Yarra Valley Feta - My Marinated Addiction!

Has anyone else noticed that Haagen Daz ice cream is no longer being sold in pints? Yup, it is now a 14 ounce package, not 16 ounces - the officially approved measurement for a pint of ice cream. I noticed this last night when I was at the store picking up some vanilla to use as a base for some tasty rhubarb/orange/thyme sauce I had whipped up (Check out my other blog for updates on my new preserving fetish, if you haven't already!).  I didn't notice until I got home, and boy was I peeved! Everywhere you look these days, people are cutting corners to save a few bucks. I'm usually ok with that except when it comes to my gastronomic addictions.

The good news is that I have a new addiction, and it somehow feels less dirty and corporate than Haagen Daz - though just as creamy and delicious - just think savory, not sweet. Yarra Valley Dairy in Australia produces the most addictive marinated Persian style Feta cheese I have ever tasted. And at just $12 a pound, I can get my cheese on for cheap. A little goes a long way stuffed into baby peppers and spread on morning (and afternoon snack) toast. With a couple of baby tomatoes, it's a perfect fix. I have been pondering blending some of it up with a little more olive oil to make a tasty vinaigrette for an arugula salad, or as a topping for a nice skirt steak. Pasta primavera could be nicely tarted up with the addition of some of this dreamy feta too.

The good farmers at the Yarra Valley Dairy make a delicious, creamy, tangy-sweet cow's milk feta and then they go and gild the lily by marinating it in Extra Virgin Olive oil, garlic and thyme. The feta itself is so much better than anything you can get at your local megamart, and then after steeping in the bath of the gods (Can't you imagine Athena and Zeus getting comfy in a tub of olive oil? Just saying...), it is just to die for.

If you can find this marinated beauty, buy it, take it home and use and abuse it in as many ways as you can think of. After coming back from the cheese shop, I hit the grocery store for a few staples, and found Yarra Valley Feta in the fancy cheese section. Hooray! A little more pricey at $6.99/6 oz, but not bad in a  pinch. If you can't find it, you can perk up a little grocery store feta with olive oil, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, or what have you and be almost as happy. David Lebovitz has some helpful instructions here.

So now I have two dairy addictions - Haagen Daz and Yarra Valley Feta. (Well, and basically any cheese you put in front of me) Sweet and savoury. New and exciting cheese dreams, here I come!

Peaceful Appalachian Spring (Cheese)

Little did I know that last Friday was going to be the last peaceful day that I was to have for a long time (more on that perhaps at a later date). It is something to celebrate, therefore, that it was a fabulous day. I managed a good hair day, just in time for picture day at the DMV, managed to be in and out of that bureaucratic maze in less than half an hour (Helpful hint - always make an appointment. Always.), and had managed to walk away from a specialty cheese counter with many tasty packages for just $22.  I was enjoying a moment of bliss in my cheese wedge lunch. It was indeed such a tasty cheese that I was loathe to sully it with crackers, eating it with just a knife and my oh so dainty fingers. Plus, it's totally Atkins approved this way, right?

I was noshing away on Meadow Creek Dairy's Appalachian cheese. It is a semi-hard cow's milk cheese made from milk produced by a heard of delightful Jersey's in the mountains of south west Virginia. It sports a thin and lovely Pennicillum mold coat and melts oh so well on the tongue. Like sweet butter. Only with great undertones of earthiness and just enough funk on a rind that could have doubled for a delicate lichen growing on a stone wall. This cheese is delicious and sweet with a nifty peppery hint at the end, and definite citrus notes. When you eat it with the rind, you get the feeling that you are eating a cheese with an old soul that has seen the pristine forests and mineral rich pastures 2800 feet up in the mountains.

Not only do the folks at Meadow Creek have happy cows making milk so high in beta carotene that the cheese is naturally the color of butter, but they have happy pastures too. They rotate where the cows graze allowing the grass to re-grow before it becomes another tasty luncheon location for their talented herd. Very cool.

