Culinary School Edition: Charcuterie Boards and Terrines

This week's edition is a throwback to my week of charcuterie board crafting as well as terrines and paté en croutes.

Here are my own 5 steps to making a foolproof charcuterie board!

The key to a great charcuterie platter is having variety. It's all about getting the perfect bite!

1. Start off with a good base, your cracker. Make sure its solid and not too absorbant, so it can hold all those tapenades, jams and jellies and so you can stack all your toppings.

2. Cheese plz. Mix it up with some soft, hard and semi ripe cheese. Try a colourful green basil infused cheese, a garlic herb goat cheese, or a roquefort if you are into the stinky stuff. The choice is yours. Try something new and fun and make sure to have good variety!

3. Quality meat. When you are creating your charcuterie board, don't be shy with the quality cured meat. A good jamon iberico, jamon serrano, proscuitto and sopressata goes a long way. For our boards at school we added our handmade terrines!

The meat and the cheese should harmonize. If you have a salty meat pair it with a milder cheese, vice versa.

4. Its all about the accompaniments. Our charcuterie week at school mainly conisted of preparing all the accompanients to our board. We pickled our own peppers, radishes, made carmelized onion jam, made our own Guinness mustard, and made cauliflower piccalilli. The list can still go on, but the point is, these accompanients should add flavour to your bite of cracker, meat and cheese. Don't be shy to add preserved fruit, pickeled vegatables, jellies, spreads and dips. It will all come together to make the perfect bite!

5. Go with the flow. The last step is putting it all together. Where do you even start?!

A great tip that helped me put together my board (1st picture) is to start with the bigger items first. Lay down your chunks of cheese, then meat, then crackers. Once your establish your format, FILL THE GAPS! This is where you add your accompaniments. Stick in your fruit, spreads, nuts, tapenades in all the empty spaces. Do not leave any gaps!

There is no right or wrong way to creating your board, but these steps gave me a place to start.

My Chef's board! My board

Terrines & Patés

The art of making paté en croute (picture 5) is not easy! Especially when it is being filled with aspic. Although terrines and pates are pretty old school and a food from our parents generation, it was sure fun to craft...the taste is still growing on me.