Kerry Gold aged Cheddar with Irish Whiskey

Infused with the robust flavor of whiskey, Kerry Gold’s rich and creamy Aged Cheddar has unique undertones of smooth, woody and nutty taste of pure Irish Whiskey. Entrenched in the history and traditions of Ireland, Cheddar and whiskey are now together in one spirited Irish grass fed cow’s milk cheese. The Cheddar is sharp with an acidity that rides up the sides of your tongue and the finish is long.  The texture is fudge-like and chewy, with a buttery, nutty bite that the whiskey only improves.

Kerry Gold cheeses are made at a Co-op owned company that is owned by its farmer members.  The milk comes from grass fed cows from a number of dairies.  The cows are free to roam in the fresh air and feed of the lush pastures of tender grass.  The milk produced from this environment is rich in beta-carotene.

This cheese turns into an excellent mac n’cheese and an even better cheese sauce atop potatoes, cauliflower or cabbage.

Pairs well with dark Ales or a robust Zinfandel

Cheese Type: Cheddar

Milk Type: Cow

Rennet:

Age:

Origin: Ireland

Region: County Cork

 

Spaghetti with Asparagus and Walnuts with Parsley Pesto with Pecorino Fogli di Noce

By Chef Lippe

Serves 4 people

1 bunch of fresh asparagus 
1 pound dry of  spaghetti 
1 bunch of fresh parsley 
¼ cup of walnuts  
1 clove whole garlic 
1/2 cup white wine 
5 leaves of fresh basil
¼ cup of  Pecorino Fogli di Noce 
oil
salt 
black pepper

 

Parsley Pesto:

Wash the parsley and place in the bowl of food processor, add about 6 nuts, basil leaves, 2 tablespoons of pecorino fogli di noce cheese grated, salt, pepper and olive oil to taste, mix all together and place in the refrigerator.

Asparagus Sauce:                            

Wash and cut the ends from the bottoms off the asparagus, boil them in the “spaghettiera” (you can cut tips off asparagus and blanch while cooking stems for the 10 minutes if you do not have a spaghettiera) with the tips out of the water for about 10 minutes, cool them down by dipping them in ice water and then cut into 3 parts, setting the tips to the side. 

Cook your pasta to al dente. While this is cooking, in a large pan brown a crushed clove of garlic and add the asparagus pieces and cook on medium heat until warm, finally add the more delicate tips, deglaze with white wine and add the chopped walnuts, salt and pepper to taste.

 

Mix pasta with asparagus sauce, pesto and remaining chopped walnuts.  Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Fogli di Noce cheese and serve hot.

 

Don’t worry! Moldy cheese happens even to the best of us.

Chef Lippe

Don’t worry! Moldy cheese happens even to the best of us.

As a child my granny would tell us to just cut the mold off, which for some cheese is acceptable and some not so acceptable. So how do you tell the difference between good mold and bad mold?  Here are some tips to help you keep your cheese at its best.

Now that you have found us, and know that you can get your favorite cheese fresh each week it is best to buy only what you can eat in a week. Cheese is a living, breathing organism and there are lots of things that influence the taste and quality.

Tips for keeping your cheese fresh:

1.      Tasting your cheese before you buy it is key. Smelling your cheese is actually a key to enjoying the taste.  Trust your instincts. There is good bad smelling cheese and bad bad smelling cheese. If it sends shivers of disgust down your spine, like the thought of eating worms then don’t buy it. Everyone has different taste so only buy cheese that you find pleasing.

2.      However, really bad smelling cheese can taste DIVINE! So take a taste, if you like it then go ahead and get it.

3.      Fresh and soft cheese have a short shelf life and have to be treated different than hard cheese. For soft cheese if it smells like sour milk then it is best to toss it out.

4.      Mold on cheese rind is called Bloom and is a good thing. What you need to look for and avoid is a slimy, pinkish mold this is bad. Some cheeses with bloom will even give off an ammonia scent this is a natural part of the aging process.

5.      Some cheeses are best eaten as soon as you get them home. Only because there smell will proliferate in your refrigerator. Limburger and Sweaty Goat cheese are examples of these cheese. These cheese can last for weeks but the taste will decrease over time.

