Day 969 : Epicerie Boulud Cheeses!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to make it to checking out the Saxelby curated cheese counter at Epicerie Boulud considering as it is less than a 5 minute walk from my apartment. Tsk, tsk, tsk!

But yesterday afternoon I stopped in to grab some cheeses for a family dinner. The selection as I knew was a mixture of small production local American cheese wonders and certain select French greats.

Looking for Pave du Nord? Or perhaps a Herve Mons aged ash ripened goat's milk cheese? Then definitely grab Ovalie Cendree. This long oval shaped cheese is just the cats' meow -- classic flavors of chalky, bright, milky, grassy citrus abound but with a warm earthy rusticness and hints of mushroomy ash. Sure your mind goes to cheeses like Valencay but don't let it stop there, Ovalie Cendree has the most unique depth to it. Looking for a straight forward morsel of 2 year aged Comte or an ooey gooey bite of Brilliat Savarin, you can find it here!

And what of our American selections? There's one of my favorite winter-time cheeses crafted by Spring Brook Farm, Reading Raclette. Rustic and earthy yet buttery and rich, perfection with a nice warming ale or medium bodied red. Staying in the firm cheese arena, there was Grafton Village's Shepsog, a cow and sheep's milk firm Vermonter of a cheese or Cumberland from Tennessee, a newish discovery for me. Maybe you are more in a washed rind mood, well then definitely pick up a morsel of Hudson Red, my favorite Hudson Valley washed rind fellow.

Albeit small, the selections are excellently curated and affordable - you cannot go wrong with any choice you make here. However, I will caution, you should know what you are looking for when you approach the cheese counter as surprisingly so, the knowledge of the cheesemongers was not very apparent nor was their usage of the right cheese knives or wrapping procedures. It is a shame as the selection is awesome but that won't stop me as I know what I want. I look forward to returning to explore other cheeses and their ever changing selection.


Epicerie Boulud
1900 Broadway

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 940 : Great right now

The other evening I stopped into Murray's in Grand Central Terminal and was looking for a nice firm local Alpine inspired cheese  -- there's something about the temperatures dropping and my desire for red wine, rustic nutty cheeses and cozy fireplaces increasing. Of course my eyes gravitated first off to the Tarentaise, one of my all time favorites. The raw Jersey cow's milk cheese crafted by both Thistle Hill and Spring Brook Farm's just screams warmth and comfort to me with its nutty, buttery, butterscotchy, caramelly and rustic notes. Nope, it was time for something different, there's always Pleasant Ridge Reserve, another one of my favorites, this Wisconsin native is modeled on the classic European great, Beaufort, but completely its own. Ohh maybe I wanted Spring Brook Farm's Reading, the first American crafted Raclette style cheese. Yes! That was it!

If you rewind the clocks to warmer temperatures and this past summer's trip to Vermont, I had the pleasure of visiting Spring Brook in Reading, Vermont. Spring Brook Farm is a functioning dairy farm along with being an educational center stimulating the farm and environmental knowledge base for inner city children nationwide. 

Reading is one of two cheeses Spring Brook makes. Newish to the market place, having only been produced for the past three years, it a sweet and buttery raw cow's milk cheese aged for at least three months. Semi-soft, pliable and melting with a round honest flavor profile full of grassy, rustic notes, it is all around comforting and fabulous on a chilly December day like today. Enjoy it with a nice local Cab Franc red from the North Fork.

Day 885 : Labor Day Weekend Picks

Gosh I cannot believe it's already the "end" of summer - it seems like yesterday the bathing suits, bottles of rose, picnic blankets and barbecue grills came out for their season. My favorite time of year when the temperatures are warm, the days are longer, the flowers are in bloom and life chugs along at a slower pace.

For the last weekend of the summer, Fromagical recommends three cheeses for this weekend's festivities whether its at a beach or in the mountains or in the city:

1. Woodcock Farm's Summer Snow - Think decadence and creamy wonder, fluffy and fantastic, this cheese is all Vermont rustic terroir inspired by the round unctuous Camembert. Perfect with a late afternoon glass of bubbles.

2. Spring Brook Farm's Reading - Rustic, earthy, and barnyardy yet sweet, grassy and warm -- the best American interpretation of the cozy Alpine superstar, Raclette. Dynamically nutty yet milky and honest, this cheese is a delight! Enjoy with a medium bodied white or even a nice IPA.

3. Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue - Hailing from the great Pacific Northwest state of Oregon, this hazelnut shell cold smoked blue is spicy and piquant yet rustic and warm with a nice nutty smokey finish. Refined and elegant yet footloose and fancy free. Great with a medium bodied red or even a nice  robust ale.

Here's to an excellent Labor Day weekend!

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.