Cheese O’clock: Breaking Dairy News

Yes, that’s a cheese Swatch. Imagine my delight upon seeing it in the window of the Swatch store in Washington D.C.’s Union Station. It makes staying on time a pleasure, but my stomach growls every time I look at it. If you need a cheesy toast watch of your own, you can check them out here.

Now, for some local updates:

Au Revoir, Amazing Acres

One of my favorite goat cheesemakers, Debbie Mikulak, is retiring to Maine with her partner, Fred. That means no more Sea Smoke, a bloomy gem that has garnered press and praise across Pennsylvania’s dairyland. Get your last fix before March 15 (try DiBruno Bros. and Fair Food Farmstand), and if you know anyone who wants to buy a Chester County goat dairy with a beautiful cheese room…

Yellow Springs CSA

Forty slots are open for 40 goat cheese lovers. Check out the Yellow Springs website if you want to sign up for award-winning cheese from one of Chester County’s most decorated cheesemakers. I wrote about my visit to Yellow Springs a few weeks ago and highlighted one of their cheeses, Nutcracker, in the current issue of Grid Magazine. If you live in Philly proper, you can pay extra for delivery through Panache, a company that delivers organic produce. Click here to register for the CSA.

Bobolink at the Farmstand

Cheesemonger Paul Lawler sends word of his new dairy case princess, Bobolink cheese. This is the first time that cheese from this much-lauded dairy will be retailed in Philly (woot, go Paul!).

Paul writes, “I don't mean to be all star-struck, but well, I kind of am. Jonathan [White] was one of the very first on the east coast to really put fully grass fed dairy on the map, - supplying...the Clinton White house (where he taught the kitchen to make mozzarella).” Stop by the Fair Food Farmstand this weekend for a wedge.

Secret Winnimere Stash at DiBruno’s

Hot scoop from the cave at DiBruno Bros.: the store has a secret supply of Winnimere that’s being washed in Root, a local liqeuer. It should be coming in from the Cellars at Jasper Hill in late February. Winnimere is a Vacherin-style cheese (read: oozy). Gorgeous. I want a Winnimere Swatch.

Clipped from: www.culturecheesemag.com (share this clip)

Three Winnimere tastings are scheduled in conjunction with the folks from Root:

Di Brun Bros. 9^th Street , March 5, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Di Bruno Bros. Center City, March 6, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Ardmore Farmers’ Market, April 9, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Cheesemonger+Restaurant 943

Ian Peacock, a.k.a. Mr. Fiore Sardo over at Di Bruno Bros. (9^th Street), is making morcilla and blood sausage at his new restaurant in the Italian Market, 943 South 9^th Street. He’s a partner in the city’s first Latin-Italian meat laboratory. Given that he’s a longtime DB’s monger, you can be sure he’s serving up some pretty wicked cheese, too. The restaurant opened last week and is slated to start serving brunch, in addition to lunch y dinner.

Brewer’s Plate

Last but not least, don't forget to mark Sunday, March 13 on your calendar for the city of Philadelphia's best craft ale and local foods dinner party. Tickets are still available, and Yours Truly is on board for some cheese cutting. Stop by, and I'll blow you a kiss.

Cheese'n Shmooz Calendar

Honestly, there are so many opportunities coming up to talk cheese, eat cheese, and meet cheese lovers that my calendar is beginning to look as scribbled upon as a 7th-grade Trapper Keeper. Here are some dates for dairy entanglements in the Philadelphia area:

October 3, Slow Food “Dig In”, noon-3 p.m., World Café Live

The Philadelphia chapter of this artisanal food alliance hosts an afternoon of culinary demos and tastings by local food producers and chefs. Tickets are a mere $10. Dock Street provides the brew, and live music is on the menu, too. I will be there with Debbie Mikulak of Amazing Acres Dairy. Join us for some goat cheese’n chat.

October 16, Cherry Grove Cheese Tour

Check out one of the area’s most interesting sustainable dairies, Cherry Grove – makers of Maidenhead. The Fair Food Farmstand leads this excursion. Lunch is included, and so is a tour of Griggstown Quail Farm – yup, you can reserve your Heritage breed turkey. The whole shebang is only $20 – you’ve got to get yourself to Princeton, NJ, but then you’re golden. For more info, contact Christina@fairfoodphilly.org, or call 215-386-5211, ext. 106

October 28, The Big Cheeses of 2010, Tria

This is just one of two cheese classes that Tria has on offer in October. Cheesemonger Rich Morillo highlights the best cheeses in America, showcasing recent winners of the American Cheese Society Awards. Don’t forget that Tria has a “Sunday School” menu every Sunday to feature a great cheese, wine, and beer pairing – all at a deep discount. Alas, this class is sold out, but you can still get on the waiting list: (215) 972-7076

Beer’n Cheese Happy Hour, Di Bruno Bros. (South Philly)

It happens every Wednesday, from 5-8 p.m. – where have you been? Free brew, free cheese, and if you ask nicely, you just might get to see some skin (meaning: cheese tattoos). These pairings are often exquisite – stop in for a minor revelation. I’m usually there, moaning audibly near the olive bins.

