I hope all you ladies and gents had a good return to the workplace today after a lovely long weekend. Instead of providing you all with a recipe that involves the contestants today, I thought I would provide you with a great Summery side dish recipe to go with your veggie or regular burger. But before we get to that, shall we unveil the results??
In my opinion, of these cheeses there is a clear cut winner, however you may not agree with me. So much of food, cheese, and wine pairing really is so much about your own personal taste preferences so please feel free to disagree, there is nothing wrong with it! Let's discuss my choices and I'd love to hear feedback on your choices:
1. Contestant Number # 2: Pecorino Tartufello - Decadent, special, and truly meant for a celebration, this is not a cheese that belongs paired with a burger, veggie or regular. The flavors in this cheese will overwhelm anything it is paired with. Granted, when heated, it does develop a richer more dynamic flavor profile, making it into a big bodied cheese. However, if heated, it really strictly should be featured on its own or with a few herbs sandwiched between either a Ciabatta or a baguette, nothing with too much flavor or richness on its own, this cheese can easily support the crustiest and blandest breads. You definitely wouldn't want to opt for bland, but simple is the way to go when pairing this cheese.
2. Contestant Number #3: Smokey Blue - A delish and uniquely smoked cheese, I think it also overwhelms the tastes of the veggie or regular burger. As this cheese gets melted, its smokey characteristics are brought more to the forefront, coming hand in hand with the piquant-ness of the blue cheese -- each getting significantly stronger with the rising of the cheese's temperature. I find that the delicate flavors this cheese exhibits when at room temperature are lost somewhat when heated. On the other hand, some people find that the smokey-ness is too much when paired with a grilled burger. However, I know that there are a great many people who would love to top their burger with this cheese, some roasted onions, and bacon, for example; I'm just not one of them. Worth a shot, who knows, you might surprise yourself here!
3. Contestant Number # 1 : Ossau Iraty - My favorite cheese to top a veggie burger -- it is simple yet complex; it will not overwhelm the burger itself, but will complement it and even dress it up in a way that a Kraft single never could. When heated, this cheese takes on a new persona -- it has a significant depth to it, full of hay, nuttiness, barnyardy-ness, and even a gamey-ness coupled with the quintessential rich, buttery-ness of any lovingly crafted sheep's milk cheese. This cheese comes to life when heated and that my friends is why I think it is this week's winner.
So let's get to the recipe to accompany your burger, sound good?
When I think of summer time and barbecues, I think of corn, so I thought to accompany our burger today we would do a fantastic little corn salad, simple, easy to prepare, and utterly delish.
Let's get going:
Steam four ears of corn and shave off all the kernels. Next up take fifteen to twenty fresh sugar snaps, great for their brilliant crunch and dice thinly. Steam one full zucchini and one summer squash, dice both of these up and toss together. Add some diced chives, scallions, and a little bit of fresh parsley for a fresh herbal side to the salad. Next a spritz of lemon to keep the entire mix upbeat. Now here's the turning point, I think adding some olive oil, garlic, and basil poached shrimp adds a fantastic oomph to the salad and I recommend it. However if you don't like shrimp, don't include here. I like to add, depending on the number of guests you are having, around a dozen shrimp to the salad, diced or kept whole, however you see fit. Of course I couldn't provide you a recipe without cheese right and the cheese here will provide the perfect amount of salt to add to the salad for those hot summery days. I tend to think that ricotta salata is the perfect cheese for this salad, simple yet flavorful and a great cheese to bring out the nuances in the veggies and shrimp. Now toss all together and maybe add a drizzle of olive oil and some freshly ground pepper and a pinch of salt. Enjoy this with your burger. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!
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