March's Grilled Cheese of the Month - Locavore Pesto Mozarella on Ciabatta

This month, the grilled cheese is a mozarella with pesto.  But it's not your usual basil pesto, it's my locavore pesto.  Rebecca turned me on to alternate pestos.  Rebecca has sworn by her arugula pestos and I've been intrigued.  Once my arugula (12 plants!) takes off, I will try that.  In the meantime, I'll make my locavore pesto.

While my arugula is still in its infancy, my parsley is growing like a weed.  Additionally, I picked up a batch of sorrel from the farmers market.  For those of you unfmailiar with sorrel, it's a leafy green that tastes amazingly like lemon. The down side it that it wilts quickly and turns an unattractive khaki color when cooked.  This makes it a prime candidate for pesto.  Everything except for the parmigiano reggiano comes from a local source and in two cases, my yard.

Locavore pesto:

1 cup of parsley
1 cup of sorrel
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of walnuts
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup (at least) of parmigiano reggiano or any hard cheese - pecorino would work well
1/4 cup of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the first four ingredients in the food processor and blend until paste like.  Add the lemon, olive oil and parmesan and blend some more. 

This is just a Bay area spring on a spoon.  The flavors are just fresh and lemony.  Therefore, it needs a fairly neutral base for any dish it gets served with.  It was divine with ricotta gnocchi.  And its makes a great spread for a grilled cheese on ciabatta with mozarella.

A Chaource is a Chaource

Let's get down to some individual cheeses.  A few weeks ago, we found the Queen of Ooze, a creamy, luscious French cheese called Cahource (shah-OORSE).   The cheese shop had 1/2 a cylinder of this left and offered us a deal because once it's cut, it needs to be eaten. 

 

Chaource is a soft-ripened, white rind, cow's milk cheese that has been made since the Middle Ages.  The Lincet family has made this cheese, named after the town it comes from in the Champagne region of France, since 1892. They are reportedly the only importers to the US, but there are other producers in Chaource.

Tasting Notes: Chaource was a creamy mushroom bomb with a touch of salt.  A slippery, savory butter friend that had just enough tartness to notice. Earthy, but nothing overwhelms the luscious, indulgent, goo.  Our had a very slight ammonia note, but I think this was from keeping it a bit too long after it had been cut.  Get it, bring it well into room temperature, and then spread it on crostini or a table water cracker.  Delicious with sliced pears.

Compare To: Similar to a camembert or brie. 

Buy Me: We found ours at The Cheese Board in Berkeley, but I have heard reports that some Costcos carry it.  Culture Magazine has a cheese shop finder on their site to find something close to you.

Overall: A sexy addition to a cheese plate and a perfect, spoonable cheese to serve with some bubbly.  Also a nice cheese for a breakfast bowl of fruit.

Quark

I tend to separate cheeses into two categories - eating cheeses and ingredient cheeses.  It's self explanatory, but my eating cheeses are cheeses with complexity. They usually combine the sharp, salty, sweet and bitter with tones with butter or caramel.  My ingredient cheeses can be either completely bland but with good texture (ricotta. mozarella, fromage blanc) or incredibly powerful and needing another ingredient to mellow out the flavor (Point Reyes for blue cheese dressing or parmigianno reggiano). 

In the past few months, we've been buying an excellent ingredient cheese called quark. Quark is an interesting hybrid of ricotta and fromage blanc.  It has a nice tang but a great texture that melts into soups.  I love a dollop of it in a pureed tomato soup.  For those of you watching fat, it's lowfat, so you can use it as a substitute for cream in soups or sauces.    We have also tasted it sweet, with sugar and vanilla bean (easy to substitute Splenda). 

I will say it can be hard to find.  We get ours at the Spring Hill Jersey cheese stand at the Berkeley Farmers Market.  I haven't seen it at Trader Joe's or Safeway but have found it at Berkley Bowl and several other farmer's markets. 

If you do find a supplier, I highly recommend getting some.

