Problem Solving With Chutney

What do you do when you want to call attention to a perfectly ripe camembert everyone should buy NOW? Make it pretty of course! Herve mons Camembert with Farmhouse chutney, golden raisins and roasted garlic.

The Crack Heard 'Round the World

In true WFM Dedham awesomeness, we held our "Crack Heard 'Round the World" event today. And I have to say it was even more majestic than I could have imagined. It's fun to see so many people get excited for something we do several times a week. Seeing the number of people who have never tasted Parmigiano-Reggiano from a fresh cracked wheel is a nice reminder of why my job is awesome.

Kristen, the Parm Queen, and Andrew, the Parm King 

She can not even handle the excitement

Regional VP Laura Derba does the honors

The turn out was amazing. People got super excited about it.

 Next up Cheesefest May 20th. The excitement is already building!

Roasted sweet potato and butternut squash soup with fromage forte cheesy bread

Spring Sphericals!

I was given two very important pieces of news today;

1. Michael and I were tasked with coming up with Easter related "in-house made" items for the weekend
2. It's apparently not cool to use the phrase Easter Egg anymore, thus making the naming process much more difficult

With this in mind we opted for Capricho de Cabra "Spring Sphericals" (ok, we called them "holiday eggs" on the tag, but spring sphericals is pretty damn fun to say). I went large format and decorated with pink peppercorn, parsley, and lemon zest. Michael opted for mini eggs and used honey infused beets, parsley, lemon zest, and chives.

Michael and Kristin showing off the spheres

We did singles and a mini collection

Wheat grass and berry baskets. Martha would be proud

Sometimes my job is crazy stressful and intense. And sometimes my job is shaping cheese into egg shapes and making them pretty.

Simple Cheesemaking @ Formaggio Kitchen

Have I mentioned how excited I am to be moving into a space where I won't be sharing a kitchen or a refrigerator with anyone? A place where if I decide on a whim to make a huge batch of ricotta I can hang cheesecloths filled with drippy cheese everywhere?

In preparation for this joyous occasion I went to the :Simple Cheesemaking" class at Formaggio Kitchen. The bubbly Jessica taught us how to make our own butter, ricotta, and yogurt. So really it should probably have been called "Simple things to do with dairy in a slightly more solid form" but that's less catchy.

 This was the plate that greeted me upon entering the annex. Butter, ricotta, and yogurt plus some accouterments (My favorite being the Confitures de l'Ardèche blackberry preserves. They also produce an insanely good chestnut preserve as well)

This right here is the most perplexing piece of butter I have ever tasted. This is Buffalo milk butter from Campania. It has the texture of shortening and a sweet, almost vanilla flavor. I'd love to try it on French Toast or something sweet.

I did learn one very important thing while tasting all the butters. It's not really butter that I respond to, it's salt. It's not that I didn't appreciate the varying degrees of richness (though I'll take my $3 kerrygold over Plugra any day of the week) I enjoyed them so much more when I dipped them in one of the salts they had on the plate. I might be part deer. 

This is Jessica showing us how the butter seperates from the buttermilk.

The watching of the actual process of making these things is kind of hard to make interesting with photos so I'll post more when I get a chance to actually try making them myself. I'm particularly interested in making the ricotta and parlaying that into stuffed pastas. And apparently it's not that difficult to make ricotta into Ricotta Salata, which could also be a fun experiment.

My only complaint about the Formaggio classes is that it really depends on the group you have with you. I've had some hits and misses. At this particular class I sat next to a woman who vacillated between asking me to repeat everything Jessica said and shushing the girls sitting on the other side of me.

Spring Sippers

If anybody is in the Dedham area this friday night, please stop by the store for our wine evet

Spring Sippers