Wednesday January 30, 2013

Cheese: Monte Enebro
Country: Spain
Type: Goat

Today's photo courtesy of Mr. Peter Smith, because my phone was dead after playing Ingress in the freezing cold all lunch break.

The "Man With The Keys Tattoo" basically pushed this cheese into my hands. Enebro is an interesting goat cheese, the rind is pretty funky, a combination of ash and blue mould. The cheese itself is fairly neutral, the typical salty-sweet you get from most goat cheeses. The rind on the other hand is pungent, strong, and earthy. This one isn't for the feint of heart, but if you are into blue cheese and goat cheese it's a unique combination of the two.

I had some caper berries with it, probably not the ideal pairing.

Wednesday January 16, 2013

Cheese: Morbier
Country: France
Type: Cow

Cheese: Migneron de Charlevoix
Country: Canada
Type: Cow

To celebrate the Government of Canada losing track of 2% of Canadian's personal data I'm having an extravaganza of treats from Janice Beaton today. Up first, Morbier, a lovely cheese from France, with a washed crystalized rind and a layer of ash in the middle. It is one of my favourites, mostly because of the rind which has a bit of crunch to it and a slight tang of grass. Also on the plate today is a close cousin to Morbier, Migneron de Charlevoix, which I've had before as well. It has a wonderful rind and the flavour reminds me of pastures and impressionist paintings (I know, an odd thing for a cheese flavour to bring to mind).

I paired both cheeses with a game hen terrine with pistachio and black truffles and a big pile of cornichons, and a handful of almonds. Both cheeses are excellent for eating, I would recommend them on any fork, but I'd avoid melting them or cooking with them - they have subtle flavours that you'd lose in any dish calling for cheese even though they'd melt nicely. They'd be great additions to a tasting plater since they are a bit adventurous with the rinds and ash layers, but flavour wise mellow.

Thursday January 10th, 2013

Cheese: Vigneron
Country: Switzerland
Type: Raw Cow

After a bit of a holiday hiatus JBW is back, though a day late this week, sort of. I had a coworker pick up some cheese for me yesterday as I was out of the office, and am enjoying it today. He snagged a chunk of Vigneron, sort of a Swiss version of cheddar. It's fairly mild, the rind is no where near as gnarly as the picture makes it look, it's wrapped in a thin black foil/paper. There was a slight grassy hint to the cheese which I think would go nicely with some apricot or plum preserves, and possibly one of the more bitter nuts (walnut maybe). Over all a pretty decent cheese.