This was the first cheese that I had really savored in this way in a very long time, and what a treat it was. In fact, it was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture before it was mostly gobbled up. I hope you'll forgive. While the mountains of Virginia aren't necessarily the first place I would think of when it comes to cheese making, I have definitely been schooled! Check out this amazing cheese if you can find it.  According to their website, their cheese is available in 29 states, including plenty of Whole Foods locations.

Science Monday and Vendeen Bichoone

A while ago, the great state of Wisconsin voted to name Lactococcus Lactis that official state microbe in honor of all that it does in the production of cheese (according to the New York Times, Wisconsin leads the nation in cheese production).  How great is that?  A little weird, but pretty cool.

This got me thinking - there must be microscopic differences in the microbes that help various cheeses around the world make the transition from milk to fromage.  Cheeses are all so unique - based on the type of milk used, what the animal was eating before being milked,  what processes were used in making the cheese, what molds are introduces, how and where the cheese is aged.  What if I could do my own research to discover the molds and microbes in my favorite cheeses?  Ultimately, could I re-create famous cheeses in my kitchen?  (Well, no, probably not, but still...maybe we could create something new from something old - a hybrid as it were)  All I was lacking was a little equipment and know-how.

And then, I started talking with my friend the Professor, who has a PhD in biochemistry and a lab at CalTech.  He didn't see how it could be that difficult, and encouraged me to start my little science experiment.  So, last Friday, I visited his lab and returned home energized and with a bag full of petri dishes prepared with agar substrate to encourage bacterial growth.  All I needed was the right test subject.  Mwa ha ha ha!

I found it in an amazing Loire Valley cow's milk cheese - Vendeen Bichonne.  This semi-soft cheese ( it will totally gum up your grater - so just eat giant hunks of it) is aged in an abandoned tunnel, which explains the mealy grey rind and industrial basement smell coming off of it.  Don't let the outside fool you though.  The paste inside is sweet, rich and creamy with just a hint of the green pastures where the cows graze.  There is also an earthiness present in the cheese, but it doesn't taste anything like the rind smells.  Maybe a little bit of slate - if you were to lick a wet slate paving stone it might taste a little like this, but only if the paving stone was covered in rich, creamy, sweet cheese.  I can't say enough about how much I love this cheese.  I want to melt it onto a nice piece of home made wheat bread and enjoy it with a glass of a Spanish Tempranillo.  Bliss.

Anyway, in my attempt to harness to magic of this cheese, it became the first subject in my science experiment.  As you can see, under completely sterile conditions, a small slice of cheese was rubbed onto the plate, which was then labeled and placed in a temperate, dry location in the kitchen (on top of the tortillas and next to the coffee maker).  I can't wait to see what grows!  Hopefully, there should be some results soon.  The Professor has said that he might be able to help me take up close and personal pictures of my biological blooms.  Looking forward to having something fun to share with you!

Cheese for a Wednesday - pt. 29 Washington State's Seastack

My birthday was a while back.  As crazy as life was that month, I still needed to celebrate, and I wanted cheese!  Getting to Andrew's for my weekly fix had been elusive and what better excuse than a birthday!  I was going to need to share my cheese "cake" with others that afternoon, so I thought it might be a little dangerous to bring out the stinky blue cheeses or some muenster.  One needs to gently help people toward a love of the more "black diamond" cheeses.

I didn't have to think about it very long before realizing that Mt. Townshend Creamery's Seastack was the perfect cheese "cake" to share.  With a circumference a bit bigger than a hockey puck and about twice as thick (if my early memories of what the shape of a hockey puck is are correct), Seastack is the perfect size to share (or horde to yourself...).

Because of it's rind, it looks a lot like brie, which makes it accessible to those without a lot of cheese experience, but the similarity ends with the visual.  This edible rind is a result of rolling the cheese in vegetable ash and salt before the aging process as opposed to the bloomy bacterial rind on brie.  The folks at Mt. Townshend say the rind bears a "subtle resemblance to the picturesque islands sprinkled along Washington's northwest coast."  Reason enough to visit, I say.  The paste is rich and creamy, with a hint of sweet pasture and just enough saltiness to encourage you to grab a glass of crisp glass of Pinot Grigio.  Just look at the fantastic goo seeping out of the rind! It spreads beautifully on a cracker, and would probably go well with apples or pears if you had them cut in advance.  Wait until after people have had a taste, and there won't be any left by the time the wedges are ready!

