'O Glorious Summer of Cheese

I have not been wanting for cheese this summer. In fact, I’ve been cheese rich! It has been a wonderful and gluttonous time. Cheese, I’m convinced, is the real fast food. You just slice it, slather it or pile it on some crusty bread, cracker, fruit, pie or eat as is and you are good to go. You have a delicious, gourmet treat that takes no time at all. Satisfying not only because of its flavour but has the requisite protein and fat to fill you right up!

In my quest to eat not only delicious but ethical cheese, I have gotten to know the fine folks at the Lendrum Ross farm who produce some fantastic cheeses. While in Whitehorse back in June, I stopped by the Fireweed Market (http://fireweedmarket.yukonfood.com) to load up on their cheeses before heading back north. I went early as I had been warned that they sell out quickly! I picked up some halloumi, feta, chèvre as well as some goat yogurt fudge. 

I had heard about their halloumi before but I was finally going to taste it for myself! In anticipation I bought two pieces. One I shared with with my friend Amberley, who I often stay with while in Whitehorse. We sliced it into squares and fried it in olive oil then squeezed lemon juice over it with salt and pepper. It was delicious! We started out by putting it on a lovely market produced olive bread but quickly discarded it, opting to eat the cheese on its own. Anything else would just be filler! It reminded me of a cross between saganaki and cheese curds. It had the fried crispiness and flavour of saganaki but the squeek of cheese curds. 

On the second halloumi eating occasion, I casually offered some to my small step grandchildren assuming that they wouldn’t be interested in such a thing. I quickly had to ration it out as they chowed down with reckless abandon. I eventually had to cut them off all together. Whatever feelings of guilt I suffered about my inability to share quickly wavered as I devoured the last slices. 

The beauty of the chèvre was that is was mild and spreadable and tasted so wonderfully fresh. I was still skeptical that the kids would be interested in it but after spreading it on some crackers, which I then sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper, I couldn’t keep it coming fast enough. I was a little more willing to share this go around just because I had more...

The feta was used mostly to add some tang to some delectable summer salads, which was good because that meant that a little went a long way. Mmmmm...

In addition to the goat cheese of the Lendrum Ross Farm, I came across Moonstruck Organic Cheeses (http://www.moonstruckcheese.com). This small farm/cheese maker is located on Salt Spring Island. They make homemade free range cow’s milk cheeses that are certified organic. According to their website, they have a small herd of about 25 cows. I would love to visit them one day!

In the Yukon, you can purchase their cheeses from Riverside Grocery (http://www.riversidegrocery.ca), Whitehorse’s go-to store for just about anything. It’s been around for years and as they claim, “If we don’t have it, it’s not worth having!” They carry a wide range of products and any trip to Whitehorse includes a stop at this unique little gem of a store. But I digress...

White Grace, Savoury Moon, White Moon, Ash-Ripened Camembert, Farmstead Feta are just some of Moonstruck Organic Cheese products  that I have enjoyed. If I had to pick my absolute fave, it would be the Baby Blue. It even won a bronze medal in 2008 at the First World Jersey Cheese Competition on the Isle of Jersey. It just might be the perfect cheese! You can read more detailed descriptions of their cheese on their website. So glad that I am able to get my hands on these fantastic products.

Ash- Ripened Camembert on the left & Savoury Moon on the right. Oh so good!

While on a recent vacation, I admit that I did eat some cheese whose ethicality (is that a word?!) was unknown to me but I’m assuming that due to its mass-produced nature that it could not possibly be ethical. I didn’t feel guilty. It’s difficult to control what types of food you will have access to when you are traveling. What I did observe, however, was that the small farm produced cheese that I have become accustomed to eating is a far superior product. Mass-produced cheese is bland, uninteresting and feels like you are eating plastic. Really? What’s the point? 

With a renewed sense of enthusiasm for small scale produced cheese, I got my hands on a feta making kit and some rennet and ordered up some goat’s milk. I’m taking cheese making to the smallest scale of production. I am going to try and make it myself. 16L of goat’s milk. 8L for mozzarella. 8L for feta. Yikes! Just don’t mess up...

Goat's milk awaiting its transformation into cheese.

Birthday Menu

Wow… that was sort of cruel. I put out a teaser for an upcoming post and then I disappeared off the face of the earth for a month. Well, as you know, life has a way of getting really busy from time to time and sometimes things have to go to the back burner for a bit.

In any case, I’m pleased to report that I’m still embracing the ethical omnivore lifestyle. I just haven’t had the chance lately to report on it. It seems like going back to tell you about my birthday menu might be a little too far in the past but I will anyways because we had some great food! 

At the party were 15 or so good friends. It was pretty casual. It was supposed to be a BBQ and although we used the BBQ to prepare some of the food, we were confined to house because it was snowing! Yes, snow on May 18^th. It was first in my life time!

