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| The BEST way to use leftover cheese: Fromage Fort |
One of October challenges for the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassadors (I'm the Monterey #FRD2014 rep!) is to...
Use leftovers.
My family eats leftovers all the time. They just object to them looking exactly the same as the first time they ate them. Weird. I know. And I hate wasting food. So, let's talk revamping, reshaping, repurposing, and rejoicing.
If you have leftover vegetables that are about to turn, or you are getting more - say from a weekly CSA delivery - and you need to make room in your crisper, a vegetable frittata is quick and easy to do. Click for my Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Frittata.
If you have leftover, cooked grains, form them into cakes. Savory, delicious cakes. Click for inspiration - Quinoa Crabcakes, Forbidden Rice Cakes, and Risotto Cakes with Mamey Sauce.
But the recipe I am going to (re)share is what you can do with leftover cheese! Leftover cheese? Is there such a thing? Well, in the event that you have some - from a party perhaps - this is an easy and tasty treat.
The Ultimate Cheese Repurposing: Fromage Fort
Fromage fort means 'strong cheese' in French and it's the ultimate way of repurposing leftover cheese. We had several orphaned bits of cheese from recent parties, including a honey-goat's milk gouda; a coconut milk gouda; Saint-André, a French triple crème cow's milk cheese; P'tit Basque, a sheep's milk cheese; Cambozola, a cow's milk cheese that is an alluring marriage of a French soft-ripened triple cream cheese and an Italian Gorgonzola. To that I added some bleu cheese and feta crumbles and a dollop of marscarpone.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb cheese remnants
- 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced
- pat of butter
- 1/4 C dry white wine (I used an off-dry pinot gris)
Procedure
Put your cheese pieces in the bowl of a food processor or blender. In a small skillet, saute the leeks in a pat of butter until it is softened and translucent. Add the leeks to the cheese.
Add 1/8 C wine to the cheese-leek mixture and pulse to process. Slowly add the remaining liquid to the cheese. Blend, again, until it becomes creamy, but not too soft. Spoon the cheese into small jars until ready to use.
Fromage fort may be served cold or warm. I love spreading it on baguette for an easy appetizer or snack.
Add 1/8 C wine to the cheese-leek mixture and pulse to process. Slowly add the remaining liquid to the cheese. Blend, again, until it becomes creamy, but not too soft. Spoon the cheese into small jars until ready to use.
Fromage fort may be served cold or warm. I love spreading it on baguette for an easy appetizer or snack.
What's your favorite revamped, reshaped,
or repurposed leftover dish?
I wish I was better at repurposing leftovers. Since my family doesn't balk at eating the same thing two nights in a row, I never honed this skill. But maybe I will try to do it now and then. I'm really liking the fromage fort. I always have odds and ends of cheeses in my fridge :)
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