6.      Aged cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano and Fontina have been aged to the extent that ensures their durability. They have low moisture and there is not much that you need to worry about with these types of chees. In some cases age actually heightens the flavor.  Greenish-blue molds are good and just need to be scraped off.

7.      Blue cheese will only become stronger in taste with age. It is up to you to taste and see if you like the age.  An old blue cheese will never hurt you only your taste buds.

8.      The best way to store cheese is with cheese paper. Yes they make a special paper just for cheese storage. The next best thing is parchment paper with plastic wrap. This way your cheese is protected from the plastic and your refrigerator is protected from your cheese. NEVER wrap your cheese in just plastic alone.

9.      Store your cheese in the warmest part of your refrigerator. Cheese is alive and cold temperatures limit the important bacterial activity of your cheese and will affect the taste.

10.  Bring your cheese to room temperature for the best tasting experience.

Ubriacone Cheese and Ricotta Cheesecake

By Chef Lippe

Ubriacone is a traditional, Italian cheese made in northern Italy’s Veneto region. Affectionately called “drunken cheese”, it is bathed in gallons of red wine along with skins, seeds, and leftovers from the wine making process  to extract the unique sweet, delicate aroma of the wine and complex flavors.

An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese, Ubriacone is matured for a minimum of 2 months but rarely for over a year. Upon maturity, it develops a soft and supple texture, which ages to become firmer and crumbly, similar to a Parmigianino. Seasonally produced, the best season to avail the cheese is from late fall through early summer. The cheese has a flowery aroma and smells of heavenly red wine.

I have added the sweetness of this wine flavored cheese to my favorite cheese cake recipe for a very addictive dessert that will have your guests begging for more!

Ingredients:

8 eggs

2 cups sugar

½ cup flour

½ cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon pear extract

3 pound of ricotta

1 cup crumbled Ubriacone cheese

½ cup sweet wine such as Adytum Honey & Pear Mead

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs with a mixer until foamy. Add the sugar while beating eggs continuously with the mixer. Once the sugar is dissolved, beat in the flour, followed by the heavy cream, one by one, add in the pear extract, ricotta, Ubriacone and the wine.

Butter and flour a 9” springform pan. Pour in the mixture and sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, check to see if done with a toothpick, Once toothpick comes out clean, shut off the oven and leave the cheesecake in there to settle for 10 to 15 minutes more.

Once cool (this will take a few hours), sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Serrano Ham Tapas – A FEAST for your eyes and your tummy!

By Chef Lippe

Serrano ham is one of Spain’s favorite meats. When you walk into any tapas bar, restaurant or little shop you will see the hams hanging from the wall or a wall decorated with the ropes from the ham. I have included the recipe for one tapa and pictures from many others. It has also become a favorite at my Farmers Market stands.

I hope you have fun making and eating these!

Chef Lippe

Ham and Chicken Stuffed Endives

Left over chicken

Serrano Ham

Alioli

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Slice the bottom inch away from the endive, remove the 6 largest leaves and arrange on plate.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of alioli along the bottom of each leaf.

Arrange shredded chicken on alioli and top with Serrano ham

Drizzle with good olive oil and server with tomatoes and fresh bread.

Enjoy the rest of my many uses of Serrano Ham or better yet come and visit our market stand and try a taste!

King Crab meets Mr. Goat a match made in heaven!

By Chef Lippe

Crab meat is one of my favorites and so I combined it with a new favorite Vare (va-RAY) a goat cheese from Asturia Spain.  This is a small Artisan produce cheese where the family only makes about 200 cheese a week.  It is a pasteurized cheese steeped in brine for 12 to 24 hours, then aged for 40 to 50 days. This is when the cheese developes its natural rind richly coated with gray white molds. The cheese is smooth, firm and dense in texture and the flavor is herbaceous and sweet with just enough salt to make it balanced and mellow as a whole.

The combination of the cheese with the crab is quite addictive!

Ingredients:

4 to 8 whole crabs depending on size

1 Vare cheese, grated

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook crab until done and let cool. About 20 minutes

Harvest meat, saving body cavity.

Make a thin bechamel with butter, flour and hot milk by melting butter, stir in flour and then slowly add hot milk. Once the milk has been added stir in half of the grated cheese. Cook on low about 10 minutes stir entire time.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once bechamel is done stir in crab meat and pour into cleaned crab bodies.

