When Cheddar Visited Oktoberfest

If you catch me in a corner with a wine glass and a slice of cheese, there's no telling what's in store. Better just walk away. But when I have a pint in one hand, and a wedge the other, it's almost certain the cheese is going to be Cheddar. And if you bring me another Belgian farmhouse ale, I just might share.

Salty, earthy, sweet, and meaty, Cheddar fulfills the duties requisite of a robust beer cheese. And, If you don't count that grocery store brand version that was brighter orange than the last Cheeto in the bottom of the bag, I've never had one that can't make a good beer happy.

In honor of beer and Cheddar, I give you a couple photos of an Oktoberbest celebration. You can thank me later for not posting pictures of the guest pretending to be a German tourist who carried beer in his backpack, wore tiny jogging shorts-underwear and rubbed himself against young women. Instead, I give you Lincolnshire Poacher, a finer than fine alternative.

And thank you Amanda and company for the homemade brats, sauerkraut, slow-roasted Niman Ranch pork leg, cabbage & bacon, and applesauce cake. And chocolate cake and gingersnaps. And potato salad.

Oh, Banon: You Had me at Bourbon

There's something special about a cheese that comes in its own packaging ready-made for the grill.

Wrapped with chestnut leaves soaked in Woodford Reserve Bourbon, O'Banon is an easy party pleaser, a grilling wonder, and an example of the deliciousness that Indiana has to offer the dairy-loving world.

A cheese named in honor of the French version that inspired its creation, O'Banon is six-ounce disc of fresh goat's milk cheese made by the Capriole Goat Cheese Company. When young, it has a fresh and slightly tangy taste paired with a sweetness imparted by the spicy, vanilla flavors in the bourbon. As it ages, the bourbon's flavors further marinate the cheese and it develops a stronger, spicier, earthier, richer taste that strongly differentiates it from the original version that's soaked in eu de vie.

The complexity of this fresh, seemingly simple cheese is no surprise to those who are familiar with Capriole. Situated in the hills of southern Indiana, the company was launched by a family who, after hearing the call of the pasture in the late seventies, moved from the suburbs to the farm. Focusing entirely on goats milk cheese, Capriole keeps a sustainably run farm, promotes the virtues of raw milk cheese, recently won a first place award in the American Cheese Society Competition for their bourbon beauty, and consistenly rocks the fromage world with anything that comes out of their dairy caves.

Keep your eye on Indiana. I foresee this region acquiring just as much attention for its cheese in the future as Texas, or in other words, as much press as Lady Gaga gets for walking around city streets without pants.

Serving, Storing, and Eating O'Banon

Storing: I take this cheese out of its plastic wrapping as soon as it hits my kitchen and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. Unless the cheese is not consumed in its entirety, there's no need to wrap it. Its leaves act as a natural wrapper.

Serving & Eating: O'Banon appreciates a little warmth in its life. Take it out of fridge half an hour before serving and let come to room temperature. Because of its strong bourbon flavors, keep it simple with food pairings. Accompany it with  sliced, crisp apples, fresh fig or pear.

Or you can blow your guests out of the water by warming the cheese.

Tossing O'Banon on the grill or in the oven is as pleasing to goat cheese lovers as baked brie is to those who like it buttery. Place O'Banon, still wrapped in its leaves, on a cooler portion of the grill or in an oven heated to 375 degrees for five to ten minutes, or until the center of the cheese is very soft to the touch and leaves are hot and toasty. Then, set on a plate and slice open to reveal a tender, warm, and tangy center. Serve with crostini or fresh, crusty bread and fruit.

Wine

The bourbon in O'Banon conflicts with very complex wines. Stick with wines that are straight-to-the-point, like Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire Valley, mineral Fiano D'Avellinos from Campania Italy, or high-acidity sparklings from around the globe.

Lastly, check out the recipes on the Capriole website! Goat Cheese Gougeres w/Katie's BBq Chicken Salad anyone? Or how about Cheese Enchiladas with Corn And Mole Sauce?

Coming soon: pistachio cream accouterment & ricotta gnocchi recipe.

Queso Fresco, Tomato and Duck Confit Salad

One gaze at restaurant menus like those of A16 in San Francisco or Babbo in NYC tells you that American chefs have fallen long and hard for fresh cheeses such as mozzarella or burrata. And certainly their fresh and tangy sisters, chevre and feta, live a long, full life in salads across the nation.

