Cheese Shortbead for the Wine and Cheese

My sister Sylvia dreamed up this recipe for a tasty appetizer while vacationing in Florida. Clearly, her creativity knows no borders. These are great at a 'wine and cheese'.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened and creamed, plus 1 heaping Tbsp. coconut oil
- 2 tbsp very finely diced sweet onion
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp seasoned salt ( or a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper)
 - 1 & 1/2 cups of self-rising flour
- 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese (or 1 cup cheddar and 1 cup Monterey Jack)

Instructions:
Mix the first 6 ingredients together well, then stir in the cheese. Form the dough into 4 logs, about 1" diameter, wrap the logs tightly in plastic wrap or waxed paper and chill them until firm. Slice each log into 12 discs and bake on parchment lined pans in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for about 10 minutes until they are lightly brown on the bottom.

Cool on a rack before transferring carefully to a serving plate.

Ravioli with Butter and Sage Sauce

In Italian, this dish is known as Ravioli di Pasta alla Ricotta, Burro d’Alpeggio alla Salvia. Sounds complicated, but it's remarkably easy to make homemade ravioli. A much more difficult task is writing a simple explanation of how to do it. Here goes nothing.....

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 fresh eggs
• about a tablespoon of olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons fresh sheep’s milk ricotta cheese
• 6 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
• 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 5 ounces (150 grams) unsalted butter (This seems like a lot of butter to me. Change the volume at your discretion)
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• several fresh sage leaves

Instructions:  
 

Prepare the pasta dough by piling the flour on a countertop and making a ‘well’ in the flour into which the eggs, salt and olive oil are placed. Use a fork to gradually mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle easily. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting prepare the filling by mixing the ricotta, mascarpone, and parmesan cheese, nutmeg and lemon zest together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Roll the dough for the ravioli very thinly with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.

 

Place the filling into a pastry bag or plastic freezer bag. (If you use a plastic bag, cut the tip off one of the corners to allow the filling to be squeezed out).  Repeatedly squeeze teaspoon-sized lumps of the filling on to the pasta about 2 cm apart until you have covered the lower half of the rolled out pasta rectangle with lumps of the cheese filling. Brush the top half of the pasta rectangle with water then fold it over the blobs of filling on the lower half. Use your fingers to press air pockets from between the ravioli then cut the dough between the little packets of filling using a pastry wheel or sharp knife.

 

Prepare a large pot of boiling salted water and cook the ravioli for about 3 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter with the sage in a large skillet. Drain the ravioli and gently toss them in the sage butter mixture.  

Blue Cheese and Cheddar Nibbly-Bits

This recipe was adapted from Deb Perelman's recipe for Rosemary, Gruyere and Sea Salt Crisps found in her Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Perhaps I should say that this recipe was inspired by hers, since she might not absolutely approve of the following adaptation.

The major deviation in my recipe,(aside from changing the type of cheese, omitting the rosemary, and doubling the quantities of ingredients), was the addition of water to the dough mixture. I suspect that if you followed Ms. Perelman's advice and used a food processor to cut the cheese and butter into the flour, the addition of water would be unnecessary,(which is probably why she doesn't call for it in her recipe). Unfortunately, my old-timey kitchen doesn't contain a food processor.

So maybe these nibbly-bits were not texturally perfect by Perelman's standards but like I always say, perfectionism impedes progress. In any event, you're likely going to be eating them while consuming alcohol and may be willing to overlook any possible imperfections. 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of crumbled blue cheese
- 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
- 8 tablespoons of butter (1 stick or 1/4 pound)
- 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour plus more for the counter
- 1/3 - 1/2 cup cold water
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the first four ingredients together using a pastry cutter until the butter has been cut into the flour, as if you were making pastry. Then add the water a bit at a time and stir with a fork until the crumbs hold together in dough form. Cut the dough in half and wrap each half in a square of wax paper. Chill for 15-20 minutes.  

On a floured surface, roll the dough to approximately 1/8 inch thickness. Cut the flattened dough into approximate 1-inch diamond shapes or squares. Dock each cracker with a skewer or knife point, then dab lightly with a bit of water. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Set the baking sheet on a rack to cool.

Here's my dough. It doesn't look bad here but just be aware that blue cheese can add a bit of a greyish hue to things.

The Fondue Party - perfect for NYE

I happen to like bread. I happen to like cheese. That means I happen to love cheese fondue.

