Tag Archives: cheese plate

Cheese Plate at Otto

17 Feb

Today I had a great blind date with a new friend.  I mentioned this in a previous post, but a friend set us up because of our mutual interest in food, photography and writing, and after a few rain checks due to illness we finally met and lunched today.  We went to Otto as we are both rather fond of cheese, and Otto has a nice selection with an option to do a three, five or seven cheese tasting plate.  We opted for seven… when it doubt, EAT MORE CHEESE!

Here is the cheese plate:

Otto Cheese Plate

The menu probably had around twelve cheeses on it – listed by name, milk type and region.  I was familiar with some and had never heard of others.  With seven cheeses, it was easy to have a variety of textures and milk types.  We asked our server for some advice on the sheep’s milk cheeses, as there were a few I hadn’t heard of and I wanted to know if they were soft or hard, strong or mild, etc.

Here are the cheeses we selected starting at twelve o’clock and going clockwise around (ending with the blue at eleven o’clock).

  • Coach Farm Triple Cream Goat Cheese – this is a pasteurized goat’s milk cheese from the Hudson Valley area of New York.  I had never tried a triple cream goat’s milk cheese before.  Usually it’s cow’s milk or a mix of milks so I was intrigued when I saw this on the menu.  This cheese is white in color (typical of goat’s milk cheese) with a soft, white, edible bloomy rind.  The consistency was wonderful – super silky  and creamy with a buttery, rich flavor touched with a hint of tangy goat.  When I tasted it with the rind, it was a bit stronger.  I actually liked it better without the rind (unusual for me.)
  • Fontina – a raw cow’s milk cheese from the Valle D’Aosta region of Italy.  The first thing that came to mind when I smelled this cheese was stinky feet!  It definitely had a funkiness to it.  The paste was pretty soft and pliable and it had a definite barny/animal flavor to it.  Fontina can evidently be on the milder side or more pungent and this one was definitely a little pungent.  I liked it – but didn’t love it.
  • Pecorino Grand Old Man – a pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from Tuscany – this cheese is aged more than fifteen months, is yellowy gold in color, with a harder, more crumbly texture – like a Parmigiano Reggiano.  The smell is sweet and nutty and it’s delightfully snackable.  This was one of our favorites of the plate.
  • Marzolino – a raw sheep’s milk cheese from Tuscany – made from the early spring milking in March (the name comes from Marzo – the Italian word for March.)  I found this cheese to be pretty intense.  The first taste sensation I had was bitter – then nutty, animal, funky, salty and sour.  This was definitely a unique cheese for me – but not a favorite.
  • Bergkase – a cow’s milk (not sure if pasteurized or raw) mountain cheese made in the Alps.  The cheese is aged three to nine months and is made with summer milk (the cow’s graze high on the alpine pastures).  The curds are cooked and pressed.  The cheese to me smelled just like buttered popcorn – it was a bit chewy in texture, nutty, salty and buttery in flavor.  It is supposedly a good melter!
  • Taleggio – a pasteurized washed-rind cow’s milk cheese from the Lombardy region of Italy.  This is a funky cheese from the stinky washed-rind family (orange rind… washed regularly with liquid during aging process – sometimes wine, brandy, beer, salt-water, etc.)  This cheese actually made my tongue prickly a bit – not sure what that means.  This Taleggio was semi-soft in texture, and fairly mild but some Taleggios are described as pudding-like and easily spreadable on bread (like an Epoisses).  This wasn’t like that.  I think that means the one we got was younger and not quite at full ripeness?  It was only ok in my opinion.   I’d like to try it when it’s funkier, bolder and spreads like pudding. :)
  • Gorgonzola Dolce – a pasteurized cow’s milk blue cheese from the Lombardy region of Italy.  Gorgonzola dolce is the sweeter milder version of Gorgonzola.  It is cave aged for only about three months.  It still has that blue bite and spiciness to it – but it’s creamier and moister and has a sweetness that makes it a little easier for those who are not into super strong blues.   I think it’s a delicious blue!

To accompany the cheeses, our server at Otto brought out a few plates of pairing condiments.

Condiments for Cheese

The condiments were apricots with chili, truffle honey and sour cherries.  The truffle honey rocked my world.  I tasted it with almost every cheese and thought it went great.  The cherries were quite bold in flavor and overshadowed the cheeses for me most of the time and I didn’t care for the apricots very much.  But oh… that truffle honey.  Heaven on a plate.