But what about queso fresco? Unless their focus is entirely Latin American, it's rare that high-end restaurants in the United States, even those in California and the southwest of Texas where Mexican culture heavily influences the states' cuisine, flaunt the Mexican freshies.

But they're naughty for not doing it. Bad. Queso fresco rocks.

It's cheaper then the best burrata made in the U.S., readily available especially in California and Southwestern states, and (hold on to your britches) often tastes better than some of the most reputable mozzarella sold in grocery stores and some gourmet markets, and, it expresses the flavors of fresh milk as charmingly as the Italian favorites. In short, it's damn good and we need to eat more of it.

Queso fresco's name says it all. Made all over Latin American countries, this pressed, fresh cheese makes guest appearances in numerous dishes south of the U.S. border. Crumbled, sliced, melted, queso fresco is a workhorse cheese that pleases no matter how it's served. When traveling in Mexico, I saw it most often crumbled like a light dusting of snow over salads, beans and enchiladas. As the filling for chile rellanos, it lends a slightly salty and fresh buttery taste to the finished product.

The best ones tell the charms of the fresh, sweet milk from which they are made, and if whole milk was used (bless the cheesemaker), queso fresco will soften wonderfully, but not melt entirely, between two corn tortillas.

I would highly encourage all of you to explore your local queso frescos. I've found some awesome ones in Cali, sure, but have tasted just as many tasty ones from Wisconin. Play with it where you would use feta or chevre on salads, crumbled over lentil and black bean soups, and as a treat atop garlic and olive oil-laden pasta.

My most recent favorite queso fresco dish, which was aided by a leftover duck confit leg that my roomie who works at Chez Panisse brought home from work, was a very simple salad I made at home with the last of the seasonal tomatoes. If the late summer tomatoes aren't gracing your market stands anymore, try using plums or the soon-to-be released persimmons. Using a little arugula in this salad is optional.

For the confit, I hope that you either have a roomie who also works at Chez Panisse (please don't take mine), a butcher chop near you who confits ducks occasionally, or time to slowly cook your own (duck) legs in pure duck fat. Mmmmmm....... duck fat.

Queso Fresco and Tomato Salad with Duck Confit

Serves two

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 minced shallot

1 teaspoon thyme, freshly chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1-2 duck confit legs The Technique for Duck Confit- Gourmet Magazine

2 medium-sized heirloom tomatoes, of different color

2.5 ounces queso fresco

Combine balsamic, garlic and thyme in a small bowl. Let sit so thyme will soften and "cook" in the vinegar for 2-3 minutes. Add olive oil and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.

Slice tomatoes and arrange on plate so the different colors alternate. Salt and pepper lightly. Pull the meat from the duck confit legs and place over tomatoes. Crumble queso fresco over salad and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Cheese Classes, Writing & More to Come

Next week, I tell you, there will be writing. Real writing. Not just these words promising more words.

What's been keeping me from posting besides that cheese monkey on my back tightening his grip on the reigns, one centimeter at a time, you ask?

Well, I've been working full-time, personal cheffing for two fabulous friends of mine, writing an Edible East Bay article- a holiday wine pairing guide w/recipes (butternut sqaush,frisée salad with tarragon, pecans and manouri cheese & pork loin stuffed w/turkey sausage, chard and harvarti), just finished teaching a Wine and Cheese Pairing 101 class at Solano Cellars, making a video about cheese and kittens (see below), putting together the "It's Not You, it's Brie" cheese club, and am "working" on a book proposal. Or I've been thinking about last one anyhow.

Also, want to help me win a cheese trip? Vote for me! I made a video that admittedly became not half as sexy once it uploaded to youtube (hello, digital and sound warping, nice to meet you) to compete for an Oregon Cusinternship that would allow me to play at Rogue River Creamery and Lilie Belle Farms for a week. More rating & votes = the more likely I am to win! I want that. Rating the video only requires one to log in to youtube (takes about 20 seconds) to click on the stars. Thank you, thank you!

Posts to come:

Next post: Queso Fresco, deconstructed, with queso fresco, duck confit tomato salad recipe.

