the first dustbin.  The first dustbin is then attached to the second dustbin with a short length of drain pipe.  The second dustbin contains the the cooling rack that the food is placed on.  The bin with the smoke generator also needs a couple of holes at the bottom to allow the air to circulate.  With the bin lid on this creates a nice little smoke haven.  The pellets that you buy to go in the smoke generator burn for a surprisingly long time, so long as the external air temperature is not too high, you should be able to cold smoke quite effectively.

So far I have smoked ricotta and cheddar.  I am waiting for a cool enough evening to try the salmon.  The ideal temperature for cold smoking salmon is 12C so I really need to wait for Autumn.  I probably could get away with temperatures up to about 20C but anything much higher and you are getting into the realms of hot smoking.

In order to smoke the ricotta, I made some whey ricotta, following this recipe but with an increased amount of milk.  The ricotta has to be firm to smoke, but I like the creamy flavour of whey ricotta, so I followed my recipe but with equal amounts of whey to milk.  I also increased the vinegar to 50ml to compensate for the increase in liquid.

In order to make the cheese firm enough for smoking I drained it in a ricotta basket, flipping after a couple of hours, then lightly pressing for a couple of hours.

Once pressed the ricotta needs to be air dried.  This is the most important aspect of hot or cold smoking.  The smoke needs a dry surface, or pellicle, to stick to.  This usually takes about 24 hours, basically the cheese needs to be dry to the touch.

The ricotta was smoked, using oak pellets, for 4 hours.  That provided a distinctly smoked, but not too dry cheese.  A pleasant surprise as I was expecting it to have the texture of a baked ricotta, but it was definitely still an uncooked cheese.

I enjoyed it so much I have also smoked a piece of cheddar.  Unfortunately, cheddar takes a few months to age, so you’ll have to wait a while to see how that turned out.

Well I still have a lot to learn and I have had a couple of minor disasters along the way, but overall I am very satisfied with my cheese making efforts for the year.  The biggest achievement is to be able to serve a platter of home made cheeses to friends without the fear that I’m going to poison them.

I am five months into the Cheesepalooza challenge and this month we step up a gear to make what I would consider a ‘real’ cheese.  A simple cheddar style cheese with the optional addition of dried herbs.  Now we are getting onto the serious stuff, where patience is required.  There is not enough time in a month to make and age this cheese sufficiently (especially if you do it on 27th December) so I now have to sit and wait for a couple of months while it does it’s thing in the cheese cave.  I have enjoyed the other cheddar I have made so I have high hopes for this one.

The process is slightly more precise and lengthy now the cheeses are getting more cheesey.  The curd for this cheese has to be stirred gently at a specific temperature for quite some time.  Good music should be part of the recipe for this one as you cannot leave the pan for a good 20 minutes as you stir.

Although this cheese is called a cheddar, it does not actually involve the cheddaring process, which involves pressing, stacking and re-cutting of the curds so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on the flavour.

The stirring and heating of the curds helps them to firm up, giving that harder texture that cheddar has.  The curds are then drained when they have shrunk sufficiently.  At this stage you can add your optional herbs.  I added chives so I could compare the flavour to non-herbed cheddar I have made.

Pressing is also the key to the texture of this cheese.  If it is not pressed sufficiently you will end up with unwanted holes in your cheese.  They are unwanted as this is where the bacteria can grow and sour the cheese.

Once pressed the cheese is brined in order to help flavour develop and rind formation.  It is then air dried, again to help rind formation but also to provide a dry surface for the wax to stick to.  At this stage waxing is optional but I have tried aging in vacuum sealed bags, but I much prefer the result with wax.

With previous cheese I have portioned the cheese before waxing but this time I have waxed all 950g of the cheese to see what effect this has on the aging process.  I will then cut and wax again when it comes to eating. Even I can’t manage to eat that much cheese in the short time frame it takes to go mouldy.  Don’t forget my cheese does not have any preservatives.

Waxing such a large cheese can be a little problematic so I had to build up the layers gradually.  I don’t have a big enough pan to dedicate to cheese waxing to get a good dunk.