Classic Cheese Fondue

- 1 clove of garlic, halved crosswise
- 1 and 1/2 cups of dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons of kirsch
- 2 cups Emmenthal cheese, grated
- 2 cups Gruyere cheese, grated


Rub the inside of a heavy-bottomed pot with the 'cut' sides of the garlic, then discard the garlic. Add wine to the pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat on your stove. Mix together the kirsch and the cornstarch in a separate bowl. Gradually add the cheeses to the wine and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the cheese from either clumping or burning. Do not allow it to boil. Add the cornstarch/kirsch mixture to the fondue and continue to stir until it is thickened. Transfer the whole thing to the fondue pot, set over a low flame, and serve with your favourite bread (cubed) for dipping.

If you don't have a fondue pot, my suggestion is that you check out your parent's basement or garage before investing in one yourself. Perhaps you can also raid your parent's liquor cabinet for the kirsch. (It's only 2 teaspoons after all).

Cheesy Lemony Garlic Dip/Spread/Pepper stuffing

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Lip Smacking Dip My sister P. came to the cottage on the river for a final visit this season and brought with her a yummy dip of her own design. I enjoyed it for a second time for breakfast toast the next day, while watching fish jump and the cormorant fight

Draft

My sister P. came to the cottage on the river for a final visit this season and brought with her a yummy dip/spread of her own design. I enjoyed it for a second time the following morning on toast, while watching fish jump and the cormorant fight the seagull for its favourite rocky perch. As you can see from the photo above, when I made it most recently, I used it to stuff a roasted pepper. 

Very versatile this cheesy, lemony, garlicky stuff.

Ingredients:

• 140 gram package of chevre (soft goat cheese available in most grocery store cheese departments)
• grated zest of one lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh dill (also available at most grocery stores, in the produce department)

Blend all ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork.  Serve with crackers, chips or veggies. Also good with cottage canape toasts (see post dated Aug. 17, 2012)

Editorial Notes:
You can use a food processor rather than a fork for blending the mixture if you prefer, but you'll lose a lot of dip on the blades. Plus, the food processor is an incredible pain to clean.

A smaller amount of dried dill weed (not seed) can be substituted for the larger amount (2 tablespoons) of chopped fresh dill called for in the recipe. But speaking from experience, the difference in flavour is staggering. Use fresh if you possibly can. 

Cheese Reporter...nice work if you can get it

Sue Riedl is the Globe and Mail's cheese columnist……it's a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it I guess. Today, she focused on the Empire Cheese Factory, which is located in the heart of agricultural eastern Ontario just outside of Campbellford. I have been to this factory many times and in my view, the cheddar is truly worthy of its award-winning status. I’ve placed the link to this article with the other "Cheese Links" (scroll down the left hand column of blog to find it).

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Cheese columnist……tough work, but somebody’s got to do it Today, the Globe and Mail’s Sue Riedl focused on the Empire Cheese Factory, which is located in the heart of agricultural eastern Ontario just outside of Campbellford. I have been to this factory many

Draft

Also of interest…..Google has informed us all that today is the 100^th anniversary of the birth of the iconic Julia Child. She donated her kitchen (not sure how that's done exactly; I'd like to donate my basement), with all its copper pots before she died. It's now located in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Here's a link to that exhibit and to Julia's remarkable voice. http://americanhistory.si.edu/juliachild/

 

Cheese and Pickle Sandwich

I am determined to get my cheese and pickle sandwich on the blog. This sandwich is apparently the #1 favourite sandwich in Great Britain. (I retrieved this information from the Internet...so it's gotta be true). I fell in love with this food source the first time I went to England in 19_ _; I was in my early twenties and it was in the latter half of the 20th century and that's all you need to know. Cheese and pickle sandwiches were about the only thing I could afford to eat at the time.

The thing that you do need to know is that the "pickle" part of this sandwich refers to Branston Pickle, which is a very dark brown, savoury sauce similar to a lumpy vegetable chutney. It is available in Canada in most large grocery stores.

Ingredients:
- 2 slices of whole-grain bread (traditionally, white bread is used)
- 1 tablespoon of Branston Pickle
- butter for the bread
- as much old cheddar cheese as you like, either thinly sliced or shredded

Butter each slice of bread on one side. Arrange the cheese on one slice of buttered bread; spread the Branston Pickle on the other slice of bread and turn it on to the cheese. Slice the sandwich on the diagonal.

I've said it before and I'll say it again ......bread and cheese have made me what I am today.

