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Pineapple Sorbet doesn’t distract from Cheese

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We just had to try out the new Kitchenaid ice cream attachment. We made pineapple sorbet–mainly because the pineapple was right. And if you have a cheese course in the same meal as a rich ice cream, it’s a bit too much in one meal. Next time we try a cheese ice cream…

The Old Man Highlander was from Cowgirl Creamery, but the others from Calvert Woodley:

Campo de Montalban is a Spanish cheese made from a mixture of cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk. This cheese is made in the region of la Manga and looks very similar to Manchego in texture and appearance, both have light to dark, waxy herringbone rinds and light butter colored interiors. In fact Campo de Montalban was considered a Manchego until 1985.

Etorki is a hard cheese made in the French Basque region of the Pyrénées from the milk of black-headed sheep (sic.)

Pecorino is always a favorite from Italy.


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Untraditional Topped Flat Breads at PS7 with Cheese

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Started out at PS7 in D.C. (777 I ST NW; blocks from Chinatown metro) for happy hour. The bar is probably the quietest room in the restaurant, and they have good happy hour drink specials — and surprisingly appetizers that included crispy dough and cheeses:

Untraditional Topped Flat Breads:

Mad Chicken: Buffalo chicken, celery, carrot, blue cheese; (nice and spicy sauce).

Sundried & Roasted: Eggplant, pesto, sundried tomatoes, feta.

(The Artisan Cheese Selection with house made accompaniments included: Red Hawk, Cow, California; Midnight Moon, Goat,  Holland; Barely Buzzed, Cow, Utah; Cashel Blue, Cow, Ireland — but since they kept their red wine too cold, I assumed they treated cheese selections the same way.

I was there with K for a Balvenie’s single malt scotch whiskey tasting. The 21-year-old stuff was good, but I liked the feature the best: Available in very limited quantities, the new addition to The Balvenie 17 Year Old range is finished in casks that once held Madeira Wine.

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New Cheese Accessories

It was so nice to get a hostess gift on Columbus Day from the As.  We didn’t have a cheese tray this size, nor did we have the Oxo cheese slicer. (sturdy like other Oxo products; dishwasher safe; but you do need to have the cheese nice and cold — not eating temperature).

For Saturday night dinner, I decided buy everything at the Kensington Safeway, and they do have a fairly large grocery store cheese selection — there were some aged cheeses just sitting in the case for $22 a pound. I chose: Aloute Baby Brie, because I had a rebate up to $6.49 through the end of 2009. For a grocery store brie, it was fine tasting, but not particularly creamy — could much more see it as a baked brie rather than room temp on the cheese tray.

I also got  Stripey Jack–Five layers of cheese in one, giving a striking display of red and white layers of traditional regional English cheeses–just because I knew it would look pretty on the cheese tray. Red Leicester, Double Gloucester, white and yellow Cheddar and Lancashire. Last: Denmark’s finest blue cheese — crumbly and good for salad, but probably not the best cheese plate selection.

New Cheese Tray
New Cheese Tray
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Pizza for Columbus Day

The A’s were in town for Columbus Day, so we had to do Italian. One of the six pizzas: Spinacholi — spinach, broccoli, fresh mozzarella cheese. M has the crust down just right. All the veggies from the local farmer’s market, and the cheese (and prosciutto from the Cleveland Park Special Pizza — prosciutto, mushrooms, spinach, mozzarella) were from Vace’s. Turkish Coffee included a period of calm before craziness and another giraffe.

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Old Man Highlander with Fresh Figs from NC

Figs n Cheese
Figs n Cheese

Old Man Highlander is a Gouda-style cheese produced in 8 lb wheels and naturally ripened for 6-9 months from Calkins Creamery, Honesdale, PA. I picked it up with a friend, KK, who had never been in Cowgirl Creamery DC. Nathan, our cheesemonger, could not have been nicer. KK loved the place, and I got my CounterCulture coffee, too, along with this cheese of the week (though still $24.55 a pound — KK didn’t know there was cheese that cost that much). But it was hard to say what I liked better — the cheese or the fresh figss WWT brought from North Carolina. They might be a bit better with a soft cheese like blue or brie, but, mmm… still very tasty — soft figs with a bit of hard cheese.

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Cheese at Dino’s

Dino First Course
Dino First Course

Buffalo mozzarello

Lots of cheese
Lots of cheese

Bartagnoli Pecorino Taula
milk: Italian sheep
Bartagnoli Pecorino Taula
milk: Italian sheep
Fontina Val D’Aosta Appennina
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Asiago Vecchio
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Gorgonzola Staglionato
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Eborianato di Pecora con Milele
milk: Italian sheep

This is tonight’s selection of cheese from Dino, a local Italian restaurant.  They extended Restaurant Week until Sept. 13th.  Additionally, they had a “No Corkage Fee” tonight, plus they gave us limoncello at the end of dinner.  The service was great, being attentive though not annoying.

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DC 2009 Beer and Cheese Week

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It’s Beer week in DC, and we thought about attending a cheese/beer tasting at Cafe StEx.  They were featuring Brooklyn Beer (a favorite of  TT and I) and Cowgirl Creamery cheese.  We’ve mentioned free tastings before and we were up to checking out the bar.  Last night we discovered it would cost $20 each, and so between the time and money, we could create our own DC beer week…and so we did.

I walked over to Cowgirl after work with ideas of what to buy in hand.  I tried many and ended up with 4 (at least 2 more than planned).  The “cow” cheese ended up being the Bellwether Farms’ Carmoday from Sonoma but made from Jersey milk.  It’s “a firm cow milk cheese with buttery intensity.”  I moved to the “sheep” cheese next, and picked another from Bellwether Farms.  Pepato is a cheese with peppercorns in it, and is salty like a Manchego with the spice of the pepper.  Finally, I was convinced to round out my cheese plate with a “goat” cheese.  Midnight Moon is essentially a Gouda from Holland.  The Goat is not overwhelming so W and I agree it’s good.

Not so finally, I was there, and the infamous Pt. Reyes blue was there, so I was “forced” to buy the standard quarter pound.  This year has a slightly different flavor, as it’s a bit more harsh.  We’ve learned though, different seasons produce different cheese.   Maybe we should just buy 3 pounds of it every winter.  The Buttermilk Blue from Wisconsin is in the running for “Top Blue” cheese these days but I’m told the Pt. Reyes has a Reserve (we are yet to find or taste).

Tonight’s cheeses were great all around and are suggested if looking for a variety of cheeses that have good flavor and are not overwhelming.  Oh…and Pumpkin beer is already out in select stores, so buy it while you can!

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new cheesemonger in Alexandria

zamorano and buttermilk blue
zamorano and buttermilk blue

The new cheese store in Alexandria opened recently. It is La Fromagerie, about half way between US1 and the metro stop.

Zamorano
milk: Spanish sheep

Very much like Manchego, but aged longer and thus a bit harder.

Buttermilk Blue
milk: Wisconsin Jersey and Holstien cows
maker:Roth Kase

A very good blue cheese. MS said it was second to Pt. Reyes Blue. It was winner of the American Cheese Society “Best of Show” award in 1999.