Cover each with remain cheese and broil until bubbly and brown.

Enjoy

Parmigiano Reggiano Flower Crisps filled with Creamy Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

By Chef Lippe

 

Ingredients: 

2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon, plus 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup blanched almonds, slivered or sliced
14 flower cheese crisps
1 – 12 ounce net weight jar of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf Italian parsley, plus 14 leaves for decoration
1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (or Parmesan)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons basil pesto
4 ounces creamy goat cheese or cream cheese

Supplies Needed:

aluminum foil
baking sheet
3 ¾” flower cookie cutter
mini muffin pan
food processor or blender
disposable pastry bag or zip top bag

Instructions:

Place a small piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet. Set two garlic cloves on foil. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil. Wrap up foil around garlic and place in oven. Turn oven on to 350 degrees. Roast for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut off the ends off each garlic clove and squeeze out the roasted garlic. Dispose of the outer paper like peel. Set aside.

Spread almonds on the baking sheet and place in oven to roast until golden brown for 5-7 minutes, stirring them half way through. Keep a close eye on the almonds so they don’t burn. Allow to cool.

To make the flower shaped cups:

Turn a mini muffin pan upside down. Use a flower shaped cookie cutter to shape shredded parmigiano reggiano cheese into flowers. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.

Drape the flowers over the mini muffin cups, as soon as you remove them from oven Allow to cool, then remove them from the muffin pans.

While the flower cups are baking, make the roasted red pepper pesto:

Combine roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, toasted almonds, chopped flat leaf Italian parsley, lemon juice, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in the bowl of a food processor or blender.  Pulse until well blended but not smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
To create your appetizers:

Spoon a heaping teaspoon of creamy goat cheese or cream cheese into the bottom of each flower cup. Press it down into the cup using the back of your spoon. Press one parsley leaf into the cheese in each cup, allowing the leaf to jut out from the side of the cup. Spoon a heaping teaspoon of the roasted red pepper into each cup. Spoon the basil pesto into a disposable pastry bag or zip top bag. Cut off the tip. Pipe a small dot of pesto into the center of each flower cup.

Your appetizers are ready to serve.
A few notes about this recipe:

You can make the roasted red pepper pesto several days ahead of time if you store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Do not refrigerate filled cups as they will get soggy.

These pretty flowers could also be made using roasted yellow peppers which would look lovely on the table at a bridal shower or ladies lunch.

Pasta Roses with Serrano Ham for Valentines Day

By Chef Lippe

Hand Made Roses for all the loves of my life!

The Recipe 

Freshly made pasta in wide rectangles as for lasagne

About 1 cup bechamel sauce (1 ounce flour, 1 ounce butter, 1 cup milk, salt, optional nutmeg ,  1 and a half ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano)

10 ounces Serrano Ham

10 ounces Fontinalla cheese in thinnest possible slices

2 tbsp. butter

optional: ¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano to sprinkle on top

Directions

To make the Besciamella with Zucchini Puree:

• Trim ends off washed zucchini then chop or slice roughly.
• Bring a small pan of cold water to the boil, salt when the water is boiling and then tip in the zucchini and cook till tender
• Strain out and immediately refresh in very cold water. Drain, place in a deep beaker and whizz till smooth using an immersion blender. Set aside.
• Place the milk to heat in a small sauce pan while in another pan you cook the butter and flour, whisking them together to make the base.
• When the milk comes to the boil take both pans off the heat and pour all the milk at once onto the base, whisking hard with a large whisk to blend the two into a smooth and lump free white sauce. Should lump forms don’t worry, just strain the white sauce through a sieve.
• Season with salt or if you prefer with plenty of freshly grated nutmeg and about ¼ cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

To pre-cook the Pasta:

• Prepare a wide shallow pan into which you place cold milk to come about an inch high.
• Cook just 2 or 3 pasta pieces at a time in salted boiling water to which you have added a little oil, for 2/3 minutes if the pasta is freshly made. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the pan with the milk to stop the cooking. Then take out, let the milk drip off and place to dry on clean tea towels on your work surface. Turn them over to dry both sides

To fill and assemble the Rosette:

