Day 666 : SCS Version 10.0, Dispatch #4 - Smoked Cheeses

For our last and final Maine and Greece dispatch, I thought we would focus on smoked cheeses from each locale. Smoked cheeses are excellent with darker beers and bigger red wines as the temperatures begin to drop.

Hailing from Silvery Moon Creamery in Westbrook, Maine is their Applewood Smoked Mozzarella. Their mozzarella is crafted in the traditional manner and here it is cold smoked with applewood from the cheesemaker's grandfather's orchard. Cold smoking simply means that the cheese has been smoked at temperatures ranging from 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit infusing the cheese in this case with lightly smoked flavors and a residual apple-y sweetness. Combined with the luscious creaminess of a fresh mozzarella cheese, the smokiness will add a dynamic depth of flavor to the cheese. Great enjoyed on a baguette with a nice IPA or cooked into a rustic decadent mac n' cheese paired with a medium bodied red wine.

And what of our Greek counterpart? How about Metsovone?

Hailing from the Metsovo region in Northwestern Greece, this smoked pasta filata or stretched curd cheese is traditionally crafted with cow's milk. Occasionally it is produced with a combination of goat and cow's milk but most often you find it crafted with cow's milk. The cheese is crafted into rolls and hung from the ceiling to help develop the sharp biting flavors that bring the cheese to life. Semi firm with a nice buttery feel and a smoky fermented rustic finish, this cheese is great served as part of a Greek meze with a nice glass of red wine.

Day 665 : Cheese plate at the Lambs Club

The Lambs Club is the chic, retro influenced restaurant and lounge area in the Chatwal Hotel on 44th Street between 6th and 7th avenues named for the actors' club that once occupied the same space. In case you aren't familiar, the original namesake Lambs Club considered itself America's first professional theatrical club. The restaurant and the lounge area sure do have that feel of old Hollywood glamour, harkening back to the era of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

Upstairs is a comfortable lounge area with excellent cocktails and a nice bar snacks menu. Last night while sipping on a Belvedere dirty martini I had the pleasure of sampling their warm roasted rosemary dusted nuts and their cheese plate and at $13 for three cheeses, this was a pretty good deal. The nuts were the perfect blend of salty and savory with a nice herbaceous aromatic finish, great with a cocktail. The cheese selections seem to change depending on the mood and last night featured a Morbier, a Manchego, and a Roquefort with toasted baguette slices and a homemade fig compote. A simple straight forward cheese plate done well and a nice accompaniment.

Go for a cocktail and to relieve that old world glamour that we don't get enough of these days and stay for some food.

The Lambs Club
132 West 44th Street
NYC

Day 664: Happy Repeal Day!

Repeal Day in case you didn't know was the day 77 years ago when Prohibition was overturned. This day changed the American world of liquor -- from wine to beer to cider to harder beverages, innovation on the alcohol side was about to restart. And look at where we are today......

Let's just imagine what would have happened if the same thing had happened with cheese...well in a way it somewhat is to this day, right? Think about the regulations surrounding young American raw milk cheeses available for sale.

But instead of going into depth about that, on Repeal Day, I recommend you get a nice chunk of Roquefort, a French cheese that has always struggled with American cheese regulations and celebrate your freedom of being able to purchase this decadently creamy and spicy blue cheese. With your Roquefort, don't forget to grab your favorite alcoholic beverage and celebrate Repeal Day! Sure you could go to the 1920s party at Employees Only if you were feeling like it as well.

Day 663: Last catchup for the day....an unlikely place for Parmesan

This afternoon I decided to play a little experiment that I think worked out quite excellently, a bit unusual but delish. I was in the mood to bake a savory pumpkin bread but decided that I simply did not want this bread to be sweet as I feel the tendency is for pumpkin breads to be sweet so why not add some Greek Yogurt for that tangy citrusy creamy bent but without the sweetness of say Ricotta or Mascarpone but what about a bit of the melted cheese "je ne sais quoi" decadence - I'll add some grated Parmesan to dial up the caramelly nutty notes of the bread which will work excellently with the pumpkin, perhaps I'll add some rosemary for a nice herbal aromatic side of the bread. Yes it sounds a tad bit unusual but it turned out really well. So here's what was utilized:

1 can of canned pumpkin
2 cups of brown rice flour
1/3 cup of Greek Yogurt
Pinch of Baking Soda & Baking Powder
3 egg whites
1 full egg
Sea Salt
1/3 cup of buttermilk
1 cup of grated Parmesan with extra to sprinkle on top
Fresh Rosemary
Black Pepper
1 diced up clove of garlic
EVOO

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the wet ingredients into one bowl, whisk together. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Combine both together, whisk till nicely mixed. Coat your bread baking pan with EVOO and pour mixture into the pan, top with extra grated cheese, sea salt and rosemary. Bake for approximately thirty minutes or until golden brown. Pull out and enjoy with a nice glass of Pear Cider. Yum!

Day 662: Sunday Grilled Cheese

Wanting to relax on this Sunday and have a simple grilled cheese to go with a nice dark beer, perhaps like a pint of Brooklyn Brown Ale?

Grab a nice Sullivan Street Ciabatta, a hunk of Consider Bardwell's Dorset, some red seedless grapes, and a red onion. Dorset is a fabulous raw cow's milk washed rind cheese with a round creamy mouthfeel and a fantastic washed rind stink.

Slice two thick slices of ciabatta, in between place a hunk of Dorset and a few sliced red seedless grapes and a few slivers of red onion for an aromatic kick. The carbonation of the beer will cut right through the weightiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the grapes will find its bitterness in the beer. The rustic farmsteady-ness of the cheese will find its partner in the earthy malty notes of the beer. A sensory awakening grilled cheese for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Day 661 : Harbison

Slowly playing catch up -- been a long week folks and I apologize....one catch up today and two tomorrow....

From the people who brought you Constant Bliss, here is Harbison from Jasper Hill in Greensboro Vermont. A bark wrapped, bloomy rind semi-aged cow's milk cheese that is wonderfully creamy and round. A truly local product -- even the bark is sourced from the trees on Jasper Hill's property. Milky and buttery yet rustic and farmsteady with those classic bloomy rind nice mushroomy notes. You cannot go wrong bringing this cheese as a hostess gift over the holiday season, it's festive, unique, and delish. You can even throw in a bottle of Prosecco or another bubbly if you're feeling like it.

Image courtesy of www.cellarsatjasperhill.com

Day 660 : How to Save / How to Splurge Dispatch #39

Looking for a fabulous cheese to splurge on to pair with a nice bottle of bubbly to ring in the holiday season?
Well look no further than the Swiss shining star of the season -- Vacherin Mont d'Or -- only available from October till April. Crafted in the Jura Valley with winter cow's milk, this soft cheese is wrapped in a round of local spruce. The usage of winter milk means that the cows are only allowed to eat straw and indoor food, nothing from grazing in the mountains at or above 2,297 feet. Soft and running with nutty, hay notes and a warmth and roundness of flavor that makes this cheese a special holiday treat that you can't resist. At $39.99 a round at Murray's, this sure is a seasonable splurge that you won't be disappointed you indulged in!

Image courtesy of http://www.murrayscheese.com/