Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Rock around the crockpot
Chevre: Sunlight, Semi-hard raw goat's milk cheese
Wine: Vale dos Vinhedos Pinot Noir (Brazil)
One of my coworkers likes to tell the story about when ConEdison (the public utility company in New York) called him to ask if his stove still worked. "Yeah, why?" Pete (my coworker) said. To which the ConEd person on the other end of the line replied, "Okay, we just wanted to check because you haven't used any gas in the last four months." Whether it's Pete--the serial take-out artist--or the fictional Sex and the City charactor Carrie Bradshaw--who kept her sweaters in her oven--the stereotype is that New Yorkers don't cook.
Which makes me, Jill, and Jesse anomalies as New Yorkers because we do cook, and we have been suffering mightily ever since the building management turned off the gas to our building three weeks ago in order to fix a gas leak. But thank god for my Mom and for hand-me down kitchen appliances, as they have saved our bacon (so to speak) over the last three weeks. A few years ago my Mom shipped us an old electric skillet and a crockpot she had received as a wedding gift in late 1970's. At the time, I questioned the logic of cleaning out her garage by shipping me stuff to keep in my tiny New York apartment kitchen, but I now question no more.
Jill has made good use of the electric skillet (she's partial to fried eggs), while Jesse and I have monopolized the crockpot. The one good thing that's come out of the last three weeks is that I've discovered making squash in the crockpot. Two weeks ago we made spaghetti squash with jarred sauce. It turned okay, but not great, because we had to heat the sauce in the crockpot with the squash once it was done cooking, so the squash was actually a little overcooked by the time the sauce had warmed up. But the squash cooked beautifully on its own, pre-saucing. I was so pleased with how easy it was--and how nice it was to come home to cooked squash after work (no waiting for it to cook in the oven!)--that I tried a stuffed acorn squash recipe next.
The recipe recommends topping the squash and rice with chevre; normally I'd get the prepackaged goat cheese crumbles. But now that I have this blog, I thought I should probably take the cheese acquisition up a notch. So Jesse and I headed off to the creamery at Whole Foods to see what kinds of interesting goat cheeses were available.
I'm pretty sure that the author of the stuffed squash recipe intended for a fresh chevre to be used, but after tasting a couple of different kinds I asked the dairy attendant at Whole Foods if he had unusual goat cheeses. Which is when he got out the Sunlight goat cheese from Haystack Mountain Dairy in Longmont, Co. With a hint of Roquefort, the Sunlight goat cheese was unlike anything else we had tasted. So we took it right home and fired up the crockpot.
The recipe turned out well, but I think next time I will use a fresh chevre. The best pairing actually turned out to be the Sunlight cheese with a bottle of the Vale dos Vinhedos Pinot Noir (Brazil) Jesse had picked up at Astor Place Wines. Jim Schott, the founding cheesemaker at Haystack Mountain Dairy, reccomends pairing Sunlight with dried fruit like cherries. A similar effect also worked with the red berry notes of the Pinot Noir.
We've been told that we might have gas by this weekend, and I'm already planning which recipes to make first. Since I have goat cheese on the brain, and I might make Warm Potato Salad with Goat Cheese for my cooking comeback.
Which makes me, Jill, and Jesse anomalies as New Yorkers because we do cook, and we have been suffering mightily ever since the building management turned off the gas to our building three weeks ago in order to fix a gas leak. But thank god for my Mom and for hand-me down kitchen appliances, as they have saved our bacon (so to speak) over the last three weeks. A few years ago my Mom shipped us an old electric skillet and a crockpot she had received as a wedding gift in late 1970's. At the time, I questioned the logic of cleaning out her garage by shipping me stuff to keep in my tiny New York apartment kitchen, but I now question no more.
Jill has made good use of the electric skillet (she's partial to fried eggs), while Jesse and I have monopolized the crockpot. The one good thing that's come out of the last three weeks is that I've discovered making squash in the crockpot. Two weeks ago we made spaghetti squash with jarred sauce. It turned okay, but not great, because we had to heat the sauce in the crockpot with the squash once it was done cooking, so the squash was actually a little overcooked by the time the sauce had warmed up. But the squash cooked beautifully on its own, pre-saucing. I was so pleased with how easy it was--and how nice it was to come home to cooked squash after work (no waiting for it to cook in the oven!)--that I tried a stuffed acorn squash recipe next.
The recipe recommends topping the squash and rice with chevre; normally I'd get the prepackaged goat cheese crumbles. But now that I have this blog, I thought I should probably take the cheese acquisition up a notch. So Jesse and I headed off to the creamery at Whole Foods to see what kinds of interesting goat cheeses were available.