Here was the menu :

Appetizers

Hummus with Organic Que Pasa tortilla chips

Goat Cheese & Sun-dried Tomato Terrine served with crackers

Main Course

Marinated Moose& Veggie Kebabs

Moose Burgers with all the fixings

Alaskan Scallop Skewers

Tabbouleh & Chickpea Salad

Spinach Salad with strawberries, almonds and a poppyseed dressing

Vegan Potato Salad

Dessert

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Goat Cheese & Sun-dried Tomato Terrine or as I like to call it: Delish!

Not a bad spread… So you may be thinking, why on earth would you want to go through the trouble of preparing all that food on your own birthday? Just to be ethical? No actually, I have often prepared dinners for friends on my birthday because one of the things I love about cooking is making things for others and giving them joy. Many of my friends who are avid cooks do the same. Plus, you can be guaranteed you’re going to eat well! Being ethical was just an added advantage. I did mention to dinner guests who I know have been following the blog that it was ethical but most of them were none the wiser and would not have been able to tell the difference anyways! One particular guest, who has an aversion to eggs, was delighted to finally be able to eat a potato salad because it did not contain eggs.

So, going through the menu, I fully admit that I took lots of short cuts with this meal. I’m a normally “from scratch” kinda girl but I did not want to work too hard! It was my birthday afterall! So yes, the hummus was store bought although I jazzed up the presentation by transferring it to another dish and adding some garnish.

The goat cheese appetizer is a fabulous dish that can be made the day before. It comes from the Whitewater Cookbook series. I will add these books to my book listing in the Food for Thought post. There are several wonderful dishes in all three of these books. This particular recipe is found on page 28 of Whitewater Cooks At Home. You line a dish with plastic wrap and put down a layer of softened goat cheese-unripened. It says in the recipe to beat until fluffy and smooth. What I did was soften the cheese slightly in the microwave, which made it easily spreadable. After putting down the first layer, put on a layer of pesto (I used store bought), chopped up sundried tomatoes, some chopped, fresh basil and parsley then add another layer of the goat cheese. Wrap it in the plastic and refrigerate to firm up. When firm, unwrap and place it on a serving plate, garnish with a balsamic vinegar reduction, toasted pine nuts, capers, a basil chiffonade, kalamata olives and cherry tomatoes. Simple! See, you don’t even need the recipe. Serve with baguette, toasted pita, crackers, etc.

For the main course, we marinated cut pieces of moose steak several days in advance. We just used a random kebab recipe from the internet and threw in a few extra ingredients. I wish I had kept it because it was a gooder… Loaded up some skewers with the meat, peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc. and cooked them on the BBQ along with some moose burgers. I don’t tend to keep recipes for burger seasonings so sorry, nothing to share. For the burgers, we got the local bakery to make up some fresh buns, which made them extra nice.

The scallops were purchased from Frisky Fish in Whitehorse and came from a small bay in Alaska. I tossed them in olive oil, lemon zest, garlic and s/p. Much like the mozzarella cheese from the cheese making workshop actually. Then I skewered them and cooked them on the BBQ. Yummy!

The Tabbouleh and Chickpea Salad was a new recipe. It came from page 43 of the Whitewater Cooks book. It’s the first time I’ve ever used bulgur and I was very pleased with the results. It's a yummy recipe full of flavour with ingredients like chickpeas, green olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and herbs and spices. I used a The Farmstead Feta from Moonstruck Organic Cheeses from Salt Spring Island. The only change I made from the original recipe with that I reduced the amount of vinegar by about half as I was worried it would be too acidic with the lemon juice and vinegar. It was great!

The spinach salad was very straight forward: spinach leaves, sliced strawberries, toast almond slivers and a homemade vinaigrette with dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, s/p, poppyseeds and grapeseed oil.

The vegan potato salad was from this website:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/02/vegan-potato-salad.html

Check it out! It’s called Creamy Fingerling Potato Salad. However, I didn’t use fingerlings. I just used baby potatoes. I also didn’t use quite as much shallot as in the recipe. The other change was that I didn’t use Yukon Gold potatoes for the dressing. I just took a few of the baby potatoes and mashed them up, skin and all. It was very good.

Now for dessert: Pineapple Upside Down Cake -one of my favorite childhood cakes. This recipe is from my momma. I figured that this cake would be good because you don’t necessarily need ice cream to go with it. Luckily I had some organic butter from Avalon dairy. When you need a buttery taste, margarine just won’t do. I ran out of regular flour so I substituted in some spelt flour, which made it soft and dense. I used local eggs and unsweetened almond milk instead of regular milk. It was delish!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Melt 1/3 cup butter into a 9 to 10 inch pan. Sprinkle ¾ cup of brown sugar over the melted butter. Place drained, canned pineapple slices on sugar mixture. Maraschino cherries may be placed in centres of pineapple slices, if desired.

Mix together:

                1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

                ½ teaspoon salt

                2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream:

                2/3 cup butter

Gradually blend into butter:

                ¾ sugar

                2 eggs

                1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat until fluffy.

Add dry ingredients alternately with:

                2/3 cup milk

Spoon onto pineapples in pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes. Invert on serving platter. Remove pan after a couple minutes.

It was a great night. In fact, I was so busy having fun that I only took one photo. It's all I have to accompany this post. Oopsy! Until next time, which hopefully won't be too far away!