Gosh, Fromagical has been having lots of new cheese crushes as of late -- new local and regional cheesy discoveries is always a good thing! This discovery also hails from Pennsylvania, more specifically Yellow Springs Farm in Chester Springs, PA. Yellow Springs Farm is both a plant nursery and a goat cheese dairy -- an interesting mixture, right? In fact, Yellow Springs is a sustainable farm that aims to conserve and re-establish the "native landscape" bringing the local plants and environment back to life and in turn allowing their goats to graze in the ideal native landscape.
Yellow Springs Farm produces a repertoire of approximately thirteen cheeses ranging from young fresh goat's milk cheeses to raw aged cheeses to cheeses infused with spices and herbs but the most fantastic of their cheeses if you ask me is Red Leaf.
Red Leaf is a semi-firm goat's milk cylindrical disc that has been wrapped and consequently aged in the farm's Sycamore tree leaves that have been soaked in red wine. Bright ivory white on the interior, this cheese is full of classic bright, crisp, citrusy, goaty notes but with the most fantastic earthy, nutty, rustic, red wine nuances from the red wine soaked Sycamore leaves. An elegant marriage of flavor nuances that delights!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Day 936 : It's that time of year again...
As the temperatures drop, my mind drifts to red wine, fire places, cozy comforters, movies, roasted veggies, fondue and clementines. Clementines are in season from late October till February and there is something absolutely fabulous about the bright crisp citrusy-ness of a clementine on a bitterly cold winter day, makes your mind wander to warmer weather and sandy beaches.
So on this rainy / snowy eve, I thought I would propose a simple salad celebrating clementines to make your mind wander to warmer days.
3 - 4 clementines
1 bunch of arugula
1/2 cup of roasted pecans
1/3 cup of Pommegrante seeds
1/3 cup of dried Cranberries
1/3 - 1/2 pound of crumbled Nevat cheese
Homemade Vinaigrette - EVOO, Dijon Mustard, Shallot, Drizzle of Orange Juice,
Salt and Black Pepper to taste.
Nevat is a Spanish pasteurized bloomy rind goat's milk cheese that is semi-firm and dense. Bright, clean and milky with a slightly citrus bent and a smooth sweet finish. Less crumbly than a feta style cheese and more crumbly than a goat's milk cheese yet less creamy than a Brie or Camembert style bloomy rinded cheese. Perfect for salads!
A simple preparation of all of your ingredients topped with your homemade vinaigrette.
Monday, November 26, 2012
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
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
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Day 934 : A post Thanksgiving Pairing
We got a little side tracked with our Thanksgiving cheese pairings last week but that most certainly does not mean that we cannot resume today with a post Thanksgiving cheese pairing that will take you through the end of the Fall into the Winter, right?
For this pairing, I've chosen one of my absolute favorite local cheeses -- Cooperstown Cheese's Jersey Girl Colby. Crafted with milk from Worcester, New York's Autumn Valley Farm, this raw cow's milk Colby is round, buttery, and creamy. Big and bold, the cheese boasts hints of grassy, earthy, and rustic notes which make this a fantastic late Fall cheese.
Autumn Valley Farm is a strictly grass fed farm meaning that Jersey Girl is only made in the spring and summer months when the cows have available grass to ingest and enjoy. Giving way to the yellowish color of the paste and a dynamic depth of flavor profile, this is a cheese that is very dependent on seasonality in the most fantastic of ways.
So what to serve with this cheese?
How about Qupe Syrah hailing from California's Central Coast?
A classic Central Coast Syrah - a medium bodied red boasting an elegant balance of fruit and spice and acidity -- full of dark red berry fruit and black pepper nuances, this is a perfect companion to our cheese. The round smoothness of the wine will find its counterpart in the round, butteriness of the wine and the rustic earthy notes of the cheese will be complemented by the fruity, spicy, and peppery nuances of the wine.
Fromagical hopes that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!
Day 933 : Brunch / Lunch at Print
Fromagical hopes everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend and apologizes about her silence. Stay tuned today for lots of catch up! So lets get right to it!
Located on 11th avenue and 48th street in no-man's land of car dealerships is the Ink 48 hotel, opened approximately two years ago, this hotel is a hidden gem -- rooftop bar views of the Hudson in warmer months at Press lounge and farm to table cuisine in their lobby restaurant at Print. Due to its location, both Print and Press seem to function right below the radar in a good way.
Walking into Print, you are greeted with a warm and inviting room full of natural touches. The menu is a celebration of farm to table cuisine from the region.
To start off, we split their Fall Vegetable Salad which a melange of carrots, parsnips, romanesco cauliflower, radishes, endive, and radicchio. Light yet flavorful, this truly was a celebration of Fall's bounty.
Then we split their frittata, egg whites instead for us, with goat's cheese, roasted tomatoes, basil pesto, and a mixed green salad served with grilled bread. A classic combination of flavors done well with just the right amount of tangy citrusy brightness from the goat's milk cheese with a nice aromatic herbaceous-ness from the basil pesto and a juicy fruity forwardness from the tomatoes.
We also split their stuffed carnival squash with roasted sunchokes, hen of the woods mushrooms, chestnuts, and seasonal vegetables served in a truffle sauce. Sound a little bit like an extension of our salad? Perhaps right? Our first reaction was wow!
Located on 11th avenue and 48th street in no-man's land of car dealerships is the Ink 48 hotel, opened approximately two years ago, this hotel is a hidden gem -- rooftop bar views of the Hudson in warmer months at Press lounge and farm to table cuisine in their lobby restaurant at Print. Due to its location, both Print and Press seem to function right below the radar in a good way.
