Got cheese? Got it made!

   The other evening a friend and I made arrangements to throw together for dinner whatever food we had on hand. All I had was zucchini, and of course, cheese. Voilà! Au Gratin!  I halved the recipe for just the two of us, which worked out perfectly!

Zucchini Au Gratin

Makes 4 servings

 4-6 medium zucchini

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons chopped onions or shallots

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup heavy cream or crème fraiche (I only had half and half)
¾ cup gruyere cheese (grated)

1 teaspoon tarragon (better to use fresh, but all I had was dried)

1 pinch of nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Grate the zucchini into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

3. During that time, sauté the onion in butter in a small pan until the onion softens and begins to brown (3-5 minutes). Set aside.

4. Scoop up handfuls of the sitting zucchini and squeeze out the excess moisture over the sink. Combine the squeezed zucchini with the onions and mix in the tarragon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Spread the veggies evenly in an 8” x 8” baking dish.

5. Pour the cream over the zucchini mix. I didn’t have heavy cream, so I substituted half and half, which tasted fine, but the cream would have given the gratin a richer taste.

6. Sprinkle the grated Gruyere over the zucchini mixture—when I halved the recipe, I still used the full amount of grated cheese. What can I say, I love cheese!

7. Place the baking dish in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese turns a lovely golden brown.

As you can see from the photo above, I left mine in the oven too long and it went past “lovely golden.” But it tasted heavenly, nonetheless! I loved the nutmeg and tarragon! When I next make this recipe, I‘ll cut the zucchini into ¼-inch slices rather than grate it. It will eliminate the 10-min sitting and squeezing step, and then I’ll just bake it another 5-10 minutes longer.

    

Makin' Mac N Cheese

I had some leftover chunks of Whiskey Cheddar and some Gruyere, and what better use, on a cold, rainy day in Birch Bay than to whip up some comfort food Mac N Cheese! It's also great for Super Bowl Sunday grazing. Alas, I'm not a fan of football; I know, how un-American! However, I do pledge my allegiance to this tasty dish.

Here's what it looks like, and following the photo is the recipe. Perhaps you have your own favorite recipe. Try it with these two cheeses; they impart an added taste dimension you'll enjoy. I haven't a clue who is going to win the Super Bowl, but Mac n Cheese is a sure bet!

Oh, and throughout the recipe, I've shared some personal comments, i.e., using YOUR local farms, dairies for what ingredients you can. The freshness is great tasting, it supports your local economy, and it's probably more nutritious. Win! Win! Win! Hooray! Lucky you, if you know someone who makes their own pasta! Wish I did!

Anyway, after much ado ...

Baked 2-Cheese Macaroni

Serves/Makes: 6         Ready In: 30-60 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 pound elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons butter (from your local dairy if you’re lucky enough to have one that makes butter!)

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon powdered mustard

1-1/2 cups goat milk (recipe calls for cow milk, I just digest goat milk better/lactose intolerant)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 large egg (got free range?)

6 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

6 ounces Gruyere, shredded

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper
Note: Buy block cheese and grate or shred it when you use it in a recipe. It tastes soooo much better freshly grated than if you buy it from the store grated or shredded. Trust me on this one!


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta to al dente. Important to not let the pasta cook too long because it’s going to cook some more in the oven.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheeses. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese and a sprinkle of paprika.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let it rest for five minutes before serving.

The hunt was on for cheese! Any cheese, please!

Rummaging, I was, through the refrigerator searching for cheese; any cheese! I couldn’t find a single morsel. Nothing behind the half-full bottle of Sun Luck oyster sauce, nothing behind the mayo, nothing under the celery or the bok choy, nothing on the other side of the box of butter.

My anticipation was rapidly fading.

Wait! What’s that? I recognize that wrapping! Quel Fromage! What, oh what had I pushed all the way to the back of the top shelf and forgotten? More importantly, was it still edible or had it become just another moldy science project?

Lordy! Lordy! A wee bit of cave-aged Gruyère! Thanks be to the good god of all that is cheese!

I remember having used most of the originally purchased wedge in a 3-cheese sauce for macaroni, but with a shy ¼-cup of Gruyère left, there wasn’t enough for a sauce.

Gruyère is one of the firm raw cow’s milk cheeses of Switzerland that crumbles readily, but is well known for its superb melting capability. It’s the basis for any good Swiss fondue, and is preferred for au gratin onion soups. But I didn’t have enough for such.

The only recourse was to simply open my mouth and savor and enjoy each sliver and crumble. And enjoy it I did!

Because of the aging in a cave for at least 6 to 13 months to, in some cases, 3 years, and the process of washing the wheels of cheese, the taste of this Swiss cheese is more intense, more complex than some other Swiss cheeses. And especially more flavorful than most Swiss cheeses bricks and slices found in the supermarket.

I felt it stood on its own merit by eating it, rather than including it in a sauce—it was delicious! I love the words used by Sam Gugino, in the September 2008 issue of Wine Spectator magazine: “…a rich mouthfeel and a long finish.”

I didn’t eat it with crackers or apple slices because the taste was ever so slightly salty with a hint of sharp, and musty, and a complexity because of the aging, that I didn’t want to be distracted by any other taste.

In The Cheese Plate, authors McCalman and Gibbons say, “… one of the best things about Gruyère is that it’s salty on the attack but not on the finish.” I totally agree!

I did learn that a very good American Gruyère is made by the Swiss family, Wisconsin-based company Roth Kase.

Amazing the taste power in that slightly less than ¼-cup of Gruyère.