Cheese Sticks

When I was in France, almost 40 years ago, I remember buying these delicious cheese sticks. I remember them being crunchy and light and filled with Swiss cheese flavor. One of many fond memories of France.

Fast forward some 20 or so years, and I remember a bakery in Austin, Texas, Upper Crust Bakery, that had these delicious Cheese Sticks. They might have called them Cheese Twists, and they were nothing like the ones from France, except that they were crunchy and light, just not as light as the ones from France. Upper Crust Bakery used a Cheddar, at least I think that was it, and they were delicious. I used to stop in there when I passed and buy as many as I could afford, or as many as they had left.

One day, they stopped having them. Now, I wasn’t able to get there as often as I would like, and I have checked back several times, and nothing.

Now, as you might imagine, I have been looking for a way to get these delicious things that I remember, and not long ago, I watched the Hairy Bikers making something and it sparked my imagination. They made twists, with Parma ham and gorganzola, and you can find the recipe here.

I tried this once before using Philo Dough, but that turned out to be way too much work and while the result was edible, even approaching tasty, it was not really a success.

This time I tried Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry sheets and some Extra Sharp Cheddar. I unrolled the dough, spread on some butter and then sprinkled on cheese. I folded it, rolled it out, trying to get is to the original thickness and then repeated the process about four times, using about 4 oz of cheese.

Now, one problem is that I was doing this on Super Bowl Sunday, and my Niners were playing, so I was not in the mood to experiment with backing. I cut the dough into strips, attempted to twist them, and loaded up our baking stone at 350 degrees.

When I checked on them later, they had sort of fallen over and partially opened up, and the grease dripping from them was phenomenal. They did not look too appetizing, so I tried flipping them over. That got both sides crispy, and they were pretty good.

I have still got more than a little way to go before they match my memories, but I think I might be on the right trail. Next time, no butter, more cheese, and I am going to experiment with cooking, both on a pan, and on the baking stone. More news at 11.

Alton Brown's Cheese Soup

Alton Brown's Cheese Soup

 

I watch Alton Brown's show, Good Eats, on Hulu, and not long ago, they showed his second show on Cheese.  After spending two years in France as a young man, I have a great love of all things cheese, so I was particularly interested to see what Alton would do with the subject.

I came away from the show with two recipes, one for a cheese spread made from leftover bits of cheese, which is a funny idea in my house, where cheese disappears at light speed, and the cheese soup that I have linked to above.  I was at the grocery store thinking about dinner when I decided that I would try Alton's Cheese Soup.

I keep recipes in OneNote on SkyDrive.  I can highly recommend this to anyone.  It allows me to call up a recipe on my phone.  Of course, it helps that I have Windows Phone 7, and Windows Live is integrated into the OS.  I can input recipes on any computer with an internet connection, and then call it up on my phone.  Evernote would probably do the same thing.

Now, if you will take a moment to look at the recipe, you will see that it starts with a pretty standard mirepoix (celery, carrots, onions).  Normally I am not a fan of mirepoix.  I am not a big fan of onions (hence the title of this blog) and I really hate cooked celery.  This recipe caught my eye because you puree the vegetables after cooking.  I figured I might be able to handle the mirepoix if they were reduced to an almost unrecognizable mash before I ate it.  That "almost" will turn out to be quite important.

The recipe is pretty simple.  Sweat the vegetables, toss in a little flour, add chicken broth and simmer for half an hour.  One suggestion is to do your mise en place, at least for everything used in this first stage of the recipe.  After starting the simmer, you have 30 minutes to grate your cheese, and get your cream and finishing elements ready, but you need everything else ready when you start, so that you can watch your vegetables sweat.

I made only one major change to the recipe.  I used 8 oz. of Tillamook Smoked Cheddar, and a bit extra of HEB Artisan Cheddar.  One other thing of note.  I used HEB Garlic Chicken Broth, in a carton.  It was 32 oz. by weight, which turned out to be just a little short of the quart mentioned in the recipe.  My soup didn't notice the difference.

Everything worked out just the way Alton said it would.  I took it off the heat, removed the bay leaf, added the cream and blitzed it with my stick blender.  I wasn't sure that I got it as blitzed as I wanted, and to be honest, I didn't.  I am not sure that I could have any better with any other sort of blender, but what I do know, is that the vegetables ended up in very small bits, too small to need chewing.  Unfortunately, the fibrous celery left behind a few long strands which were less than ideal.