With a successful year of cheese making I look forward to all of the the different challenges that 2013 has in store, including cold smoking my cheese with this year’s Christmas present! Thank you for reading and Happy New Year to all you lovely readers of Nic Cooks.

P.S. check my Facebook Page and Twitter account in about 2 months to find out how this cheese tastes.

I also feel I’ve gained enough skills to start experimenting and developing my own cheeses. I can’t exactly claim this one as mine, as it is that classic cheese of Wallace and Grommet fame. But I did read a few recipes and tailor it to suit.  For Christmas I’ve added some cranberries to make it into a great cheese for dessert.  This cheese is tart and crumbly, but with a little bit of sour/sweet from the cranberries.  It also looks pretty on the cheeseboard for Christmas.

As with my other homemade cheeses I cannot really call this a Wensleydale as it was not made in Yorkshire and I’m not sure it would pass the test with Wallace and Grommet but I hope the resulting cheese is somewhere close.  I enjoyed it and it is another cheese to add to my collections of favourites… It’s getting harder and harder to narrow it down to just one.

The Wensleydale should be matured for 1-2 months prior to eating.  The Wensleydale with cranberries is best eaten sooner rather than later as the cranberries can start to ferment if left too long.  One month in and the cheese with cranberries was perfect.

This recipe is adapted from recipes from Paul Peacock and Ricki Carol.

Wensleydale with Cranberries
8 litres unhomogenised milk
1/2 teaspoon MM100 starter culture prepared in 200ml UHT milk
2ml Calcium Chloride diluted in 60ml cooled, boiled water
2ml Rennet diluted in 60ml cooled, boiled water
2 tsp salt
50-100g dried cranberries

Prepare your starter culture the day before or use as per the instructions on the packet.

Gather all your equipment together and make sure they are all clean and sterilised.

Gently heat the milk in a large non-reactive pan until it reaches 32 degrees Celsius. Add the prepared starter culture stirring until well combined. Maintain the temperature at 32C and allow the milk to ripen for 60-90 minutes.

Add the calcium chloride if you are are using and stir until well combined.  Add the rennet, and stir with an up and down motion until well combined, this should take about 1 minute.

Maintain the temperature at 32C and allow the curds to set for 1 hour. After 1 hour test the curds for a clean break.  If you have a clean break cut the curds into 2cm cubes and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  If there is not a clean break, allow to stand for another 15 minutes and test again.

Gently stir the curds for 15 minutes while raising the temperature to 35C

Allow the curds to rest for 15 minutes, maintaining the temperature at 35C

Remove enough whey to expose the curds then drain the curds in a colander lined with damp butter muslin. Allow to drain for 15-20 minutes, or until the whey stops dripping.  Cut the curds again into 2cm cubes, then sprinkle with the salt.  At this point you can either transfer to the mould and press or add some dried fruit, such as cranberries.  I thought I’d do half and half so I put half of the curds in a mould lined with damp butter muslin.

I mixed the other half of the curds with 50g dried cranberries.  I then transferred the curds to the mould lined with butter muslin.  Press the curds over night with 5kg of weight, turning after an hour or so.

Sprinkle with 1tsp salt and air dry for 12-24 hours turning once before waxing.  The cheese needs to be dry before you can apply the wax. Heat the wax and dip the cheese into it, ensuring all edges are covered with at least two layers.

Age in a cheese fridge set at 12-15C for 4-6 weeks.

I’ve never really been a huge fan of halloumi because I don’t like the squeak. Yes, I know, it’s another one of my funny food rules, but it feels like fingernails down a chalkboard on my teeth. However, halloumi is a cheese that so many people rave about that I though I owed it another chance. It is also a relatively quick and easy cheese to make, so I whipped up a batch on a busy cheese making day as I was making some Camembert and Cabecou for the arrival of the in-laws. There is no better way to impress your mother-in-law than presenting her with an entirely home made cheese platter.