More Cheeseboard Love

Jonathan already wrote about the Cheeseboard but I have add my two cents about how awesome it is.  This past week, I was staying with Dave and Deborah in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia.  Deborah is also a cheeselover and we went to Del Ray's cheese shop - Cheesetique.  We were making a cheese plate for a gathering of our DC gang. We had a great time and the person helping us was great.  We chose an Abbaye de Belloc (more on that in a future post), a nice sardinian pecorino and a Fromager D'affinois (future post!).  In addition, our helper had some really good suggestions, including a soft cheese with cranberries as well as a nice blue that looked like a cheddar with blue veins.  Cheestique is certainly a very good cheese shop but I think I am spoiled by  the Cheeseboard and I wanted to give some reasons why:

1. First and foremost - organizing the customers.  This is where Cheesetique could up their game.  Basically, you have to wait until the person behind the counter notices you.  I had a moment at Cheesetique during an earlier visit when it was particularly crowded.  It was up to the customers to figure out who arrived first and the man who insisted he was there before me may have been correct, but it was an avoidable conflict.  The Cheeseboard stands out because they are able to manage the crowds of customers and still give each of us tremendous amounts of attention.  When you enter the Cheeseboard, you take a playing card.  When they are ready for you, they call your card.   A fun take on the take a number system that would be easy to implement and it takes the guessing out of the "who's next" game.  Simple, easy, understandable.

2.  The sheer expertise of the Cheeseboard staff.  The other thing that is consistent about the Cheeseboard is how much each member of their staff knows about cheese.  They invariably have introduced us to cheeses we've fallen in love with. When we say which cheese we're interested in, they will make suggestions about other cheese we would like.  In one of our favorite visits, one of the behind the counter folks gave us a killer set of fondue cheeses and gave us exactly the right amount for three people.  As a collectively-owned cheese shop, I would assume the Cheeseboard makes a huge investment in training its workers since they are also the owners.  

3.  The Cheeseboard will shove cheese down your throat.  I think they must have a rule that no cheese goes untasted.  Each cheese we take home, we've had a taste of and seriously, even after we've ordered and paid, our behind the counter people, often make suggestions and give tastes of cheeses we should try.  It's also delightful that the behind-the counter-people usually taste right along with us.  They value the opportunity to taste and to hear what we think.  That's a pretty amazing retail experience.  

Now this post isn't to disparage other cheese shops.  We appreciate all of the cheese shops and we've rarely had bad experiences with a cheesemonger, BUT we've also never had a less than extraordinary experience at the Cheeseboard. 

JD adds:  The Cheeseboard is a total cheese experience. One thing I do love about Cheestique and some other cheese shops is the keeping of cheese cards for customers.  At Cheesetique, you can come in, get your card, and see what cheeses you have enjoyed, make notes, and add your new bounty to the list.  It adds a bit of time to the transaction, but it also goads thinking about cheeses and, most likely additional sales.

Ricotta gnocchi - a lesson in reading

With all of that homeade ricotta around, I was itching to make some gnocchi.  I used this epicurious recipe.  After making two batches of ricotta gnocchi, I seriously wonder how anyone would ever use potato as a gnocchi filler.  Every description I read about good gnocchi is that it's this light, airy, ethereal dumpling.  Every review I read of someone making potato gnocchi is exactly the opposite - heavy, leaden, and filling.

Last year when Rebecca, Jonathan, and I did our fava bean fest, I made ricotta gnocchi to highlight the fresh flavor of the fava beans.  It was exactly what gnocchi has been described.  Now that I can make ricotta on a whim - having an endless supply of lemons and easy access to good milk, gnocchi would be an everyday occurence. 

If you are making gnocchi from homemade ricotta, be prepared to add in the flour a little at a time because you will need less flour.  Homeamde ricotta is much drier.  This is a huge plus because flour = heavy.  The one challenge was actually reading the damn recipe because I had the gnocchi all rolled out in a long snake and ready to be cut into bite sized pieces when I realized I forgot the parmesan.  I kneaded the parmesan in and then realized I only needed ONE cup and I would use the remaining half a cup for the sauce.  ARGH!  But all worked out well as my tester gnocchi turned out fine, despite all of the kneading to incorporate the forgotten parmesan. 

Right now the gnocchi sit in my freezer ready to be eaten. I am holding off until Rebecca, Angela and i get it togetehr to do mozarella making - preferably in Angela's well appointed kitchen. 

Even nonprofit social justice activists get the blues

On our last visit to the Cheeseboard, I asked the ever so friendly cheesemonger for a taste of Roquefort to see what the big deal was about this classic blue.  And the thing is, I still don't get it.  For me it was overpowering and pretty one note especially compared to my favs which include Big Woods Blue and the DIVINE Bayley Hazen.

