A Little Wedge of Heaven

This past week, I took a friend (and prospective client--he says, with hope in his heart) to one of the most charming little restaurants in Longmont, which, curiously, is not at all known for being a restaurant.  Cheese Importers in Longmont, Colorado is the "Home Depot of Cheese," comparable for the vastness of its refrigerated warehouse (customers are offered complimentary, in-store parkas for their cheesing pleasure).  Linda and two of her children, Clara and Samm, provide impeccable customer service, patiently answering questions, managing the charm of the Market Europa, communicating with restaurants and stores across five states for their wholesale business, and importing an extraordinary selection of cheese and other merchandise.  I'll circle back around to Linda and Cheese Importers in a moment, but first a few thoughts on cheese.

Cheese is too large a topic for me to cover in one sitting, but I hope to provide a few general concepts to make your cheese exploration more enjoyable. First, ignore the high-brow jargon.  Like wine, cigars and perfumes, cheese making is steeped in rich tradition and pretension.  Start learning for yourself, and develop your own senses according to what you enjoy.  Think of texture, color, smell and taste.  Do you a prefer mild, neutral essence that melts easily and blends with other flavors, or do you want a hard cheese that slaps your taste buds out of their stupor?  Or maybe you'd like to try a sweeter, crumbly cheese veined with pungent blue-green mold that can stand on its own--and sometimes has to because of the smell?  Get to know what you prefer.  Soon, you'll be noticing commonalities between cheeses you like. 

Next, don't be afraid to ask for help.  Not sure what rinds can be eaten and which should be removed?  (I'm still not always sure--so don't feel bad!)  Ask.  Not sure if the sudden bloom of fine white hairs on your cheese is a sign of future gastro-regret?  Just ask.  Does this cheese work well in a grilled cheese sandwich?  What wine would pair well with this?  What crackers, cured meats, olives or fruit would accompany that cheese?  Ask away! 

Once you've got a handle on where your tastes run, begin to branch out.  Start looking at the names of the cheese and their region of origin.  Look at the ingredients and consider how and how long it's been aged.  And then pass your love and experience on to others.

While you can probably get some assistance from the deli counter or cheese island at the local supermarket, the staff at Cheese Importers is adept at providing you with much of the help needed to become a budding connoisseur.  Besides being able to answer nearly every cheese-related question thrown at them, they also have samples to taste, and the little restaurant portion of Market Europa uses their own product.  (I had a artichoke heart and fontina panini and a cup of gazpacho.)  They can tell their story better than I can, so if you're in the area, please give them a visit.  If you aren't, visit their website.  I think you'll agree that there is something unique in what they do.

Tonight for dinner, try one of these cheese-inspired dishes.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

4-6 slices (4"x1"x1/8") of Fontina Cheese

2 slices of Sandwich Bread (a small crumb, with the crusts not too crusty)

Butter, at room temperature

Get a heavy, well seasoned skillet heated to medium hot.  Butter the two slices of bread.  Drop a pat of butter into the skillet; the butter should melt in about 10 seconds and should start to brown in 40 seconds.  Swirl the skillet to evenly distribute the fats across the bottom of the skillet.  Gently lay the bread, butter side DOWN into the skillet.  Reduce the heat to medium, and lay the cheese on the open face of the bread.  Place the other slice of bread on top of the cheese, butter side UP.

Cook for 2 minutes or until the bread toasts to the color you like.  Then flip the sandwich over.  Cook for 2 minutes more.  Serve.


Three Cheeses and Macaroni
3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
3 tablespoons Flour
1 1/2 cups Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1 lb Goulda, shredded (or other mild cheese, like a mild white cheddar)
1/2 lb Fontina, shredded
1/4 lb Asiago, shredded
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 lb (uncooked weight) of large Shell Pasta (Conchiglie), cooked and drained

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter on medium high heat.  Sprinkle in the flour and whisk together until it makes a paste or roux.  Cook for a few minutes more, until the roux starts to get some color.  Add in the milk, and continue to whisk until the roux is completely dissolved.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook and stir until the milk thickens and becomes bubbly. 

Add in the cheese, a handful at a time, and stir until completely melted before adding the next handful.  When the last of the cheese has been added and melted, stir in the cream and cayenne pepper. 

Cook and drain the pasta and pour the cheese sauce over the hot shells. 

Serve in bowls--gooey and delicious!


Parmesan Crisps
4 oz block of Parmesan, grated on the fine holes of a box grater
Ground Black Pepper

Heat oven to 300 degrees. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Measure lightly heaping tablespoons of cheese and place in individual mounds on the parchment.  Flatten the mounds to about 1/8 inch, leaving a few inches between cheese mounds.  Sprinkle lightly with pepper. 

Bake on the center rack for 5-6 minutes.  Let cool, then remove to a plate for serving. 

Mmmmmm ...... Milk Jello

Some desserts deserve more recognition than they receive.  Panna cotta is one of those under-recognized, overlooked, and often neglected delectable treats. 

