This is divine! to avoid having trouble slicing the soft goat cheese - here's a trick: Use Dental Floss. Set the cheese on a cutting board and slice through the cheese with a piece of floss. This will create a smooth cut and not put so much pressure on the cheese to make it crumble. Sometimes it's easier to find goat cheese labeled as Montrachet Cheese (and under that you'll find a description of Goat Cheese). This tends to be a slightly firmer type of goat cheese.
This was a hit at my last party. However, I did modify the directions. I did not prepare ahead of time and I got the soft cheese that does not slice well, so I just chopped everything, put it in a blender and mixed it in with the cheese. So far 5 people have asked me for this receipe.
Great and easy to prepare. Being concerned about the softness of goat cheese but loving it's flavor I substituted a Dutch white goat gouda cheese. It's firm but not dry. It was a good choice, kept the flavor but made the cheese much easier to handle. I also reduced the size of the cubes, to make it easier to spoon the cheese and bits of the marinade onto a bread slice and get into your mouth. Finally the recipe is not clear as to the nature of the black olives used. I used Kalamata olives and they tasted great. Lastly, I put the whole mixture into a gallon zip lock bag to marinate just reaching into the refrigerator every couple of hours to mix it around for better coverage. Then at serving time I just poured the whole lot into the serving dish, picked out the garlic picks and it was ready to go. Couldn't be easier and really yummy.
I made this initially for a dinner party. Taste-wise, this was killer and there was none left. I got asked many times for the recipe. However, it was hard cutting goat cheese into cubes because the stuff is WAY too squooshy. What I did instead was take 1/2-teaspoons and roll them into balls, then toothpicked a slice of raw garlic to each one, and poured the marinade over top. Made it easier for people to get out of the pan. My Oscar night variation was to combine the goat cheese, sun-dried tomoato, oil and spices in a food processor, fill phyllo-dough shells with the mixture, and garnish each one with an olive slice and a slice of raw garlic. Tasted the same, and the phyllo crust gave it just enough crunch!
I decided to make this as a spread so added about 4 oz. of cream cheese as someone had suggested to make it more spreadable. The goat cheese was a little salty and so were the sun-dried tomatoes I had so I was afraid that 1 cup of tomatoes would be too much. I used about 1/2 cup and also only 1/2 cup of the olives. I chopped the fresh herbs and minced the garlic and then mixed everything together with extra virgin olive oil. With the goat cheese and cream cheese at room temp. it was easy to mix. I served this with sliced French bread as recommended and it was fabulous also quite attractive with the different colors. Everyone raved over it. I was glad there was a little left over because it was SO good. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Edited to add: I have made this (with my modifications) many many times and it's always a huge success. I even had to make it without the sun-dried tomatoes one time because I couldn't get any and it was still good (not as good as with the tomatoes though). Everyone just loves this.
I made this after a co-worker made it. It was wonderful and I did not change a thing! I would highly recommend this recipe!!!
This was a wonderful appetizer and enjoyed by everyone for a baby shower that I had. We substituted the goat cheese with sharp cheddar b/c the goat cheese was so expensive. It was wonderful. We also took the garlic cloves out, b/c we were not sure how strong they would be. We marinated it overnight so we got the flavoring of the garlic and it was perfect. Next time I make it, I may substitute it with shredded sharp cheddar for easier serving. It was just hard for people to spoon it out and put it on the bread. Thanks for the recipe!!!
Thank you J. Coulson!!! This is one of the most unusual and delicious appetizers I've ever tasted or served. Everyone wants the recipe! I made it exactly as instructed and it was perfect! Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! We had trouble slicing the goat cheese, so we ended up using unwaxed, unflavored dental floss, which worked like a charm. I doubled the recipe since it only makes 10 servings, and ended up buying WAY too much goat cheese. Overall, a great appetizer for our party!
I was so excited about serving this at our party but it was crumbly and hard to eat. Nobody said they liked it or wanted the recipe.:( 3/4 of it was left over.
