Cheese Admiration and Celebration
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The cabrales(=blue goat) we dragged home from vacation in Valencia is glorious. I used it a little too sparingly in tonight's salad that also contained sliced tangerines, halved grapes, croutons, baby gem, rucola and honey mustard vinaigrette. Next time I will be more generous with the cabrales. This is actually a very quick salad to put together. We make vinaigrette in bulk to keep in food grade squeeze bottles in the fridge. Whenever we use a recipe that requires removing bread crusts we make croutons in bulk to store in an air tight jar.
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@AnnPT77 that is what I bought to stuff my balsamic glazed pears with on thanksgiving! I keep looking at it in the fridge with great anticipation. Here are some more goodies from the cheese drawer, some slightly nibbled on (gjetost for breakfast!)
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@Sinisterbarbie1, Cambozola with balsamic-glazed pears sounds wonderful: Yum!
I tried Gjetost years once, years back, and really didn't care for it: It seemed a little too goaty for me. (I may also have been put off by it looking just like Fels Naptha bar soap!) If I could find a manageable sized chunk to buy, or if I see it somewhere that I can get a sample, I'd like to try it again. I know my tastes have changed for other things.0 -
@AnnPT77
I bet you'll find Gjetost a little too sweet for your current palate. It has a very interesting taste and texture, and I actually like it. I bet it would be good with slices of Winesap. We used to have a cheese monger in the food coop that had an amazing array of cheeses. They would custom cut any cheese, and they would wrap it in butcher paper rather than plastic. Now it's all pre-cut, and the selection isn't as vast. So sad. They also had ridiculously low cheese prices.
Wallace and Gromit would have loved this place.2 -
@AnnPT77 gjetost is really weird cheese - i like it for breakfast or as a dessert cheese board offering a lot. It also seems to appeal to people more when sliced with a plane rather than in chunks - less overpowering and the texture is better. I may be making this up, but it has always tasted to me like caramel - could that have something to do with how it is made? Might there actually be some caramelization going on contributing to the sweetness? Anyway, I discovered it years ago with a wine tasting group and loved it. I thought it was some exotic crazy expensive and hard to find cheese, but then discovered that it was available in most grocery stores in small cubes in pre-packaged boxes but I just never knew what it was (the wine club version was from a proper cheese monger). It seems to last forever and not dry out or change character either.1
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Ok couldn’t resist googling it. It is a Maillard reaction that makes it brown and sweet so I was pretty close. And it comes in varying sweetnesses if you get it in Norway …. You can use it to flavor and thicken stews etc. and it is recommended to have for breakfast with coffee on toast with jam or as the last meal of the day with a stout or porter and some apple slices. I guess my northern European DNA was just steering me to do things https://www.wine4food.com/food/gjetost-norwegian-cheese/1
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Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »Ok couldn’t resist googling it. It is a Maillard reaction that makes it brown and sweet so I was pretty close. And it comes in varying sweetnesses if you get it in Norway …. You can use it to flavor and thicken stews etc. and it is recommended to have for breakfast with coffee on toast with jam or as the last meal of the day with a stout or porter and some apple slices. I guess my northern European DNA was just steering me to do things https://www.wine4food.com/food/gjetost-norwegian-cheese/
Honestly, every time I go to Norway I feel tempted to their 'brown cheese', and every time I do I regret my decision. I can't help it, I don't find it pleasant at all
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OK, I'm going to have to try gjetost again, even if I need to buy a chunk. Maybe I can use it up as a richening ingredient in food combinations, if I don't like it plain. But I'm skeered. 😬
Most cheeses, when eaten plain, I prefer to be very thinly sliced, though I don't have a plane. (I'm not a big cracker person, think they usually take away from rather than add to, when it comes to cheese. So, if I have an especially yummy special cheese, I'd normally eat it on its own. Right now, that's my plan for the Cambozola, though I can't exactly slice that.)0 -
@AnnPT77
Splurge on a nice cheese plane. Seriously. It may well increase your enjoyment of almost any cheese. You get so much more surface area; you don't need crackers. Get a good one. If it doesn't work easily, it's just frustrating.
Once that goat gouda "style" cheese I had got too thin for the plane, I ate it in thicker chunks. No crackers. And it was so much better planed thin.
Cambozola.... I will often put that on a cracker. A nice plain cracker. I think it adds to it. I can also just cut off a chunk and... Mmmmmm.1 -
The balsamic pears with cambazola were a hit. I finished them with crushed toasted pistachios and some flash fried sage leaves. When I cooked them i put some red wine in the bottom of the pan to keep the balsamic glaze from burning (I don’t drink any more so mine happened to be dealcholized already, but if yours isn’t bring it to a boil to burn off the alcohol first so it doesn’t overpower), I drizzled the remainder over some mixed salad greens. The little cheese tarts with various toppings also worked out so much better for my elderly relatives than a cheeseboard would have and everyone had a chance to sample a perfect bite of everything without anything getting messy or crumbly.5
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Planed thin is how I love most (semi) hard cheeses as well, at least the ones with a good strong taste, like parmigiano or aged Gouda. I have never used crackers much, but my own self-baked bread, because most crackers/bread I bought contained too much salt for me and didn't taste so good. And of course, the smell of fresh-baked bread filling my room helped too ^_^.Splurge on a nice cheese plane. Seriously. It may well increase your enjoyment of almost any cheese. You get so much more surface area; you don't need crackers. Get a good one. If it doesn't work easily, it's just frustrating.
