Petit Basque Cheese

As I've mentioned before, I love all kinds of cheese (even the "cheese" that comes wrapped in individual squares of cellophane and has all those warnings on the package that it is, in fact, edible).  One of my favorites is called Petit Basque (aka Tomette D'Helette) and I was first introduced to it by my grandfather at Christmas several years ago.  I always keep an eye out for it and was pleasantly surprised when i visited Cowgirl Creamery at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and found that they had it.  I was even more excited as the woman explained to me that their Petit Basque was unique in that their cheesemaker adds a little bit of chili powder in the rind as it's aging, which gives it a little kick of flavor.  Once I learned this, I had to have a chunk to take home and try.  Needless to say, it was love at first bite and I finished off the entire chunk by myself over the course of a week.

Here's a picture of the chunk I brought home, you can almost see the hint of red from the chili powder:

 

Here's a closer picture of the slices of cheese that come from my chunk:

I don't know what it is about the taste Petit Basque that I love but it has a texture like creamy parmesan cheese.  I did a little research on the internet and here's some additional "facts" that I learned about this cheese I enjoy so much:

• Type:  Sheep milk (comprised of 45% fat)
• Origin:  Pyrenees Mountains, France
• Process:  brined for two hours and then ripened 70 days
• Texture:  smooth and firm
• Shape:  Cylindrical, weighing approximately 1.25 pounds
• Color:  Butter yellow
• Rind:  Thin and covered with thin plastic to prevent mold
• Flavor:  Mild, nutty and slightly fruity
• Petit Basque is made in the Pyrenees Mountains using the same techniques that local shepherds used hundreds of years ago BUT Petit Basque has only been around since 1997, a relatively "new" cheese on the scene.

Because I love this cheese on it's own, I usually eat mine with Carr's table crackers so that the cracker doesn't interfere too much with the creaminess and flavor of the cheese.  When I do feel like jazzing it up a bit, I eat it with some raspberry jam since the sweetness of the jam goes well with the nuttiness of the cheese.  Vive la frommage!

Dark chocolate chevre brownie...

As I've mentioned before, I'm a regular watcher of several Food Network TV shows - one of which is Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  It's a show where he challenges the best cooks to their signature dish and then independent two judges decide who does the dish better.  One of the reasons I love the show is that the people he challenges are regular people like you and me, not professional chefs, and he often gives great tips on the food he's cooking.  A few weeks ago there was an episode where Bobby challenged two ladies, Kathryn and Shawna, from Vermont to a brownie cookoff (more on that below).  As part of the episode, Bobby consulted with a chef on the different kinds of baking chocolate and their uses.  Here's what I learned:

1. Unsweetened chocolate - 100% cocoa powder, best used in pastries where you want a very strong chocolate flavor
2. Bittersweet chocolate - 70% cocoa powder/30% sugar, the "go to" chocolate for professional chefs in baking because, if the recipe calls for sugar, when you add it to the bittersweet chocolate, it doesn't put the sweetness factor over the edge.
3. Milk chocolate - 45% cocoa powder/25% sugar/30% milk, used mostly in sauces and as chips in cookies

Ok, back to the throwdown.  Kathryn and Shawna are known throughout Vermont for their dark chocolate chevre brownie, which they make out of a bagel shop in South Hero, Vermont and then sell in local stores or via the internet.  The brownie is essentially a dark chocolate brownie mix (made from scratch) to which they add a layer of creamy chevre cheese.  Chevre (according to the Food Lover's Companion) is a pure white goat's milk cheese with a delightfully tart flavor.  I love cheese and was impressed by these two ladies and their creativity in thinking that adding goats cheese to a dark chocolate brownie would be a great idea.  Needless to say, they easily beat Bobby Flay's brownie (peanut butter caramel brownie) to win the show.  As soon as I saw that independent judges thought that their brownie was better than Bobby Flay's, I knew that it was the perfect give for my mother and her upcoming birthday.  So, I got right online and placed an order for 6 dark chocolate chevre brownies to be delivered ASAP to Chicago so that they would arrive in time for my mother's birthday.  Thanks to the miracle of technology, I was able to video chat with my mom on her special day and to see how excited/surprised she was to get the brownies.  Here's how they arrived:

 

Needless to say, the brownies were a hit and so I'm recommending them to anyone who might be inclined to try something new.  Here's the link to the Vermont Brownie Company, you won't be disappointed.

Picking lemons/limes/oranges/etc.

Two of my friends recently got me a cooking class for Christmas (they know me so well!)  We met the instructor at a farmer's market and we each purchased several items from the stands based on the recipes that the instructor had selected for the class.  One of the items on our lists was to pick several lemons and I learned something from the instructor about how to pick them.  She told us that you want to pick lemons that feel heavy for their size because it means that they have a lot of juice in them.  I've used this advice since that day and have to agree that it's a good way to pick lemons, so now I'm sharing it with you.

Engagement chicken

I'm a regular watcher of the Food Network and one of my favorite chefs is Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa).  The other day she made what she called "engagement chicken," which is named after the fact that women who make this chicken for their boyfriends usually get engaged shortly thereafter (recipe here: Ina Garten Engagement Roast Chicken).  I don't happen to have a boyfriend at the moment but I do appreciate tasty new ways to make chicken and so I'd thought I'd give it a try.  Before I share the results, I should mention that I've never cooked a whole chicken on my own and I thought it wouldn't be that hard.  I'd heard horror stories of people forgetting to take out the giblets so I made sure I didn't fall into that trap.  As it turns out that my biggest mistake would be one of the simplest - I cooked the chicken upside down!  For some reason, I put the chicken in my new roasting pan with the breast side down.  Needless to say, the top part cooked to a crisp, golden brown but the breast (the best part in my opinion) came out juicy but with pale, slimy skin. 

Here's the upside down chicken ready to go into the oven:

Here's the chicken after it came out of the oven:

 

Here's the onions and lemons after roasting:

And here's the gravy that you make with the caramelized onions and lemons:

In spite of my mistake, the recipe was easy and very tasty so I'll be adding it to my list of recipe favorites.  Bring on the boyfriend!

Red Velvet Cake...

By some twist of fate, I'd never actually tried red velvet cake until last year.  I remember hearing about it from the movie "Steel Magnolias" and imagined that it was white cake with some serious red food coloring added.  It wasn't until I saw a "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" episode which featured red velvet cake that I learned that it's actually a chocolate cake with red food coloring added.  This year for Christmas I was able to go home to Chicago to be with my family and was delighted when my lovely sister-in-law took on the challenge of making a red velvet cake.  I helped guide her through the frosting process (the crumb layer is even more important when you're trying to put white frosting on a very red cake) and the final product looked nearly professional.  Here's a picture of the final product, judge for yourselves:

A handy tip about eggs...

One helpful tip I've learned along my journey with food is that if you crack an egg and a piece of the shell gets in the bowl as well, the easiest way to get the shell piece out is to use part of a larger piece of shell to fish it out.  There's something about the inside coating of the shell that allows it to cut through the yolk and egg white to get to the piece so that you're not chasing the piece around the bowl.  I can personally vouch for this tip since I've been using it for awhile.  It doesn't seem to be common knowledge so I thought I'd share it.

Green peppers are not what they claim to be...

I recently learned that green peppers are not an unique kind of pepper like, say, serrano peppers are.  Rather, it refers to any pepper that has not yet fully ripened.  Who knew?