cheese and honey pairings and a new contest

Recently, I decided to do a pairing of cheese and honey since I've been busy making infused honeys this early summer. I invited ms. cookworm to come over and she generously helped lay everything out and then helped me taste it all. We set up a little tasting station out in the garden on one of the tables I built recently and I brought out a number of tiny bowls from my collection for all the honeys to be contained in, and some of my antique spoons for the drizzling.

I had done some reading and research about which cheeses to choose and what honeys they should be paired with. As it ended up, I was surprised by which I liked the best.

our first pairing:

La Tur with rose infused honey

La Tur is a mixed milk cheese from Piedmont, Italy and comes with an interesting curling pattern across its face. It is a mix of cow, sheep and goat milk and is very soft and delicate. The pairing of rose infused honey was definitely the right choice, the floral quality of the roses mingled well with the cheese. This was my 2nd favorite of the testing.

our second pairing:

aged Gouda with rose infused honey

Aged Gouda is similar in texture to a Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is rich and crystalline and has a salty taste as well. It was paired with lavender honey (not infused but the bees were busy in the lavender to make this one). This one was ok but ended up being my least favorite. Perhaps some wine might have brought out something more complex in the taste.

our third pairing:

fresh goat cheese and Chaumes with rosemary infused honey

Chaumes is a strong smelling but mild tasting cheese and is my favorite when I do grilled cheese right. It is a cheese that definitely needs to sit out before eating to let it get properly runny. Goat cheese is, one of my other best liked, and I found a wonderful one at the store which was very creamy and mellow. Both of these were paired with a savory, rosemary infused honey I made last week. This pair turned out to also be a definitely one to remember. I think this time the cheese enhanced the honey instead of the other way round.

our fourth pairing:

Passendale and buckwheat honey

I was a little skeptical at first about this one. Buckwheat honey is really the molasses of honeys. It is deep and strong tasting and very thick. Passendale is a flemish cheese and is similar to Chaumes. It is creamy but firm and has a fairly upfront but not overpowering taste. And together, by far my favorite of the night. The Passendale does something complex to the buckwheat honey, some sympathetic magic. If you get a chance, definitely give it a try.

so on to the contest ....

I am going to give away a jar of the rose infused honey, handcrafted by me from the roses in my garden, to one lucky winner here on the blog. I'll run this contest until July 1st.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post about cheese or honey, a memory of yours or a favorite recipe suggestion. Whatever you'd like to share with everyone. On July 1 I'll randomly pick a winner.

As a brief teaser, this year has been exceptional in my garden due to it being cool and rainy early on in the spring. A vintage year for rose infusing.

infusions of honey

honey is of course a miraculous substance for many reasons. one of my favorites is its ability to draw essential oils and scents out of other plants when they are infused/steeped in the honey. shown above (right to left) is honey infused with mint (peppermint, pineapple mint, ginger mint and apple mint), rose infused honey just packed and lastly rose infused honey after a week.

as the honey draws all the flavor out of the herbs it, in essence, dehydrates the petals and leaves.

for any of these recipes use a light flavored honey (i am using poplar for these), fill the jar with fragrant rose petals, mint, rosemary, lemon verbena, etc... and let it sit for a week, turning the jar over now and then to make sure everything is getting mixed, then use a sieve to strain the honey into new jars and enjoy.

as the herbs start to dehydrate i'll add in more honey until the jar is full.

rosemary honey is great on lamb. rose honey i use on anything and everything, and the mint honey i use in a vinaigrette with other fresh herbs. i'll be bottling some of this to sell down at Wildcard in Lawrenceville in the coming weeks so look for it there

radishes

luckily it has been very cool here this spring which means i get to enjoy radishes and they have not bolted and gone woody in the garden. these are small and best with a bit of butter and salt, eaten raw

tonight's dinner - bento box japan

last sunday i was musing over something special for dinner with some second life friends. one mentioned bento box meals and i went ah-ha over that idea. so with a quick trip to the japanese grocery over in shadyside, i was in business. i do not yet own a true bento box but luckily i do have a large collection of tiny pottery items and they made dinner a special event. i definitely would like to do this meal again as a dinner party idea with my dining room table full of small bowls and plates.

roughly clockwise from the upper left: blue fin tuna, fried fish cake with vegetables, pickled daikon, enoki japanese mushrooms, pickled burdock root, fried fish balls, seaweed salad, pickled ginger and in the center, some slices of tamago. repeat blog readers may also recognize one of my walnut cheeseboards with a handle being used in this photo as well.

simple salad

1 small heirloom tomato, diced

a handful of african purple basil

sea salt

some olive oil

a very small bowl

dice, toss and eat

italian sushi

fresh yellowfin tuna sliced thickly and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. quite good

tonight's dinner - curried cauliflower flatbread

so this is a mark bittman/new york times recipe and they have a lot of 'its ours and copyrighted' info on their site so for the recipe go here and get it from them.

i ended up not using coconut milk but regular skim milk because i dont happen to like coconut so...

its comes out smelling great and is bready and crisp and quite good. be sure to really oil your pan well or use a nonstick one. wondering now if i could make some weird sandwich with it as the bread and maybe some ham.

first harvest

radishes are one of the earliest things that can be harvested in the garden. i always plant a mix of french breakfast radishes (good with a bit of butter on them raw) and an easter egg variety.

in fact ...

i shall go eat them now

tonight's dinner - a salad and a fish course

ok so the salad was bibb lettuce with pansies and a vinaigrette 

and the fish was a ceviche

both were great

for the ceviche

1 pound fish (i used tuna and basa)

1 cup lime juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tbl good sea salt (used some of my new hawaiian pink sea salt)

pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stir and let sit in the refrigerator for 3 hours. then eat

french frying

yukon gold fingerlings + fresh parsley = mmm

cured salmon

i ran across this recently on another blog and have made it twice since. it is incredibly easy to make though it takes 24 hours for it to cure properly but the end product is a very good. you can use sushi grade salmon if you like. the photos above show the before and after and plated version. i am going to try it next with grapefruit

orange cured salmon

1 pound salmon filet (skin on if you like) 

2 tbl coarse sea salt

2 tbl coarse ground pepper

3 tbl organic sugar

1-2 oranges sliced thinly (depending on how big your filet is)

mix the salt, pepper and sugar together and spread over all sides of the salmon filet

place filet, skin side down, on a layer of orange slices arranged on plastic wrap

place a layer of orange slices on top and wrap very tightly in several layers of plastic wrap

place in refrigerator in a pie plate and weight down the filet with a heavy pot on top

turn several times over a 24 hour period, you will notice a lot of liquid will come off

when 24 hours is up, unwrap the filet and wash the excess salt mixture off and remove the skin

slice and serve.

thats it. very easy.

microwave potato chips

turns out you can make them in the microwave and you do not need any oil or frying. 

slice the potato very thinly. microwave on high for 3 minutes then on low for 3, flipping the slices each time. then cook on low power in 2 to 3 minute bursts until they are done. careful not to let them burn. i added salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to mine

savory parmesan cheese cookies

i recently found this recipe and have been waiting to try it. tonight seemed a good opportunity. more and more these days i have been cooking meals that only have 3 or 4 ingredients. trying to be as simple as possible. this biscuit does have an italian name but i have not been able to remember it.

1 cup rough grated (or sharded) parmesan or romano cheese, good quality

1/4 cup flour

pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss until mixed, use a round cookie cutter to form circular piles on parchment paper or silpat on a cookie sheet, about 3" in diameter, press lightly

400 degree oven 5-10 minutes or until melted and golden

makes 6-8 savory cookies