I realize that I actually have cheese preferences, when it comes to blues.  I don't like dry, crumbly cheeses.   Those types of cheeses like a Roquefort and Maytag Blue seem to just taste salty and musty.  The creamier cheeses have more complexity to me and a sweetness that balances the pungent flavors of a blue.

This leads me to my first love when it comes to blue cheeses - gorgonzola dolce.  This is the blue that I measure all other blues against. I love the creamy texture and adore the sweetness.  To me there's more depth of flavor and more flavors bouncing off of each other in a gorgonzola dolce.  Compared to a cheese like this, the Roquefort I tasted just tastes musty.  The gorgonzola dolce just sings with flavor and seems to highlight other foods like figs, prosciutto, and breads.  It's a tried and true cheese for a cheese plate.

As I start reviewing blues, keep those preferences in mind.  I am more than happy for our dear readers to disagree but now you know where i am coming from.  

Ricotta Round 2

I've been itchy to make another round of ricotta so I can make some ricotta gnocchi, soft fluffy pillows of dumpling goodness.   Usually they are high carb things made with potatoes, but making them with ricotta brings them to a new level.  Also I've heard that freshly made ricotta is better than store bought for gnocchi because it's drier.  So round two of ricotta.  

Because we had used Rebecca's citric acid for round one, I decided to find a homemade ricotta recipe using lemon juice (since we have an unlimited supply of lemons from our tree).  I decided to do a modified version of this Martha Stewart recipe.  After reading all sorts of recipes I realized I could omit the cream and do just as well by increasing the lemon juice to to 6 tablespoons.

What makes this different from using the citric acid is that you need to get the milk to a VERY rigorous boil and THEN  add the lemon juice (as opposed to adding the citric acid at the beginning and letting the milk come to 185 degrees).  I did try and see if 185 was the right temperature for the lemon juice style of ricotta and the curds barely showed up.  Bringing it to the full boil gave the desired results.

I now have a canister of ricotta ready to turn into gnocchi.  Stay tuned.

Fromage Blanc Veggie Dip

A crudite platter is a great way to get your veggies in - julienne peppers, sugar snap peas, carrots.  But the key to a good crudite platter is a good dip.  Bellwether Farms fromage blanc is the perfect base for a fresh and yummy "ranch style" crudite dip.  It holds up well and you and even spread it on crostini.  Don't think of this as a recipe.  Think of it more as a guideline.

Fromage Blanc Veggie Dip
1 8 oz package of fromage blanc
1/4 cup of chopped fresh herbs of any kind - dill, parsley, cilantro, etc. 
Juice of one lemon
1 clove of garlic finely minced
2 tablespoons sour cream
a dash of milk until it reaches a dip consistency
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix everything in a bowl and add milk to thin as necessary

Recipe: Crisp and Luscious Dip with Bellwether Farms Fromage Blanc

Stay tuned:  Our recipe for a delicious dip with Bellwether Farms Fromage Blanc coming soon.  Tangy, tasty, fresh.

The Cheese Board Collective and Prairie Breeze Cheddar

Prairie Breeze, a flavorful cow's milk cheddar from a small farm in Iowa, is one of our new favorites.  Picking it up was almost an afterthought, a last minute suggestion from one of the workers at The Cheese Board who thought we would like it.  She couldn't have been more right. 

We're blessed with great cheese shopping options here in the Bay Area, but have most often found ourselves at The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, about 10 minutes from our house in Oakland.  The Cheese Board is a worker-owned collective bakery, cheese shop, and pizza place (Cheese Board Pizza Collective) on Shattuck, just a few steps from Alice Waters' Chez Panisse.  I love the history here.  A family business became a worker-owned co-op.  They bake, buy and sell cheese, and help hungry customers like us.  Click the history link to learn more about the collective's history and business model. 

