Archive for the 'Cheese' Category
Winner!
Thanks to all the readers who shared their favorite cheese recipes and were entered in the raffle to win a gift basket courtesy of Sugar River Cheese Co. Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The randomly selected winner is…Naomi! Naomi thinks cheese is at its best in a butternut squash and Gruyere souffle. “It’s much easier to make than it sounds, and is unbelievably delicious,” she said.
As for your own cheesy winners:
2 of you thought cheese shined in a quiche - or as ck so brilliantly described it “fancy omelet pie.”
5 of you preferred your cheese straight up, with maybe some crackers or slices of crisp apple.
5 wanted your cheese melty and hot in a fondue
9 raved about cheese sandwiches - everything from grilled cheese, to slices on Italian bread with sundried tomatoes, to a dang quesadilla.
11 agreed with Mark’s suggestion that Mac n’ Cheese was the ultimate way to consume cheese.
Read the interview with Mark Rosen, president of Sugar River Cheese here and find out how you can get your hands on some of their chipotle cheddar or here. Also, check back on The Jew & The Carrot for more giveaways around Passover!
No Comments »Mark Rosen Says: Smile (& Win Cheese!)
Sugar River Cheese Company’s gourmet kosher cheeses are a contradiction in terms. The Chicago based company makes handcrafted, hormone-free Cheddars and Monterey Jacks from the milk of pasture-raised cows. Each salty block is infused with a swoon-worthy combinations of jalapeno and cilantro, peppercorns, chipotle, garlic and green onion, or olive and sun-dried tomato. But (here’s the kicker) - they are also certified kosher.
While the world of ethical, gourmet kosher cheese is slowly gaining momentum (find the short-list here), it continues to lag significantly behind its non-kosher counterpart. Sugar River President, Mark Rosen, a technology man with an MBA, who traded weekly flights to New York for life as a professional cheese entrepreneur, considers it his personal mission to prove that while good cheese may be stinky, kosher cheese does not have to stink.
Below the jump, he shares his thoughts on happy cows and why he thinks a ham and cheddar sandwich is good for the kosher industry. He also shares his family’s recipe for Chipotle Macaroni n’ Cheese.
Want to win a gift basket of Sugar River cheese? Tell us your favorite cheesy dish below, and be entered into a drawing to win a delicious assortment of Cheddar and Monterey Jack from Sugar River Cheese Company. (Only one comment per person will be entered into the drawing - comment before Thursday, April 3.)
Prisoners Sue Over Dinner
(x-posted at All Voices)
The AP reported this week that inmates in Vermont prisons are suing the Vermont Prison System for cruel and unusual punishment: disgusting dinner food.
Instead of the processed meat and cheese-heavy dinners served throughout most of America’s prison system, the worst offenders in Vermont (particularly those inmates with a history of disruptive and dangerous behavior at meal times) are served Nutraloaf: a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes.
The prison system argues that the “square meal” is nutritionally complete. More importantly, because it can be served without utensils or trays, it doubles as an effective tool for behavior control. Speaking about Nutraloaf, Vermont Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said:
Sustainable Eating on a Budget
One of the biggest criticisms of the organic, locavore, sustainable food etc. lifestyle is that it costs too damn much to be realistic. In other words, I may know that an organic red pepper is better for me and the world, but at $8/lb (versus $2/lb for the conventional pepper), I can’t always justify spending the extra money.
The problem is, the epicure in me gets a little twitchy if I don’t have a fairly regular influx of artisanal cheese or fresh, organic greens in the house. And these days my weekly feeding schedule includes Shabbat dinner and lunch, which, by way of being festive meals, deserve better-than-average food. So how do I satisfy my need for good food without breaking the bank?
Family lore tells me that my grandma Martha was able to stretch one chicken into a nourishing meal for six people, with leftovers. I unfortunately did not inherit this gift, but I have picked up some tricks for eating well on a budget without resorting to dumpster diving (don’t worry Mom, I’m over that phase), or existing on the starving artist fare of rice and beans, or - gasp - bologna and Wonder Bread.
Behold the Power of (Kosher) Cheese
True cheese lovers know the unbridled joy that a melty triple cream or aged Roquefort can evoke. They understand what it feels like to bite into a solid hunk of cheddar and sigh with complete satisfaction. Until recently, however, kosher cheese had never caused anyone to sigh. Some brands were…fine…alright…better than others - but nothing even began to reach the lofty state of cheese bliss known to the larger cheese-eating world.
Today, The Associate Press published an article by Julie Wiener that profiles 5 Spoke Creamery cheese company and notes an emerging trend towards - gasp! - delicious and sustainable kosher cheese. The Jew & The Carrot has sung 5 Spoke’s praises before for setting a new standard in the field. Here’s hoping other companies follow suit and that, before long, kosher-keepers will understand the true power of cheese.
