Coolfin from Kylemore Farmhouse Cheese

Coolfin cheese

FOOD AWARD

BY CAROLINE HENNESSY

Teresa Roche is an outlier. Producing an Alpine-style cheese named Coolfin at the foothills of the Slieve Aughty mountains in East Galway wasn’t initially on the cards for this former nurse but she’s taken on the challenge with gusto. Growing up on a busy family farm, there were always people coming through the door: her father Bertie - a winner of the Young Farmer of the Year in 1988 - facilitated a constant stream of farm tours to his pedigree Holstein British Friesian herd, while Julia, her mother, looked after younger visitors, with school and scout groups visiting to learn where milk came from. When Teresa returned home after travelling and living overseas, she had some new ideas to add to the mix. For her, cheese was a natural add on to what her family was already doing. “Farmers know how to produce good milk but then it goes off to the creamery. The cheese is key to bringing the story together. Coolfin is a premium product made on site with our own milk.” Making a hard mountain cheese made sense because of where the farm is located - like Swiss cheesemakers, her milk comes from high quality grass in a mountainous area with pristine waterways. Teresa wanted to make something unique that represented her home: Coolfin is the result of that ambition.

WHEN COVID HIT, DESTROYING TERESA’S REGULAR ROUTE TO MARKET, SHE OPENED A SHOP ON THE FARM SELLING HER CHEESE ALONGSIDE A CAREFULLY CHOSEN SELECTION OF LOCAL PRODUCTS.

By working with cheesemaker Reto Güntensxperger who developed the Appenzellerstyle Schnebelhorn in the Swiss Alps, Teresa learned how to make cheese. She brought that knowledge back home to Galway, using her own milk to create something unique and rooted in place. Teresa also credits her neighbour, IFWG Award-winning cheesemaker Marion Roeleveld of Killeen, with helping her to develop the recipe for Coolfin. The cheese is handmade using only summer milk, is fully traceable and has a low carbon footprint due to being made on farm. It takes up to ten months to mature before it goes to customers, many of which are chefs and restaurants. No surprise there: Coolfin has a deliciously smooth texture with distinctively sweet, creamy and nutty flavours and a lingering aftertaste. It’s a great choice for a cheeseboard and also melts well, bringing an extra layer of flavour to dishes like cheese fondue, quiche, added to scones or layered into a simple cheese toastie.

As well as cheesemaking and running a successful farm shop on site, Teresa is a vocal advocate for rural farming, diversification and women in farming. Coolfin is the delicious farm to fork result of her sustainable ethos and her dedication to the land.

kylemorefarmhousecheese.com

Kylemore cheese scones with Coolfin

Recipe by Gráinne Mullins.

Gráinne Mullins is a chef and the founder of Grá Chocolates; she knows a good product when when she finds it, and she’s a fan of using Coolfin in her delicious cheese scones. The flavour and texture of Coolfin make it a wonderful cheese to cook with and these scones have been a big hit in the Kylemore farm shop, where Teresa says that there’s much more demand for the cheese version than plain scones. And rightly so too – it’s not so easy to find a scone that uses cheese of this quality.

MAKES 12.

360g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp black pepper

80g salted butter, plus a little extra for the muffin tin

200g Coolfin from Kylemore Farmhouse Cheese, grated

1 egg

230g buttermilk

Abernethy butter and GranGrans Foods’ red onion marmalade, to serve

Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan). Butter a muffin tin, or line a baking tray with a sheet of baking parchment.

Sift the flour, baking powder and black pepper into a bowl, then sift again to make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Add the butter to the bowl and combine with your fingertips to make breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the grated cheese into the breadcrumb mixture and rub together until evenly distributed. Try not to mix too much as the heat from your hands may start to melt the butter.

Mix together the egg and buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in enough of the buttermilk mixture to give a fairly soft but firm dough. Do not pour in all the liquid at once; you may not need it all to get the right consistency.

Weigh the mixture into 120g pieces and roll into balls. Place them into the muffin tin.

Alternatively, lightly flour a surface and roll out the dough to approximately 2cm thick. Cut out the scones with a medium cutter (about 8cm) then place on the lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Serve with a knob of butter.