This is my new go-to cheese.  Not only did I have it for my birthday, I've taken it to a baby shower with great success.  Ask for it by name.

Cheese for a Wednesday - pt 27 Fol Epi and the Return of the Cheese Ghost!

Another long week.  Lots going on at work and at school.  I am in need of a little comfort food!  And I need cheese.  Like, really NEED cheese.  And then I realize that there is a beautiful wedge of Fol Epi in the fridge, waiting patiently for me to make grilled cheese sandwiches!  It's been waiting patiently for over two weeks, which I realize is a bit blasphemous, but it was carefully wrapped by the cheesemonger, so I'm not too worried.  So I go to the grocery store on my way home and pick up some bread from the deli counter, and select the reddest tomato available in early March at the grocery store, and head home to unwrap my Loire Valley cow's milk "swiss" cheese.  Much to my surprise, my wedge of cheese has turned into a, well, a wedge with the end cut off!  (Geometry buffs, please help me out here.)  The Cheese Ghost is back!

Thankfully, the ghost had the forethought that if he ate all the cheese, he might get a severe lecture around dinnertime!  There was plenty of cheese left to grate up to make some pretty yummy grilled cheese.  Thick bottomed skillet on medium high heat, plenty of butter on the bread, a good 1/3 cup of shredded cheese, a few thin slices of tomato, and melt.  I like to shred my cheese for grilled cheese because I think it melts more evenly.  Everyone has their own method.  Deelicious any way you melt it, and perfect with tomato soup, but I don't have to tell you that.

And Fol Epi is a great cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches.  This is a high protein cow's milk cheese is aged for three months, and has a very creamy, rich, nutty flavor.  It tastes a lot like a good Emmenthaler (swiss) cheese, but sweeter and with a little something special that I didn't figure out until I went searching for info on the web.  The rind of this cheese is really grainy, which really threw me as I started grating it.  It turns out that the rind is dusted with toasted wheat flour, adding "that something special" to the flavor of the cheese, and helps it stand out from the crowd. In fact, "Fol Epi" can be translated in French as "wild wheat stalk."    I'm not sure how much extra flavor comes from this coating, but I think it definitely has some effect.

As an aside, I always check out Wikipedia for basic info on all my tasty finds, but I didn't find a single entry for Fol Epi in English, though the Europeans are all over it in French and German!  Hmm.  Anyone up for the challenge?

I sure hope the Cheese Ghost hasn't eaten up all the leftovers before I get home tonight!  Sweet cheese dreams!

Cheese for a Wednesday - pt. 21 Appeasement Cheese

I don't know how it works around your house, but if I bring treats (cheese, cupcakes, cookies, etc) into the house with the intent of serving them at a party or taking them to a friend's house, there will be some loss due to the Husband Tax.  Instead of 24 cookies, there will mysteriously be 23.  Instead of 1/4 pound of cheese, there will be 1/5 of a pound (very cleanly cut and put back into the wrapper...).  I don't mind really.  In fact, I've stopped worrying about it all together.  I just bring home a little extra something for us to enjoy together right away (I have impulse control issues too...)

So, last Friday, when I went shopping for cheese to take to meet our friends' new baby, I knew I needed something to take home and eat immediately.  When I explained my dilemma to Andrew, he laughed and called it the "appeasement cheese."  And that's just what it was.  In fact, the Brie from the Ferme de Jouvence in France could appease the most cranky troll.  A hungry husband wasn't even a challenge!

One rule about Brie:  make sure that it has warmed up to room temperature before serving, or you won't be able to taste all the complex flavors inside the bloomy rind.  (Actually, this is true for all cheese.)  The other problem with a cold Brie is that it doesn't have the requisite "gooey-ness" that my husband, and I'm sure legions of others, loves so much about cheese.  I know it's hard to wait (impulse control issues...), but it's really worth it.  In fact, do a little taste test.  Since you won't be able to wait, have a little bit right after you take it from the fridge.  See?  Meh.  Now, wait 30 minutes and try again...fireworks, right?  Told you.

