Ask Trevor: Soft Ripened Brie on Pizza?

Trevor, have you used soft ripened brie on Pizza? Do you have any suggestions on how to use it? Do you keep the rind on?

Hello Fellow Cheese Enthusiast!

Brie on pizza, sandwiches, etc. is wonderful!...For a treat, try it in a fondue! 

Letting it come to room temperature 30 to 45 minutes before adding it to the recipe will ensure it melts properly. You can trim off the rind if you would like…but if you don’t, just keep in mind that the rind will not melt.

 Hope you enjoy cooking with it!....Let me know how it turns out and stay tuned for some Brie inspired recipes in the posts ahead

Happy travels through the cheese aisle!

Trevor

Ah, Summertime!…

Hello fellow traveler! 

I don’t even need to step foot outdoors to know what I am going to share this week! I just simply have to look at the calendar and the outside temperature to know what I want to eat!

Living in the ‘Farm to Fork’ capitol, we get some amazing produce year round, but tonight I am focused on the Heirloom Tomatoes and Peaches that I just picked up from my local Farmer’s Market.

Sure, I guess it would be easy enough to just make a Caprese Salad with the tomatoes, and a simple tart using the peaches, but I am in the mood for something different…that is just as simple and delicious.

Sometimes when searching for the perfect recipe for using an ingredient, instead of searching a cooking magazine, network, or celebrity, I will just put something like ‘Fresh Mozzarella Recipes’, then filter by images until I spot a recipe that catches my attention (and appetite). 

The first recipe that I searched for was to use the peaches. Oh sure, there were lots of recipes for grilling peaches, tarts, and galettes, but when I spotted the recipe for Peach and Beet Caprese, I knew I had a winner! 

I always have fun with the recipes and never can seem to follow them line for line, so here are a few of my notes for this one.

I chose to roast my own beets, but remember the red ones can bleed on to the cheese, so if you want to avoid that, just stick to golden beets. 

Now that I had my side dish, I was searching for a main entrée that I could use the tomatoes on. Then I spotted a Grilled Fresca Pizzette. It was the word ‘Grilled’ that caught my attention as I envisioned it on the BBQ grill as an easy and no fuss meal.

Here are some notes I took on this recipe:

First, I did not make my own crust, instead I used a Stonefire Naan Bread. Second, I did not cook it in the oven, I found that cooking it on a pizza stone on the grill gave me the perfect indirect heat that I needed, and what’s better is they made the perfect ‘personal size pizza’ 

I get asked a lot for cheese & wine (or beer) pairings, so with the salad I enjoyed a Bogle Winery Phantom Chardonnay, but I still enjoy a good beer with my pizza, so I chose Ruhstaller 1881 Beer. Both are locally produced and paired great.

Summertime – What a great time of the year to enjoy some of my favorite foods! 

Regional Cheeses of Southern Idaho

Hello Fellow Traveler!

Recently, my travels took me across the Treasure Valley and into the Magic Valley in Idaho. No, I was not there panning for gold…but I was in search of some good local cheeses. These valleys are located in Southern Idaho and are home to some amazing dairy pastures, producing some really high quality milk that is perfect for cheese making!

I stopped by a local Whole Foods Market in Boise (as Whole Foods prides themselves is being the home to some of America’s great artisan cheeses). It was there that I spotted a cheese brand that I had not heard of before – Kimberly's Best.

Kimberly is not a person, rather a place, which is about 135 miles South of Boise in the Magic Valley. The goat milk is collected locally in the Twin Falls area, then made into cheese right in downtown Kimberly on Main Street. What made this cheese even more interesting is that it was a cheddar made from goat’s milk. Not too many goat cheddars out there. The average goat produces around 1 gallon (equal to about 1 pound of cheese per day).

I have been in the cheese business a long time and have watched the goat cheese market grow over the years. Back when I first started, the only goat cheeses that you could find were fresh chèvre logs that were being imported from the Loire Valley in France. They were stark white (or covered with vegetable ash), with a stronger ‘barnyardy’ flavor. Back then, the goat’s milk may have been collected every other day which gave it a stronger flavor. Today, most Goat dairies collect their milk daily and turn it in to cheese rather quickly.

Why is Goat Cheese SO bright white?

Goat’s milk lacks beta carotene, which normally give a cheese its rich golden tones founds in most cheese, particularly those made with cow milk. But any beta carotene that a goat intakes converts instantly into Vitamin A, which lacks color!

Why is goat’s milk/cheese easier to digest?

Goat milk has less lactose and a slightly different protein structure than cow's milk. These subtle shifts actually make a big difference: Even people who are allergic to cow's milk can usually drink goat's milk without issue. 

