Day 963 : Brrr, it's cold outside!

It is officially the coldest day of the year thus far -- this morning when I was running, it was 11 degrees but with the windchill it felt like -4 degrees. I know your first thought is, "Gosh, she is totally crazy to be running in this weather!" But it is truly invigorating and you feel great when you are finished. Granted after the fact, I most certainly do not want to spend any time outside, it feels like we are living in the Midwestern Tundra, but nope we are living in the Big Apple, my friends.

In honor of it being the coldest day of the year, I thought we would suggest an American Fondue recipe:

2 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 cups of grated Reading - Spring Brook Farm's semi-soft buttery and round American interpretation of the classic French melting superstar, Raclette. This three month aged cheese is sweet and honest with a rustic  nuttiness and a grassy round finish. Warming and comforting, this is the perfect start to our American fondue.

1 1/2 cups of grated Tarentaise -  Crafted also by Spring Brook Farm and Thistle Hill Farm as well, both located in Vermont, this is an organic raw cow's milk cheese aged for at least six months, traditionally more like twelve to eighteen months. Rich and round, full of nutty, caramelly, butterscotchy notes and a grassy, rustic, barnyardy-ness, this cheese is the perfect next addition in flavor profile for your fondue -- bold and dynamic yet delicate and refined.

1 1/2 cups of grated Pleasant Ridge Reserve -- Modeled on the European great, Beaufort, this Wisconsin native is the last cheese needed in our American fondue. An aged raw cow's milk cheese that is roasty and round, buttery and butterscotchy with a fantastic rustic Alpine style nuttiness.

3 tablespoons of flour - it helps to combine the flour with the grated cheese before as it will disperse throughout the fondue and help thicken it.

Dash of sea salt, black pepper, and fresh rosemary to cut through the creamy cheesy-ness. Depending you can add a touch of nutmeg as well for a homey aromatic bent. But definitely choose either the rosemary or the nutmeg, the combination of both will be totally overwhelming.

1 1/2 cups of dry white wine - something that will give the cheese combination a nice minerality and create a nice balanced lightness.

I like to add a few tablespoons of brandy to enhance the depth of flavor profile of the fondue.

Super simple to prepare, you will be warmed from the inside out on this frigid eve!

Day 954 : Anchor Brewing Company

Location: San Francisco, CA

Anchor Brewing Company – America’s first craft brewery with its roots dating back to the 19^th century and the California gold rush -- steeped in San Francisco’s history and West Coast brewing traditions. Steam, inspired by and originating from the 19^th century nickname for West Coast beer brewed without ice. Meaning that whilst the beer was fermenting overnight without the help of ice, it was carried to rooftops to remain cool in the foggy nighttime hours. Nowadays, steam is a trademark of Anchor brewing and its place in brewing history is felt throughout all of Anchor’s beers.

So where did Anchor get its start?

In the hands of German brewer, Gottlieb Brekle, who in 1871 bought an old beer and billiards saloon that in the next quarter century would be the birthplace of Anchor Brewing helmed by two other German brewers, Ernst Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel.  Over the course of the early and mid 20^th century, Anchor Brewing changed ownership and moved a handful of times, shutting down shop of course for the Prohibition years; and finally in 1971, a century after Brekle founded the company, began bottling its first and namesake beer – Anchor Steam Beer. By 1975, Anchor was brewing its original beer, Anchor Porter, Liberty Ale, Old Foghorn, Barleywine Ale, and its first annual Christmas Ale. 1977 saw the brewery move to its current home on Mariposa Street. Throughout the late 1970s, 80s, and into the early 90s, Anchor Steam grew and developed and it was in 1993, that Anchor was the first brewery to have its own distillery in house. Nowadays in 2012, or well almost 2013, Anchor crafts over ten distinct brews.

Curious as to what they are and what cheeses might go with them? Fromagical has a first hand report of the beers and their flavor profiles to share with you all my dear readers.  