I'm also happy to announce that "It's Not You, it's Brie" will shortly be doing a joint Gouda ice cream post with Plinio Sandalio, pastry chef of Gravitas. Check out those seasonal desserts, oh my god. That's right. Chills down the desert spine!

Upcoming class:

Cheese and Wine Pairing at the San Francisco Cheese School, Oct 22nd.

The featured photo was taken by guest Stephanie Stiavetti. It was the cheese plate for an Italian Cheese and Wine class I taught at Solano Cellars. The cheeses: clockwise from noon, La Tur, Toma Piemontese, Panteleo, Pecorino Folgie di Nocce, Parmigiano Reggiano, Quadrello di Bufala, Gorgonzola Dolce Organica, and the center goodness, Gioia Burrata.

Gouda Ice Cream Cone: Possibly Real

Gouda, pre-carving.

Somewhere, in this fantastic world of ours exists an ice cream cone made of gouda. Although I have never actually seen one besides in my sweetest dreams, I know its true because my friend Kate told me. And she doesn't lie. But she does guest post.

When not writing her blog Straight Outta Chocolate, making rock star cakes (seriously), spinning records around Los Angeles, making music, manning an independent book store, hitting up thrift stores, or perusing her father's world's largest Bob Marley/Reggae collection for inspiration, she can be found roaming her kitchen, rustling up all kinds of delicious treats, like vegetarian French Dip sandwiches, 2 ways.

Here's Kate's take on cheese,  shaped into ice cream cones.

"I wasn't introduced to cheese the way most kids were- with comfortable, bland, antiseptic plastic-wrapped string cheese and perfect squares of Kraft.  Then again, nothing about my upbringing was exactly normal.  Our house was constantly flooded with people, visitors from places I couldn't even find on a map.  Countries with exotic names like Mauritius and Zimbabwe, towns like Utrecht and Kapa'a and Zion.

Like most people with a serious love of food, most of my childhood memories revolve around what I ate, rather than the usual who, where and when that I assumed my peers identified with.  So when Kirstin told me about creating her new cheese blog, one of the first conversations we had involved childhood cheese memories.  I remember meeting a large, sunny family from Holland (from the above named Utrecht), who came bearing the best gift I could imagine- something edible!  The cheese they brought me wasn't immediately recognizable as cheese however, coming wrapped in colorful wax and molded into the artful shapes that only kids can truly appreciate.

My Gouda (pronounced How-da by our visitors) was designed to look like a perfect strawberry ice-cream cone, so perfect that I remember licking the wax, hoping against hope that it was made of that recently discovered magic manna-from-the-stars, astronaut ice-cream.  So perfect that I kept that wax wrapper for weeks after its salty, creamy insides were devoured, tucked into a drawer reserved for special, secret finds.

And so perfect that when it came time to research my wacky looking cheese for Kirstin's blog, I couldn't find evidence of Gouda wrapped in anything but the normal (and in my eyes, boring) round black and red wax.  I started to doubt myself - thinking maybe I made up this memory, that it was just a dream.  But then I remembered the taste of Gouda, the foreign-ness of this almost cheddar, the buttery, slightly salty flavor that rendered all my previous experiences with cheese null and void.  I told myself this couldn't have been a dream, because this simple memory resonated for years, prepping me for a life of edible exploration"

Have you ever seen this ice cream cone? And, ahem, the above photo is not an ice cream cone, but damn fine gouda. Because we couldn't find the cone.

Speaking of ice cream and cheese, check out these fabulous cheese ice cream links below. Someday, you just might see an ice cream post here.

Ice Cream Fellow's goat cheese ice cream

Apples and Butter's Saint Agur Ice Cream and the Davids

Best Bite's Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

"It's Not You, it's Brie" Cheese Club Write-ups +

I've had a couple Solano Cellars club members ask what the contents of their first "It's Not You, it's Brie" Cheese Clubs were. Love, pure love, I said. But they wanted specifics. Whatever. I'm including the write-ups of the August selections below.

Stay tuned until the end of the post for a little cheese love around the internet on a session of "Links du Fromage."