Growth of Artisanal Cheeses Creates Niche for Kosher Cheesemakers
By: Julie Wiener
Associated Press - March 3, 2008
Posterboy of The New Jewish Food Movement
Animal Care, Blessings, Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Farming, Jewish Learning, Kosher, Milk, Seasonality, Spirituality
The Jew & The Carrot {hearts} Aitan and Adva Dairy. Thanks to Nextbook for producing a wonderful podcast and feature one of our favorite Jewish goat farmers - yes, there’s more than one!
“Goat Days”
Nextbook 2.25.08
By: Jesse Graham
(Listen to the podcast)
There’s a growing movement among environmentally conscious observant Jews to rethink kashrut. Its adherents place less emphasis on the official kosher stamp, and more on where their food comes from. They want locally and organically grown produce, and if they are meat-eaters, they want to know that the meat they’re eating comes from farms that treat animals humanely.
One devotee of this movement is an unassuming thirty-year-old named Aitan Mizrachi, founder of the AVDA Dairy, a small-scale goat dairy farm in northwestern Connecticut that produces organic, kosher raw milk yogurt and cheeses.
Yid.Dish: Pizzatashen?
Tonight, a few friends are coming over for a pizza-making party - it seemed like an apporpriate activity for a random mid-winter night. Meanwhile, last night was Purim katan (the mini-Purim celebration that occurs a month before regular Purim - and only on leap years when the month of Adar rolls around twice).
Something about the convergence of these two events must have released the crazy bug in me - because, as I was scanning cookbooks for a good dough recipe and shopping for ingredients (a combination of wilted broccoli rabe, toasted pine nuts, roasted garlic, red sauce, mozzarella and parmesan), a BRILLIANT IDEA hit me: pizzatashen! Pizza dough, pizza ingredients, hamentashen shape - there really couldn’t be a more obvious culinary partnership.
I recognize that hamentashen - those little jam-filled, tri-cornered pastries, fall pretty squarely in the sweet category - cherry, poppyseed, ginger marmalade if you’re feeling bold. Until the possibility of pizzatashen crossed my mind, I’d don’t think I’d ever used “savory” and “hamentashen” in the same sentence. But once the initial kitsch factor wears off, this new cousin of the calzone seems long overdue. If you’re feeling a little freaked out about the whole idea, check out this photo of another pizza-inspired pastry.
And if you have other recipes/traditions for savory hamentashen - please share! Check out the recipe for herbed pizza dough below the jump.
Kosher Locavore?
Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Farming, Food Conference, Food Writing, Hazon, Health, Kosher, Notable Press, Organic, Seasonality, Sustainability, Tuv Ha'AretzFrom this week’s New York Jewish Week:
Can You Be A Kosher Locavore?
by Sandee Brawarsky
Published on: Feb 5, 2008
‘Locavore” is 2007’s Word of the Year, as anointed by the Oxford American Dictionary. The word refers to someone who makes an effort to use locally grown ingredients. More than a word, it’s a collaborative movement, encouraging people to buy their food from farmers’ markets or grow their own, with the aim of eating healthier, supporting local farmers and avoiding the great costs of fuel in shipping foods long distance.
Locavores — some of whom set a 100-mile radius to define local — may be environmentalists, food lovers who appreciate a challenge, health conscious cooks, novice and veteran farmers, for those with a spiritual bent who want to be aware of what they’re eating and where it comes from. But locavores who are both urban and kosher face particular challenges, especially in New York City in mid-winter.
Kosher Sustainable Cheese List
Until recently, the world of kosher cheese was pretty bleak. On the one hand you had shrink-wrapped, industrial produced (but kosher certified) brands like Miller’s. On the other, you had artisanal, raw-milk and hand-crafted (but not kosher certified) cheeses. These days the tide is turning.
Introducing: The Jew & The Carrot’s Kosher Sustainable Cheese List
The cheese companies on the list allow you to have your kosher cheese and eat ethically too! We think we have enough options represented for a pretty decent cheese plate, but welcome suggestions. Send cheeses you’d like to see added to list (especially mozzerellas, which we had trouble finding!) to: tips @ jcarrot dot org, or leave a comment below. And don’t forget to pair your cheese with a bottle from The Jew & The Carrot’s Kosher Organic Wine List!
You Are What You Think You Eat
Cheese, Community Agri., Farmer's Markets, Food Safety, Health, Kosher, Opinion, Organic, Seasonality, Sustainability
We’re all familiar with the saying, “you are what you eat.” But two recent articles got me thinking that perhaps this old adage would be better stated, “you are what you think you eat.”