Lets start with Anchor Summer, the first American style wheat beer brewed in modern times, more specifically, 1984. Crisp, hoppy, light, cool, and slightly citrusy. This is an American style Wheat Beer. Perfect with a morsel of Edgwick Farm’s Moodina – firm goat’s milk feta that is bright, citrusy, lactic, chalky and milky. The brightness of the cheese will find its complement in the bright hoppiness of the beer.

Next up, Marks Mild, an amber ale that is full of caramel and chocolatey notes, light in color but heavier in weight and only available on tap, not in the bottles so don’t go looking for this beer in your local corner store. But if you find it, definitely have a pint. Looking for a match in terms of caramelly, nutty flavors for Marks Mild? How about a nice morsel of aged Parmesan? This classic Italian cheese’s caramelly, nutty, butterscotch notes will be the perfect match in terms of weight and flavor nuances for the beer.

Onto our third beer and the classic original Anchor Steam! Hoppy and light, full of orange and citrusy notes, flavorful and dynamic, this is one easy drinking beer. Perfect with a morsel of Vermont Creamery’s Coupole. This natural rinded aged goat’s milk cheese is dense and chalky yet light and grassy, full of bright citrusy notes and a milky lactic tang. The light fancifulness of the beer will cut through the cheese’s density and give way to the perfect late Spring, early Summer pairing.

Next up – Liberty Ale first brewed in 1975 to celebrate the bicentennial of Paul Revere’s ride. Liberty Ale started a craft beer revolution. Why you might wonder? Because it was the first modern American IPA brewed since the Prohibition, single and dry-hopped. Spicy and bitter yet hoppy and balanced – Liberty Ale begs for a fantastically creamy, somewhat stinky and briny washed rind cheese. How about Dorset hailing from Consider Bardwell Farm in Vermont? This is a semi-soft, aged raw Jersey cow’s milk cheese that has been washed in brine during its aging process. Dense and cakey, yet earthy and rustic with that classic washed rind stink but a nice brightness. The crisp spicy bitterness of the beer will complement the full flavor profile of the cheese in a perfect pairing.

Moving along to Brekle’s Brown, named after the founder of Anchor Brewing and their newest beer. Inspired by the all malt brown ales of Anchor’s past, this single hop brown ale is coppery rust brown in color with a dynamic coffee chocolatey depth but yet with a crisp yet slight bitter citrusy finish. How about a morsel of Tarentaise crafted by both Thistle Hill and Spring Brook Farms in Vermont. Modeled on the French alpine style cheese, Abondance, this aged cow’s milk cheese is one of my favorites. Warming and round, yet buttery and caramelly, this smooth roasty toasty cheese will match the dynamic depth of the brew in the most excellent of ways.

Next up, Anchor’s Porter! Thick, deep, dark, chocolatey, round, rustic, full of toffee and coffee notes and warming sweetness with a fantastically creamy head. My favorite porter pairing is with Beehive Cheese’s Barely Buzzed. This Utah creation is a superstar award winning cow's milk cheese that has been rubbed with crushed lavender and coffee grounds during its aging process. It is creamy, nutty, lightly smoky and buttery yet aromatic and truly flavorful! An excellent big boys pairing!

Moving along to the Old Foghorn – an English style barleywine ale brewed in San Francisco named after the city’s classic fog.  This is one powerful brew that is bursting with flavor -- earthy and rustic, yet bitter and full of warming spices, this is a perfect after dinner brew. In honor of this being an after dinner brew, well then you must have a blue cheese with it, right? How about Rogue River Blue? Raw Cow's milk blue cheese hailing from Oregon that is aged for approximately one year wrapped in grape leaves soaked in pear eau de vie. Dense and creamy, yet packing a fantastic punch with a smooth and spicy side and an earthy, spicy, vegetal, rustic sweetness. The perfect end of evening pairing!