Walking into Print, you are greeted with a warm and inviting room full of natural touches. The menu is a celebration of farm to table cuisine from the region.
To start off, we split their Fall Vegetable Salad which a melange of carrots, parsnips, romanesco cauliflower, radishes, endive, and radicchio. Light yet flavorful, this truly was a celebration of Fall's bounty.
Then we split their frittata, egg whites instead for us, with goat's cheese, roasted tomatoes, basil pesto, and a mixed green salad served with grilled bread. A classic combination of flavors done well with just the right amount of tangy citrusy brightness from the goat's milk cheese with a nice aromatic herbaceous-ness from the basil pesto and a juicy fruity forwardness from the tomatoes.
We also split their stuffed carnival squash with roasted sunchokes, hen of the woods mushrooms, chestnuts, and seasonal vegetables served in a truffle sauce. Sound a little bit like an extension of our salad? Perhaps right? Our first reaction was wow!
And that was definitely due to the presentation! The mushrooms, sunchokes, and seasonal vegetables were absolutely lovely but we found the squash itself to be needing to be dialed up in terms of its flavor profile somewhat -- perhaps a little more herbs here and a little more roasting there. But overall, when enjoyed all together in one bite, this vegetarian celebration of Fall's bounty came together nicely and boy was it beautiful to look at.
Looking for a nice quiet place to grab a bite on the far west side, this is your place. Perhaps you're going to see a Broadway play and you wanted to have dinner before out of the hussel and bussel of the theatre district or have brunch before heading down to Chelsea -- Print is a lovely option.
Print Restaurant @ the Ink 48 Hotel
653 11th Avenue
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Day 932 : Thanksgiving
Are you one of the many heading to the airport to get on a plane to head home to loved ones far away? Or maybe you're getting into the car to drive to your favorite aunt's house? Maybe you're hopping on the subway to your close friend's apartment? Are you hosting and are currently in the kitchen baking up a storm?
Any way you look at it -- hopefully you will be spending Fromagical's favorite holiday with family and friends. It's a day to be with your loved ones and to give thanks.
So on this Thanksgiving Eve, Fromagical wants to thank you all for taking the time out of your busy days to read my cheese musings and wants to wish each and everyone of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Any way you look at it -- hopefully you will be spending Fromagical's favorite holiday with family and friends. It's a day to be with your loved ones and to give thanks.
So on this Thanksgiving Eve, Fromagical wants to thank you all for taking the time out of your busy days to read my cheese musings and wants to wish each and everyone of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Day 931 : The Smith Lincoln Center
Location : 63rd and Broadway, in the old Josephina space, kind of diagonally across the street from Lincoln Center and down the block from the Boulud's, that is Bar, Epicerie, and Sud. Opened just over a week ago, branch number three of the casual American brasserie / gastro-pub that originated in the East Village. Think that local neighborhoody gastro bistro in the Marais or even in the 10th arrondissement but situated on the corner of 63rd and Broadway.
The menu is a melange of soups, salads, entrees, pastas, burgers, and the such. Elevated gastro pub food in a fun yet casual and lively environment. A nice selection of wines, cocktails and beers as well, if you fancy a tipple.
So what did we have?
We split their Burrata appetizer served with homemade pesto, fried red peppers, tomato jam and toasted ciabatta. This was delicious and sumptuous burrata -- luscious, creamy, and sensually fabulous. Just the way Burrata should be.
We also split their Tuna Tartar appetizer served with jalapenos and black sesame. Tangy and flavorful, this was a clean and simple interpretation of a classic.
Lastly we split a side of their brussels sprouts which were lovely. Confession - I am having a love affair with brussels sprouts right now. Well, lets be clear, every year when late Fall rolls around, my mind goes to roasted brussels sprouts, there's just something so satisfying about them -- rustic and comforting yet vegetal and fabulous. They bring a smile to my face and at the Smith, they did just so.
Overall, a selection of small tastes of their menu which were quite tasty. I look forward to returning to try a more extensive selection of their dishes.
The Smith Lincoln Center location has the perfect downtown meets uptown feel. Full of bubbly chatter and crowds of people, it is exactly what the neighborhood needs if you ask me.
The Smith
1900 Broadway
NYC
The menu is a melange of soups, salads, entrees, pastas, burgers, and the such. Elevated gastro pub food in a fun yet casual and lively environment. A nice selection of wines, cocktails and beers as well, if you fancy a tipple.
So what did we have?
We split their Burrata appetizer served with homemade pesto, fried red peppers, tomato jam and toasted ciabatta. This was delicious and sumptuous burrata -- luscious, creamy, and sensually fabulous. Just the way Burrata should be.
We also split their Tuna Tartar appetizer served with jalapenos and black sesame. Tangy and flavorful, this was a clean and simple interpretation of a classic.
Lastly we split a side of their brussels sprouts which were lovely. Confession - I am having a love affair with brussels sprouts right now. Well, lets be clear, every year when late Fall rolls around, my mind goes to roasted brussels sprouts, there's just something so satisfying about them -- rustic and comforting yet vegetal and fabulous. They bring a smile to my face and at the Smith, they did just so.
Overall, a selection of small tastes of their menu which were quite tasty. I look forward to returning to try a more extensive selection of their dishes.
The Smith Lincoln Center location has the perfect downtown meets uptown feel. Full of bubbly chatter and crowds of people, it is exactly what the neighborhood needs if you ask me.
The Smith
1900 Broadway
NYC
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