Cheese stor(ie)s – Fromage, Budapest

I thought it might be a good idea to to share my experiences with you guys in regards cheese stores around the globe, since now in Budapest I am telling you about Fromage on Pozsonyi street in the 13th district.

The place is just overall gorgeous with a quite nice variety of cheeses, wines, liquores, jams, Italian sweets, charchuterie and breads. So if you love small scale gourmet food then that is your place to go.

The store itself is not bigger than 8 square meters but it is full of goodies from floor to ceiling ( I love these kind of places), also the service is excellent.

This gem is not only for takeaway though, but if you have some time you can ask for a nice glass of Prosecco or whatever you want and a custom made cheese platter that you can enjoy just outside of the place since they have 2-4 small tables. And after that you might just go back and grab some more stuff the you can indulge yourself with.

Unfortunately, I could only ask for takeaway now some Italian salami, a CreMonte and a Gorgonzola Cremificato. I cannot help it, I just love all froms of bleu….

CreMonte is a pasteurized cow milk blue-brie originally made in Germany. It has a creamy, mild texture and mild, spicy flavour.

Gorgonzola Cremificato is smooth and creamy in texture. The cheese is mild and relatively sweet in taste with a rich and grassy aroma.

Both cheese could go well with fresh pears, apple and a sprinkle of honey.

If you would like to pair them with wine they would go well with Pinot Blanc, Sauternes and Moscato Passito or any kind of strong dessert wine that could match the strength and richness of the cheeses.

Enjoy 🙂

Kaasbar Amsterdam, heaven for cheese lovers.

Finally, a place that I have been looking for. Stylish, great variety of local artisan cheese, good cheese-wine pairing recommendations ( thankfully not forced) and great service.

I love that finally a place could come over the idea of farm cheese presented on farms next cows, barns and the lovely land. Don’t get me wrong, I love farms and animals, but bringing a great variety of cheese, knowledge about cheese and the chance to choose really unique, tasty and rich cheese and enjoying them with great wines is something extremely important to create the demand for good cheese. As long as people are only given the chance to buy packaged, sliced cheese in supermarkets we cannot really expect them to have a better understanding of cheese or have the craving to try something new, something lot more of quality, lot more exciting.

That’s why I would highly recommend the Kaasbar in Amsterdam. If you are in town you got to try it.!

Here are some hints from the experience and the cheese I tried so far, although I am probably going to be back soon to try the whole variety.

What I tried ( from left to right) :

1.Brabants Blauw with medjool date & grasshopper (from Bastiansen)

2. Boeren Mulder Vergeten Kaas with red pesto & zucchini spaghetti (from Mulder)

3. Reade Jutter with onion chutney & red beetroot, seeds and pips ( from De Terschellinger)

4. Le petit Doruvael Truffel with lemon curd & red pepper fried spring rolls ( from Boerderij Doruvael)

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Easy beetroot and goat cheese salad

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, but I was super busy with work and traveling again and I tried to gain some inspiration from my trips, my plans for a lifestyle change and just be so much more creative then before. I decided that I will try to use only seasonal products to create recipes and make easy, healthy and also extraordinary tastes. I will slowly get back to blogging again and I hope you’ll enjoy my creatures with cheese again and give feedback on what you’d like to see here and what kind of cheese, spices and ingredients you’d want me to try to make something new and groundbreaking.  🙂

Because you all know there is no food without cheese  🙂

So here’s an easy beetroot salad that you can have for lunch or dinner…or breakfast if you’d like…

Ingredients:

• • 200 gramms of beetroot
  • 1 or 2 small carrots
  • 1 apple ( I used Golden, but if you like you can use a more sour kind )
  • parsley
  •  pomegranate
  • salt & pepper
  • fresh goat cheese

Steps:

1. Peel the veggies and cut them into 2×2 cm cubes
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
3.  Put the beetroot, carrot to the own with a pinch of salt, pepper and spill some olive oil on it. Bake it for 25 mins till the veggies start get soft then add the chopped apples as well. ( If you feel it is getting dry, add a 0, 5 dl water )
4. Bake it for an additional 15 mins till the apple gets soft as well.
5. Pour the baked veggies to a bowl
6. Cut the goat cheese to small pieces, chop parsley and stir it together with the veggies.
7. To finish strew the seeds of a half pomegranate on top and it is ready to be served.  Enjoy 🙂

Cheesy trips in Dutchland #1

I have been traveling a lot to Amsterdam recently due to my new job and to be honest I am more than blown away by the tremendous amount of delicious cheese I can get there.

