Bruleed Goat Cheese

Just do it. You can thank me later.

Crepes

I love crepes. Whenever we have the good fortune to travel to Europe, I constantly keep an eye out for crepe stands or restaurants. For some reason, there seem to be so many more places that serve crepes there. Are we less aware of their deliciousness? I digress. My cousin, with whom we stayed while she was studying in Paris, visited for a few days during the Christmas holidays this year, and we reminisced yet again about my first crepe experience with her that summer in Paris. It was love at first bite. I created reasons to have one nearly each day. Now I own a crepe pan and can make them whenever I so desire.  I started by making sweet crepes but later branched out in the realm of savory crepes.  Spinach sauteed with onions and mushrooms and a little goat cheese are a flavorful combination.

Life of Parm, part 6 - Sauteed spinach

Fresh sauteed spinach + olive oil + grated Parm = perfect side for a grilled steak

Life of Parm, part 5 - more pasta

Fresh pasta + fresh assorted squash + olive oil + grated Parm = delicious dinner. Sometimes the best things are also the simplest.

Life of Parm, part 4 - Parmesan Crisps

I'd seen them made on several cooking shows, so I decided to grate some of the Parm to make Parmesan crisps.  I found a recipe that sounded tasty, appeared easy, and required only ingredients that I had on hand.  They were incredibly easy to make, but I opted to use wax paper on the cookie sheet in hopes of making cleanup quick and easy.  I think that decision was my downfall.  They baked perfectly, and the smell from my oven was incredibly enticing.  However, they were impossible to get off the paper when they came out of the oven. Cooling didn't help.  Now, I may or may not have eaten a little waxed paper in trying to sample them.  Eventually, I surrendered and tossed the remainder in the garbage, but what I had tasted was really good.  A little sweet and nutty, but also herby and very peppery.  Next time, I'll bake them directly on the cookie sheet and hope for better results.

Mascarpone

I wanted to try my hand at making scones and decided that if I was exerting the time and effort to make homemade scones, then I should have clotted cream to go with them.  Having never had clotted cream, I had no idea what to expect.  A little research revealed that it doesn't travel well, so it's not really exported that much from Britain.  I found a recipe that called for mascarpone and whipping cream with a little sugar and vanilla to create an approximation of clotted cream.  I thought it turned out pretty well, but then again, I've never had the real thing.  The mascarpone was delicious alone - incredibly smooth and creamy like butter. It would be a treat in itself, simply spread on a slices of bread or apples.

Life of Parm, part 3 - Alfredo sauce

I've been reading John Mariani's How Italian Food Conquered the World in which he mentions the origins of alfredo sauce. It didn't begin as the heavy cream sauce which many are familiar with today. Oh no, the cream was not surprisingly, an American addition.  I decided some of the Parm wedge should be dedicated to authentic Italian alfredo sauce.  And if I was going to sacrifice a full half cup of Parm, I was going to do it right - no box of dried supermarket pasta would do.  I made of my first visit to Lazzaroli Pasta Shop in Nashville to purchase fresh linguine.  I followed the recipe Mariani shares in the book, and the results were fantastic!  It was still rich (likely due to the somewhat large quantity of butter), but wonderfully light.  Delicioso! 

Life of Parm, part 2 - grated

This may be the most obvious, uncreative use, but grating Parmesan onto pasta with nearly any type of sauce (or even no sauce, and just a little olive oil) is truly wonderful.

Life of Parm, part 1 - Welcome

A couple with whom my husband and I are friends had the good fortune to spend some time in Italy this summer, and they brought back several kilos of Parmesan.  Unfortunately, they moved cross country a couple weeks ago, but left us their remaining wedge as a temporary consolation.  Hence, we welcomed "the Parm" into our lives and home.  Isn't it lovely?

I decided to document its slow decline and eventual demise in words and photos over the coming weeks to challenge myself to optimize its use.  I will do my best to create things worth of this gift, although it is difficult to top the delicious simplicity of a chunk of Parm (honey optional for dipping), or perhaps with some prosciutto and bread as accompaniments.

celebrating Bastille Day...with a Swiss cheese???

Today is Bastille Day, so we incorporated some French elements (well, European at least) into our day.  I was really tired this morning, so tired in fact that I didn't feel like wasting time (or calories) on a latte, and instead opted for a single shot of espresso.  For dinner, we had egg sandwiches on French rolls, and for dessert, I made my first attempt at crepes (I've been dying to try out the rateau I bought at the Le Creuset outlet store on our vacation in Destin.  I will not discuss how excited I was to find this $3 dowel utensil in the store).  So what did any of this have to do with cheese?  Well, a few days ago, needing a new cheese to try, I purchased Emmentaler.  My cheese book suggested that it was a perfect cheese for a Croque Monsieur.  Lacking ingredients, we improvised with a pseudo-Croque Madame, scrambling eggs with spinach and melting shredded Emmentaler on top.  