Overall, our cheese plate was good today.  I question whether all the cheeses were given to us at their absolute prime.  I definitely think the cheese selection and quality at Casellula was still better. I’m dying to go back there again!

Now – for my photo of the day from yesterday:

Photo 313 out of 365 – “Tyler & Ducky”

"Tyler & Ducky" - Settings: ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/60 sec, 35mm lens

This is Tyler.  He is the son of our friends who are part of the “Brooklyn Boys” gang.  He is one of those babies that makes me want to have a baby… like now.  Just super chill, adorable and easy.  Can I place an order for one like that?

Casellula Cheese Plate

9 Feb

Ok… so where were we?  Casellula for cheese.  YUM.

So, when I left you last, my cheese friends Andrew and Manuela and I had just enjoyed a superb cheese experience at Casellula. We each planned on ordering two cheeses for a total of six… but Andrew knew the Fromagier from back in the day at Murray’s, so he surprised us with an extra cheese each for a total of nine (and then we couldn’t pass up a tenth – blue for dessert!)

We’ll start with my cheese plate (pictured below).  We had already dug into cheese number one before someone had the brilliant idea for me to photograph our plates (my camera was sitting right on the table – but I was too wrapped up in cheese splendor to think about anything else.)  I have to say, I’m disappointed in myself that I did not take detailed tasting notes while we ate and drank, because now it is two days later and I can’t really remember the specifics of each cheese.  BUT – I will list each cheese we tasted and include tasting notes from the menu, from the blogosphere and from my memory.  Next time, I have to write my notes immediately!  Another good learning experience.

Nell’s Cheese Plate at Casellula:

In order from left to right, the cheeses are:

  • Nocetto di Capra – a pasteurized goat’s milk cheese from Lombardy, Italy.  The texture was super creamy and luscious. Casellula described it as “like whipped cream with a tang”.  To me, it was rich, velvety and sweet with only a hint of the usual goat tang.  It was paired with a sweet vanilla pear concoction, and together, I have to say the flavor was actually a tad sweet for me…  I’m more more of a savory girl, but I like the cheese alone – more as a dessert cheese.
  • Menuet made by Dancing Cow – a raw cow’s milk cheese from Bridport, Vermont.  Aged for a minimum of five months at the Cellars at Jasper Hill (where the lovely Cabot Clothbound Cheddar is aged… among others), this cheese is a little sweet and nutty, creamy (coats your tongue) and has some woody/grassy flavors.   This one was paired with a pine nut and thyme (or maybe rosemary?) cluster, which was quite yummy.
  • Battenkill Brebis made by 3-Corner Field Farm – a raw sheep’s milk cheese from Shushan, New York.  This cheese is pretty mild with that nice salty, sweet, sheepy flavor that I often find to be really snacky and yummy.  This one was paired with a grain mustard, which I liked very much – the little grains popped in your mouth when you bit down on them.  Fun.

My favorite from this cheese plate was probably the Menuet!  I’ll have to find it again and taste a lot more of it… I can barely remember it now two days later!  That’s the thing about new cheeses… you have to keep tasting them over and over to commit them to memory.  It’s a tough job that takes real dedication (yes please!). :)

Ok – on to Andrew’s plate at Casellula:

In order from left to right the cheeses are:

  • Nuvola di Pecora – a pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from Romagna, Italy.  The name translates to “sheep clouds” in English – which is probably because it is a bloomy-rind cheese (like brie) – with a soft white rind and pretty white-colored paste.  The cheese is custardy, mild and creamy with only a little hint of the sheepy tang flavor.   This was paired with a delicious nut brittle.
  • Lou Bergier Pichin – a raw cow’s milk cheese from Piedmont, Italy.  This cheese is made using thistle rennet (common of many Portuguese and Spanish cheeses).  Casellula describes it as “Buttery.  Artichoke and floral notes.  Fantastic!”  This cheese is aged for sixty days (the minimum allowed for raw-milk cheeses to be sold in America) and was paired with a cilantro tomatillo relish, which was refreshing and zippy.
  • Pecorino del Parco made my Marcelli Formaggi – a raw sheep’s milk cheese from Abruzzo, Italy.  This cheese has a harder, more crumbly texture and a grassy, floral flavor, which comes from all the wild herbs and flowers the sheep eat in the mountain grass.  Oh – and this one was paired with roasted tomatoes.