This cheese is so delicious!  It is sweet and mushroomy, with just a little tang from the rind (Please eat the rind of Brie!  Have you ever seen a Brie where all the paste has been scooped out leaving the sad little rind?  Give it a try.  Just once.  It really adds to the flavor of the cheese - transforming it from just rich and buttery to rich and buttery and a little sassy!)  This particular Brie also features the amazing flavor of spring garlic - fresh and light and not enough to make you need to brush your teeth.  So much so, in fact, that I thought for a moment that our baguette was a loaf of garlic bread.  So creamy and yummy.  And when at room temperature, so gooey and spreadable.  The perfect cheese.

One more thing - as I've been kind of obsessed with self-sufficient farming of late, I'd like to briefly add that according to Andrew, this farm is completely self sufficient in energy, including the use of anaerobic digestion (from the cow patties!!).  I've promised a post on how this works, but haven't yet gotten around to doing the research.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, keep your eyes out for artisinal Brie, full of flavor and ready to appease anyone!

What is Organic Milk, and Why Should You Care?

I've been following Ruth Reichel on Twitter for a while since I heard her speak about the demise of Gourmet Magazine, the incredible work done there during her tenure as Editor in Chief, and her thoughts on the future of food, food writing and food politics. Today, her feed led me to a great blog, Politics Of  The Plate. Food politics is definitely something that I have been thinking about for a while.  Where does our food come from?  Who makes it?  How is it made?  Is it safe?  Is it ethically produced, and what does that mean?  As the world's population grows and resources remain finate (or until we figure out how to make that Star Trek Food Replicator), I believe that these issues will remain with us, and become more and more important.

Anyway, the January 27 post on Politics of the Plate is about how big Agribusiness has taken control of the word organic. In theory, organic milk comes from cows who have "room to roam, clean air to breathe [and] fresh grass to eat."  Makes sense.  Unfortunately, the same way that most "free range" chickens probably don't have the opportunity to visit the small outdoor pen attached to the side of their giant, packed, indoor jail instead of roaming freely, pecking at grubs and enjoying sunshine on their feathers, many "organic" milk cows don't really have access to pasture in the traditional sense.  They might be outdoors, but they are probably walking around in dirt, not pasture land.  They might be eating grass, if you consider dried fodder as grass-like.  (There is one dairy that claims pastureland by laying hay on the dirt on a strip of land outside their giant barn)  They might be organic in the sense that they aren't pumped through with chemicals, but there is no way that they are the happy cows taking time to chew their cud while enjoying  a little clover, alfalfa and dandelion as part of their nutritious grass lunch we all dream of when we bite into a delicious piece of Avonlea Cheddar.

There are a few problems here that I can see (beyond the fact that it just isn't very nice to the animals!).   When big dairies are allowed to blur the lines regarding what constitutes "pastureland," dedicated family farms that have invested in their "staff" of cows and really believe and follow the tenants of organic farming just can't compete.  The cost of raising a truly happy organic cow on green pastures is astronomical compared with the cost of cows that might or might not get to go outside, and might or might not actually get to eat real grass every day.  Plus, the little guy might have 80 cows and the big guy has 2,000.  Economies of scale just don't tip in favor of the little guy.  I'm like you.  I'd love to buy the organic milk at the farmer's market, but man-o-man is it expensive.  I feel like I'm still being healthy if I'm buying Horizon brand organic milk on sale.  Problem is, buying like that is making the problem worse.  (And depending on why you are buying organic milk, you might be getting ripped off!)   (dairy image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Problem number two is an issue of taste!  I'm always writing about how I can taste the spring grass freshness in a cheese.  You can't get that if the cows don't actually eat fresh spring grass on a hillside somewhere.  If big agribusiness manages to shut down more and more small truly organic dairies, there will be less and less delicious milk lightly scented with daisies to make amazing cheese.  And that would really be a crying shame.