The first is a unnecessarily hateful article called “Extreme Eating” by Joel Stein in this week’s Time magazine. Stein decides to stick it to the “luddite” locavores, by making a meal strictly with ingredients grown 3,000 miles from his Los Angeles home and purchased at Whole Foods. (He must mistakenly believe that locavores revere Whole Foods as some sort of local food Mecca.) Stein writes:
“I want the world to come to me, to see it shrink so small it fits on my plate. I want Maine lobster in broth flavored with Spanish saffron. I want Alaskan salmon, truffles from Europe, a bottle of Beaujolais, a damn pineapple. And I want them much more than I want that carrot you grew in your garden. Because I know you’re going to talk to me for 20 minutes about your carrot.”
I’m not about to fight to the death for locavores or stop supplementing my CSA share with the occasional avocado or grapefruit. And as I’ve said before, there’s bound to be some backlash against sustainable food this year. But Stein’s “distavore” meal is little more than a petulant and obvious attack on a movement that has caused a lot of people to consider more carefully the impact of their food choices.
In his article, Stein likens his meal to one fit for a “European king.” Well, he’s right. European kings were known for cutting off people’s heads to get what they wanted, and in a sense, that’s exactly what his meal (ahem, publicity stunt) accomplished. Read more »
Move over Rachel Ray…
Hazon was delighted to welcome Chef Gil Marks, author of several cookbooks including the James Beard award-winning Olive Trees and Honey
Chef Marks put Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meals to shame, by preparing four entirely different, entirely fried Chanukah goodies from around the world in an hour and 15 minutes. (He also managed to be quite entertaining while avoiding the “words” Yum-O and EVOO). His dishes included:
Keftes de Espinaca (Sephardic Spinach Patties)
Cassola (Roman Sweet Cheese Pancakes)
Couscous Hiloo (Couscous with Dried Fruits and Nuts)
Bimuelos/Zelebi (Sephardic Doughnuts/Funnel Cakes)
The recipes are listed below the jump - and will be as delicious on a random Sunday as they were at The Food Conference!
Two Bites
5-Spoke Creamery - As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, 5-Spoke Creamery is the place to look if you’re looking for raw milk, artisanal, amazingly delicious, and kosher certified (Kof-K) cheese. Now, it seems event the New York Times agrees. Hazon was blessed to have Alan, Barbara, and their kids serving up samples of their delicious cheese - including their recently released, Tumbleweed variety (see left) - at the Food Conference. Click here, to find out where you can get your hands on some.
Lantern Books Essay Contest - Lantern Books - publishers of books on animal advocacy, religion, social justice, and environmentalism announced its 2007 essay competition. The aim of the competition is to allow new thinking to emerge on the key subjects of Lantern’s publishing program and to encourage new voices to step forward to shape the debate for the future.
The first prize is $1000. There is no entry fee. Essays should be no longer than 1500 words. The deadline is December 31, 2007. For complete guidelines, as well as prior years’ winning essays, click here.
The State of Things
Last Sunday, I attended Kosher Fest, the yearly gathering of kosher food and beverage purveyors and other food professionals (held in New York City, naturally). Kosher Fest is no informal synagogue social – it’s a two-day mega event that features the newest, best, and flashiest in kosher food. Page 11 of the 84-page Kosher Fest program guide displays some “impressive facts” including the dollar value of kosher produced goods in the US - $10,500,000,000. In other words, if you make kosher food you’re either at Kosher Fest, or you’re missing out.
Precisely because it’s the “see and be seen” event of the Jewish food year, Kosher Fest serves as an annual barometer of the kosher industry – its health, its growth, and its trends. More interestingly, as I ambled down the aisles of shiny displays, I began to notice how the state of kosher food uncannily mirrors the state of today’s Jewish community.
Getting Your Goat - An Interview with Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz
Adamah, Animal Care, Blessings, Books, Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Events, Farming, Food Conference, Food Writing, Hazon, Holidays, Jewish Culture, Neat Projects, Organic, Personal Story, Sustainability
Margaret Hathaway’s new book, The Year of the Goat
Before embarking on their year-long journey, Hathaway was a freelance writer who managed Magnolia Bakery in New York City, and Schatz worked as a photo editor for Time Magazine’s website. Together, they lived in Brooklyn, shopped at the Greenmarkets, and generally enjoyed city life - but they craved something more than the five boroughs could offer. So, they set off on a year-long journey to discover if farming - and particularly working with goats - held the secrets of the next chapter of their lives.
Along the way, Hathaway and Schatz met what they call, a “vivid cast of characters,” including a myriad of goat cheese and meat enthusiasts, a Texas-born Muslim living in Maine and helping the local Somali community in Lewiston acquire fitting goats for their religious festivals, and a Messianic Jew who keeps Shabbat as well as a herd of goats.
I spoke with Margaret and Karl last week about goats (naturally), their adventures in homesteading, the connection between farming and Jewish tradition, and their upcoming event in NYC, the Goatstravaganza (Nov. 8).
Interview continues below the jump…