Once that goat gouda "style" cheese I had got too thin for the plane, I ate it in thicker chunks. No crackers. And it was so much better planed thin.
Cambozola.... I will often put that on a cracker. A nice plain cracker. I think it adds to it. I can also just cut off a chunk and... Mmmmmm.1 -
I use a planer for gouda type cheese though the direction of use was different in the Netherlands. We would cup off the pointy centre edge of the wedge, peel back some of the wax casing and plane along that first cut. This means consuming the wedge from the centre of the wheel (the best bit) to the rind (the dry bit).
For very hard salty cheese like parmesan, very mature cheddar and very old goat gouda, I prefer to use a pointy knife to break off irregular chunky crumbles to better enjoy the texture.
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Before investing money and drawer space for a planer, one could test if you prefer the thin slices with a mandolin. I can get paper thin slices with my sujihiki knife too but that is not a common kitchen tool.1
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Sorry to keep harping on about cheese planers, but keep in mind that the cheaper flat triangular metal ones slice at a fixed width. We ended up having two in the kitchen drawer because of different slice thicknesses.
Not as easy a grip, but i sometimes use the vegetable peeler for planing cheese when the thin planer is in the dishwasher.2 -
As a Belgian, using a planer was never really part of my culture, but I understand the process and I am all for it. I don't even remember my parents ever selling planers when they had they kitchen stuff store, but I have used a vegetable peeler to do the exact same thing for years. I used it mainly for old cheddar and parmigiano.I use a planer for gouda type cheese though the direction of use was different in the Netherlands.
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I find that vegetable peelers are great, but that the left/right edges are usually problematic. I "solved" that by cutting of a piece that was narrower than the peeler.Not as easy a grip, but i sometimes use the vegetable peeler for planing cheese when the thin planer is in the dishwasher.
The only real issue I have ever had, is that my slices were always more like shavings and never fully of consistent thickness, which led to a lot of smaller left-over pieces that could no longer be shaved. But then, that wasn't something my digestive tract had a particular problem with ^_^.1 -
BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
As a Belgian, using a planer was never really part of my culture, but I understand the process and I am all for it. I don't even remember my parents ever selling planers when they had they kitchen stuff store, but I have used a vegetable peeler to do the exact same thing for years. I used it mainly for old cheddar and parmigiano.I use a planer for gouda type cheese though the direction of use was different in the Netherlands.
I don't have a planer myself (Or maybe I do, somewhere buried in a drawer) but my parents always had one. And it's used on one single brand of cheese they eat regularly: Maredsous.
They usually buy a square version of this kind of block:
And the difference between a thick slice/cube/... and a thin slice with the planer is enormous. To the point of not liking one and loving the other. And it would be worth buying a planer only for that.
Hm, memories, I might need to add a block of Maredsous to the shopping list next time!
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I have had cheese planes that were just awful. Years ago when visiting my mother, she had one that worked really well. She bought one for me.
Doesn't take much space in the drawer. I've had it for years and years and it's still sharp and works great. I wish I knew the model so I could tell you, but it's not marked other than "Made in Japan."
I have known people who use those cheese slicers that have a wire and a roller. I've never had much luck with those. I don't think it was expensive, it just works great for the cheeses that do well with a plane.
Now I want more cheese.0 -
Maredsous, that name brings back memories of busy, stressful but very Good Times. Not only of the cheese, but also of the beer. When I was working with my first customer, the principal always brought me a Maredsous beer before "ordering" me to bed.I don't have a planer myself (Or maybe I do, somewhere buried in a drawer) but my parents always had one. And it's used on one single brand of cheese they eat regularly: Maredsous.
They usually buy a square version of this kind of block:
And the difference between a thick slice/cube/... and a thin slice with the planer is enormous. To the point of not liking one and loving the other. And it would be worth buying a planer only for that.
Hm, memories, I might need to add a block of Maredsous to the shopping list next time!
I (used to?) love Maredsous cheese. It reminds me of a time when just slapping a label on something wasn't enough to attract buyers. There had to be a good reason for buying a product, like quality and a distinctive taste.
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I have seen them but have never bought them. They looked untrustworthy to me. The wire looked fragile and not all that straight, and the fact that some of them came with replacement wires was not inspiring confidence either.I have known people who use those cheese slicers that have a wire and a roller. I've never had much luck with those.
So do I. Unfortunately, it is a luxury my weight loss journey does not permit right now, perhaps never. But I'm sure as hell planning on having several types when my time has come to go into oblivion, preferably with a nice bottle of quality Pomerol.Now I want more cheese.1
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