My favorite cheese in this round was the Nuvola di Pecora!

Finally… Manuela’s plate from Casellula:

 

In order from left to right the cheeses are:

  • Dallenwiler Geisschas – a raw goat’s milk cheese from Dallenwil, Switzerland.  Casellula describes it as “meaty & herbaceous”.  I’m sorry to say, I really don’t remember what this pairing is!  Manuela?  Andrew?  Help?  PS – this cheese is fairly impossible to find anything about on the internet.  Interesting.
  • Pondhopper made by Keeley’s Cheese Co.  - a raw cow’s milk cheese from King Ferry, New York.  This cheese is an Irish-style washed-rind cheese (the daughter at the farm is named Keeley and she studied cheese-making in Ireland before coming back to make cheeses at her family’s farm).  Casellula describes it as “Yeasty, sour, semi-firm yet creamy.”  I remember it being a little pungent and funky, which is typical of washed-rind cheeses – and also those are some of my favorite flavor profiles!  This was paired with sunchokes, which were earthy, vegetal and really paired well with the cheese (maybe my favorite pairing of the evening).
  • Amarelo de Beira Baixa – a raw sheep and goat mixed milk cheese from Beira Baixa, Portugal.  Described by Casellula as “Bluish flavor, spicy.” – it has a semi-soft texture, with small irregular holes and has a slight tangy, sour, bitter flavor.  For the US market, it has to be aged sixty days (in Portugal, it’s usually aged more like twenty) – so our version is a little firmer with a bit of a stronger flavor.  It’s a pretty yellow color, which is how it gets its name “Amarelo”, which means yellow in Portuguese.  This cheese was paired with a pineapple condiment.

Oh yeah, and for dessert, we had the Persille du Beaujolais Chevre – a raw goat’s milk blue cheese from the Rhone Alps in France.  ”Musty, spicy, classic” are the notes from Casellula.  They paired this (for dessert) with chocolate and cherries (in syrup – like a compote of some sort) – and they served us some tawny port to wash it down.  RIDIC!!!

Overall, I thought the cheeses and the selection at Casellula were AMAZING!  This is the first menu I’ve seen in a while that had a slew of cheeses I’ve never seen or heard of.  I am eager to go back and taste some of these again AND taste others!  To be honest, I love cheese so much by itself, that I often hesitate to pair it with anything – and I felt that way mostly at Casellula too, though their pairings are so delicious, I enjoyed them immensely on their own.  Tomorrow I’m meeting a friend for a cheese plate at Otto – so it’ll be fun to compare experiences.  I’m bringing my notebook with me this time!!

Now – for photos of the day:

Photo 304 out of 365 – “Windows and Mirrors”

"Windows and Mirrors" - Settings: ISO 6400, f/4.5, 1/40 sec, 50mm lens

I took this one in black and white, but when I loaded it, it was in color and I liked it better that way.  I like how you can see the reflection of my hands holding the camera in the bottom center of the fame and how you can see the sign post way back in the mirror and then again up closer in the window reflection.  Kind of fun.

Photo 305 out of 365 – “Owl Overhead”

"Owl Overhead" - Settings: ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/160 sec, 50mm lens

I took this at my friend Beck’s house yesterday – it is a funny little owl hanging from the lamp above her kitchen table.  It is translucent and I like how the owl was sort of glowing with light from above.

Now I’m off to the second photography lecture at ICP!  Whew.  ’Til tomorrow!

 

Delicious Cheese Plate!

19 Jan

On Tuesday night, I was invited to a small wine/cheese gathering at the home of a couple I met years ago when I was looking for a new job.  They run a career placement company called Careers for Women (and men).  I liked Cynnie right away from our first conversation and we’ve managed to keep in touch with each other ever since.  She’s been reading about my cheese-capades and asked me if I’d be kind enough to pick out a selection of cheeses for the occasion.  I was happy to do it, of course, and headed over to Murray’s.

