The cold weather is finally here! With the decreasing temperature, our biological cravings for foods with more flavor increase. Favorite recipes that require baking in the oven and toppings of rich cheese are resurrected from cookbooks that were stored away during the hot summer months. Fanciful daydreams of beautiful holiday cheese platters for celebratory gatherings fill our thoughts. The harvest outfits us with cranberries, apples, potatoes and zucchini. Not only does the earth naturally bear heartier fare, winter’s cheeses are more lush and decadent too. When longing for these indulgent treats hits, don’t fight it! Instead, enjoy with confidence in your choices.
Adorn your cheese selections with perfectly suited accompaniments that will amaze your family and friends. Most cheeses taste best with staples like local honeycomb, Marcona almonds from Spain (pictured) or quince paste (jam made from the fruit of a quince tree), but the bounty of ingredients available this time of year affords the opportunity to go beyond the traditional. As the perfect winter cheeses start to appear at your favorite cheese store, so do the beautiful chutneys, marmalades, conserves and mostardas that scream HOLIDAY TIME!
To mix things up a little, try pairing maple syrup with soft cheeses like Bellwether Farm’s Whole Milk Ricotta. This cheese just took a Bronze medal at the 2010 World Cheese Awards! For soft ripened cheeses like the Spanish Leonora, a rustic, oil packed sun-dried tomato pairing offers acidity that provides balance to the velvety texture of this goat’s milk selection. Creamy, moist and wrapped in sycamore leaves, Valdeon blue is delightful when paired with sugar-crusted praline bacon; a match providing an unforgettable textural contrast, and a sweet peppery twist that is truly addictive. Right now is also the ideal season for compotes of poached pears or apples with cinnamon and nutmeg. Not only are the sensory memories of these ingredients enchantingly satisfying, they also create a sweet and savory profile to complement semi-soft cheeses such as Txiki, a sheep’s milk from California (one of my favorites because of its doughy, caramel flavor).
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.