While we stayed in Stresa Italy, a little village on Lake Maggiore in the Piemonte region at the base of the Italian Alps, H and I fell in love with the local cuisine: fresh homemade gnocchi,  delicious cured meats, soft and hard cheeses and local wines.  (Note: wine is often cheaper than water for table service!)  And, as it turns out, Piemonte is also the likely birthplace of panna cotta, or "cooked cream." 

Panna cotta shares certain similarities with custards: a sweetened and congealed milk base.  The milk and cream are simmered lightly allowing the fats to begin to tighten into twisting bonds (like what happens when cream curdles in your coffee-- but without the sour milk flavor, and less chunky).  Unlike custard, however, there are no eggs and we don't continue to bake the fats in the oven.  Panna cotta, is therefore lighter, more ethereal, and frankly far less complicated to make.  Its flavor stands up well by itself, rich and creamy, but panna cotta most often provides a sumptuous background for fruits, sauces and other flavors. 

Without all the heat and the eggs of a custard, panna cotta uses gelatin as the structural agent.  In spite of popular rumor, gelatin is NOT made of horses' hooves, but is an animal byproduct.  For a really good time, read all about what it is and how it works, here.  The original jelling agent was most likely boiled fish bones, but fortunately for us, powdered gelatin is much easier to use and without flavor.

Surprise your friends and family.  For dessert tonight, try:

Panna Cotta

1 cup Whole Milk

2 3/4 teaspoons Unflavored Gelatin

3 cups Heavy Cream

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

6 tablespoons Sugar

pinch of Salt

Pour the milk into a medium sauce pan and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the surface of the milk.  Let stand for 10 minutes to allow the gelatin to hydrate.  Get the rest of your ingredients ready and also fill a very large mixing bowl 1/2 way with ice and add enough water to let the ice cubes float off the bottom.  Get another bowl ready that is small enough to fit inside the large bowl, and large enough to hold about 6-8 cups of liquid.  Also set out the ramekins or cups you will use for chilling.

Heat the milk and gelatin on medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the temperature reaches 135 degrees on an instant read thermometer.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and salt until dissolved.

Pour the milk mixture, the heavy cream and the vanilla into the smaller of the two bowls and place that bowl into the ice water bath.  Stirring constantly, chill the mixture to 50 degrees. 

Pour the finished mixture into the cups, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours. 

To serve, dip the cup into hot water for 15-20 seconds, making sure not to let any water spill into the panna cotta.  Wet your finger and gently run it around  the edge of the cup loosening the panna cotta's hold.  Turn out onto a serving plate and top with your favorite syrup, sauce, fruit, nuts, etc.  (In the finished picture, H made a Sangria Syrup!)

Let Them Eat Cake

I am lucky for many reasons, not the least of which is my birthday.  It's July 3rd.  Not on the 4th.  That means I have 2 full days of celebration, and if I make the mistake of too much exuberance on my birthday, I have the nation's birthday to recover.  But I try hard not to overdo it.  (anymore . . . )

Although not everyone I wanted to attend my birthday party could be there, we still had a great time.  In lieu of gifts, people donated money to charity.  And we sat and laughed and told stories and met new people and got to catch up with old friends.  And we ate.  And for this year's birthday, we also wore mustaches. 

Since we're talking about birthday's, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss cake.  Birthday cake seems to be a very old tradition.  Ancient Grecians would bake small honey cakes in the shape of crescent moons as offerings to the temples of Artemis.  Romans seemed to like the idea of cakes and used them to celebrate certain holidays including the birthdays of important people.  Apparently this caught on in the proletariat, because after a number of generations and the spread of Christianity, common folk would bake cakes for the Baby Jesus at Christmas.  And from there, it was probably a small step to start celebrating all birthdays with cakes.  They are relatively cheap to make, can be shared by many people, and can be customized for the honoree.  I recognize that this is a very Western Europen cum American sensibility, but that's who I am. 

We don't all celebrate with cake.  The earliest documented birthday parties come to us from ancient Persia.  The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the people of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, "Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is their birthday. It is customary to have the board furnished on that day with an ampler supply than common... They eat little solid food but an abundance of dessert, which is set on table a few dishes at a time... They are very fond of wine."  In China, guests bring colored eggs to be displayed before being eaten by the birthday partiers. Throughout Mexico and some other Latino areas, breaking open piñatas marks the focal point of any good birthday fiesta (and has foddered countless clips to be aired on Americas Funniest Home Videos).

For those of us who do celebrate birthdays with cake, we don't associate cake with ALL birthdays.  In the U.S., we've left off cake for Christmas and replaced it with cookies and candy.  Perhaps with the broad availability of different foods in America, it's easy for us to stray from our Western historic roots.  Or maybe we have incorporated so many other cultures into ours that we have created something quintessentially American.  As American as apple pie.  We don't think of cake for the Independence Day celebrations--we go for pie.  Hhmmm.  Interesting.  And some people I know don't really like cake at all.  I can't really understand that myself, but to each their own. 

Today, because it's my birthday and my blog, instead of giving you a recipie or two, I ask you for a gift:  Please offer all of us a brief story about how you celebrate your birthday, and if you have a celebration cake (or pie, or seaweed soup, or whatever) please post it in the comments! 

Happy 41st Birthday to me and Happy 234th Birthday, America!