We ended up being five people, so I thought four cheeses would be a nice number.  I knew I wanted to do a goat cheese, a washed-rind cheese, a mountain-style cheese and a blue cheese… but I went in to Murray’s with an open mind.  Here is what I ended up with:

  • Monte Enebro: a pasteurized goat’s-milk cheese from Spain.  The white inside has a nice tangy flavor – like most goat cheese, but as you get closer to the rind, you get a nice cream line (super creamy section right inside the rind) and then the rind itself has flavors similar to a blue cheese.  I think this is a delicious goat cheese – unique and tasty – and interesting in flavor and appearance!  Everyone loved it.
  • Vacherin Mont d’Or: this is a special cheese, available only for a few months out of the year (November – March typically).  It comes from the Jura Mountains of Switzerland and is made with thermalized (a gentler version of pasteurization that kills less of the cheese’s flavor) cow’s milk.  It comes in a round wooden box and when ripe, it is SUPER creamy and luscious… we’re talking eat it with a spoon or spread it over bread.  It is a washed-rind cheese (so it has that orangey color and funky barny smell) and it’s also wrapped with a piece of spruce bark so it has a delightful woodsy forest-like flavor.  I’ve been reading about it and supposedly it is delicious if you bake it – mmmmmm…I’ll have to try that someday.  If you’re interested in trying this one, you better look for it quickly because it goes fast and will be gone for the year before you know it!  It’s not cheap though – it sells for around $25-$30 per cheese… but it can feed a bunch of people and it’s like nothing you’ve ever had before.  I swear.
  • Ossau-Iraty – this is definitely one of my all-time favorite cheeses.  It is made from raw sheep’s milk in the pyrenees of France.  It is a mountain-style cheese – like a gruyere or a comte – but this one is made with sheep’s milk instead of cow.  It does have those yummy flavors consistent with mountain cheeses… it’s nutty, a little sweet, rich and buttery and is wonderful to snack on.
  • Fourme d’Ambert:  I’ve mentioned this cheese before – again, it is one of my favorites and definitely my go-to blue.  It is one of the oldest cheeses made in France and is made with pasteurized cow’s milk.  This is a great cheese to try if you’re a beginner with blues (or if you think you don’t like them).  I once thought I didn’t like blue cheese and this is the cheese that changed my mind.  It’s pretty mild and creamy and delicious.  Cowgirl Creamery refers to it as the “chocolate of blue cheeses”.

So, in addition to these cheeses, I brought over some figs, Largueta almonds (from Spain), dried cherries and a nice crusty french baguette.  Total yumminess ensued and all the guests seemed impressed and delighted by the selection!  I must say – these are not inexpensive cheeses.  They all cost between $20 and $30/lb.  Of course, if it’s just a small gathering, you are typically buying less than a pound – but still.  I think for fun next time, I’m going to go the cheaper route and see what kind of delicious assortment we can get for half the money!  Stay tuned for a report.

Now – for the photo of the day:

Photo 284 out of 365 – “Reflection in a Puddle”

"Reflection in a Puddle" - Settings: ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/60 sec, 50mm lens

 

A Lazy Saturday Afternoon…

20 Nov

So I’m sitting her at 3:37pm, still in my PJs… gotta love that.  Adam cooked a delicious breakfast scramble with the Ascutney Mountain cheese I bought earlier in the week at Saxelby and we had a wonderful cup of coffee sweetened with a tiny bit of the vanilla macadamia nut sugar we bought on our honeymoon in Hawaii last year.  Mmmmmmmmm.  I’m quite fond of lazy Saturdays.  Aren’t you?

Anyway, I’m excited about a few cheese-related things.  First, I got a couple comments on my blog this week from the people over at Cabot!  Because I linked to their site every time I raved about the Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (swoon), they found my blog and thanked me for the kind words.  I thought that was really cool.

Second, I am helping a friend of mine plan an all-American cheese plate for Thanksgiving, and I am planning the same for my Thanksgiving celebration as well.  Cabot Clothbound Cheddar is definitely going to be there – 100%.  I’m working out the other selections this weekend.  On the list of potentials right now are:

God – this list makes me DROOL!  America has really got it going on with the cheese these days!!  These cheeses are all fantastic!  So my goal in putting together a cheese plate (all from America) is to include cheeses made from a variety of milks – cow, goat & sheep – AND to include a variety of cheese styles – hard, soft, washed-rind, bloomy-rind, mountain-style, crumbly, creamy, etc.  This will make the cheese plate super interesting and enlightening for the guests!  I’ll let you know what my final choices are after I do a little tasting and comparing!

