Celery doesn’t get a lot of respect. In most recipes, it’s an also-ran.

But great American cheese maker Paula Lambert shows how it can be a main ingredient, in her Shaved Fennel and Celery Heart Salad.

You can eat this salad as an appetizer or side, as a base for a poached chicken breast or salmon fillet, or as cheese course with a pungent washed rind cheese. The hazelnut oil is an inspired touch.

The recipe is from Lambert’s cookbook, Cheese Glorious Cheese: More Than 75 Tempting Recipes for Cheese Lovers Everywhere.

If you can’t find fennel, use 6 ribs of celery. And use this recipe as a jumping-off point to create your own celery salads.

Photo © Ulterior Epicure, all rights reserved.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

Preparation

1. REMOVE the strings on the outsides of the ribs of celery and fennel using a vegetable peeler. Cut the ribs on the diagonal, into slices about 1/4 inch thick.

2. PLACE the celery and fennel in a medium-sized bowl.

3. CUT the cheese into thin slices and then cut again into small pieces about 1 inch square; add to the bowl.

4. CHOP the pecans coarsely and add to the bowl. Add the onions.

5. MAKE the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, combine the oils, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk the ingredients until the vinaigrette is emulsified.

6. POUR the vinaigrette over the salad ingredients. Toss well to coat the salad. The salad can be served immediately or set aside for up to an hour to marinate. Plate, garnish and serve.

BIANCA BIANCA WASHED RIND CHEESE

Blanca Bianca was inspired by French washed rind cheeses: soft in texture and very flavorful. The Mozzarella Company makes it in a six-inch wheel.

As a washed rind cheese, it has a pungent aroma that comes from the bacteria Brevibacterium linens (B. linens) that develops on the exterior of the cheese.The rind is tender and delicious, and the interior paste is pale and creamy.

“The flavor is assertive but not too strong,” says Lambert. “To make Blanca Bianca we heat farm-fresh cow’s milk and then add cultures and rennet. Once the milk coagulates, we cut the curds and gently stir them as they mature. Finally the curds are poured into molds to drain. The cheeses are salted in a brine and then placed on racks to dry.

“During the next two months, while the wheels of cheeses are maturing, they are massaged daily with white wine. The USA laws governing raw milk cheeses mandate that all raw-milk cheeses must be aged for a minimum of 60 days before they are sold. So, after 60 days, Blanca Bianca is ready to sell.

“However, we have found that additional aging allows the flavor to intensify and the texture to soften, so we age our Blanca Bianca for three or four months. We have a limited quantity of Blanca Bianca because we produce only 20 wheels at a time. It is wonderful with both red and white wines, and it pairs very nicely with late harvest dessert wines. It is good with fruits such as pears and apples. It’s also great with toasted nuts and dried fruits as well as fruit pastes, jams and chutneys. It is especially good in salads.”

Check your local cheese store or purchase Bianca Bianca online directly from MozzCo.com, Mozzarella Company’s website.

Connoisseurs worldwide prize the exquisite jams of Christine Ferber, who is called the “queen of confitures”* by strangers and “the jam fairy” by her friends. The jams are served in such posh places as the Connaught in London, the Crillon and George V in Paris and the Four Seasons in Hong Kong.

Mlle Ferber makes jam in the Alsace region of France, in her ancestral village of Niedermorschwihr. There, her family has a food shop, Au Relais des Trois Epis,† which sells bread, house-made cakes and confections, household products, newspapers and fresh vegetables. Her father opened the business in 1959.

But behind the shop is a commercial kitchen where the jam magic happens: After attending culinary school in Paris, Mlle Ferber decided to focus on jam. Her father was doubted the demand, but today she sells some $2.6 million of jam annually. The company make almost 120,000 pots of jam a year, and each is filled by hand.

Mlle Ferber uses seasonal fruit from small local growers, cooking it in small batches to create her gourmet artisan jams and jellies. She prides herself in hand-picking the freshest ingredients and truly, truly, cooking the jam with love.

The jams are not easy to come by. You can order them online from OriolBalaguer.com.

A perfect Father’s Day gift for a jam-loving dad who appreciates the best, a new shipment of Christine Ferber Jams is arriving on these shores just in time to celebrate. Even at $20 a jar it will sell out quickly, so don’t dally. The jam is available for pre-order now, with delivery after June 10th.

CHRISTINE FERBER JAM FLAVORS

One thing Dad may never have had: rhubarb jam. Mlle Ferber has created two varieties of rhubarb jam, hand-selected from spring rhubarb in Alsace, France and sweetened with sugar, simple and fresh:

 
Other flavores include Griottes Alsace (morello cherries, one of Mlle Ferber’s personal favorites), Confiture Pour Madame (cherries and rose petals, Eglantines d’Alsace et Oranges Maltaises (maltese oranges and wild rose petals), Forêt-Noire (black cherries, kirsch), Fraises d’Alsace (Alsatian strawberry), Gelée de Pamplemousses Jaunes (grapefruit), Mangues (mango), Marmelade d’Oranges Ameres (bitter orange), Oranges Maltaises (Maltese orange), Oranges Sanguine (blood orange) and Quetsches d’Alsace (Damson plum).

For a memorable jam experience, get some jars for yourself, too!

DO YOU KNOW YOUR JAM?

What’s the difference between jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves and other sweet spreads? Check out all the different types of jam in our Jam & Jelly Glossary.
 
*Confiture (cawn-fee-TEER) is the French word for jam.

†As close as we can translate this, it’s The Inn of Three Ears of Corn.

It’s so cold in the Northeast today, we’re warming up with a bowl of steaming cheese grits.

If you’re not from the South, you might not totally “get” grits, a thick, creamy porridge. They can be bland in their traditional recipe, with salt and a pat of butter on top. (You can use sweet toppings instead: sugar, honey, maple syrup, jam, etc.)

We like our grits in the classic savory preparation, seasoned with salt and pepper and garnished butter and/or cream for added texture and flavor (when we’re not on a cholesterol guilt trip).

Cheese is a magical enhancer to grits; and Cheddar, Jack or Parmesan is an even yummier replacement for the butter and cream. This recipe is courtesy of Tillamook, one of the country’s best Cheddar producers. You can go heavier or lighter on the cheese, as you prefer.

CHEESE GRITS RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE milk and water in a large pan and bring liquid to a boil. Whisk in grits, making sure that they don’t clump.

2. TURN HEAT DOWN to a simmer and stir constantly with a whisk. Continue to stirring with frequently and cook for approximately 45 minutes, until a porridge-like consistency is achieved.

3. ADD shredded cheese to the grits when they are still a semi-liquid like consistency—they should still be creamy, but acting like they want to grab the ladle. When they stick to the ladle they are fully cooked.

4. ADD the butter, salt, and pepper right after the cheese. Adjust accordingly with more milk if needed.

5. POUR grits into oven-safe serving bowls. Add a few piece of sliced cheese chunks (or more if you’d like) to the top of each bowl and put under the broiler for about 30 seconds or until cheese is melty. Having the cheese in chunks assists with uniformity and melting the cheese in the grits.

6. GARNISH with chives and serve immediately.

TOO MUCH COOKING FOR YOU?
Make instant grits in the microwave and add 1 table of grated Parmesan cheese per serving.

MORE ABOUT GRITS…

…and another cheese grits recipe.