Ohhh, and I almost forgot to mention...the list of tastings I co-host at Quince, my neighborhood cheese shop, is posted on the store's website. On October 23, we'll be baking with cheese. Join us for hot cheese appetizers and conversation. More on this later.

Chocolate Chevre

In winter, I like to eat blue cheese for dessert. But in summer, well, that can be dicey. Take today, when it's supposed to be 97 in Philadelphia -- you couldn't pay me to eat Stilton. Well, okay, with the right port.

Still, I prefer the lighter cheeses on a sizzler, which is why today, I woke up thinking about this original chocolate chevre from Amazing Acres.

Several weeks ago, Debbie Mikulak dropped off a puck of this curious cheese she'd made, and -- I must admit -- I did a doubletake when I pulled it out of the paper bag. Typically, I don't go for flavored cheeses. Keep those hunks of mango out of my Stilton, please! A few days later, I got curious to try Debbie's chocolate chevre. She recommended serving it with berries and pound cake, which seems just about perfect for a 4th of July dessert.

I wish I still had some around.

Here's what I liked about this chevre: it's not too sweet. It looks like a mini chocolate cheesecake, but it doesn't taste like one -- no gooey consistency or cloying aftertaste. The dark chocolate flavor stands out, but it doesn't overpower the goat cheese. You can still taste a little tang.

With some cherry preserves and thin almond biscotti, you'd have bliss. I also have fantasies of sandwiching it between two amaretti cookies from Termini Bros. I'd serve it with a glass of Lindemans Framboise -- which tastes like liquid raspberries -- or some spiked coffee.

One other cheesemaker I know of sells chocolate chevre, Capri, out of Indiana. I would imagine you could also whip up some chocolate chevre yourself, using some good fresh goat cheese and some fiendishly dark cocoa. I'd use Green & Black's, which is Fair Trade and tastes divine in baked goods.

When the heat breaks around here, I'm going to try this recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes with Goat Cheese -- I mean, as long as we're talking about dessert.

Sea Smoke

Over the weekend, I hosted an all-goat blow-out. Really, I just wanted to show off the glorious work of Amazing Acres’ Debbie Mikulak, a new artisanal cheese maker from Elverson, Pa. whose pristine chevre has every cheesemonger I know talking.

Debbie makes unusual goat cheeses – her Sea Smoke reminds me of Humboldt Fog, the famous ashy streaker from California’s Cypress Grove, but Debbie’s version has a bloomy rind, which lends an Alice-in-Wonderland-like quality to this delicate, pleasing cheese.

Picture Humboldt Fog as a mochi ball, and you’ve got the texture down – a veil of damp, slightly gummy bloom serves as the surface here. Sea Smoke looks like a magic mushroom, a cave formation, a doorknob into an underworld of talking caterpillars and rabbits.

The texture is dense, moist, and a little chalky – crumbs settle on the tongue, like cloudcover. The taste is slightly floral at first, with a mild tang, and a flourish of pepperiness at the end -- think watercress. The layer of vegetable ash is mostly tasteless, but there's a woodsy cleanness to the whole package – it’s a spring dream. I like it best with blackberries and strawberries, as dessert.  For a light supper, it would go well with sautéed fiddleheads and a glass of Prosecco.

Debbie also makes Banon, a denser cheese she wraps in grape leaves and soaks in brandy – a nod to the French, who popularized this adorable, giftable cheese in Provence (the French use chestnut leaves and eau de vie). Debbie’s version is firmer than the French varieties I’ve tried, but really delicious, a perfect appetizer alongside almonds and a glass of Cote-du-Rhone.

I’ll be writing about Debbie’s cheeses for the next issue of Grid Magazine. I also mentioned her goat cheese in a recent segment of “A Chef’s Table” on WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate -- it's at the very end of the program, listen-to-able at the link. I guess I’m turning into something of a Sea Smoke evangelist, but then…you know, I have a thing for bloomy rinds and ash.   

If you live in the Philadelphia area, look for Sea Smoke and other Amazing Acres cheeses at Fair Food Farm Stand, DiBruno Bros, and Quince. (You might want to call first, since supplies are limited.)

Here are a few scenes from Debbie’s goat-cheese debut, beginning with a photo of her and husband, Fred Bloom.