Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cheese: Cornish Yarg
Country: England
Type: Raw Cow

At Christmas time the fine folks at Janice Beaton's get in a bevy of seasonal cheeses, this year one of their tasty treats is a Cornish Yarg. Yarg is more or less a slightly sweet cheddar wrapped in nettles. The rind is surprisingly mild, I had expected something sharp but the nettles are well cured and aged and just added a grassy undertone to the cheese. I ate some with a salad, and also melted some over chili. It held up nicely to a moderate bit of melting, and was just slightly stringy with a nice texture when warmed. I would say it is good for both eating and melting over foods, but it won't hold up to punchy flavour companions. For fun I had a bit with Rooster Sauce, and the cheese lost the flavour battle.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Cheese: Double Gloucester
Country: England
Type: Cow - Raw

Cheese: Linconshire Poacher
Country: England
Type: Cow - Raw

Double cheese day! There are all these seasonal cheeses showing up at Janice Beaton's right now, so a co-worker and I shared. Up first is the Double Gloucester - a straight forward cheddar with a cloth wrap for curing. It's middle of the road in terms of sharpness, slightly dry, and sort of what one would expect from a cheddar. The Linconshire Poacher has a more robust flavour, slightly caramel in undertone, certainly more exciting an eat than the Gloucester. Both are excellent eating cheeses and I wager would go good with wine. I ate mine with some Elk terrine and olives.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Cheese: Bleu d'Auvergne
Country: France
Type: Cow

Today is a lovely mild blue from France, Bleu d'Auvergne. I wanted something that wasn't super strong and melted nicely, and this was the cheese recommended by the fine people at Janice Beaton's. I melted it over a giant pile of cabbage and roast beef. Delightful. The tangy blue goes so very well with beef.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Cheese: Raclette de Savoie
Country: France
Type: Semi-soft Cow

On the weekend I was able to identify a cheese in a restaurant from across the room, Morbier with an ash layer, and was hoping to score some today. Sadly, there was none about, so I grabbed a piece of Raclette de Savoie. Slightly pungent, soft and gooey when melted, and mild. A great cheese to eat with meat, in my case a big dollop of Bacon "Jam" (sort of a bacon based tapenade). Normally this cheese is melted, since it's an excellent melting cheese, but I also enjoy it as is.

The bacon jam was also awesome, as anything with bacon should be.

Wednesday, November 21, 2011

Cheese: Lappi
Country: Finnland
Type: Cow, partially skimmed milk.

Lappi, the Finnish cheese that's hard to pin down. Sort of like swiss, sort of like cheddar, sort of like emmental. I find it very mild, like a toned down swiss but there is a bit more creaminess to it. There is almost a buttery aftertaste similar to a havarti or german butter cheese. To be honest I'm not really sure whether this is best for making sauces or melting or just eating. Since it's such a neutral flavoured cheese I'd recommend eating it with some fruit compote or a nice tart jam.

To be honest it is so mild that I doubt I'd rush out and buy it again, but that could have been because I was pairing it with strong agressive flavours in the rest of my lunch. The cheese was really overpowered by the chorizo in heavy cream sauce that I was eating, so my palette may not have been doing justice to any subtle flavours in the cheese.

On the up side it has minimal stink factor, so is office friendly (unlike some of the other cheeses I bust out at lunch time).

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Cheese: Salt Spring Island Goat Cheese w/Basil
Country: Canada
Type: Soft goat cheese

Peter (a co-worker of mine) and I like to call the Salt Spring Island goat cheese cups 'low carb pudding'. The cheese is a pretty standard soft goats cheese, slightly sour, slightly sweet, quite creamy. Today I'm having the Salt Spring Island cheese with olive oil and basil, it's pretty tasty, but I find the basil is hardly showing up on my palette.

There in the background of the picture are the exciting things for today... terrines! They are making in-house terrines at Janice Beaton's now, which is awesome. I had, from the top going clockwise; Duck with pistachio and cherry; Lamb Merguez, and Pate de Campagne.  As much as I love pistachios and duck, I have to say my favourite of the three is the lamb. Quite lovely, a little spice to it. One comment I have about the terrines at Janice Beaton's is they are a bit dry, I think they need more fat in them... but I bet for the typical scared-of-fat customer it's just perfect.

Wednesday November 7, 2012

Cheese #1: Truffo
Country: France
Type: Soft rind cow

Cheese #2: Pont Leveque
Country: France
Type: Soft rind cow, washed rind

Double cheese, so intense!

We have a guest from France (our marketing manager at work, Benoit) so in honour of our visitor I'm having two cheeses from France. First, Truffo, a delightful soft rind cheese that is exceptionally creamy and sweet. It's like a really soft cream cheese and doesn't have that ammonia flavour I associate with a brie. Best of all it has a line of black truffles nestled right in the middle adding their earthy awesomeness to the flavour. For fun I melted some over the cabbage I had in the rest of my lunch, and it melted nicely and tasted fantastic. I highly recommend this one, it's delightful.

Up next is Pont Leveque, another soft rind cow cheese. This one seems to be slightly fermented (washed rind), and it has a punchy stink to it. Flavour wise it's surprisingly strong, almost yeasty and sour. I like it, but I'd only eat it in smaller amounts and with something to break the flavour up. In my case some trail mix (almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and raisins). Paired with the fruit and nuts it was nice, but I'd say not for the feint of heart.