Cheese of the week: Kasseri

Name: BelGioioso Kasseri

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin: USA

Price in Iowa: $10.29/lb.

Milk: whole cow's milk

Processing: Cultured milk, enzymes and salt are mixed together, formed into a wheel, and aged for 4 months

Texture: Semi-soft

Color: pale yellow

Rind: Hard

Aroma: pungent and dairy

Taste: a mixture of Parmesan and Limburger

Mouth feel: firm, chewy

Notes: Greek kasseri, which I've had a few times at Cafe Northwest, is made from sheep's milk. I'm not sure if the cow's milk shift makes a difference, since I've only had the greek cheese warmed in a pastry. The fresh cheese is stinky! That pungent aroma carries over into the flavor. The firm, moist, chewy mouth-feel is very pleasurable. The photo at the top is a slice of the cheese that I've sauteed in olive oil with garlic and basil. The cooking brings out new flavors, with is probably why they melt it in flaming ouzo at the Cafe. I think that I'm going to take my leftovers and melt them across some Tayberry tarts.

Fruit of the Week: Tayberry

Name: Tayberry

Brand: The Summer Kitchen in Highland, WI (sounds pretty Scottish)

Place of Purchase: Carr Valley Cheese in Fennimore, WI

Country/Region of Origin: USA but originally cultivated in Scotland

Price in Wisconsin: $7.50 for a big jar of jam.

Description: The jam looks like jam. The fruit looks like a big red blackberry.

Flavor: Tangy, tangy, tangy. My wife said that it was sour, but I could still detect the sweetness of the blackberries. It favored the raspberry side of the hybrid for flavors, lacking the complexity of the blackberry.

Aroma: Like raspberries and sugars.

Texture/Mouth-feel: The drupelets were larger, like the aggregate-accessory fruit of the blackberry. This gives the jam a fuller, meatier mouth-feel. It's pretty seedy, though.

Notes: Another jam. Sorry guys. The tayberry is hard to get a hold of because it isn't grown in many places. I was lucky to get some in Wisconsin, where they grow and harvest them in late summer. Tayberries also produce a delicate fruit, so they have to picked by hand and don't transport well. I liked the flavor. I love raspberries, especially in pie. I'm thinking of turning some of this jam into tarts tomorrow. That's something to be thankful for...

Cheese of the week: Graskaas

Name: Beemster Graskaas (which apparently means "grass cheese" in Dutch)

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin: The lush wintry spring hills of Holland

Price in Iowa: $9.99/lb.

Milk: pasteurized cow's milk from the first spring milkings

Processing: Gouda-style preparation, then aged one month

Texture: Semi-firm

Color: cream

Rind: Natural

Aroma: very, very dairy

Taste: cream, dairy, warm savory afternotes, a very mild tart bite

Mouth feel: creamy creamy creamy

Notes: When I was first researching this cheese, it sounded like some kind of magical supercheese: produced from the mystical first milkings of Spring, aged but a month because of the ravenous throngs of Dutchmen waiting for this special Kaas outside of Beemster's gates. Only 1000 wheels ever make it into the United States every year, which makes the cheese extra fancy and extra expensive. Actually, for a gourmet cheese the price was pretty reasonable. The flavor wasn't anything that special. It was a young gouda with a slight tang. But the real draw is the creaminess of this cheese. I've had some processed cheese that had this sort of mouth feel, but eating this cheese is like eating butter. It's rich and satiny. I put some of this cheese on a piece of warm apple pie, and that was just heavenly. I would pair this cheese with something more flavorful, like melon or citrus.

Fruit of the week: Pomelo

Name: Pomelo

Brand: Sunkist

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: USA

Price in Iowa: $1.59 each

Description: A gigantic green grapefruit. The rind is pretty thick, as are the membranes.

Flavor: sweet and tart, like a grapefruit but more sugary

Aroma: citrus

Texture/Mouth-feel: fresh and juicy

Notes: Fresh fruit! I got a fresh fruit this week. Not a dried/canned/jammed fruit! I wanted to try one of these ever since I found out what a two plants make a tangelo. Man! This thing is juicy. I bit into a section and sprayed my unsuspecting corgi. Luckily, it was sweet enough so she didn't mind. I would suggest buying these, when available, over grapefruits. But they do require a bit more effort to remove all of the membranes. They certainly would be superior for juicing.

Cheese of the week: Gran Queso

Name: Sole Gran Queso

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin: USA/Wisconsin (another delicious cheese from Roth Kase)

Price in Iowa: $10.99/lb.