Anyway, there is a bill before the federal Office of Management and Budget to make the rules more specific regarding what is considered organic.  Needless to say, the big guys want to kill the bill to make a buck. Politics being what they are, who knows what will happen.  If you have time, definitely visit Politics of the Plate to learn more about what is going on, and get links to more great information.

And thanks for listening.

Cheese for a Wednesday, pt. 20 - Pirate Edition

Yarg!  A basic of pirate vocabulary is also the name of a great cheese from Cornwall.  A really beautiful, special cheese, this cow's milk beauty is an updated version of a 13th century recipe.  A cross between Welsh Caerphilly and English Wensleydale, Yarg is actually named for Mr. Alan Gray, the cheesemaker responsible for developing the modern recipe in 1984.  (Get it?  Yarg/Gray...those Brits are soooo clever!)

When I went into Andrew's Cheese Shop last week to announce my desire to bring back Welsh Rabbit, Andrew offered up Cornish Yarg, made in Cornwall, just south of Wales.  While we ultimately decided it wouldn't necessarily be good melted with beer, even if it was practically Welsh,  it is a great English cheese. At first sniff, you really smell the milky freshness of this cheese.  Then you realize how sweet and "green" it smells.  The green comes from a unique ingredient in this cheese - the Stinging Nettles it is wrapped in!  The good news is that the leaves are frozen to get rid of the "stinging," but there is definitely a tangy flavor that can be attributed to this natural rind. I did  eat the nettle rind, and it really did add extra depth to the cheese.  And it's so pretty!  Whole wheels make an amazing bottom layer of a cheese "cake."

The texture is both crumbly and a bit sticky.  Oxymoronic, perhaps, but it's true.  The flavor is very smooth, with a bit of tart on the middle of your tongue.  The milk that you smell is the dominant flavor of this cheeseThere is a bit of moldiness, and a little (tiny bit of) mushroomy flavor, but that just adds to the old fashioned flavor of this cheese.  And when you realize the original recipe is 700+ years old, that makes sense!

Cornish Yarg is only made at one dairy in Cornwall, but it's made its way around the world.  It's also a great thing to put on the "bucket list" if getting to Cornwall is on your list.

Or if you want to be a pirate...Yarg!

Cheese for a Wednesday, pt. 17 - Pyreneese Cheese

Imagine - you are walking along through the Pyrenees mountains on a beautiful late summer day.  It is cool enough to wear a light sweater.  The sky is bluer than you have ever seen, the air is crisp and smells of fresh grass and wild flowers.  The hills are alive with the sound of music....You stumble upon a darling little cave that seems to welcome you in.  There is even grass growing into the front of the cave.  A shaft of sunlight beckons you in.  A butterfly flits past.

Got it?  If you aren't completely nauseated by the pastoral vision I've created for you, keep reading because this is how Tome de Couserans smells.  And it is how I imagine the Ariege region of France smells.  Well, perhaps with a slight whiff of cow poop.

Tonight being the first Wednesday in 2010, I thought we should celebrate with a little something special.  Cheesemonger Andrew didn't disappoint!  Couserans is a very special cheese.  It is quite rare, coming from a very small region in France, where I'm sure the livestock out number the people three to one.  It is also a cow's milk cheese in a very sheepy region.  Beyond that, it is just an incredible cheese that melts onto the tongue, leaving it's musty sweetness behind to savor (as I did with a glass of red and a bowl of brussels sprouts).

The natural rind looks like a perfectly baked whole-wheat dinner roll, textured but not wrinkly.  I did try eating this.  Not a great idea.  Better for smelling in this case.  The paste inside is an almost buttermilk cream color, with delicate little holes throughout which add to the tender tooth.  And the taste!  Summer butter, fresh green grass (from that cute butterfly ridden cave), just enough tang in the middle and end to hold your attention, and get you reaching for the cheese knife for another bite!  If I could find that cave, and eat this cheese in that cave, perhaps life would be complete.

Or maybe it's just another Wednesday night cheese dream!