Cheese of the week: Tomme de Savoie

Name: Tomme de Savoie

Brand: Fromagerie Edouard Conus

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

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $14.92/lb.

Milk:  unpasteurized skim, typically from winter milkings

Processing: at least one month of aging, a brown crust insures at least 6 months of aging

Texture: semi-soft

Color: straw

Rind: brownish and dusty

Aroma: mild dairy

Taste: bitter, sour, shockingly piquant, meaty, nutty

Mouth feel: firm and unyielding, smooth
 
Notes: This simple cheese has an amazingly complex flavor.  It starts strong, tart and piquant, and eventually mellows into meaty and nutty tones.  Amazingly delicious.  The Cheese Primer warns to only buy cheeses produced in Savoy.  Apparently, some cheeses are made elsewhere and then sent to Savoy for aging.  With the simplicity of this cheese, it is probably best to look for authenticity.  That way you're sure to have the most accurate flavor.  So, avoid affinie en Savoie.  

Fruit of the Week: Lychee (fresh)

Name: Lychee

Brand: God made these

Place of Purchase: Laotian Festival in Des Moines, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Florida

 

Price in Iowa: $2.50 per pound

Description: Spikey, red and yellow-green ovoid fruits with a translucent, "dragon eye-style" drupe

Flavor: roses and peaches, with a lingering musky aftertaste

Aroma: peaches and roses

Texture/Mouth-feel: Firm, chewy, juicy

Notes: My Indian friend, Rahul, has informed me that my review of Litchi Juice would not have been an accurate representation of the lychee fruit itself.  So, when my wife brought me back  these beauties from a Laotian Water Festival (along with some fried quail and some sweet sausages) I was very pleased.


So, I let them sit overnight and cracked into them the next day.  The flavor was stronger than the juice.  I hadn't noticed the peach flavors in the juice.  It was just rosy and musky.  Could I eat a million of these fruits?  No, probably not.  But I could subsist on them as my sole source of sweetness.

Cheese of the week: Crottin Maitre Seguin

Name: Crottin Maitre Seguin

Brand: Sevre Belle

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

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $5.79/2.8 oz.

Milk:  pasteurized goat

Processing: goat's milk is curded, rennet is added, the cheese is molded and a thin layer of mold enzyme is added to the exterior to cause ripening during aging.

Texture: soft

Color: Beige exterior, bone white interior

Rind: mold enzyme coated

Aroma: strong dairy

Taste: tart, piquant

Mouth feel: soft and creamy
 
Notes:This cheese is packed with flavor.  The crottin cheeses are "living cheese," which means so long as they don't get too cold (below 4-degrees Celsius) the mold in the rind will continue to work on the cheese.  The riper the cheese gets, the softer and more flavorful it becomes.  I'm not sure how aged this particular crottin was, but there was a spikey, sour flavor in the foreground, which slowly relented to the sweeter, goaty flavor underneath.  This stuff is pricey ($33.08 a pound), but they only sell it in 2.8-oz rounds, and that's all you really need for a cheese plate.


Good stuff!

Cheese of the week: Bra Tenero DOP

Name: Bra Tenero DOP

Brand: none listed

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

Country/Region of Origin: Italy

Price in Iowa: $12.75/lb.

Milk: cow's milk from Piedmont near Alba

Processing: milk is warmed, rennet is added, curd is broken and pressed several times.

Texture: semi-firm

Color: straw-colored

Rind: natural

Aroma: clean dairy

Taste: piquant, earthy, warm, woody, slightly salty

Mouth feel: firm and warm
 
Notes: This is another rare cheese.  You usually can't get Bra cheese outside of the Piedmont, but my local Organic Co-op has been upping the ante when it comes to unique and artisan cheeses.  Bra Tenero is a mild form of this regional cheese, but it is very tasty.Bra Tenero by Artisanal Premium Cheese

Cheese of the week: Montenebro

Name: Montenebro

Brand: none listed

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

Country/Region of Origin: Spain

Price in Iowa: $27.60/lb.

Milk:  pasteurized goat

Processing: Bleu, aged 2 months, coated with Penicillium and ash.

Texture: semi-firm, softening with age

Color: bone white (no veining)

Rind: Moldy (like gray wood)

Aroma: sharp dairy

Taste: piquant, peppery, nutty, salty with a strong bleu finish

Mouth feel: creamy and smooth
 
Notes: I got to try a rarer cheese this week.  Montenebro is made by Rafael Baez and his daughter, Paloma, in Avila, Spain near Madrid.  I'm glad that I got my mitts on this one.  Imagine a complex, multi-layered cheese (with interesting bitter and bleu notes) that you can spread smoothly onto crusty bread or a cracker.  That's Montenebro.  Such a good cheese, but hard to get in the US due to the single-maker nature of the cheese and its Spanish origin.


But, if you can find it, buy a whole wheel.  This stuff is fantastic!

Fruit of the Week: Mulberry

Name: Mulberry

Brand: God made these

Place of Purchase: The park in my backyard in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Ames, Iowa

Price in Iowa: FREE

Description: Dark purple , multiple fruit

Flavor: Meaty, sweet, tart 

Aroma: Slightly rosy

Texture/Mouth-feel: Firm, juicy, meaty

Notes: I was out walking my Corgis when I saw that the mulberry trees were in bloom.  These plants are treated like weeds in Iowa.  The birds love them, but most people don't realize that they produce delicious fruits.  The just get angry at the purple-stained sidewalks.  Farm families will collect and preserve these fruit, if they can beat the birds to them, but if you want to eat the fresh fruit you're going to need your own tree.  These fruits are a favorite of my wife, because she's named after them.

Cheese of the week: Ricotta Salata

Name: Ricotta Salata

Brand: none listed

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

Country/Region of Origin: Italy

Price in Iowa: $7.24/lb.

Milk: sheep

Processing: ricotta cheese is pressed, died and salted, then aged for at least 3 months

Texture: Hard

Color: White

Rind: Natural

Aroma: clean dairy

Taste: Dairy, mild sharpness, slightly sweet

Mouth feel: Dry, spongy
 
Notes:Not all ricotta salatas are made from ricotta cheese, but both cheeses start from the same curds and whey.  This cheese would be great in salads, or even as a dessert cheese.  I found a recipe for a salad with a mandarin oranges, walnuts, ricotta salata and a honey vinaigrette.  Pretty durned tasty.