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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Vegan cheese ?? Why not…

It is quite controversial if a certified cheesemaker starts making a cheese-like something from non-dairy products, but I was really curious of this new wave of food consumption and also a lot of vegetarian and vegan friends have been asking me when will I start to make a vegan version of cheese for them.

At first I was sceptical and a little bit denying about this as I  have been a cheese addict eversince I have known how to talk and also it made me angry that people call a plant based something cheese… but I am a quite open-minden person so I dug myself into to this new project see what vegan people call cheese.

It turned out that a vegan cheese requires a lot more ingredients that I thought, but all of them are easy to get in a supermarket and also if you have a Kithen Aid or a simple mixer you can make it in 2 hours , plus the 6-8 hours cooling them which can be handled puting the “cheese” to the fridge overnight.

 

To cut the long story short I was amazed how good this vegan cheese turned out and how glad my friends were  ( especially the ones with lactose intolerancy)  that I served this to them on or Sunday brunch 🙂

Anyway, here you go, the recipe… enjoy and let me know if you have another favouite recipe that you’d like to share 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sunflower seed
• 1/2 cup cashew nut
• 1/2 cup almond
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon curcuma
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika ( hot one for those who prefer it)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 filed onion
• 2-3 filed garlic
• 1/4 cup barm
• 1 cup almond milk or rice milk

To give it a texture:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon agar-agar

 

Put all the ingredients to the plant based milk for 1-2 hours to soak a little bit so it will be easier to mix the nuts.   Start heating the water with the agar-agar  and let it boil until the agar-agar is fully melted.

Put the ingredrients in the Kitchen aid or mixer and add the agar-agar gradually until the mixture gets creamy. If you don’t find it creamy enought you can add some extra milk or water. 

Once the mixture is done put ot to a simple plastic box , bowl or any kind of shape you’d like to add to your cheese and let it settle in the fridge overnight .

Bon apétit ! 🙂

Source: http://veganreceptek.webnode.hu/products/fokhagymas-trappista-sajt-/