Anyway, back to the halloumi. I followed the recipe in Artisan Cheesemaker to the letter so I’m not going to write it out here. As a general guide for halloumi you heat the milk, curdle with rennet. No starter culture is necessary for this one, which makes the process at least an hour shorter than other cheeses as you don’t need to let the starter ripen.

Once the curd has formed it is cut, stirred and gently heated. The curds are then pressed for a short period of time. My only variation to the recipe was the shape of the mould. The recipe suggests round, but then recommends cutting off the corners. I don’t like waste so I went straight for the square mould.

Once pressed the unique process for halloumi begins. The whey is reserved and the cheese is heated gently in the whey which I think gives it its unique texture and frying properties. Finally, to give the halloumi it’s distinct flavour the cheese is soaked in brine. Ok, so I lied about following the recipe to the letter, I also tweaked this bit to use a milder brine as I found the last one really salty.

Now once I had my completed block of halloumi I had to work out what to do with it. I wanted a dish that would showcase it, so I turned to Twitter asking for suggestions. And the overwhelming response? Do nothing. Simply fry and serve with a squeeze of lemon. That was me well and truly told!  Whatever you do with it, halloumi, lemon and chilli are a match made in heaven.

I had a good yield of cheese from my high quality milk so there was enough to do a second dish.  I couldn’t resist ‘messing’ with the halloumi just a little.  After lunch at MoVida in Melbourne last year I was charmed by the Bocadillo they serve (AKA Spanish sandwiches).  With a dash of lemon and some roasted capsicum they make a great light lunch or maybe a fancy canape.

So how did my halloumi taste?  Just as halloumi should, I think.  It was salty and squeaky.  There were four of us who tucked into the two servings of halloumi.  Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it and were left wanting more, but I’m afraid to say I am still distressed by the squeak.  I will be happy to make halloumi for others as it is a relatively quick cheese to make and very satisfying, but when it comes to eating I just cannot get past that squeak.  I know I am the exception to the rule, so I will leave you with my recipe for MoVida inspired halloumi Bocadillo.

I forgot to weigh my halloumi so I cannot give accurate measurements for my recipe but I used half of the final yield, which I think was about 400-500g

Halloumi and Capsicum Bocadillo (serves 4 as a small snack)

1 red capsicum
1/2 block halloumi (200-250g)
8 slices of white bread
olive oil
1 lemon, half juiced, half cut into wedges to serve

Put the capsicum in a very hot oven for 20-30 minutes until the skin starts to blister and can be peeled easily.  Once the skin has started to blacken and blister, remove from the oven and put in a bowl and cover with cling film to continue to steam while it cools.  Once cool enough to handle remove the skin, seeds and stalk. You should be left with one piece of capsicum that can be roughly cut into four rectangles.

Meanwhile, cut the crusts off the bread then cut into eight rectangles roughly the length and half the width of the average slice of bread.  There is quite a lot of waste, but with the shape of bread I was using the pieces would be too uneven if I cut the slice in half.  The leftovers can be made into breadcrumbs or fed to the the chooks as a treat!

Once you have removed the capsicum from the oven, turn the heat down to 180 degrees Celsius.  Brush one side of the bread with olive oil and place on a baking tray oiled side up.  Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown but not burnt.

Cut the halloumi into four rectangles  the same size as the bread.  Just before the bread is toasted, fry the halloumi in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil until browned on both sides. This should take 4-5 minutes on each side.  Drizzle with some lemon juice just before they are ready.

To assemble, place a piece of halloumi on four of the pieces of baked bread.  Top with a sliced of roasted capsicum and another slice of baked bread.

Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Tasting Notes:

• Appearance: Creamy, white with markings from the mould
• Nose (aroma): Salty
• Overall Taste: Salty
• Sweet to Salty: Salty
• Strength: Mild cheese flavour, but strong salty flavour
• Mouth Feel: Squeaky

For the second cheese this month I opted to do a compare and contrast exercise.  At the same time that I made the Chevre I also made the Cabecou. These are two different types of goats cheese, but essentially contain the same ingredients.  This is what mystifies me about cheese making. I know I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again but the process of turning milk into cheese is like magic.

