I have made this reciepe several times and its allways been a hit
It

My two favorite cheeses =) and that delicious vinaigrette!! I've been making the vinaigrette for salads too.

the dressing is very interesting (see video)

What other fresh herbs can be used if lavender isn't available?

You may just want to leave it out if you cannot find it. Otherwise try experimenting with a few other fresh herbs to see if you find a combo that you like. Other fresh herbs that are friends with thyme include parsley, lemon verbena, mint, marjoram, rosemary, sage and tarragon...but these maybe too strong for this dish. Like I said, you can either leave it out of try experimenting. Cheers!

when you say goat cheese you meen someting like chevre cheese!!??is that ok??

You are right, in most cases chevre will work in place of goat cheese. Chevre actually means "goat" in French but it is a general word used to describe all types of cheeses that are made from goats milk.

For more info here is a good link for "what is chevre"

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-chevre.htm Cheers!

Hi there, I'm making this for my Christmas meal starter and I stupidly didn't watch the video before I started and actually removed the rind from the brie before creating the cheese mix. Is it worth starting over and do you think it will still be really good? I'd be grateful for your advice!

The recipe says 5 whole black peppercorns, but there are quite a few more shown in the video. Could you advise what the correct amount of peperorns is?

Don't worry about the rind. It will be ok. Use roughly 5 peppercorns or more to taste as desired. You don't want it overly peppery. It looks like we adjusted our mise "to taste" and took some peppercorns out as you can see the amount of ground pepper that we pour into the pan at 00:36 - it isn't very much. Hope this helps! Enjoy your dinner :)

Thank you so much Kimberly, you've eased my troubled mind!

Have a magical Christmas and great 2011!

Sorry, just one last question - do you think its ok to make the vinaigrette in advance or is this best last minute?

My suggestion is to prepare your mise in advance and do it last minute. It's nice warm and it only takes a few minutes to put together.

Remember, the most important part of preparing a whole Christmas dinner is to ask for help and delegate! Guests are (or they should be!) more than happy to help out. Merry Christmas!

Thank you, you are absolutely right but I find I like to cook in silence so I can concentrate! I will do this last minute though. Thanks again Kimberly.

I respectfully disagree with your response - Chevre is (in the US, anyway) a term used exclusively to refer to a particular type of soft goat cheese, which is often referred to as simply 'goat cheese' in recipes. Quite frankly, it irks me a bit that people limit their experiences with 'goat cheese' to chevre, particularly if they make a blanket statement that they don't care for goat cheese, when really they don't care for one particular variety.

Goat milk can be used to make many types of cheese, including mozzarella, colby, brie, cottage, ricotta, etc. and the type of cheese depends on the cheese cultures and techniques, not the animal which the milk comes from. Feta is traditionally made from sheep milk, for example, but could easily be made from cow or goat milk. I have made brie from goat milk, and my parents make and sell chevre (plain and herbed) as well as mozzarella from their Grade A goat dairy. They also have good luck with a colby style, though it tends to come out more creamy/soft in the middle than mass-produced colby available in the store.

Good points Jessica. I do agree with what you are saying. In the case above where I said he could use "chevre" I was more saying it in terms of what he might be looking for on the package as I know Romeos english is not perfect, so I didn't want to go into too much detail there.

That being said, I do believe that I did say "Chevre actually means "goat" in French but it is a general word used to describe all types of cheeses that are made from goats milk.", so technically I think we are saying the same thing are we not? Anyhoo...thanks for taking the time to comment on the different types of cheeses that can be made using goats milk. I have to say that any cheese made of goats milk is most often the one that I go for. I also particularly like goats (and sheep) feta. You are lucky that your parents make cheese...how wonderful for you. Cheers!