Kevin's Watch

Yeah Buffalo Mozzerella is pretty good. Never eaten a buffalo itself though. They're just big wild cows though Duchess...domesticated and bred/herded, like normal cows.

--A

community.webshots.com/photo/132401205/ ... 5048vnqNff

For a picture I took of one of our American buffalo (I think in other countries our buffalo are called bison? ) at a national park in South Dakota. Our buffalo are as big as my Jeep, as fast as a race horse, and can jump over a six foot fence from a standing start. And the park rangers warn everyone how ornery they are.

You couldn't pay me a million dollars to get me to try to milk one. Not even if it were tranquilized.

Yeah, we do call them Bison. Our buffalo are smaller but tougher.

The Mozzarella Company wrote:When I was told it was made from "buffalo milk", I couldn't imagine what Wild Bill Cody and his buffalos could possibly have to do with this delicious dish! Later I learned that the some of this fresh mozzarella was made from the milk of water buffalos

What produces "Buffalo" Mozzerella appears to be the domestic water-buffalo, a descendant of Asian water-buffalo. Not similar to the wild Bison that you're talking about. (Nice pic btw.)

Pic of African Buffalo

Of the African Buffalo, Robert Ruark famously wrote:

He looked at me as if he hated my guts. He looked as if I had despoiled his finacee, murdered his mother and burned down his house. He looked at me as if I owed him money. I never saw such malevolence in the eyes of any animal or human being, before or since.

--A

Went back to that gourmet grocery store today in search of good cheese. I got some more of that good two year old sharp Canadian cheddar. I also got some very rich and mellow 18 month old Swiss from Switzerland. The children (who should both have "made in Wisconsin" tags on the backs of their necks) are both highly pleased. Can you say cheese hounds?

CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bleu cheese is so good!

Cheese

Austian smoked cheese

Roule (soft cheese roll with garlic and herbs)

Melted cheddar

Mexicana cheese (cheese with jalapenos through it) grated on top of a creamy pasta chicken concoction and put under the grill

Melted cheddar and Branston Pickle topped with jalepenos olives garlic capers

Speaking of cheese, here's a great tip if you're making a cheese sauce.

Cook your roux for 10 minutes or so after it's ready...just keep it on the same heat, and keep stirring it, before you start adding anything else. Makes a noticable and tasty difference.

--A

The only cheese I ever seem to eat is cheddar, so I've decided to remedy that and try some new cheeses. Unfortunately the local shop doesn't have much of a selection. I ended up getting some Wensleydale, because the choice was between that and Red Leicester. It's alright--I like the texture, though I'm getting crumbs everywhere, and the taste is very mild--at first I didn't think it had much flavour at all.
Anyhow--I've been eating it plain on crackers, because I'm unimaginative. I'm interested in finding out some other ways to eat this or things to eat it with, because I have half of it left and I'm getting sick of crackers.

Never really found much to do with Wensleydale - it doesn't even melt properly, as far as I remember!

Here's a nice one - and cheap! get a pack of Camembert (all the main UK supermarkets sell now -99p in LIDL), it comes in a round flat-ish wooden box. Scoop out a little bit from the top (maybe about 1cm depth) and put in oven for a few minutes until runny. Top with cranberry sauce and chopped fresh coriander (if I remember right, cilantro in US-speak). It's great as a dip for tortilla chips or crusty bread, or probably crackers!

Also nice with sweet chilli sauce (Thai style) instead of the cranberry sauce.

Oh man I love that. You can also crumb Camembert wedges and deep fry them, then top with Cranberry. Or make phyllo pastry parcels and bake them, not for dip, but just to eat as is (with craberry sauce).

Damn you StoneMaybe...I'm getting hungry already and it's only 08h15.

--A

Avatar wrote:Speaking of cheese, here's a great tip if you're making a cheese sauce.

Cook your roux for 10 minutes or so after it's ready...just keep it on the same heat, and keep stirring it, before you start adding anything else. Makes a noticable and tasty difference.

Oh, the Cajuns and Creols of N'awlins have this down to a science!

Roux

Thanks to Stonemybe's suggestion, I am about to try baked Camembert with garlic bread. I will report back soon.
(If this cheese is ever ready, that is. Ten minutes my arse.)

Observation #1: I am always wrong. Turns out I was overcooking it; I didn't need to put it back in after the first time I checked. Lesson learned.

Observation #2: The rind is thicker than it looks. So I keep thinking it's fairly deep, and get bits of rind in my cheese when I try to eat some more.

Observation #3: Yum. Nothing special, and I wasted half of it because of #1, but nice enough. I'll try it again sometime, at least to see if I can do it right.


My next task is to go into York this weekend and have one of the bacon & Brie toasted paninis from the Cornish Pasty Shop.

Dang! No one's mentioned goat cheese yet?! I adore, it some local sellers here mix in all sorts of things in it-and green and red chili, of course! Feta at a Greek restaurant or on a Greek Salad, wonderful! (oh and Darth--it's "fudgepacker" not "cheesepacker"! )

danlo wrote:Dang! No one's mentioned goat cheese yet?! I adore, it some local sellers here mix in all sorts of things in it-and green and red chili, of course!

I love herbed chevre, but I have no local cheese shop here. I have to purchase the mass packaged cheeses available at our chain grocer.

Although I must admit, the seelction at Sam's Club isn't bad for a bulk warehouse store...

danlo wrote:Feta at a Greek restaurant or on a Greek Salad, wonderful!

We have a Greek diner which appears unable to get the cheese sagagnaki is properly made with, so they flame feta with ouzo instead and call that sagagnaki. Oopah!!

I love bleu cheese or gorgonzola crumbles, or chevre, on a tossed salad with craisins, toasted walnuts, craisins, a good extra virgin olive oil and a nice balsamic vinegar.

Menolly wrote:

but I have no local cheese shop here

That's not good.

here's our local specialist, just to make you jealous!

www.thecheeseworks.co.uk/10420/info.php?p=2&pno=0

They're expensive, but mmmmmmmm!

Stonemaybe wrote:here's our local specialist, just to make you jealous!

www.thecheeseworks.co.uk/10420/info.php?p=2&pno=0

They're expensive, but mmmmmmmm!

Boy, does that look great!

OK tonight's starter (!) was great...(and DEAD easy!)

Get some BIG mushrooms. Cut out the stalk, and load the top with cheese. I used a mixture of cheddar, double gloucester with onion and chive and mexicana (spicy, with chillis through it), cut into really small cubes. Anything that melts is good. Wrap the whole thing in a thin slice of parma ham and stick it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Nice. Have done something similar often, but never tried wrapping it in parma ham. (The GF's vegetarian.)

I had some lovely goatsmilk cheese, rolled in sun-dried tomato and basil for lunch yesterday.

--A