Meanwhile, still loving the new lens!  Here are my photos from the last 2 days:

Photo 223 out of 365 – “Man Looking Out a Cafe window”

"Man Looking Out a Cafe Window" - Settings: ISO 3200, f/3.2, 1/15 sec, 100mm macro lens

I took this on Clinton Street while walking to my yoga class on Thursday.  The close 2nd runner up is this one, which I took a few minutes earlier on the opposite side of the street:

"Window Shopping" - Settings: ISO 3200, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, 100mm macro lens

 

Photo 224 out of 365 – “Mascara”

"Mascara" - Settings: ISO 800, f/5, 1/25 sec, 100mm macro lens

This one I took of my friend Wendy while she was looking in the bathroom mirror putting on her makeup.

And these are a few more from the past couple days that I really love:

 

So that’s all for this lazy Saturday.  Hope everyone’s having a wonderful weekend!

nell’s cheese du’jour: Casatica di Bufala

2 Sep

"Casatica di Bufala" - Settings: ISO 100, f/5, 1/400 sec, 50mm lens

Casatica di Bufala is a bloomy-rind cheese from the northern part of Italy near Bergamo.  It is made by two brothers, Bruno and Alfio Gritti, from the pasteurized milk of water buffalos!  That’s right – water buffalos.  Did you know that there are cheeses made from water buffalo milk?  Well – if you’ve never tried one, you should pick this baby up and give it a taste.  I bought this at my local Whole Foods and it was about seven dollars for a third of a pound.

Anyway – the first thing you probably notice while looking at this cheese is the oozy texture.  Take a look from this angle!

Yummy cheese ooze... Settings: ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/800 sec, 50mm lens

This cheese is wonderfully gooey and delicious.  When you’re tasting or serving a cheese, it is best to let it warm to room temperature first.  If you taste it right out of the refrigerator, you will not get the full flavor or the right consistency from the cheese.  Instead, it will be much firmer and the flavors will be much less pronounced.  When I let this cheese sit out for about forty minutes, this is what happened… it oozed.  Yum.  I tend to love oozy, creamy cheeses and this one is NO exception.

Cheeses made from buffalo milk tend to be super rich and luscious.  Why?  Well – buffalo milk has the highest fat content out of all the milks (cow, sheep, goat).  To give you an example, the percentage of solids (fats) in cow’s milk is 12% per pound of milk.  The remaining 88% is liquid called whey.  In buffalo milk, the percentage of solids (fats) is 25% per pound!  That’s twice the fat solids in the same amount of milk.  Of course, that’s one of the reasons it’s so delicious!!  I learned all this science-y stuff in my Murray’s boot camp.  Yes, I’m a cheese nerd.  Now… onto the tasting.

First – we sniff.  Upon first sniff of the paste (interior), I think of the smell of milk when you gently heat it in a sauce pan.  You know… that sweet milky smell?  When I sniff the rind (outside coating) – it smells a bit mushroomy – like truffles.

Now – we taste.  Mmmmmmmmm.  The texture of this cheeses is to die for!  It is so super luscious – silky smooth and creamy. It completely coats the inside of my mouth and I just close my eyes and sigh – an overdose of yum.  The taste is salty but a little sweet.  It’s rich and buttery and fatty-tasting.  I even get a slight taste of fresh-baked bread – a sort of yeasty flavor.   When I taste the rind along with the paste I think it adds flavors of mushroom and garlic.

With a cheese this rich, I think it calls for some accompaniments.  I cut up a fresh baguette and tried the cheese with some delicious honey I bought a few weeks ago at Whole Foods.

Delish - Settings: ISO 200, f/13, 1/80 sec, 50mm lens

The honey is made by a company called Well Dressed Food and has delicious pecans inside.  I tend to be a cheese purist and typically don’t need crackers, bread or fruit to enjoy a cheesy treat.  But I’ve tried this honey with a couple cheeses now and I think the sweetness and the nuttiness provides a perfect compliment to the saltiness of cheese!

Pecans 'N Honey - Settings: ISO 400, f/11, 1/100 sec, 50mm lens

Just a little dab’ll do ya.  You don’t want to drown out the flavor of the cheese.

The perfect bite - Settings: ISO 400, f/11, 1/100 sec, 50mm lens

So – there you have it.  Casatica di Bufala.  This baby gets a total yummy thumbs up in my book.  It’s different, it’s pretty, it’s intriguing because it’s made from buffalo milk!  I think it’s a crowd pleaser and I’m excited to put it out for friends on a cheese plate sometime soon.  I hope you’ll give it a try too and spread the word!  That’s all the cheesiness I’ve got for now… see you next week on cheese Thursday with a new cheese du’jour!

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