Humming Ale is big and bold, bright and effervescent, with light hints of citrus, crafted in a similar manner as the Liberty Ale. And what of its name? It is in fact named after the strong effervescent ales found mentioned throughout English literature. And what of its cheese partner? How about Twin Maple Farm's Hudson Red hailing from Ghent, NY. A raw cow's milk washed rind cheese aged for between two and four months with a semi-soft consistency. Buttery and milky with a fabulous roundness on the interior and an earthy, rustic, funky, meaty richness from the washed rind on the exterior. 

There are a few other beers brewed by Anchor that unfortunately were not included in the tasting but this post and selection gives you all a good idea of the breadth and depth of the superstar San Francisco brewery. Anchor is where it all started – the first craft brewery, the first IPA, the first Summer Beer and more. It is a treat to experience these brews that truly changed how we drink beer in America.

Day 935 : Brooklyn Winery

Location : 213 North 8th Street, Williamsburg, NYC.

Brooklyn Winery is a boutique winery that crafts small production wines utilizing local and national grape varietals. The winemaker, Conor McCormack, carefully selects grapes and specific varietals that will allow him to showcase the nuances of distinct wine growing regions' terroir -- whether its the rustic wind-swept breezes of the North Fork's Merlot or the bold big warmth of an Old Vine Zin from Lodi, California or perhaps its the classic Napa Cab, to name a few. He truly likes to let the fruit speak for itself and give you the feeling that you are instantaneously transported to the wine's grape growing region.

Truly a 21st century winery -- the winemaker sometimes crafts only four to five kegs (yes I did just say kegs) of an experimental wine. McCormack even crafted three different styles of Chardonnay to display to his customers that Chardonnays were not all about oak. Oh and let me not forget to tell you folks that there is a wine growler program, the first of its kind in the city. Brooklyn Winery is about play and experimentation, about expanding your wine horizons, trying something new and truly enjoying a glass of wine.

This past Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of sitting down to sample their three newly released red wines for the Fall and Winter season and with each of those wines, we worked on creating a pairing that we created that third moment -- what one wants to achieve in pairing -- where you take two distinctly separate yet truly fabulous moments (a wine and a cheese) and combine them to create a new and totally remarkable third taste sensation.

Pairing Number #1 : North Fork Blend -- 81% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc grown at Sherwood House Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island. Rustic and earthy yet light and flavorful, this wine is full of round red fruit nuances yet with faintly spicy notes. Light in body, but bold in flavor, Brooklyn Winery's North Fork blend takes the essence of the Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes and delivers us a lovely wine to enjoy.

To go with this wine, we choose Twig Farm's Goat Milk Tomme, an aged raw goat's milk cheese from West Cornwall, Vermont. This semi-firm cheese is bright ivory white on the interior with a darker grey natural exterior rind. Milky, grassy, with hints of citrus along with a rustic farmsteady, mushroomy, earthy bent. Light in body, yet bold in flavor just like our wine.

Pairing Number # 2 : Old Vine Zinfandel -- 93% Zinfandel, 7% Petite Syrah hailing from Lodi, California. Made with grapes from 50 year old vines, and aged fifteen months in 20% new American Oak, 20% new French Oak, and 60% Neutral Oak. This is wine is big and luscious with a fantastic smoothness, full of dark cherry and black currant notes with hints of an earthy black peppery finish. Definitely tannin forward, this wine will make you want to pause and enjoy -- sensual and round in all the right sort of ways.

To go with this wine, we choose Bonnieville Farm's Mossend Blue from South Albany, Vermont. An aged sheep's milk blue modeled on the classic French Pyrenees style blue -- dense yet crumbly, savory yet sweet, earthy and rustic with a fantastic farmsteady piquance. Sensually spicy with a round depth, the spice in this cheese will find its home with the dark red berry notes in the Old Vine Zin.

Pairing Number # 3 : Cabernet Sauvignon -- A classic Napa Valley Cab aged for 22 months in 20% new American Oak and 80 % Neutral Oak. A balanced and smooth deep dark red full of sensual roundness, hints of blackberry, and toasty oak moments, this wine is all elegance and warmth.

