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Cheese and fruit combos


stefanyb

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Diced cucumber

Diced sweet onion

Diced Feta

Sliced Muscat grapes

Squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of fruity EVOO.

I'm a NYC expat. Since coming to the darkside, as many of my freinds have said, I've found that most good things in NYC are made in NJ.

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Cheese.  Plate.  Knife and fork. 

encouraging you to spread it over multi-flavored breads and crackers. 

no fork for me. i prefer my fingers. knife (not a pointy one) or spoon for scooping runny cheeses into my mouth. and right into my mouth--no spreading cheese on bread, no matter what fruit you fancy, if any. thanks, 'frid.

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Just plain old good cheese ,served at the right temperature for me too....maybe a little honey or poached quince for some cheeses.Those desserts with chocolate and goat cheese,etc.,really annoy and nauseate me.More press coverage for weird food,which will be forgotten by next month....

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I love a nice big piece of apple pie, hot, with a generous chunk of Cheddar slightly melted over.

Ah! Apple pie, made with a layer of cheese (properly Wensleydale, but Cheshire or Lancashire would do - you want a crumbly creamy job) under the pastry top is known as St Wilfrid's Pie.

Thanks for reminding me of that :smile:

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As I have mentioned elsewhere, a slice of a good hard English cheese - Cheddar, obviously, or Cheshire, Lancashire, Wensleydale - goes down a storm with a big rich, plummy fruit cake. A nip of Madeira, or even, if your blood alcohol needs no adjusting, a nice cup of tea.

Easier to find in some places, certainly in New York, is the lighter, fruity Italian cake pannetone. You can get a similar effect with that.

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This is probably expanding the category some but last night I prepared myself a plate with beautiful slices of ripe persimmon and a mound of mascarpone. Incredible. Not that you can go wrong with mascarpone very easily but this particular combo was sublime :biggrin:

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There's a recipe for mascarpone in Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking. He says that mascarpone is a type of solidified cream; it originated not far from Milan, earliest written reference to it is in 1168, although it may be much older. Bugialli recommends making it at home; he says the texture changes during shipping, even when refrigerated.

His ingredients are 1 qt. heavy cream (not the ultra-homogenized stuff) and 1/4 tsp. tartaric acid (similar to cream of tartar but more acidic, available in pharmacies and he gives Caswell-Massey as a source). He pours the cream into a Pyrex saucepan and improvises a bain marie which he places over moderate heat and brings cream to 180 degrees. Removes from heat and adds the tartaric acid, stirs with wooden spoon for 30 seconds, removes pyrex pan from bain marie and continues to stir for 2 more minutes. Then he lines a basket with cheesecloth and pours in the cream mixture, and lets mascarpone stand for 12 hours in a cool place or on the bottom shelf of refrigerator. After 12 hours, he transfers the mascarpone in fourths to the center of four 9" squares of cheesecloth, folds the cheesecloth around the mascarpone to make four nice rectangular bundles and refrigerates the packets for another 12 hours. The book has step-by-step pictures as well.

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It's true, mascarpone is ridiculously easy to make at home. easier and less fussy than yogurt, even. Since I learned how it's made I can't believe the outrageous prices they get for the stuff in stores. Cream and acid - that's it. There is also a recipe in Bo Friberg's "Professional Pastry Chef". He reduces the cream by a third to make it richer before adding the tartaric acid, but I find that the finished product is a little too firm for me.

Another source for tartaric acid is wine or beer making supply shops.

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Thanks Toby and NS.  I always thought it was more like a cheese than cream.  Now I know better.  How does it compare to clotted cream?  If its just cream and acid (or cream on acid :laugh: ) is it similar to sour cream?

My understanding is that sour cream, like creme fraiche and yogurt, is cultured with various little critters with addition of thickeners. The bacteria create acid that partially curdles the cream. With mascarpone you're simply adding acid directly to curdle the cream. According to Bo Friberg, clotted cream (also known as devon cream) is made by heating unpasteurized whole milk then allowing it to cool. The cream coagulates (clots), floats to the top and is strained off. Not as easy to make at home since it's hard to find (maybe impossible?) unpasteurized milk.

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Bartlet pear with Point Reyes blue (or Oregon Caveman blue or almost any blue cheese)

Newton apple with Bandon full cream extra sharp cheddar

either of those fruits with good Parmigiano or grana

peach with mascarpone

my quince paste (which is sort of like a thick fruit leather) with the Bandon

pecorino with honey

and if I can't find or don't have any good fruit, I'm with Wilfred...just cheese

Jim

olive oil + salt

Real Good Food

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