Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Okay, so I admit that I have been completely remiss at posting a new (to me) cheese once a week, this year, as I had hoped for a series called Formaggio Friday...and it's not Friday. Oh, well. I wanted to introduce you to this cheese, in case you haven't had the pleasure. Barely Buzzed cheese. From Trader Joe's. This is a creamy, full-bodied cheese that is hand-rubbed with espresso and lavender. Yep. Two of my favorite things. We carried this to the Tin House (almost 7 miles round trip) and ate it with a pinot grigio salami and olive pugliese. Fabulous! Okay, I'll try to be better about posting our adventures is cheese-eating.

Though I have been completely remiss in trying a new cheese every Friday as I had planned for this year - Formaggio Friday - yesterday I found one at Trader Joe's that caught my eye: Elderflower Tomme. So, I bought it and served it with stuffed olives, rustic baguette, and an unfiltered wheat beer with a slice of lemon. Tommes, the story goes, are made by alpine cow herders during the winter, when milk is scarce and the nutrient concentrations in the milk markedly different. These are the same herders who make Comté and Beaufort—rugged, elastic cheeses that are crafted in huge wheels durable enough to sustain long transport down the mountain. Tommes were meant for the family versus something sold at market. As such the wheels are smaller than their summertime counterparts, they are aged for fewer months, and their interior is more creamy and fragile. Tommes tend to be grassy in flavor with an unctuous texture.  I can't say that we could really discern the elderf...

' Se prendre pour un bûcheron .' The phrase just popped into my head when I saw this cheese. He thought he was a lumberjack. What?! Where did that come from? Sort of like when I had Jake listening to Italian CDs before our trip in 2001. I remember he sat straight up in bed one night and said - with perfect pronunciation, I might add - ' Dove posso parcheggiare la macchina ?" I burst out laughing when he asked, "What did I say?!" So the CDs were sort of working. But since he wasn't going to be driving while we were there, asking where he could park the car wasn't really a useful phrase to know. ' Bûche ' means log in French and is the root word for the name of this log-shaped French goat cheese. Bûcheron is a lumberjack, I think. My French is rusty.  It's made near Sevre et Belle in the Loire Valley of France. Each slice provides a glimpse into the ripening process for this soft cheese. In the center, the crumbly, chalky...

Earlier in the week a friend had posted on my facebook wall that Pont-l'Évêque was Trader Joe's spotlight cheese this month. Thank goodness for social media and friends who know me so well! So, for this version of Formaggio Friday, I ran over and picked up a piece. And because it's National Licorice Day, I topped it with a licorice-cousin - my orange-fennel mostarda . Pont-l'Évêque is a raw, unpressed cow's-milk cheese. Usually square in shape, this cheese has a smooth, fine texture like a brie or camembert. But it is fairly pungent. The boys ate their first course silently, pondering the combination of the mostarda and the cheese. "It's okay," declared Riley, "but I don't think it's a triple creme cheese, is it?" I don't know. I'll have to look it up .  "I like Saint Andre better, Mom," asserted Dylan. Fine. More for me.

Bleus, beautiful bleus...we tried a handful of different bleus before picking a favorite. Bleus are created by introducing a mold from the genus Penicillium - either  Penicillium Roqueforti  or  Penicillium Glaucum during the cheesemaking process and an additional step in the aging process called “needling" that gives the bleus that distinctive veining. Here's what we tried... Point Reyes Blue : This was sweet with a strong punch of bleu. Rogue River Blue :  Rogue River blue cheese is wrapped in grape leaves that have been macerated in pear brandy. Yes, it is as divine as it sounds. I loved the creaminess that was dotted with some crunch though I'm still not sure what that was - exactly. It reminded me of the forest with hints of evergreen, sweet berry notes, and some musty nuttiness. Cambozola: This German cheese combines the richness of Camenbert with the sharpness of Gorgonzola.  It's one of the mildest blue cheeses and just about won my boys' ...

Dolcelatte literally means 'sweet milk' in Italian. And while the label 'sweet' is definitely applies to this bleu-veined soft Italian cheese, it's a lot more complex than that. I was inspired to augment this cheese with even more flavor layers. I served this cheese smeared on a slice of bresaola, topped with chopped macadamia nuts, and dotted with bee pollen...all atop a slice of ciabatta. Che squisito !

While this is not a new-to- me cheese, it was a new one for my caseophiles-in-training! If you've never tried Humboldt Fog by Cypress Grove Chevre , get thee to a cheese shop. Stat. Click to read the great story behind the company . Tangy, but subtle, the real treat is the distinctive layer of edible vegetable ash sandwiched between the creamy goat cheese. While the younger cheese boasts light citrus notes, as it matures, the aroma grows more herbaceous and floral. I served this with fresh grapes, a fennel seed salami, and some sparking wine.

