Angela's carrots – Page 23 – My favorite recipes

January 21, 2009

Poets have been mysteriously silent

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. G. K. Chesterton
English author & mystery novelist (1874 – 1936)

January 21, 2009

New Year’s Eve Cheese

New Year’s Eve before the Kennedy Center. Frigid weather, so cheese had to be easy. W got Italian cheese, Romano and Parmesan from our favorite Bethesda Italian deli, Cornucopia with owner Ibrahim “Ibo” Selmy. As an impulse item, I picked up a Triple Goat Brie Cheese in a cute little box from DC Brookville. For about $5, it was pure heaven to N and me — though is just not a goat fan. Fabulous texture. From a Canadian Dairy, Woolwich Dairy, that now makes some cheese in Wisconsin. Last week we saw it in Safeway.

Champagne complemented it all.

Only goat brie issue: it stained my stainless steel knives and our wooden cutting board. I emailed the dairy who told me that was new to them, but they took the numbers from the box to check into it.

January 20, 2009

Cheeses for a Desert Island

Video From J in Washington State: Owner of Vinotique Wine Shop in Lakewood, WA from Tacoma News Tribune 1/12/2009

The 3 cheeses the owner would take on a desert island:

Saint Agur: A French blue cheese. “It’s so creamy. It’s the creamiest blue cheese ever. You have to eat it at room temperature.” ($26.99 a pound)

D’affinois: A French cheese. “It’s like brie on steroids. I love pears with it.” ($16.99 a pound)

Iberico: A Spanish cheese. “It’s made from sheep, goat and cow milk. The sheep’s milk gives it a nutty flavor, combined with the goat milk it’s… pungent. And the cow’s milk makes it so smooth.” ($22.99 a pound)

For beginners she suggests: gouda, danish havarti and Italian fontina.

December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve, ’08

I was in Silver Spring, so I went to Whole Foods. It’s not the best (they don’t cut the cheese off of the wheel like they do a real cheese shops, but it was the best I could do at the time). We also had Coffee Egg-nog with it.

Bel Paese
milk: Lombardy, Italy cows
Semi-soft, mild cheese. Nice.

Manchego
milk: Spanish sheep
As they say on Splendid Table, when you want to try out different cheeses, there’s more than just Manchego. But as I said, I was at Whole Foods, so I had to do my best.

Stilton
milk: English cows
A very good blue; we’ve had this before. I lost the label, so I don’t know what creamery this one came from.

November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving at Burlington

Was in Bethesda the other day & went by Ibo’s shop, Cornicopia. As it is an Italian shop, I got 3 kinds of cheese to take to N.C. for our Thanksgiving trip.

Piave messano
Italian cows
very good, was hard & was fine for grating on soup

Sardo
Italian sheep
very good, soft

Pientino
Italian sheep
very good, soft

October 21, 2008

New Jersey Cheese

Amram
Bobolink
milk: cow

We went to visit NJ and went to this dairy in Warwick, NJ. They make several kinds of cheese, and we were able to taste a very tiny portion of them. Amram was closest to brie; we got several others.

Shepherds Logue (0.55 lbs, $24 per pound, $13.20 total) Cave aged 4+ months. Brick shaped with an external rub of herbs de Provence.

Oldwick Shepherd (0.53 lbs, $22 per pound, $11.66 total) Cave aged 3-6 months. Mold ripened. Earthy aroma, nutty smooth finish. Pyrenees style sheep’s milk cheese.

Crema de blue (0.48 lbs, $20 per pound, $9.60 total) Raw mixed blue cheese. Aged 60 days. Creamy, with a smooth rich flavor.

Shepherds Cushions (1.00 lbs, $2.50 a pound, $2.5o total) Brie style cushions; Aged to perfection; creamy and runny. Not shown in photo.

Valley Shepherd
all raw sheep

Three from the dairy where we made cheese. I think the difference in Shepherds Logue and Oldick Shepherd was the kind of rennet used. All very nice.

They gave very detailed receipts — weights and descriptions of cheese.

October 19, 2008