Fall Apple Chutney- Cheese's Circle of Friends

As I’ve been known to say before, cheese has a wide circle of friends. An extremely social animal, it loves hanging out with seasonal produce and adores being paired with dried fruit, honey, and preserves.

Seeing Instagram photos of my former roommate visiting her family friend's apple farm, or watching apples roll off the tables at farmer's markets (I'm a bit clumsy, what can I say), always makes me think apples in the kitchen (I've gotta find a way to cook all those bruised apples I bought at the farmer's markets, don't I?). And you know what else is always on my mind? Bet you do.

Though it’s true that cheese has a sweet tooth, it also likes acid, and more savory flavors like onions or mustard seed, like those often found in condiments like chutney.

Meet chutney, one of cheese's closest aqauntainces.

This recipe is one that I developed for the GoBoldwithButter blog. It's a classic chutney- sweet, tart, savory- except that it has butter in it. Creating recipes for the butter blog has given me an excuse to put butter in everything (hi-five!). But according to my new roomate's father, who's British, it's a darn good chutney. And, yes, I went there. I made an English man taste the chutney. So call it UK approved, and a little lusher than normal, which means it won't last as long (from two to three weeks), but it's fun to give away little jars away to visiting friends.

Note- this batch size is large. I often make just 1/2 the recipe.

Fall Apple Chutney

Ingredients 1 ½ pounds granny smith or other tart variety apple 1 pound yellow onions 1 cup raisins 1 cup apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons mustard seed, black and yellow 2 allspice seeds 5 cloves 5 cardamom 2 pieces star anise 2 tablespoons butter

Directions Trim, and finely chop the apples and onions, slicing around the apple core. Put the apples, onions, raisins, vinegar, and mustard in a heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer. Tie the dried spices in a cheesecloth. Add this and the butter to the pot. Let everything simmer for around two hours. Let come to room temperature and remove the cheesecloth before serving.

And yes, that is last week's Calvander featured next to the chutney!

What fall flavors do you enjoy with your cheeses?

Cheese & It's Circle of Friends: Yuzu Marmalade

As mentioned previously  on “It’s Not You, it’s Brie,” cheese has a wide circle of friends. It’s a social animal. It likes to party. Circulating only amongst its own kind has no appeal to cheese; it knows that it is only as well-rounded and nuanced as those it keeps in its company and that discriminating against non milk-based products would ultimately make life less tasty.

And we all know that dairy likes to be tasty.

In order to show itself best in as many ways as possible, cheese opens its arms wide to everyone. Don't matter where you're from, who's your daddy, what your name is, or if you're sweet and sugary or pickled and rambunctious. Cheese will take a chance on you.

One of my latest favorite pairings?

Yuzu marmalade and Alpine style cheese. Now, I love the extra feisty, bright, slightly spicy and bitter taste of yuzu, a Japanese citrus that is nearly impossible to find in the U.S. when not in preserved or juiced form, but other marmalades will work too- especially bitter orange. This is good because yuzu marmalade aint super cheap. Great news- a little goes a long way. Or, if you can find yuzu fruit, here's a recipe for the homemade stuff. Send me a sample.

The type of Alpine style cheeses we're talking about are mainly large format, cow's milk, washed rind, firm wheels. The originals are ones like Beaufort, Comté and Gruyere, and a few North American interpretations of them are Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Meadow Creek's Mountainer, Mountina, and the smaller wheel, Blondie's best.

Ever notice how some Alpine wheels have an almost tropical flavor to them- a bit of that pineapple bite that makes their finish on the tongue tangy, especially if it's really aged? Both citrus and sugar love that. Citrus loves it because the Alpine tang highlights its own inner fiesty qualities. Sugar loves it because it gives it an opportunity to use its sweetness to caress something with a seductively sharp edge (and we all now how much sugar loves a good caress).

Next time you have a slice of a prized Alpine in front of you, pair it with a little sweet citrus action. Marmalade, candied peel, whatever. See what you think.

If you haven't yet used yuzu or citrus with your cheese, what are some other things you like  to pair with your Alpines?