This cheese still had some of the classic cheddar notes, but also had a clean, buttery flavor that is most associated with goat cheeses. I paired this cheese with some local Red d’Anjou Pears, small Muscat Grapes, organic olive oil & sel gris Sourdough Flatbread Crackers from Rustic Bakery and a wonderful local Malbec wine from Scoria Vineyards. 

I now understand why they call this area the Magic Valley!

Until next time…

Saturday was ‘Wash Day’…

No, not the weekly chore of laundry…But an educational, “aromatic” cheese course on Washed Rind Cheeses that I attended this last Saturday.  Washed Rind Cheeses fall under the category of Surface Ripened Cheeses, which means that they age from the outer surface inward. They are also stinky cheeses because of this washing (or smearing) process.

These cheeses have a long standing history and are sometimes referred to as ‘Monastery Cheeses’, as many were developed in Monasteries across Europe. Since the middle ages Monks and Nuns have been the source of many of the original European cheeses and wines. 

Working under the premise – “Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work). This motto summarizes monastic life in two words.  The Monks and Nuns devote a large portion of each day to manual labor, thus providing for their own living expenses as well as helping others in need. 

These cheeses, most of which were founded in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, share a basic recipe and milk type; they are soft ripened,semisoft, or semihard cow’s milk cheeses made from uncooked curds and with washed rinds. 

One of the most famous examples of this genre is Muenster, which takes its name from an old form of the word monastery.

Let’s get back to the cheeses….These cheeses have been washed with a brined water solution, or beer, or spirits, or something called Morge (a salt water solution with remnants of older cheese bits in it). These washes help develop a very thin rind which helps keep bad bacteria away, while allowing good bacteria (brevibacterium linens or just simply b.linens) which also allows an orange/pink coloring, and pungent odors to develop…think Limburger type.

I mentioned Limburger because while many have not enjoyed it, its stinky reputation has proceeded it, which was precisely why this class (and the study at the Oregon State University, Food Innovation Center) developed this training.

We were given four Washed Rind Cheeses in a blind tasting (meaning we were not told their name) and asked to evaluate them on the following: Flavor, Aroma, Texture, and Taste. We were asked to rank them in order of preference and whether we would purchase or not…..Then, we were told that #573 was Limburger. When this same study was given to tasters at Oregon State, half the group tasted them ‘blind’, while the other half were told what they were tasting. The results?...The study showed that people do have a negative connotation of the name ‘Limburger’, as the half of the class that tasted it ‘blind’ really enjoyed it.

My favorites were Pont-l'Eveque (#417) and Grayson (#642).

So in summary, when buying these cheeses, be adventurous! Ask your local cheesemonger for their recommendations, pairings, and for a sample! I think that you will be pleasantly surprised by these wonderful cheeses!

While laundry may be nothing to celebrate, exploring these great cheeses are!

Cheese, Time Travel, and other such things…

Cheese is magical. A mere uttering of the word, makes one smile; it has the power to transform a dish; and it has the power of time travel…Let me explain.

Recently, I had the opportunity to stop by and visit my friends at the Cheese School of San Francisco, if you have not had the chance of visiting, I highly recommending stopping by. It is part cheese/wine shop, part cheese education center, and part restaurant (did I leave out ‘part heaven’?). In all my travels, I have never found anything close to it. 

For today’s visit, I was focusing in on their cheese case, as they tend to carry some unique ones from around the U.S. and the world. Then I noticed a small, dry cheese that was wrapped in cloth with a yellow ribbon, just one sniff, and I found myself half way up the Swiss Alps, sitting in a small chalet with no electricity, about to enjoy a green salad topped with this magical cheese known as Belper Knolle.

No hallucinogenic properties going on here, just my senses taking me back to my last visit to Switzerland. Strange how a sight, a sound, or a smell from our past has the power to recall memories, down to the slightest details, and yet we can’t find our house keys that we had in our hands not five minutes earlier. This was one of those experiences.

Belper Knolle is a raw, Cow’s Milk Cheese that is infused with garlic and pepper that have been aged in a small ball shape that is aged for 90 days. 

It is very hard and must be ‘shaved’ like a truffle partially due to its hardness, but also due to its intensity in flavor. 

The shavings are so fine that they are like flower petals. The cheese is dry, and yet has a creamy, garlicy, and peppery flavor to whatever it is paired with. In Switzerland, I had it shaved over a green salad, drizzled with a fine extra virgin olive oil.

Mr. Peabody may have had his WABAC Machine, but I need only visit my nearest cheese case to be transported to another time and place.