American Cheese

I love cheese. And if you love cheese I believe we can all remember when our love affair began. Mine has two distinct events. Both happened to be when I was traveling overseas. The first was in Greece, and I fell in love with this white stuff called Feta. It tasted like earthy mushrooms and meadows filled with wild flowers. I could picture an old Greek man with his wishing beads in one hand, a cigarette hanging from his mouth while churned cheese with his other hand. My second epiphany with cheese was while I was in Paris. I had bought a baguette sandwich with brie and butter for 3 Euros from a street vendor. The brie was like butter in my mouth and the flaky baguette was falling all over my shirt, but I didn’t care, because it was simply heaven in my mouth. And possible the best meal I had while in Paris.

So when I came across the book titled “The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey through the Making and Selling of Cheese in American, From Field to Farm to Table,” by Liz Thorpe, I had to read it. Why not educate myself and understand my love affair with cheese just a little bit more. Who is Liz Thorpe you ask? Well she is the vice president of Murray’s Cheese in New York City. She is the women top chefs like Thomas Keller call to get the best cheese for their restaurants. But you ask is there good cheese in America?

That was the first thing I asked myself when reading the book’s cover. All I know of American cheese is well American Kraft singles. You know the pre-packaged stuff your mom would buy along with bologna and white bread. The stuff that was suppose to taste good, but didn’t. That’s my image of American cheese. Other cheeses like Parmesan and Ricotta came when I worked in an Italian Restaurant during college. But those cheeses still didn’t wake me up to the essence of cheese. I am still not certain that America can produce good cheese like the Europeans, but this statement comes from my lack of tasting or finding good American made cheese to date.

The book is a page turner, a learning experience, a cultural cheese awakening, and for me just downright full of knowledge I didn’t have before. Without boring you to death with details because if you want the details you should read the book. The book not only opens your mind to the world of cheese, but also opens your mind to the world of cheese in America. Thorpe tells us how to identify cheese. Step One: Where is your cheese from? Cow, Goat, or Sheep’s milk. Step Two: Taste (Taste with your eyes first, noise second, mouth third). Step Three: Cheese Families. Fresh, Bloomy, Washed Rind, Uncooked Pressed, Cooked Pressed, and Blue. Once you have the basics, it’s a journey through America’s history and pioneering with cheese and making it. Thorpe often gives personal stories of cheese makers she has met along her travels to find good cheese. These stories are entertaining, and informative.

By the end of the book it almost makes me want to leave my 3 bedroom suburban home in Orange County, California and buy some land and goats in Northern California or Vermont. Once there I can make my own feta cheese to sell at the local farmers' markets. And maybe, just maybe one day my cheese will make it on a plate at Thomas Keller’s restaurant. But that will not be happening. Realistically I am going to pay more attention to the cheese makers pushing cheese at my local farmer’s market or any farmer’s market that I visit in my travels. I will look for Artisanal American made cheese when I shop for cheese at the grocery store first, instead of going straight for the imported cheese from France and Greece.
American cheese makers, some good and some not so good start out small. Selling and marketing their cheese on their own. Hoping to get someplace like Murray’s to buy their cheese then to resale their cheese to restaurants like the French Laundry. While others are just happy to sell it at the Farmer’s Market, American cheese makers are like artist, they are just happy to make it. Thorpe said this in her book “American cheese is one of the cornerstones of preserving responsible agriculture, respectful animal husbandry, and all-around good eating in this big country if ours.”

So go out there and buy a wedge of something. Something made in America. Something that we hope will taste good, but if not it is the experience we are after not the hype. And yes read Liz Thorpe’s book as well if you want to deepen your knowledge of cheese. ISBN 978-0-06-145116-4.

A Flare for Indian Food

I am pretty adventurous when it comes to eating food. Not to adventurous when it comes to cooking unfamiliar foods, like Indian for example. I am more inclined to just go to my nearest Indian Restaurant and order some curry with vegetables, Chicken Tandoori, and soak it all up with Naan. One day while discussing my affliction to Indian food, a chef friend of mine recommended that if I wanted to learn about great Indian food that I had to checkout “Classic Indian Cooking” cookbook, by Julie Sahni. It was this cookbook my chef friend found, along with Thomas Keller’s cookbooks that made her give up a six figure salary and become a chef making no more than 40,000 a year. Now that is passion.

At first I was a little leery to dig into something so foreign, but my local library had the cookbook on hand. I was surprised to find that this is not just a book full of recipes, but a history, cultural background, and cooking techniques on Indian food. The first section discusses the ever over whelming assortment of Indian spices, goes over equipment and cooking techniques. The rest of the cookbook is divided into appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, accompanying staples, desserts, and beverages. There is even an index and glossary for us non-Indian cooks out there. But the most impressive feature about this cookbook is the brief summary before each recipe. So you know that Gosht Tikka (Meat Cutlets) is full of Indian spices, but is a very western looking dish due to 150 years of British influenced in India. Or that Gobhi Matar Rasedar (Cauliflower, Green peas, and Potatoes in Spicy Herb Sauce) is typically found in the Uttar Pradesh state of India and typically served at wedding banquets.

I choose two recipes to try. One easy and one that is not so easy. Masala Gosht (Beef in Spicy Tomato Gravy), and Hare Gobhi Ki Sabzi (Broccoli smothered in Garlic Oil). Masala Gosht is typically served in Indian restaurants and not found in Indian homes. The harder of the two, I am assuming it is found mostly in restaurants because it is a lengthy processes to make, is constructed of several steps. But Masala Gosht which required a few ingredients I have never cooked with before, like coriander leaves and meaty bones, became an excellent first time Indian cooking experience. The number one reason for choosing this recipe was to learn the art or technique of Brown-frying. Brown-frying is not found in western cooking, and is somewhere in the middle of deep-frying and sautéing of onions, garlic, or ginger root for twenty minutes. This requires constant stirring during the whole 20 minutes. The end product of brown frying onions for this recipe brings out the aroma of the onions, a Carmel-brown color, which looks like brown shriveled up pieces of onions. This technique comes from Moghul cooking and is often found in darker colored gravy’s or curries of India. Masala Gosht also requires the roasting of spices another technique very popular to Indian cookery.
I chose my second recipe, Hare Gobhi Ki Sabzi to learn the cooking technique of glazing vegetables; this method is found in Northern Indian. It is the easier of the two recipes. The glazing process gives the broccoli a crisp bite with the taste of garlic infused oil in the taste. Both dishes come out tasting wonderful. Though I will think twice before doing the lengthy Masala Gosht again, total prep and cook time 4 hours. But the end result left an Indian dance festival in my mouth and an Indian restaurant aroma in my house.

Overall this is an excellent cookbook to get your feet wet or to jump head first into a pool of Indian cookery. The author lives in America, and just like Julia Child, has adapted a foreign cooking method for us Americans. She often gives alternative ingredients for those hard to find items that might not be in a typical American supermarket. She also gives us cooking methods and techniques understandable to the American cook. This cookbook gets 5 stars! The ISBN number is 0-688-03721-6, and to purchase this book, it can be found at amazon.com and surlatable.com.

Bon Appetite!