For the Cabecou I started with the same milk as the Chevre, I added the same starter, but the milk was heated to slightly different temperatures and left to ripen for longer.  The curds are transferred into small moulds and left to drain under their own weight until they have shrunk to at least two thirds of the original size.  Once the curds have spent a couple of days air drying they are transferred to olive oil.  You can also add herbs to the olive oil but I wasn’t convinced it made any difference to the final flavour of the cheese.

The resulting cheese was a silky smooth round of goats cheese that was firm enough to be cut with a knife but could also be crumbled or spread.  The Chevre was good, but this elevated the humble goats cheese to the next level.

Beetroot and goats cheese make a great combination, as do goats cheese and truffle.  Combine the three together and you are left with a simple salad elevated to Michelin star status.  Inspired by a recipe in the Quay cookbook, but adapted to be achievable in the home kitchen, I defy you not to love this spring salad.

Beetroot and Goats Cheese Salad (serves 2)

6 baby beetroot
20g pinenuts, toasted
100g salad leaves
50-100g Cabecou

25g honey
25ml truffle oil
25ml red wine vinegar
50ml  extra virgin olive oil
smoked salt and pepper to taste

Top and tail the beetroot and put in a pan with some boiling water and cook until tender, this will take anything from 20-40 minutes depending on the size of your beetroot.  Once cooked, drain the beetroot and allow to cool.  Once cool enough to handle don a pair of gloves and carefully peel the beetroot without painting your kitchen red.  Quarter the beetroot then halve the pieces again if they are still quite large.

To make the dressing, put the honey, truffle oil, olive oil and red wine vinegar into a small bowl and whisk until combined.  Season to taste.

To assemble the salad, put the salad leaves and beetroot in a bowl and drizzle with the salad dressing, you might not need all of it and toss to coat.  Crumble over the goats cheese and sprinkle with the pinenuts.  To add an extra level of luxury I also sprinkled with smoked salt, but that is optional.

Anyway, for me,  the difference between success and failure on the 5:2 diet is to find foods that look filling but are low in calories. This way I can fool my brain into thinking I am eating more than I actually am.  That’s where raw vegetables come in.  I have discovered that raw veggies contain less calories than cooked which means I can put more on the plate.

For this recipe I have left the asparagus raw because I found some really young, delicate stalks. If you can only get fatter, tougher asparagus then you may want to blanch them for a couple of minutes in boiling water and allow to cool.  This may add a few more calories to the dish though!

I used some of my home made whey ricotta as it is too delicious to resist. I had to guess the calories, so judged it on the whole milk variety, but you could of course buy low fat ricotta and have more.  You can also drizzle with extra virgin olive oil on days when you are not counting the calories so closely.

Zucchini and Asparagus Salad (serves 2, 102 calories per serve)
40ml fresh lemon juice
1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
10g red chilli, finely chopped
200g small zucchini (courgettes)
100g asparagus
30g spring onions, finely sliced
30g black olives, sliced
60g ricotta
6g fresh mint leaves

In a large bowl, make the marinade by combining the lemon juice, garlic and chilli.

This is my Jamie Oliver moment, I always think of Jamie when I crack out the speed peeler.  I’d never heard of a potato peeler being called that until I started watching Jamie, but the name has stuck. Using a speed peeler, peel the zucchini until you can peel no more.  You should be left with a large pile of zucchini ribbons.  It looks a lot, but it does shrink when marinaded in the lemon juice.

Put the zucchini in the bowl with the lemon juice and stir until well coated.  Add the asparagus and leave to stand for a few minutes to allow the flavours to combine.

Just before serving add the spring onions, olives and mint.  Dot with the ricotta and sprinkle with mint.  I served this with a small portion of grilled, white fish giving me a satisfying 300 calorie dinner.

Calories calculated using Calorie King, based on the quantities given above.  Weights refer to ingredients once leaves, peel, stalks etc. have been removed.