Grilled Cheese with a Twist

This is a recipe like the one for French Toast (posted Jan. 4th, 2010), that is, not one that an experienced cook is likely to be interested in. But here's the twist....those saucy sisters of Bite Me fame have suggested making croutons out of grilled cheese to garnish their roasted tomato soup.

Grilled Cheese Croutons
- 4 slices of white bread
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- enough cheddar cheese to make 2 sandwiches

Spread the butter on one side of each slice of bread. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and place 2 of the slices of bread, buttered side down in the pan. Top those slices of bread with the cheese and top the cheese with the remaining slices of bread, buttered side out. Cook for 2 minutes until the underside is golden brown, flip and cook for 1-2 minutes more or until the cheese is melted. Remove the sandwiches from the pan and cool slightly before cutting into one-inch squares ( for use on top of soups and salads).

Editorial Note: It's fine to make grilled cheese sandwiches with white bread and processed cheese, but you can jazz it up a bit by experimenting with different types of bread and cheese; the technique remains the same.

Bread and cheese have made me what I am today.

Old-fashioned Mac and Cheese

Here's a dish that will warm you up on a cold winter's day. It is also a recipe that you can really play around with; change up the ingredients depending on the dairy products and pasta that you have available. When making pasta dishes, it is important to choose a pasta shape and sauce that complement each other. Thin, delicate pastas like angel hair or thin spaghetti, should be served with light, thin sauces. Thicker pasta shapes, like fettuccine, work well with heavier sauces. Pasta shapes with holes or ridges like mostaccioli or radiatore, are perfect for chunkier sauces. I happened to use cavatappi (“corkscrew” pasta); the tight spiral locks in flavor allowing the shape to pair with both simple and sophisticated sauces.

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of flour
- 1 cup of 10% butterfat cream (table cream)
- 1 cup of milk
- 3 cups of shredded mixed cheese (for example, cheddar, Monterrey Jack, mozzarella)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup of crushed crackers, whatever you happen to have in your cupboard
- 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan
- about 8 ounces of cavatappi

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat a large pot of salted water until boiling, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Add the cream and milk and stir constantly until the mixture has thickened. ( This is typically called a white sauce). Stir in the shredded cheeses until they are melted and add salt and pepper to taste. Usually, the salt and pepper would be added to the white sauce to flavour it, but in this case it is best to wait until after the addition of the cheese, given the saltiness of some cheeses. Drain the pasta and stir the cheese mixture into it until everything is well combined. Place the pasta in a buttered ovenproof dish. Mix together the crushed crackers and grated Parmesan and sprinkle evenly over the top of the pasta. Bake until the "mac and cheese" is nicely browned and bubbling hot, about 20-30 minutes.

Speaking of Cheesecakes, let's see what a New Yorker might eat

Syl’s Baked Cheesecake

For the crust:
1 cup Graham Crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

For the filling:
4 pkg. (250 g each) Cream Cheese, softened
500 g tub ricotta cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla or 2 tsp pure almond extract
4 large eggs

PREHEAT oven to 350°F

Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 min. Put softened cream cheese, ricotta, sugar, flour and vanilla or almond extract in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust. Place pan carefully onto a baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees, then turn oven down to 325 degrees and bake one hour or until centre is almost set. Remove cake from oven. Run sharp knife around edge, at rim. Cool completely before removing the wall of the springform pan.

Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Garnish as desired just before serving with fresh fruit and sweetened whipped cream, or a homemade butter icing (like you’d do for a cake) and decorate with sugared flowers or chocolate discs or whatever you like to suit the occasion. This is NOT an overly sweet dessert, which is why the whipped cream and fruit, or butter icing, complements the cheesecake.

No-bake Pineapple Cheesecake...very retro

In the 1960's when few people in Canada believed that cheese could be baked in the oven in the form of a dessert, my mother would make a special no-bake cherry cheesecake when entertaining. We loved it. That was back in the day when dessert names often contained the word "chiffon". My friend Christine is now asking for such a recipe, which I think is very nouveau-retro-chic of her. What follows is my sister P.'s recipe for Pineapple Cheesecake.

Key Equipment for this recipe: a refrigerator

Ingredients:
- 1 box of coconut cookies (crushed)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 package of softened cream cheese (250 gram-size, not low fat)
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon
- a 19 ounce can of crushed pineapple (drained for 20 minutes)
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Crust: Melt the butter and mix with the crushed cookies. Press into the bottom of a springform pan, sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon and freeze for 30 minutes.

Filling: Mix together the remaining ingredients and pour on top of the crust. Refrigerate until firm.

Just think of this as a solid Pina Colada.