But, the cheese melted easily, just from the residual heat from the simmering, and I ended up with a tasty cheese soup.  After tasting, I added a little more salt, and a little more Worcestershire Sauce.  As mentioned in the recipe, I did need to reheat it a little after that to bring it back to hot.

I liked it, but I ladled myself up a rather large bowl, and didn't completely finish it.  By the end I found the onion to be a little overpowering.  Onions do that to me.  They seem to build up as I eat something with a lot of onion flavor in it.

This recipe makes a lot of soup, and being a cream soup, you shouldn't leave it out too long.  Get it into the refrigerator as soon as it cools.

Update:  Night One, I did not finish the bowl of soup that I started.  It was good, but my opinion didn't last until the end of the bowl.  I tried more the next day, reheated in a microwave, and didn't really care for it.  When I got home, I tried reheating it in a pan.  I find this hard to say, but I couldn't take more than a bite or two.

By the second night, it tasted more like a vegetable soup with some cheese in it, and I ended up throwing out about a third of it, because no one in the house wanted to eat it.  Maybe the type of cheese made the difference, but as a recipe for a cheddar cheese soup, I have to mark this one as a failure.

Central Market Trip

Central Market

4001 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78756

(512) 206-1000

I love Central Market.  I don't get down there very often because it is rather expensive, but I love the selection.  Today I was looking for something a bit French, something to remind me of things that I used to buy 30 years ago when I spent two years in France.

Strangely enough, I ended up with nearly as many English things as French things, but oh well.

Cheese

I love any store with a wall of cheese.  Okay, maybe it's not a wall, but there is a good twenty feet of cheese, on two sets of shelves, surrounding a central island that included more cheese.  If you love cheese like I do, then this is one of the Austin Meccas.  Cheeses from all over the world, and lots of them.  So, here is what I got.

• Red Dragon
  English Cheddar Cheese with Wholegrain Mustard & Ale from Somerdale

This is a wonderful cheese.  It isn't too strong, but the mustard seeds give it a distinctive flavor.  You can melt this over a burger and you won't need to put any mustard on it.  It is whole mustard grains, so there is also an occasional, but wonderful crunch in the cheese.  My personal preference is just to eat this cheese, no burgers, no crackers, just cheese.

• Clawson Dairy Stilton

I am not a big fan of blue cheese, but I have always wanted to try Stilton, since watching the show Chef. 

"Stilton is Cheese 1.  Everyone knows that."  -Chef Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry)

It was good, very blue-y, but not so strong that I turned away immediately.  I ate a few little bits and left the rest for my wife.

• Life in Provence
  Camembert

I remember going into grocers in France and seeing a wall of Camembert, not just a wall of cheese, but a wall of Camembert.  I remember one Super Marché with a staggering amount of Camembert.  Dozens of brands, and dozens of each of those brands.  You pulled off the little wooden box and put a thumb gently to the middle of the cheese to judge how hard it is.  The softer the cheese, the stronger the taste.  My general tendency was to buy a hard mild cheese and then let it ripen in the fridge.  A week later that cheese would be oh so runny and smell strongly of wet diapers.  Only someone who has tried a ripe Camembert can understand the wonders of the taste that goes with that diaper smell.

Central Market only had two brands.  I would have been disappointed, but they were both from France.  Finances got the best of me.  I bought the cheaper Camembert, but it turned out okay.  I remember buying Camembert in France and I rarely bought the most expensive brand then either.

• Black Pepper Paté de Campagne
  Central Market Deli

I have always preferred Paté de Campagne to the more common Paté de Foie.  I prefer the texture and the taste.  This paté has a layer of peppercorns on the top, but there aren't many mixed into the paté.  This makes the paté itself quite mild, with a nice kick, if you want it.  I was very happy with my choice.

I wish I could have found a better loaf of bread to go with my treats, but the Central Market Baguette wasn't bad.  They have a large selection of breads, but nothing really seemed to catch my fancy today.  Bread is the best accompaniment to Camembert and Pate.  A smallish baguette, no more than two inches across, works well.  You cut the baguette into slices half an inch thick and spread cheese or paté on each one.

A wonderful treat, and something more common to the gourmet than the gourmand.