Basically what we know about Dutch cheese here in Hungary has nothing to do with the repertoire available there in the specialty cheese store.

So I decided to make sort of an introduction of the things I tasted and planning on tasting during my trips also to make new recipes and pairings with my favorite ones so that you can enjoy them just the way I would do. 🙂

So here you go at 1st the Truffle Gouda as my all-time sweetheart.

Step #1: What is this?

Dutch farmhouse cheese (boerenkaas) made of raw milk with Italian black truffle from the mountains. Ripened on wooden planks for only 8 weeks the gentle taste of this Gouda and intense aroma of the truffle form an unlikely, yet irresistible combination.

Step #2:  What the hell is boerenkaas?

Boerenkaas is the Dutch word that’s equivalent to “farmstead” cheese. That is, cheese made from the milk of animals who live on the same farm where the cheese is made. However, the word Boerenkaas also goes one step further, requiring that all cheese labeled as Boerenkaas must also be made with raw (unpasteurized) milk.

Only a small percentage of Dutch Gouda can be called Boerenkaas.

Step#3:  Pairing ideas with wine

Since it has a really unique and mature taste itself it should be served with either an elegant, not-too-oaky, aged Chardonnay or a nicely-evolved, textured dry Riesling.

If you are in Holland for holiday or work I would recommend not to miss out on this delicious darling, but if you have no time to go the specialty store, you can always order it online 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source:

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-aged-gouda-591221

https://www.cheesehub.com/product/truffle-gouda-25411

 

Fresh lentil salad with feta cheese

 

 

Spring is here and it seems that being outdoors is bringing more and more ideas on what cheesy thing to take for a hiking or a simple picnic. Grilled cheese, fruits, some cold Sauvignon Blanc and how about a nice and refreshing lentil salad ???

Easy to make, easy to serve…:)

 

Ingredients:

• 2-3 bay leaves
• 200g lentils
• 20g butter
•  Thyme
•  salt
•  pepper
• 500g sweet potato peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 100g kale ( leaves torn into bite-sized pieces )
• 1 Gala or Ginger gold apple (cut into bite-sized pieces)
• A handful of baby spinach
• Feta cheese  (cut into bite-sized pieces)

 

1. Cook the lentils in salty water with the bay leaves for 12-15 mins until the lentils are tender but still have some bite. Drain to get rid of the remaining water.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan that has a lid, along with the thyme. Add the sweet potato and some salt and pepper, then stir to coat them in the butter. Put the lid on and cook over a medium heat for 8 mins, then add the apple.   Add a splash of water if needed and cook for an additional 5 mins.
3. Add another splash of water to the pan along with the kale and the baby spinach. Put the lid on to steam for 3-4 mins until the kale is tender.
4. Pour the lentils into the pan and stir them together.
5. Serve the salad warm or cold on a plate with the chopped Feta cheese on top.

Enjoy 🙂

 

 

Hermelin ?!! Is it an animal or food?

Hermelin… why hermelin?

The name sounds weird and at first you would think about this fluffy and soft animal not a fluffy and soft camembert like cheese. Though it is…

Hermelin is a type of Czech cheese which imitates camembert, with a coating of white mold. In restaurants, the cheese is usually served marinated in oil (nakládaný), deep-fried in breadcrumbs (smažený), grilled (grilovaný) along with Czech beer.

Why would I recommend this for Spring and Summer?

The weather is getting warmer, we drink more and more cold beer and putting ourselves into the risk of getting drunk. 🙂

So if you would like to :

a) munch on something when you are having some cups

b) want to prevent getting tipsy and singing Dua Lipa in a karaoke bar

c) just eat something very rich and flavoury and make sure you do not pick up someone (it is indeed extremely garlicy)

Then your optimal solution is marinated hermelin with rye bread toast …. and of course a pint of Czech beer.