To go with this wine, we choose one of my absolute favorite cheeses, Tarentaise. Crafted by both Thistle Hill Farm and Spring Brook Farm, Tarentaise is a raw Jersey cow milk washed rind, cook curd aged cheese. Modeled on the classic French Alpine style cheeses like Abondance, Tarentaise is nutty, buttery, butterscotchy, caramelly, rustic, earthy and grassy.

Brooklyn Winery currently has a variety of smaller production wines on tap and a few whites available in bottles. Their wine bar on North 8th Street in Williamsburg offers a selection of their wines and is definitely worth a trip.

Brooklyn Winery
213 North 8th
Williamsburg

Day 863 : Let's begin at the beginning and rewind to Spring Brook Farms

Let's rewind a week to 6am last Friday morning when three of us piled into the car to set out on our weekend to pouring rain and thundershowers -- not the ideal driving weather that's for sure. Four hours later we crossed over the border into Vermont and the sun started shining -- this was going to be a great weekend!

Stop number one of the weekend was at Spring Brook Farms in Reading, Vermont. Before we get to their cheeses, I'd like to start with their amazing program known as Farms for City Kids. So what is it?
It is a week long program geared towards anywhere between ten and twenty-five children between the ages of eight and twelve from urban centers all over the country. During their week on the farm, the children are immersed in farm life -- in both the classroom setting and in terms of hands-on experience in the dairy barn, gardens, greenhouse, and animal barn. Over the course of their week on the farm, these children have the opportunity to see where their food comes from and learn about how it is grown and developed -- it is a chance to connect with the land and all of its bounty. In the 19 years, Farms for City Kids has been around, it has changed countless numbers of lives -- old students have gone on to be vets, farmers, doctors and more specifically due to their experience. To learn more about Farms for City Kids, click here: http://www.farmsforcitykids.org

So apart for Farms for City Kids, Spring Brook Farms produces two amazing award winning cheeses -- Tarentaise and Reading. In 2008, Spring Brook built their own cheese parlour and aging room, complete with the French style copper vats.

Their copper vat

Their production room part one and part two below

The ring molds utilized for Tarentaise

Their aging cellar

Starting out only producing Tarentaise following in the footsteps of the local Putnam's of Thistle Hill Farm who developed the original "recipe" for the cheese, Spring Brook's Tarentaise production was off and running in 2008. Tarentaise is a raw Jersey cow milk washed rind, cooked curd aged cheese. Aged for anywhere between six months and two years, Tarentaise is a nutty, buttery, butterscotchy, caramelly, rustic and earthy Alpine style cheese that is one of my all time favorite cheeses. 

Nowadays both Thistle Hill and Spring Brook produce Tarentaise and although made off the same recipe, each cheese is slightly different due to the local terroir and of course each farm's cows' milk. 

Reading is a newer cheese to the market, having only been produced for the past two to two and a half years. Modeled on the semi-soft, pliable and melting superstar, Raclette, Reading is sweet and buttery with a nice farmsteady grassy rustic bent. Aged for at least three months, this is one of the best new cheeses coming out of Vermont in the past few years. 

From Monday to Saturday, the four full time employees and others make Tarentaise  every other day in twenty-four wheel batches and Reading a few times a week with anywhere between twenty-four and twenty-eight made at one time. Milking between forty and forty-two cows currently, they have been producing cheese year round for the past three years. They sure know what they are doing as both of their cheeses are award winning. 

One of their Jersey's, Ms. Betty Boop

Overall what a wonderful way to start the trip in Vermont with a small production farm that aspires to such big goals touching so many lives through their cheeses and their Farms for City Kids program. 


Stay tuned for the rest of the Vermont stops.

Day 859: Beach time cheese

What to bring to a friend's house for a weekend at the beach?