I am completely remiss in my Formaggio Fridays postings. Sorry! When I teach an elective class at the boys' school, everything else goes on the back burner. Class is over, so now I can catch up! When we were in Seattle this summer, we tasted cheese at Beecher's  in the Pike's Place Market. So, you can imagine how tickled I was to come across a block of their cheese right here in California. No Woman is a Beecher cheese with Jamaican jerk spices folded into it along with caramelized bits of sugar. Wow. I found myself humming Bob Marley's song as I sliced into this... Ev'rything's gonna be alright So woman, no cry No, no, woman, No, woman, no cry Oh, my little sister, don't shed no tears No, woman, no cry Beecher's website suggests melting this onto pulled pork or pairing it with dried mangos and almonds. I served it with toasted ciabatta slices and an unfiltered wheat beer. 

Whoops. I completely missed last Friday's cheese post. Sorry. Sage Derby is a mild variety of Derby cheese that is mottled green and semi-hard. The marbling is formed either by mixing sage leaves into the curd before it is pressed or by the addition of "green curd" from spinach juice. The sage lends the cheese an almost minty flavor. I paired this with slices of a dry salami and an oatmeal stout.

I noticed this a few weeks ago, but had other cheeses on my shopping list. Finally, after a few Twitter exchanges with fellow foodie, Twitter pal, and fromage lover Raul N., it was down to the wire and The Cheese Shop was almost sold out. We were warned that there was one round left. So I headed down there and - just in case he got there after I did - I made sure to leave a piece. This cheese hails from the Middle Peninsula in Virginia, made by the Bonnyclabber Cheese Co. on the Sullivan's Pond Farm. Semi-soft, this cheese is wrapped in corn husks that have been macerated in White Lightnin moonshine and is aged for over two months. Since I'd never had the cheese - or moonshine - I decided to do some reading. Interesting history! 'White Lightnin' is a brand name of moonshine which was historically called white lightning, mountain dew, hooch, or white whiskey. In the 1600s colonists used their excess corn to distill a clear corn whiskey. In 1920 Prohibition was p...

In France, this is called mimolette - or Boule de Lille - as it is traditionally produced around the city of Lille, France. This is a Dutch version which is called commissiekaas . The story goes that King Louis XIV was searching for a native French product to replace the very popular Dutch Edam. To differentiate it from Edam, he had it colored orange with annatto seeds. Dutch cheesemakers took it right back and created their own "mimolette." Made with cow's milk, it has a grey crust which is the result of cheese mites intentionally introduced to the surface of the cheese! As it ages, its taste changes. A young  commissiekaas tastes vaguely like parmesan and it somewhat soft. I prefer it with a harder texture and a stronger flavor. This piece, that I picked up at the Cheese Shop, reminded me of hazelnuts. Though we savored this in small chunks, I'm thinking about getting another piece and doing something with chocolate and hazelnuts. If I do, you'll see i...

This was another find from The Cheese Shop. I went in to get a selection of cheeses for my Culinary Adventurers class and was introduced to this cheese by a very helpful employee. Thank you! Stokes Point is the most southern tip of King Island, in Australia, and the closest point to northwestern Tasmania. King Island Dairy Stokes Point Smoked Cheddar is naturally smoked with Tasmanian hardwood. Matured for nine months, the golden rind created during smoking acts as a natural preservative. This cheese is amazingly unique. I have, literally, never tasted anything like it. Salty. Smoky. It reminds me of smoked salmon. My students' reactions varied. One said, "delicious, awesome, strong"; another said, "weird and fishy."

One of my new year's culinary ambitions was to try a new kind of cheese each week. That's 52 different kinds of cheese. Yes, my name is Camilla and I am addicted to cheese. So, when we went to the Cheese Shop last weekend, I tried a cheese out of Piedmont, Italy. It's a mixture of sheep, goat and and cow milk. Then it's aged 18-24 months and wrapped in tobacco leaves. The Cheese Shop labeled it as Occelli's Cuise, but I found it called Cusie in Foglie di Tabacco by Occelli. I still don't know what Cusie means. It might be an Italian dialect. Maybe?!? This cheese was potent. Not sure that I could really discern the tobacco flavor; it was more herbacious and bitter than tobacco-like, in my mind. But I liked it. We bought just a small amount - since it was almost $60 per pound. Thankfully Occelli makes all sorts of interesting cheeses...they'll be my go-to for this Formaggio Friday project for at least half a dozen weeks. Libation pairing: A Chocola...