Milk: pasteurized cow

Processing: Washed rind, aged six months

Texture: Firm

Color: creamy-gold

Rind: Natural, basket-weave

Aroma: Sweet dairy and caramel

Taste: warm umami, great sweet finish

Mouth feel: firm and buttery

Notes: Holy criminey, this is good cheese. I'm a big fan of manchego. I usually combine it with something fruity, like a tomato-based sauce/salsa or, well, fruit. This Sole Gran Queso has the rich flavor profile of manchego, but it also has a sweetness to it. The washed rind also adds different spice notes that manchego is lacking. Plus, Sole Gran Queso is firmer than manchego, it isn't as dry or crumbly, and it has a more creamy mouth feel. If you can find this cheese, and it is produced in limited batches, buy it. Shave it to add to pasta or enchiladas. Serve it over toast with tomato and basil. Or, slice it thicker and serve it with melon and grapes. No matter what, you won't be disappointed.

Unless you eat the rind. Don't do that. THAT was an error in judgement on my part.

Fruit of the Week: Jackfruit

Name: Jackfruit

Brand: Asian Taste

Place of Purchase: Ames Asian Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Thailand

Price in Iowa: $1.50 a can.

Description: A large fruit with a spiked skin and sweet, yellow flesh.

Flavor: Sweet citrus and flowery. The afternotes are long-lasting, sweet and complex.

Aroma: Unique, fragrant and flowery.

Texture/Mouth-feel: Supple, but firm. Like a roasted pepper.

Notes: I had to try this fruit canned and dried. I could have gotten fresh jackfruit back in August, but not in November. The dried jackfruit loses a lot of the subtler flowery flavors, and is just sweet and chewy. I'm not sure what the fresh fruit would be like, but the canned fruit just explodes with flavors. There is the initial release of sweetness and citrus, but that is followed by a gentle, long-lasting flowery aftertaste. Jackfruit can be used to add sweetness to a dish, typically as a sauce/curry/compote/chutney, or because it can be so starchy it can be added to thicken/add body to a dish.

I'm thinking of using my leftovers to make some jackfruit salsa.

Cheese of the week: Port Derby

Name: Port Derby

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-Op in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin: England imported by Binco LLC in Chicago.

Price in Iowa: $14.60/lb.

Milk: cow

Processing: Rennet is added to form tiny curds, and then the curd is slowly heated. Flavor and color can be added later to enhance the cheese.

Texture: semi-firm

Color: magenta and creamy-gold

Rind: Natural

Aroma: Fruity notes from the brandy and winey notes from the port

Taste: sweet, warm brandy, umami, dairy

Mouth feel: creamy, with a slight tingle from the port/brandy

Notes: Derby is a low-acid, bland, pale cheese. It is typically flavored and colored during processing to make it more appealing. This Port Derby was flavored with port and brandy and man is it good! I'm had port wine cold pack cheese before, usually at Christmas. Because that is a processed cheese, the flavor is much saltier and "portier." With this Derby, you can still taste the savory dairy of the cheese in the parts with less pink color. In the pink areas, the port and brandy flavors swirl together, overpowering the cheese, but creating a luscious, creamy sweetness that must be experienced.

Good cheese!

Update: Melissa from foodista.com has requested that I embed this link to her Food Encyclopedia with my Port Derby entry. While this website isn't as informative at Steve Jenkins "Cheese Primer" (my favorite cheese resource, available at amazon.com and fine booksellers everywhere), it is a good starting point for resources about culinary delights. So, enjoy...

Fruit of the Week: Persimmon

Name: Persimmon

Brand: Twin Girls Farms Organic

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-Op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: My wife tells me that this is a Japanese Hachiya variety, but it was grown in California by Nachoand Casamira Sanchez and their daughters.

Price in Iowa: $9.99 a pound, but they're organic. At Cub Foods they were $3.99 a pound for the ones that come with wax and pesticides.

Description: A firm, orange, acorn-shaped tomato.

Flavor: Very sweet, slightly bitter afternotes.

Aroma: Fresh tomato-like.

Texture/Mouth-feel: Wonderfully silky flesh. It was almost like a piece of fillet Mignon, but cool and juicy.

Notes: I let my persimmon ripen over the weekend. I had bought it firm and you're supposed to let them soften up a bit. I sliced off the skin and quartered the flesh. Then I sliced it more thinly and ate it. The flesh closer to the skin had a stronger astringent aftertaste, but the flesh near the center was spicy and very sweet. Persimmons have been considered the food of the gods in the Old World and Asia for millennia, and it was very good. But, next time I might try a persimmon pudding or dried fruits. Or, I could get a less astringent fuyu variety.

Sorry no cheese post last week. I had the Mexican Pig Flu. I'm better now, but I wasn't in the mood for sipping water, let alone pungent fromage.