Graindorge's film on cheese production and some notes on Sainte- Maure de Touraine

So for those who are Pont l'Eveque fans -- and you know who you are -- I ran across this film of Graindorge's production. It focusses mainly on their Livarot, although I think their Pont l'Eveque is superior.

Graindorge Village Fromager film clip

While we were in France, we deemed the Du Plessis Pont to be mighty fine, though I'm sad to say, it seems unlikely we'll see it in the US.

In other news we had a nice conversation with a cheese guy (not our usual Cheesepusher friend) at Whole Foods, but we're still quite confused on the issue of Sainte-Maure de Touraine.

Often Sainte-Maure looks like this, but see that small stick in the middle? That's supposed to help hold it all together when it gets runny. RUNNY... We had a deliciously wonderfully super-rich and runny Sainte-Maure at L'Ardoise in Paris, but have never seen such a thing since.

Can it be repeated? We've asked lots of people about this, and some have told us that the cheese gets less runny as it ages, which runs counter to the usual intuition of older => riper => runnier. We sampled some at the Whole Foods counter -- although we ultimately purchased the Metronome you see below -- and it has some of the same tang, but, see, it was that lovely texture that made us so ecstatic that we almost cleared the whole thing from the cheese plate at L'Ardoise. That's what we're looking for... If we take that cheese home and do the hold in a drawer trick will it turn into a fabulous Dali-esque drooping, melting mass? Apparently not.

He tells us (as did the cheesemonger at Le Grand Epicerie on Rue Sevres) that the cheese dries out and gets harder. He also implies that we are NEVER going to get a young enough Sainte-Maure in the US to see goopiness. Awww...man.

So I guess it'll have to be, um..... back to Paris.

A slightly obsessive Andante Dairy moment (plus Brisket!)

Okay, so here's the thing. On her website, Soyoung Scanlan of Andante Dairy says, "The consumers who prefer strong cheese may prefer it even older."

Duh.

I mean, who could possibly NOT want strong cheese?

So we're having an obsession with Andante cheeses at the moment -- but fear not, events are in motion that may bring us into an obsessive Cowgirl Creamery moment soon.

But anyhow, we bought a Metronome today. It's a cow and goat milk cheese from Andante that promises to be a toothsome little chunk. Scanlan compares it to Pouligny-Saint-Pierre from the Loire Valley in France.

Okay. We're in. It's another stop on the continuing Cheese Adventure.

Actually what we'd really like to build to is a situation where we have so many potentially goopy, runny cheeses in varying stages of ripeness in our home that we won't ever have to be without "strong cheese" at any point in the foreseeable future.

So another hostage goes into the rotter of our fridge. Stay tuned for developments.

In the mean time, we also made a super yummy Beer-Braised Beef Brisket. It's an all day cook-a-thon type dish (Although the prep is not very hard), but it's all well worth the effort.

Braised Beef Brisket

4 strips of thick sliced bacon cut into 1 inch pieces (or if you're like us and save bacon drippings for use with baking, you can just use a few tablespoons of that.)

1 2.5-3.0 lb. beef brisket trimmed and seasoned with pepper (Go big -- you won't be sorry!)

3 cups chopped onions
1.5 cups diced carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 Tbsp. minced garlic

12 sprigs parsley
4 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1 can (14 oz) beef broth
1 bottle stout beer (Big Bear Black Stout worked REALLY well, and as you can see from the photo, we got enough so there were leftovers to have with dinner.)

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp AP flour
1 Tbsp unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350F

Crisp the bacon in a large 16 quart dutch oven over medium heat. Remove bacon leaving the drippings. in the pot and increase heat to medium high.

Brown both sides of the brisket in the drippings about 5 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.

Deglaze the pot with onions, carrots, celery and garlic and cook 3 minutes.

Stir in parsley, thyme, bay and peppercorns. Return the beef to the pot.

Add the broth and beer to the pot and bring to a boil. Cover and place in the oven and braise 1-1/2 hours. After five minutes, check the pot and just make sure that you have little simmer bubbles in the liquid -- if it's bubbling too much or if it's not bubbling at all, adjust the heat accordingly.

Turn the beef over and braise an additional 1-1/2 hours or until fork tender.

Remove the meat from the broth and keep warm. Strain the broth into a saucepan, discarding solids. Bring broth to a boil.

Stir in vinegar and tomato paste. Combine butter and flour into a beurre manie (you can smush the flour and butter together with your fingers), then whisk the beurre into the broth a teaspoon at a time until it thickens and looks glossy. Simmer the sauce for 5 minutes.