When you open the door, the world of cheese is in front of you.  Cases of double creams, cheddars, blues, goudas and more, from the famous to the obscure, fill the cases.  It looks like 300 or more, but we haven't asked yet.  Customers are either waiting their turn or working with one of the collective members on selecting their cheese.  These consultations can be quick or take upwards of 15-20 minutes depending on your needs.  People are there for everything from a fairly standard hunk of cheese to a more elaborate cheese plate (e.g.  "I want to serve artisan sheep cheeses with some that are aged and others that aren't").  Though personalities differ, I have always found the collective members adept at helping us find the cheese we want while offering a cheese or two (or six) we hadn't thought of.  During one of our favorite excursions, the person helping us brought a range of three to five cheeses for each cheese we were looking for.  Asking for something alpine brought us everything from a very quiet, grassy, cheese to one that felt like we could plant it in the front yard and it would sprout a new lawn. She also introduced us to Big Woods Blue, a delicious beefy blue from Shepherd's Way (we'll talk more about that one soon).  She was as excited to share it with us as we were to eat it.

Prairie Breeze was suggested to us after we had selected cheeses for a fondue night.  I think it is usually clear to the person we work with that we are incredibly curious about and eager to learn more about cheese.  We've enjoyed learning about how variations in geography, technique, temperature, aging process, and more affect the cheese we eat.  We know more than some folks and less than many, but always have a good time, even if we are just dropping in for a quarter pound.

Prairie Breeze  was on my list to try because it was a winner at the American Cheese Society awards.  I'd read about the winners in Culture Magazine, but had forgotten to have a look at my list before our visit.  It took first place in the Aged Cheddar category.  It's not hard to tell why.

This is a smooth and flavorful semi-aged cheddar.  It's deliciously balanced between some fruitiness and nuttiness with a restrained sharp edge.  It's not a hit-you-over-the-head sharp, but makes a strong statement.  I also love the lactic acid crystals that give it a bit of texture.  Since enjoying our first bit, I've learned that Prairie Breeze is made by a teenager in Iowa at his family dairy, Milton Creamery.  The family uses milk from area Amish farms to make a handful of cheeses and has spent years selling cheese at local markets.  If this is something he can make this early in his career, I can't wait to see where he goes next if he sticks with it.

Further Reading:
Learn more about this cheese by downloading this article from Cheese Reporter (pdf). 

Click for a Google Blog Search.

Looks like the top cheese, Gordon Edgar over at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, likes it too! See his top cheeses for 2009 here.

Have you tried Prairie Breeze?  What did you think?  Comments welcome :)

Homemade ricotta review

For anyone wondering, the homemade ricotta ROCKS! 

A day after making it, I decided to do a simple dip per Rebecca's suggestion.  I added a little salt and drizzled a very fruity early harvest olive oil on top.  And OH MY GOD was that tasty.

I will say that the ricotta does need salt. I think we added 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of milk.  But once the salt is added, the ricotta is an amazing vehicle for flavor.  The big thing is the texture.  This is even better than ricotta we've found at the store and I LOOOOOVE that stuff.  It's a light, airy, fluffy and creamy.  There's definitely an ethereal quality to it that you don't get in regular ricotta.

Served with crackers and crudite,  it's an awesome snack.

No Whey! Whey!

Ever since Rebecca said that she got a cheesemaking kit for Christmas, I’ve been dying to make cheese with her.  Earlier in the week, she said she wanted to hang out and I promptly asked if she wanted to make cheese this Saturday?  She said yes and away we all went.  We decided to do the most basic type of cheese – ricotta.   As we wanted to make great ricotta, we decided to go all pricey and get Strauss’ Organic Whole milk.  At close to $5 for a half a gallon, it’s an investment, but for the amount of ricotta we got, it was definitely a steal.

We were all totally surprised to learn how easy it was to make ricotta.  Anyone can do it.  And while we used citric acid from Rebecca’s cheesemaking kit, you could just as easily use lemon juice (there are plenty of ricotta recipes using lemon juice).

So here’s the deal.  To make ricotta, you will need:

A candy thermometer to track the temperature of the milk
A large pot (enough to hold a gallon of milk)
Cheesecloth and a strainer
Another large pot to strain the milk in
Citric acid (or lemon juice)
1 gallon of milk
Salt

In a large pot, add the salt and the citric acid to the milk.

Once mixed, warm the milk on medium until it reaches 195 degrees Fahrenheit.  You need to stir constantly so it doesn’t scorch on the bottom.  At this temperature, the curds and the whey separate.

Let the mixture cook at that temperature for another few minutes and then let it cool.  This will take forever which is why we gorged ourselves on fondue and salad with blue cheese dressing while we waited.

