Grilled Goats Cheese is a wonderful way to cook goats cheese on the BBQ. But add a few other simple ingredients and you go from good to great!
There are a lot of grilled goats cheese recipes, but my grilled goats cheese parcels are a bit different and proper tasty. Imagine…soft, earthy goats cheese stuffed with a sweet date, lovingly gift-wrapped in pancetta to create a small parcel. They are if you like, goats cheese souvlaki.
Now take your small goats cheese parcel and skewer it interspersed with large chunks of bread doused in olive oil then grilled over hot coals on your barbecue. Who knew you could cook goats cheese on the BBQ?!
The bread I think just brings the whole dish together; ready made crispy croutons perfect for eating with the grilled goat cheese parcels.
The pancetta tightens and crisps over the heat while the goats cheese starts to gently melt and engulf the mellow sweetness of the sticky date at it’s centre.
If the truth be told; like most moments of invention; my grilled goats cheese parcels started out as a vague idea that I had but had been put off thinking they wouldn’t work on a skewer. Oh how wrong was I?!
They were an immediate success. I know they were an immediate success as my wife pretty much ate them in the time it took me to pour a glass of white wine! Since then they have become a bit of a ‘thing’ that we make at barbecues. They are also great to take round to someone hosting a BBQ.
Check out my video! Full recipe is below…
And like most things in life, the beauty is in it’s simplicity; sure you could say they have to be rolled on the glistening skin of a virgin beauty from the Himalayas and doused with the finest olive oil extracted by the bare feet of angels under a full moon, but you know what? Buy some soft goats cheese from Waitrose, a few ready to eat dates from your local co-op and wrap it in some pancetta from your butcher and you’ve got everything you need for a great BBQ masterpiece!
Grilled Goat Cheese Recipe:
Ingredients – serves 4 (2 each):
360g soft goats cheese (ideally a small goats cheese log)
Dozen dates
12 rashers of pancetta
1 small loaf of bread (any bread but not sliced)
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil
Seasoning
Tablespoon oregano
Pinch dried chilli flakes
Method:
- Cut your goats cheese log into 1 inch thick discs
- Gently push a date into the middle of each one
- Wrap the pancetta around the goats cheese changing direction by 90degrees half way through to try and wrap the whole thing (don’t worry about a few gaps) and season with a little black pepper.
- Prepare your croutons; rip similar size pieces of bread out as the goats cheese parcels and then drizzle over the bread the olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and oregano.
- Now skewer a goats cheese parcel and pieces of bread alternately on the skewers.
- Place the skewers over the coals and keep them turning for about 4-5 minutes or just until the pancetta is cooked and crispy (if you leave them to long they will melt!).
Note: when piercing the goats cheese parcels, place the skewer through the centre of the goats cheese ideally going through the date and if possible the end of the piece of pancetta.
Don’t have a rotisserie BBQ? No problem; you can also cook these straight on the grill without skewering them, cook on a high heat for a couple of minutes on each side.
Goes well with sunshine and a lengthy conversation about how you made them! Oh, and a cold Keo beer!