Emmentaler is a cheese familiar to many.  It dates back to 1293, though it was not mentioned by name until almost 300 years later in 1542.  It's a Swiss cow's milk cheese, classified as a hard cheese, and aged anywhere between 4-18 months.  A single hoop of this cheese, which weighs 165-200 lbs, requires 265 gallons of milk.  The one I tried claimed to have been aged over 100 days.  The flavor was lovely, like Alpine meadows of warm grass and wildflowers, butter and a hint of nuttiness.  The texture was also very interesting.  At room temperature, it was soft and elastic, and then it melted beautifully for our sandwiches, becoming more stretchy without breaking down at all.  The cheese paired nicely with a glass of Riesling. 

a delicious use for Parmesan

Make a spring vegetable risotto!  The Parmesan (aided in part by the butter and cream, I'm sure) makes for a wonderful, creamy, rich dish.  I should have waiting a bit longer for more liquid to absorb, but I could barely stand it.  It still tasted fantastic.  This cheese is so versatile! It is a perfect snack alone, delicious in savory dishes, and even good as part of a dessert course.

grilled goat cheese

A friend touted the deliciousness of a grilled goat cheese and strawberry sandwich on her blog, so since those are two foods I absolutely adore, I had to try it for myself.  She graciously shared the link to the recipe, and although it took me a few weeks to actually have all the ingredients in my house at the same time, it was worth it! It's a wonderful medley of flavors - tangy goat cheese, sweet strawberries and spicy arugula and red pepper jelly. And I even feel that it's healthier than regular grilled cheese, since it's on whole grain bread and uses only a tiny bit of butter (I've also made this sandwich in the toaster oven with no butter, and didn't miss it).  The colors also make this sandwich a feast for the eyes! 

It has 3 cheeses? Must be good.

I think Publix Apron's Simple Meals are just fantastic.  They are typically quick and easy to prepare, are reasonably healthy, and always seem to taste great (and if you're hungry when you go shopping, as I usually am, a sample in-store can make all the difference).  A recent sample was their sausage and rice stuffed portabella mushrooms. I tried it, thought it was tasty, picked up the recipe card and was happy to see it called for not just one or two, but three different cheeses.  I used a shredded Italian cheese blend (in place of only mozzarella), low-fat cream cheese and blue cheese crumbles (instead of Gorgonzola), and they turned out rather well.  I think a vegetarian option of substituting spinach for the sausage would be equally good and make it even healthier.  We'll definitely be having them again!

release the crackin'

Saturday I had the opportunity to watch the cracking of a wheel of Parmesan at the Nashville Whole Foods. It was quite entertaining, from the actual cracking, to the samples, to the characters that come out to such an event (such as the older woman that feigned interest in buying a small wedge so that she could scoop up double handfuls of the smaller pieces on the cutting table).  The event held at many Whole Foods stores was intended to set a record for the number of wheels simultaneously cracked open. I was able to sample a couple tasty treats.  First, I had a small piece dipped in Belgian chocolate. It was amazing! Such a wonderful contrast with the smooth, sweet chocolate and the dry, crumbly, salty cheese (I love to mix my salty and sweet)!  Next, I had a couple small pieces from the fresh-cracked wheel. The first was from the center and seemed slightly softer, but the second morsel was full of grainy crystals. It was fun to experience two different textures from the same wheel.  The final treat was...get ready...Parmesan gelato! I can't believe this is not a regular flavor.  It was delizioso! It was cool, creamy and surprisingly smooth (not sure how they would do that with a cheese with so much texture). At the beginning, you didn't really taste the Parm flavor, but it came on very subtly at the finish. They first cups they passed around were just the gelato, but a second batch came around again with a dollop of sour cherries. You wouldn't think they could have improved Parmesan gelato, but the cherries made it even better (mixing sour, sweet and salty).

But back to the actual cracking. There is definitely an art to it.  I wondered how much training one receives and how stressful it would be cutting this wheel weighing around 90 pounds and worth hundreds of dollars.  They used a set of 5 knives, specifically designed for cutting wheels of Parmesan.  After splitting it in half, and then half again, one quarter was dealt with at a time.  After scoring the rind with one knife, several v-shaped knives would be inserted in a row to split the wedge (into layers that were still quarter-wheel size, but thinner). This was done repeatedly until those small, thin quarters were cut into small wedges and blocks for sale in the store.

Éire go Brách

A belated St. Patrick's Day dinner with friends provided the perfect occasion to search out an Irish cheese.  I found a couple options at Trader Joe's, and opted for Dubliner, which is a cow's milk cheese aged around 12 months.  It was billed as a combination of elements from cheddar, Swiss and Parmesan, and it did not disappoint.  With a firm texture and sharpness like many cheddars, it was dry and a bit grainy like Parmesan and sweet and nutty like Swiss.  It was a unique and wonderful combination of textures and flavors.  While it was great alone, I also grated it on top of baked zucchini and found both options to be equally delicious.

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new cheese recipes

Since there is an abundance of cheese in our house at present, I decided to use up some cheese in a recipe. The cheese book was absolutely correct about Comté being good for gratins.  I made a spinach and potato gratin for dinner by using a generic au gratin recipe I found online and making my own improvements.  It turned out really well and tasted great!  The cheese melted easily and beautifully, with a seemingly perfect balance of creaminess and stretchiness, and resulted in this:

just out of the oven

served with crumbled bacon on top

 Thankfully, the Abbaye Ste Meré has also been consumed.  Brett used it up last week making grilled cheese sandwiches for his lunch.  He said the organo, butter and black pepper masked some of the smell (not that he had minded it the first time around).