We served it with smashed Yukon Golds and it was lovely comfort food. Plus there are tons of leftovers, which of course, always taste better the next day!

American Cheese and it ain't Kraft

So American cheesemaker Soyoung Scanlan is keeping up our end with a fantastically yummy little cheese called Nocturne. The rind is delish and the smoothness of the interior paste is just goshdarned tasty. Mmmmmmm....

Even Sarastro can't resist.

No, no cheese for kitties.

I know, we're so mean.

Saint Marcellin, Part Deux: Quick, a spoon!

Now that's what I'm talking about. Ten days in the rotter of our refrigerator. Faithfully aired on a daily basis. Examined carefully every time.

We can't wait any longer. The cheese squishes so temptingly when touched.

We warm in the oven in it's native terra cotta dish. It now gives way when touched with a spoon.



Oh, YEAH. Heaven in a small ceramic. Perfect for two. We completely ignore the crackers we bought for it and dive straight in with spoons.

A watched Saint Marcellin never ripens

We love the cheese man at our Whole Foods. I think he's on a personal mission to get us hooked on Italian cheeses. But before we headed over to the Robiola Langhes, I asked him for his feeling on the Saint Marcellin, which we've always loved -- plus they come in cute little earthenware dishes, "So you can put it into the oven to warm it and make it all runny..." he tells us. Runny... mmmm.

How can I get it really runny? He advises we take it out of its plastic wrap, but leave it in the dish and place into a tupperware so it has some breathing room. Then, he says, put it into the drawer for the vegetables in your fridge.

"The Rotter?" I say, because that's where we traditionally rot our vegetables such as the rest of the celery and old baby carrots.

"Yes, that's the place. It has the perfect temperature and humidity. Then just take it out every so often and let it air out a little bit. The mold will grow over the top."

Obediently, we followed all instructions and every day for a week, we've been airing out the cheese. Is it true that a watched cheese never ripens? We examine it carefully on a daily basis and always, one or the other of us will ask, "Is it time yet?"

How about now?

Well, there's a fine white mold and we were excited tonight to see a faintly orange-y tinge starting to grow. Watch this space for developments...

Meatloaf Extravaganza -- It's all about technique

So I'm in love with Cuisine At Home magazine. I loved it more when it was Cuisine Magazine maybe, but they still do a great job putting together detailed explanations of classic recipes. Meatloaf is an especially thorny issue in our house, because I love flavour, but hate meat bricks. Thud.

Here's the meatloaf we made this weekend -- Eric's comment was, "Mmmm... umm mm mmmmmmmmm-hmmm.. mmm..."

3 slices of white bread, torn into pieces
1 cup whole milk
3 eggs beaten

3 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups minced onion
1 cup pureed roma tomatoes (I used canned Marzanos)
1/2 cup minced celery

1/2 cup minced parsley (we had cilantro leftover, so I used that)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire suace
1 Tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp. black pepper

2 lb. ground chuck (80% lean)
3/4 lb. ground pork

Plus (for the topping)

2 strips diced bacon (I didn't have any on hand, so I just used bacon fat to cook with)

1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced bell pepper (red or green)
1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 cup diced Roma tomatoes (Marzanos again)
1/4 cup Dijon msutard
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp Tabasco sauce

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and combine them with milk and bread and set aside to soak.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. and prepare two 8 x 3 3/4 disposable aluminum loaf pans by poking two 1-inch holes in the bottom of the sides with a pair of scissors. This will be the way that the excess grease drains out when the meatloaf bakes. Place them on a rack set in a roasting pan (you may want to line the pan for easy cleanup) to catch the grease.

For the onion, celery, tomatoes and garlic, I basically processed them in a handy-chop till they were pracitically puree. Saute them in the butter over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool while you mash the bread mixture into a paste. Add to this the tomato-onion mixture along with the parsley, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and mix well.

With two forks, toss and stir the meat into the mixture (This makes for a lighter meatloaf overall if you don't handle it with your hands.) until it's combined.

Spoon the meat into two loaf pans, leaving at least an inch from the rim of the pan for the topping.

To make the topping, saute the bacon over a skillet over a medium high heat. Add the onion, pepper and garlic and saute for 3 minutes.Stir int he remaining topping ingredients and simmer for 3 minutes.

Spread the topping over the meatloaves, and bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until the internal temperature is 160F. Remove them from the oven and let them rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Mmmmmmm.