Once the mixture cools to room temperature, pour the whole shebang in a colander lined with cheesecloth and suspended on top of a pot.

Let the liquid separate from the curds for a half an hour and then you have ricotta.  It’s crazy easy.

 

We were so excited about our ricotta success, we made a date to make mozzarella so we could have some more!  Why?  Well, the word "ricotta" is Italian for “cooked twice.”  This is because ricotta is often made from the whey of mozzarella.  Two for the price of one!

Other homemade cheeses on the list are paneer, feta, and chevre. Check back for more!

And PSST…anyone have a good supplier for organic sheep’s milk?

In the Kitchen: Making Fondue and Fresh Ricotta

Welcome to Cheese Friends, a group blog exploring and enjoying cheese.  We're talking about cheeses we love, sharing recipes, and, every once in a while, making our own.  Our first post is from Jonathan, Rebecca, and TC, friends who met in DC now living in the Bay area.  We look forward to involving more of our cheese-loving friends as writers, tasters, and foragers.  Find us on Twitter @cheesefriends and let us know if you have a cheese that makes you swoon.

We decided to kick off the blog by getting together for a night of fondue and cheese making.  We wanted something to snack on while we made our first attempt at homemade ricotta so my husband TC and I thought it would be fun to surprise Rebecca by visiting Berkeley's Cheeseboard and gathering the ingredients for fondue.

The Cheeseboard Collective is our go-to place for cheese in the East Bay.  The people who work here also own the place (a co-op) and we have always had informed help from their team as we look for cheeses we describe as everything from "grassy and soft but lighter on the salt and leaning towards funky" to "a blue that is friendly for people who love blue and people that are skeptical of blue but willing to try."  We'll talk more about them later, but have a look at a few of their cases.

We came to The Cheeseboard knowing we wanted to make fondue and familiar with the basics: wine, Emmentaler, Gruyere, and touches of garlic and nutmeg.  We approached the counter and took a playing card from the stack. They called the "four of hearts" relatively quickly and we started the consultation.

The person helping us was familiar both with fondue recipes and proportions, verifying the approximate weights for a generous fondue for three with one of the other workers.  She helped us select a Le Gruyere Cave Aged and Emmentaler from Switzerland, with the unexpected suggestion to add some Appenzeller (silver label aged 2-4 months).  Fondue regulars would be less surprised, but this was new to us and a welcome addition with its sharpness and its fruity kick.

For the wine, we went with a Gewurztraminer.  This was not a standard choice.  Most fondues are made with a reliably dry wine and this California Gewurztraminer was not.  It was a bit too sweet, but fairly weak so the sharpness of the cheeses tamped the sugar down a bit. Our meyer lemon juice from our backyard lemon tree had a nice bite as well so it all worked out.

Cheese Friends Fondue

1 clove garlic

1 cup dry white wine (plus some to thin as needed)

2 T lemon juice

3/4 lb Cave-aged Gruyere, 1/4 Emmentaler,  6 oz Appenzeller

1 T cornstarch

Nutmeg to taste (2 pinches)

Pepper to taste (2 pinches)

Dippables: 

Warm brown bread (or other thick, stout bread), blanched cauliflower florets, blanched green beans, sliced apples, sliced pears, whatever you like!

Steps:

Peel garlic and rub inside of pot thoroughly. 

Squeeze lemons and put 2T of lemon juice in a medium-size pot

Add wine and turn burner to medium heat (do not allow to boil)

Grate the cheese and toss it in the cornstarch

Add cheese 1/2 a cup or so at a time to wine/lemon juice

Raise the heat to medium high, stirring slowly to melt and combine

Add a few pinches of pepper and nutmeg (optional, but delicious)

Stir thoroughly until melted
If it seems too thick, add a bit more wine and stir through
Transfer to fondue pot or bring the pot directly to the table for dipping

If it gets too thick or cools, just place it back on the heat

Enjoy!

We served the fondue with a salad of crisp romaine, cherry tomatoes and a Point Reyes Blue Cheese dressing.  Point Reyes Original Blue from Farmstead Cheese Company is a creamy blue with a big, flavorful, taste without much edge or sharpness.  It's simply delicious crumbled on a salad and in dressing,  Read an exhaustive article here.


Next Post: Making the Ricotta!