Interested already?  There you go…

Ingredients:

• 4 rounds of Hermelin or Camembert cheese
• 1 onion& 1 purple onion ( semi-thick slices )
• 7-8 cloves garlic, sliced
• a few sprigs or rosemary
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 1 Tbsp paprika powder ( can be sweet and spicy as well)
• Approx. 2-3 dl of Sunflower or olive oil to cover (I used a mix of olive and just normal oil)
• 4 -5 bay leaves
• Pepper

Method

1. Pour a little oil into the base or a jar or sealable container
2. Put in some garlic.
3. Cut your cheese into half to make two rounds.
4. Lay all the cheese out and sprinkle with the paprika powder.
5. Place one piece of cheese into the bottom of your jar/container then a piece of onion and purple onion.
6. Layer it up and make sure you have cheese and onion in every layer
7. In a separate bowl mix up the oil with the herbs.
8. When you have finished the layering of the cheese pour in the oil mix, close the jar and put it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks (minimum 5 days) to marinade and let the flavors infuse to the cheese.
9. Serve alongside with cold beer and with toast. 🙂

GOOD APPETITE 🙂

source :

http://www.thekiwifruit.com/recipes/czech-marinated-hermelin-nakladany-hermelin/

Making of the Finnish fresh goat cheese

Well.. well. I have decided to make sort of a cheese trip around the world and discover different types of milks, cheeses, animals, procedures, traditional recipes and stories of my favourite food.

This time I chose Finland to dig myself into the middle of artisan goat cheese making and experience a little bit of the countryside lifestyle. However, it turned out that the little bit will mean the most nomad way I have ever encountered. No bathroom, no electricity, going to bed after sunset and waking up in a jurt to which we have to chop firewood every day.

At first I was scared or I would rather say terrified of the facilities around the place but slowly started to realize that as an uptown girl it is not necesarilly important to be in my convient and cosy cage all the time and I can still learn a lot of usefull skills about puritan, organic life and the rules of survival without electricity.

So to cut it all short, the story of my first goat cheese making is not  as simple as I expected J

At first I had to learn how to milk the goats for that valuable cheese base which is not so easy. All goats have a personallity and are extremely stubborn, so you actually have to fight with them to make them tied to their place and keep them calm while you are milking. In my case it required two other people to handle this outrageous situation . ( I am small and weak enough to fail in such situation alone). 

Finally I could manage to milk two goats but it is more or less not even 3 liters of milk, which is literally nothing for cheesemaking. Therefore my host and myself have decided to make cheese in every 5-6 days when we have enough milk to produce a normal amount.

I was pretty upset because the only reason I have come here for was cheesemaking, but I had to calm down a bit and wait until it is time for the real jo to be done.

It took a couple of days but finally my time has come and I could not wait to make fresh goat cheese. – I have to mention that goat’s milk is pretty nice and smooth added to your morning coffee too.

It was a shiny  and chilly morning in  the jurt and I jumped out of my sort of bed to enter the „ cheesemaking day” . The milk was already on the stove ( yes, stove) and my host was smiling as a little kid as she know how excited I was about the upcoming hours.

Method:

Well, it was not so scientific as I thought it would be. We heated the milk up to about 50-60 celsiu than added the „ secret liquid” and left  it
on the stove for like 30 minutes. After that we put the already hardening material to a cheese cloth, squeezed it for like 3-4 times and let it hung for a couple of hours. Then it was ready :O

Personal impression:
The fresh goat cheese was unbelievebaly creamy and little bit unsalty. I would say that it was rather a cottage cheese made of mozzarella and squeezed or some other cheese with not such a dominant caracter although it was a lot more unique than a normal cottage cheese made of  sheep’s or cow’s milk.

 Recommendation:

As the cheese itself is very smooth and soft I would recommend eating  with freshlymade chapati and a bit of lingonberry  ( its lingonberry season in Finland) or blueberry , accompanied by a glass of cold Chardonnay or  Rizling. Also it could serve on any salad or grilled softly in a pan with some balsamic vinegar.