Redwood Hill Farm Camellia, Sebastopol, California

It’s not only because they’ve allowed me to consume enough of their cheese samples at farmer’s markets to feed a French village that I love Redwood Hill Farm. They also make some of the most delicious, multi-dimensional cheeses in the country. Camellia, for example, crosses boundaries- a bloomy-rind goat’s milk cheese with delicate earthy, floral notes and a silky, velvety texture that demands to be devoured. And wine pairing with this cheese is a no-brainer. Camellia favors whites, but, like that naughty eighteen year-old cousin everyone had, can handle a hearty red surprisingly well. Eat at your leisure, at room temperature.

(The featured photo is not of the Camellia. But it's lovely just the same and I knew you'd appreciate it.)

Crawford Family Vermont Ayr, Champlian Valley, Vermont

This is one of the most intoxicating expressions of cow’s milk I’ve tried to date, and certainly one of the best new cheeses I’ve sampled this year. Made with the raw milk from the Crawford Family’s beloved heritage breed Ayrshire cows (excellent pictures of brown and white Amy Jane and Dorie are available online),Vermont Ayr is made with as little intervention as possible, so the flavors of the local terrior shine in the final product. Earthy, slightly dirty, graced with scents of peanut butter and sweet butter, pair this semi-soft Ayr with a Rhone style white with a bit of funk itself- like the Qupe Marsanne or Roussane.

Pecorino Foglie di Noce, Emilia Romagna, Italy

Some of you may remember this sexy number from our Italian Cheese and Wine Pairing class. If not, let me introduce you to my favorite Pecorino (Italian sheep’s milk cheese). Ever. This raw-milk beauty is only made twice a year when the walnut tree leaves in Emilia Romagna bloom. Marked with the bright flavors of creme-fraiche, this cheese is unusually fresh-tasting for sheep’s milk but is also blessed with nutty, earthy flavors lent by the leaf wrapping. My favorite wine with the Foglie? Felsina Chianti Classico, or a spicy little Sangiovese.

Sharing the cheese love! Need more cheese posts in your life besides the ones featured on “Its Not You, It’s Brie?” I bet you do. I do too. Some of my favorite stories & recipes du fromage in the food blogsosphere I've found this month:

David Lebovitz's Warm Baked Goat Cheese

Cheese and Champagne's St. Marcellin

Cheese Underground's look at Hidden Springs Creamery in Vermont

Wasabimon's Gluten free Carrot Cake recipe (with cream cheese frosting, yo)

Next post: Gouda Ice Cream Cones: Possibly Real

Kitchen Curds: Farmers Cheese

Let's start off with a warning. If I hear about any of you stealing cheese from a farmer, you will be expelled from all KItchen Curd activity. Unless, that is, the farmer has a daughter who appreciates that sort of thing. Then you have my blessings.

With this in mind, the next Kitchen Curd assignment is ..... Farmer's Cheese.

Like Mozzarella, this is a fresh, unripened cheese, made in vast quantities on farms (and, according to the internet, by many sweet Polish grandmothers). Why is it called Farmer's Cheese? Because this fresh cheese requires little attention, is easy to make and is something farmers often make at home when wanting to put their fresh goat, cow or sheep's milk to good use without having to worry about aging or storing the cheesy results for long periods of time. They can just eat it.

Although the type of Famer's Cheese whose recipe many of us will be following in the Home Creamery book is simply listed as "Farmer's Cheese," both chevre (like the Poitou Chevre pictured above) and Neufchatel fit into this genre too.

Like in most Kitchen Curd events, I’m using recipes from the  Home Creamery book by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, but you can use any recipes you’d like. The Farmer's Cheese recipe can be found on page 66.

Kitchen Curds Guidelines:

1. If you’re interested in making the pre-selected dairy good (always open to suggestion) at home, and can do so by the selected due date, then….
2. Make the choosen dairy product at home (your home). Warning: Check your recipe at least 2-3 weeks prior to beginning your cheese. Few (like Farmer's Cheese) require products, such as rennet, that generally need to be special ordered.
3. If you have a blog, send me the link to the post where you talk about your Kitchen Curd experience - good, interesting, funny, delicious or just plain bad. I’ll post your link on the assigned “Its Not You, it’s Brie”  cheesemaking post. If you don’t have a blog, share your experiences in the comment section of the the post where I list the links to the Curd blogging adventures (this post won’t emerge until about a wk. after the links due date).
4. Send me your links by the last day in September.
5. Have fun!