Cheese of course! American artisanal cheeses definitely! In planning the selection of three cheeses to bring, I thought why not tap into the newly developed American artisanal focused cheese program rolled out by Artisanal. So what did I choose based on the knowledge I had about the taste preferences for my audience?

First off was Grassias hailing from Paula Lambert's Mozzarella Company in Texas. A mixed cow and goat's milk cheese wrapped in lemon grass leaves - it is light and flavorful yet aromatic, tangy and earthy. The perfect young fresh creamy cheese for a summertime get together.

Then there was Tarentaise crafted by Thistle Hill Farm in Vermont. A firm aged organic cow's milk cheese modeled on the classic French alpine style cheeses like Abondance. Tarentaise is nutty, buttery, butterscotchy, caramelly, rustic, earthy, and grassy -- an excellent partner for a glass of Cotes du Rhone or even an IPA. Tarentaise is that sort of cheese that is warm and comforting yet light and flavorful -- perfect in winter or summer months.

And lastly there was Old Chatham Shepherding Company's Ewe's Blue. Made in the traditional style with sheep's milk, this local upstate New York blue is creamy and spicy but piquant and rustic -- it can appeal to the blue cheese amateur or the blue cheese lover alike. Ewe's Blue is truly infused with its local terroir and is definitely one of the best local blue cheeses I have had.

Overall an excellent selection of American artisanal cheeses for a great beach weekend! I look forward to trying the full offerings in Artisanal's new American plan.

Day 796 : Weekday Breakfasts

After a good run in this cloudy dreary day, I decided I wanted a warming egg breakfast, a riff on Eggs in Purgatory perhaps? Something I could put on the stove to cook while getting ready? Why not?

A simple preparation starts with chopping up a handful of cherry tomatoes, half of red pepper, a scallion and some fresh basil. Toss into a pan with some EVOO, sel de la guerande, herbes de Provence, and crushed red pepper. Cook over low heat for approx fifteen minutes till the flavors have melded together. Then crack three eggs into your sauce, I like to utilize just the egg whites but it is completely your decision. Cover and cook for a few more minutes till the eggs go opaque. Then uncover and grate a generous amount of Tarentaise over the egg and skillet tomato pepper sauce. Cook for another few minutes and remove and top with a few extra basil leaves. Enjoy with a cup of coffee to get your day started off right!

Image courtesy of www.artisanalcheese.com

Tarentaise is an organic aged cow's milk cheese hailing from Vermont. Aged for at least six months, this firm, nutty, buttery, and butterscotchy cheese with rustic grassy hay notes is modeled on the classic French alpage style cheese Abondance. 

Day 726: Super Bowl Cheese Recap

Let me start off by saying Congratulations to the New York Giants! What a season it has been!

Of course I had to choose a Massachusetts cheese and a New York cheese for the game with another cheese thrown in to round things out.

So who was the contender from New York?

Kinderhook Creek of course! The first 100% sheep's milk Camembert style cheese crafted in the Hudson Valley by Old Chatham Shepherding Company. Prior to this round disc of cheesy goodness, most cheeses in this style were crafted with a blend of milks. Kinderhook has a round buttery mouthfeel with rustic nutty mushroom-y barnyardy notes. It's an approachable cheese yet one with an excellently dynamic depth of flavor profile.

And who was the contender from Massachusetts? How about my current favorite blue cheese, Great Hill Blue hailing from Marion, Massachusetts?
Spicy and piquant yet full bodied and creamy with a nice grassy finish. This is a blue cheese that appeals to the blue lovers and the blue doubters out there - it packs a punch but not too much of one to scare those who see blue cheese and run away.

A great matchup of wonderful American artisanal cheese making - how could you possibly choose just one?

To round out the cheese selection, I added one of my personal favorite Vermont cheeses - Tarentaise. Modeled on the great European aged Alpine cheeses, this firm cow's milk cheese is nutty, caramelly, and slightly butterscotchy with light hay notes. An excellent cheese that gives its European counterparts a serious run for their money.

Here's to the New York Giants!