• Prepare a buttered baking dish and pre-heat the oven to 90 °.
• Spread a thin layer of béchamel on the pasta pieces, then sprinkle with grated P-R. cheese and place ham and cheese slices on top
• Roll up each in piece into a cylinder and cut into two or three even sized rolls between 1 inch and 2 inches high.
• Place them close together cut side up in the buttered baking dish continuing the process till it is full – if you have space left use crumpled balls of cooking foil to fill in the space and keep the rolls upright.
• I like to use kitchen scissors to nick the rolls in a few places and pulls out pasta “petals” turning them down a little so they stay “open” during baking.
• Melt 2 tbsp butter and drizzle this over the top of the roses, or to save calories, simply brush the tops with milk using a pastry brush or a couple of rolled up sheets of strong kitchen paper. You can also sprinkle with extra just-grated Reggiano if you like.
• Bake at 90° for about 30 minutes or till the top of the roses is crisp and golden then serve placing vertically or horizontally on individual plates as you prefer.

Variations: Leave the vegetables out altogether for the traditional recipe or use alternative vegetables, in a puree as above or simply placed on top of the ham.  According to what is in season, cooked mushrooms, asparagus, leeks, fennel, artichokes, blanched Swiss Chard leaves all work well..

Manchego Warm Cheese or Cold Cheese…

By Chef Lippe

I have spent a lot of time traveling around the world and love the way Europeans do farmers markets.  I love the smell and taste of warm cheese. But I was having trouble with my partner who thought ALL things needed to be refrigerated.  Even after doing a little research to back up my claims it took her a while to accept that I might know what I was talking about.  First I shower her an article about never refrigerating mozzarella at Serious Eats on poorly stored mozzarella she read it and said I still think you should keep a milk product in the refrigerator.  So next I found a study done by JAY RUSSELL BISHOP and MARIANNE SMUKOWSKI* at the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin, and if anyone knows about cheese it is someone from Wisconsin! 

Now I had her attention but what REALLY won her over was the following recipe:

Membrillo (Quince Paste) Recipe

INGREDIENTS

4 pounds quince, washed, peeled, cored, roughly chopped

1 vanilla pod, split

2 strips (1/2 inch by 2 inches each) of lemon peel (only the yellow peel, no white pith)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

About 4 cups of granulated sugar, exact amount will be determined during cooking

Directions:

1 Place quince pieces in a large saucepan (6-8 quarts) and cover with water. Add the vanilla pod and lemon peel and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the quince pieces are fork tender (30-40 minutes).

2 Strain the water from the quince pieces. Discard the vanilla pod but keep the lemon peel with the quince. Purée the quince pieces in a food processor, blender, or by using a food mill. Measure the quince purée. Whatever amount of quince purée you have, that’s how much sugar you will need. So if you have 4 cups of purée, you’ll need 4 cups of sugar. Return the quince purée to the large pan. Heat to medium-low. Add the sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the lemon juice.

3 Continue to cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the quince paste is very thick and has a deep orange pink color.

4 Preheat oven to a low 125°F (52°C). Line a 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper (do not use wax paper, it will melt!). Grease the parchment paper with a thin coating of butter. Pour the cooked quince paste into the parchment paper-lined baking pan. Smooth out the top of the paste so it is even. Place in the oven for about an hour to help it dry. Remove from oven and let cool.

To serve, cut into squares or wedges and present with Manchego cheese. To eat, take a small slice of the membrillo and spread it on top of a slice of the cheese. Store by wrapping in foil or plastic wrap, an keeping in the refrigerator.

Lobster and Tetilla Cheese Melts

Lobster and Tetilla Cheese Melts

By Chef  Lippe

If you love lobster and cheese this one is VERY addictive! Tellia Cheese is made in Galicia Spain with fresh cow’s milk that is semi-cured. It has the taste of fresh milk and butter with a touch of vanilla and walnuts and is wonderful with grapes or as you will see melted over lobster.

Ingredients:

1 boiled lobster cleaned and cut into pieces

2 cloves of garlic chopped fine

1/3 cup of white wine

Olive oil

1 Tetilla Cheese cut into pieces

Tomato (fresh from garden) chopped

Directions:

• Add olive oil to pan and brown minced garlic
• Add wine and chopped lobster and stir to gently warm lobster
• Stir in Tetilla cheese and let simmer until melted
• Add a few spoons of chopped fresh tomato
• Pour over toasted roll

ENJOY