I’m a living, breathing food—don’t plastic-wrap me! Fresh chévre topped with pepper from Cypress Grove Chevre.
January 20th is Cheese Lover’s Day, so be sure to give your favorites the respect they deserve. Fine cheese is a living food that breathes and ages. Most cheese should not be kept in plastic wrap, which essentially suffocates the cheese, allows moisture to condense on the inside of the wrap and hastens spoilage. Stores may wrap cheese in plastic for efficiency, but their inventory turns over quickly. The one exception to the plastic wrap rule is dry, aged cheese like Parmesan, where the cheese’s moisture is largely evaporated. Wrap all other cheeses in waxed paper or butcher paper, both of which are protective but porous. Never buy more cheese than you plan to consume over the next few days: Enjoy cheese at its peak flavor. Explore the wonderful world of cheese in the Cheese Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
Convert your old Filofax or Week-At-A-Glance to a kitchen diary.
Keep a diary in your kitchen—or a document on your computer—of entertaining occasions and what you’ve served to which guests. It serves as a mind-jogger of what was popular, what dishes didn’t fly, who didn’t like fish, who has peanut allergies, et cetera. It also will remind you not to serve the same thing to the same people next time! We retrofitted our old Filofax to include sections for events, menus and guest lists; ideas for future events and pockets for clipped recipes and tips.
Raspberry-colored flesh and raspberry flavor nuances make blood oranges a very special fruit.
From the name, blood oranges should be in season at Halloween. But these wonders are in stores right now. Even our local supermarket has them (but if you can’t find them, you can order them from Melissas.com). They look exactly like regular oranges on the outside, but their inside flesh is a deep rosy red color; and the flavor is a cross between orange and raspberry—some people call them “raspberry oranges.” There are three main varieties; the Tarocco, native to Italy, tends to have a partial raspberry flesh rather than the full-raspberry-hued Moro shown in the photo (the third variety, the Sanguinello, discovered in Spain in 1929, has a reddish skin, few seeds, and a sweet and tender flesh). Whatever you call them, be sure you buy some before the season is over. The Tarocco and Moro are now grown in California—no need to hope for imports. Buy them up and go bloody crazy.
Eat them for breakfast instead of grapefruit (or squeeze them for heavenly juice); add them to fruit salads, green salads, and seafood and chicken salads for beautiful color and flavor; use sections to garnish grilled fish or to create a concasse; enjoy them for dessert and snacks; and make a memorable blood orange sorbet (Ciao Bella Gelato has one available year-round for sale, and we buy plenty of it).
Coincidentally, today’s tip rides on the tail of yesterday’s goat’s milk food find. If you’re lactose intolerant, or have guests who are, it’s generally due to the larger protein molecules in cow’s milk that are more difficult to digest. Goat’s milk and sheep’s milk have smaller, more easily digestible molecules. Serve those cheeses along with mozzarella di bufala, made from water buffalo’s milk. The same principle applies to yogurt. Redwood Farms (goat), Old Chatham Sheepherding Company (sheep) and Spoondance Creamery (it can still be found under its former name, Woodstock Water Buffalo Yogurt) make delicious yogurts. Read more about these products in the Cheese Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
A fresh goat cheese round covered with chives from Cypress Grove Chevre, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Read our review—we’re maaad about it.