I'm pretty sure that the author of the stuffed squash recipe intended for a fresh chevre to be used, but after tasting a couple of different kinds I asked the dairy attendant at Whole Foods if he had unusual goat cheeses. Which is when he got out the Sunlight goat cheese from Haystack Mountain Dairy in Longmont, Co. With a hint of Roquefort, the Sunlight goat cheese was unlike anything else we had tasted. So we took it right home and fired up the crockpot.
The recipe turned out well, but I think next time I will use a fresh chevre. The best pairing actually turned out to be the Sunlight cheese with a bottle of the Vale dos Vinhedos Pinot Noir (Brazil) Jesse had picked up at Astor Place Wines. Jim Schott, the founding cheesemaker at Haystack Mountain Dairy, reccomends pairing Sunlight with dried fruit like cherries. A similar effect also worked with the red berry notes of the Pinot Noir.
We've been told that we might have gas by this weekend, and I'm already planning which recipes to make first. Since I have goat cheese on the brain, and I might make Warm Potato Salad with Goat Cheese for my cooking comeback.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dubbel word score
Cheddar: Cahill's Porter, Irish cheddar marbled with Cahill's farm-made Irish Porter
Istara: French semi-firm sheep's milk
Belgian beer: Affligem Dubbel & Affligem Tripel
Istara: French semi-firm sheep's milk
Belgian beer: Affligem Dubbel & Affligem Tripel
Jesse (my boyfriend) and I headed out to Nate and Natalia's (friends of ours) place in Park Slope on Saturday for some adult board games. Nothing kinky, just Scrabble with beer instead of Kool-Aid. Jesse had actually never played Scrabble before and (in my opinion) was suffering from a small bout of vocabulary inadequacy beforehand. Thankfully we had picked up two bottles of Belgian beer, which quickly made us all feel very relaxed.
Jesse and I had spent the day hanging out at Red Horse Cafe (soon to be the subject of another post about the alchemy of espresso and foam) working on a case study about Google China (me) and studying for the LEED Accreditation (Jesse), so it was just a short walk over to Bierkraft. We fell in love with Bierkraft last year when Jesse was living in Park Slope. They're known mostly for their beer selection (900 kinds), but they also have an excellent selection of cheeses (250 kinds), chocolates, ice cream (particularly Shameless Ice Cream Sandwiches), and gourmet acctrouements. Browsing can be overwhelming (in a good way), so we often just flag down the nearest helpful employee and put ourselves into her capable hands. On Saturday, a helpful woman behind the cheese counter reccomened two excellent cheeses for snacking: a Cahill's Porter (photo above) and an Istara. I've been on a Belgian beer kick for the last year, so we also picked up a bottle of Affligem Dubbel and a bottle of Affligem Tripel - and a baguette - to go with the cheeses.
Natalia had also picked up a Port-Salut cheese, Manchego cheese, Serrano ham, and Carr's Crackers (the best), so we had quite the feast. The Cahill's Porter was the hit all around with a close-second tie between the Port-Salut and the Istara; my preference was for the Port-Salut.
We also drank two bottles of wine, so the by time Jesse and I left to catch the subway back to Manhattan we were full of cheese and booze.
And Jesse kicked ass at Scrabble, so a good time was had by all.
Jesse and I had spent the day hanging out at Red Horse Cafe (soon to be the subject of another post about the alchemy of espresso and foam) working on a case study about Google China (me) and studying for the LEED Accreditation (Jesse), so it was just a short walk over to Bierkraft. We fell in love with Bierkraft last year when Jesse was living in Park Slope. They're known mostly for their beer selection (900 kinds), but they also have an excellent selection of cheeses (250 kinds), chocolates, ice cream (particularly Shameless Ice Cream Sandwiches), and gourmet acctrouements. Browsing can be overwhelming (in a good way), so we often just flag down the nearest helpful employee and put ourselves into her capable hands. On Saturday, a helpful woman behind the cheese counter reccomened two excellent cheeses for snacking: a Cahill's Porter (photo above) and an Istara. I've been on a Belgian beer kick for the last year, so we also picked up a bottle of Affligem Dubbel and a bottle of Affligem Tripel - and a baguette - to go with the cheeses.
Natalia had also picked up a Port-Salut cheese, Manchego cheese, Serrano ham, and Carr's Crackers (the best), so we had quite the feast. The Cahill's Porter was the hit all around with a close-second tie between the Port-Salut and the Istara; my preference was for the Port-Salut.
We also drank two bottles of wine, so the by time Jesse and I left to catch the subway back to Manhattan we were full of cheese and booze.
And Jesse kicked ass at Scrabble, so a good time was had by all.
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