Cheese of the week: Blue Shropshire

Name: Blue Shropshire

Brand: Clawson

Place of Purchase: Ames British Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Leicestershire, UK

Price in Iowa: $5.99 for 150g (it's an import)

Milk: pasteurized cow milk

Processing: Rennet is added, followed by annato, Penicillium added before aging 10-12 weeks.

Texture: soft

Color: orange with bleu veining

Rind: natural

Aroma: mild diary

Taste: Tangy, buttery

Mouth feel: creamy, not as crumbly/clingy as Stilton

Notes: I love Stilton. This often surprises people, since I have a serious allergy to penicillin, but when it comes to cheeses that just gives me a special mouth tingle. I have heard Blue Shropshire described as a "mild Stilton," but I think that is a simplistic assessment. Stilton is all bleu bloom and tangy. The Blue Shropshire has a milder bleu flavor, backed up with fruity and woody background tastes. It's also saltier than the Stilton. The Stilton spreads easier and melts nicer, but I think that the milder smelling Shropshire would work better in a cheese selection on the plate.

Fruit of the Week: Guava berry

Name: Guava berry or "Guayaba Fresco"

Brand: Guayasol

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Mexico

Price in Iowa: 69-cents per fruit

Description: A tiny green plum, with white flesh and a cluster of tiny seeds in the center.

Flavor: Creamy and citrus flesh, with floral and spicy afternotes.

Aroma: A hint of citrus.

Texture/Mouth-feel: A snap in the skin, with creamy, high-pectin flesh.

Notes: This was a nice little fruit. I only bought one. There was a lot of flavor in the skin itself, but the creamy flesh underneath made me eat the whole thing. The seeds didn't add much to the flavor, but I just pushed them around to get at the meat of the fruit. I read that the folks down in Mexico turn these little guys into preserves and candies, due to the high pectin. They aren't very sweet, but the unique spicy flavor profile of this little fruit will knock you out. Wow!

Cheese of the week: Les Freres

Name: Les Freres

Brand: Crave Brothers in Waterloo, WI

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

Country/Region of Origin: Milton Creamery in Milton, IA

Price in Iowa: $13.50/lb

Milk: cow

Processing: Hand-processed curds aged in a cheese cave beneath the dairy.

Texture: soft

Color: cream

Rind: washed

Aroma: STINKY. Strong dairy and funk.

Taste: Surprisingly mild considering the aroma. Pleasant mild dairy, with earthy & woody notes.

Mouth feel: soft and chewy

Notes: New cheese! This is an artisan cheese from Wisconsin, hand-made at the small Crave Brothers Dairy. The co-op had both the regular and the small versions of the cheese (I think I got the smaller one), but they're the same cheese. This cheese is a "european-style" variety (think a firmer brie or Camembert). The flavor is pretty unique, though. I'm not sure what the wash is, but it definitely adds a great bite to this delicate cheese.

Fruit of the Week: Ugli fruit

Name: Ugli fruit

Brand: Beats me

Place of Purchase: HyVee Foods in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Jamaica

Price in Iowa: 89-cents for a nice-sized fruit

Description: A mutant grapefruit

Flavor: So sour your momma will pucker.

Aroma: A fresh, citrus aroma

Texture/Mouth-feel: Super juicy. Explosively succulent.

Notes: Supposedly, the ugli fruit is a wild tangelo native to Jamaica. When it's ripe and orange, it becomes very sweet. Yet again, I did not wait long enough for ripening. The citrus flavor of this fruit is intense, but unless it is properly-ripened it is super tart. While the ugli fruit is unbelievably juicy, a mouth full of sour juice is even more shocking.

Someday, I'll learn patience.

Cheese of the week: Pyrenees Centenol

Name: Pyranees Centenol

Brand: None listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $10.99/lb

Milk: pasteurized cow's milk

Processing: cow's milk is scalded, cut & pressed into molds and aged for at least 21 days. Texture: semi-firm with tiny holes

Color: golden cream

Rind: Inedible, natural.

Aroma: mild but prevalent dairy, woody

Taste: buttery, and warm & nutty; with subtle sweet and tart undertones

Mouth feel: creamy and rich

Notes: I saw this Basque cheese at the co-op and I jumped at it. Just like my fruits, I am quickly running out of unique cheese choices for this blog. The crusty, woody, sticky rind scared me a bit, so I looked up serving standards to make sure I didn't eat it incorrectly. So long as I steered clear of the rind, I would be okay. This cheese had a wonderful texture coupled with a mild, nutty flavor. There was a bit of dairy aftertaste, but it was almost unnoticeable. The texture of this cheese is what makes it a winner in my book.

Fruit of the Week: Sweet Sugar Palm Fruit

Name: Sweet Sugar (Palmyra) Palm Fruit

Brand: Masagana

Place of Purchase: Uni-Mart Korean Market in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: The Phillipines

Price in Iowa: $1.59 for 12 oz.

Description: Tiny translucent, ovoid jellies

Flavor: Added banana flavor makes it hard to tell more than sweet.

Aroma: Flowery (and banana-y).

Texture/Mouth-feel: Firm jelly, like a gumdrop

Notes: In a culture with less access to processed sugar, sweet fruits are prized. The sugar palm produces a number of sweet and starchy products for the people in the South Pacific and South-east Asia. The jelly hearts found in the sugar palm fruits are mildly sweet, but they have a unique mouth-feel: a firm, turgid jelly, with an even consistency. If the sweetness doesn't sell you, the mouth-feel might. I was happy to get my mitts on these fruits. Typically, they would be mixed into salads or cakes, but I just ate them as is. I'm hoping for a sugar palm trifecta: fruits, palm wine and arrack. Make myself a little cocktail.

Cheese of the week: Quark Cheese

Name: Quark or Qvark cheese

Brand: Prairie Delight

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

Country/Region of Origin: Milton Creamery in Milton, IA

Price in Iowa: $6.78/lb

Milk: pasteurized cow milk

Processing: Rennet is added, followed by lactobacteria, until a specific acidity is reached

Texture: soft

Color: white

Rind: None

Aroma: mild diary

Taste: mild diary with sweet and tart overtones, similar to chevre

Mouth feel: creamy/grainy, similar to a dry ricotta

Notes:I saw this cheese at my local organic co-op and I pounced on it. I'm running low on new cheeses, and at this point I'll try anything. Quark cheese is a fresh cheese common all across Eastern Europe. This cheese is used on sandwiches, in desserts, and stuffed into pasta pouches. I just ate it on some crackers. The cheese has a nice, tart flavor. I'll bet it would be fantastic in both sweet and savory dishes. Since I have a half-pound of it, I'm going to try and make some Käsekuchen (German cheesecake) as well as some Vareniki (Ukrainian pierogis).

Fruit of the Week: Kumquat

Name: Kumquats

Brand: Beats me

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

Country/Region of Origin: Argentina

Price in Iowa: $7.99 for 16 oz.

Description: Tiny orange, ovoid citrus fruits

Flavor: Sweet citrus rind, sour acid flesh.

Aroma: Sweet lemon and orange.

Texture/Mouth-feel: The rind has a nice snap to it. The flesh inside is less resilient, almost gooey.

Notes: I ate my first kumquat whole. The sour splash of the juice hit me like a smack in the face. Then, I tried nibbling on the rind. That was much more pleasant. Some people enjoy kumquats for the dichotomy of flavors. So people like the texture of the rind. I think I'd rather make kumquat marmalade.