Everything from cheese plates to canapes can have more zing with flavored cheese. Here, Jalapeno Co-Jack from Loleta Cheese Factory and Emmenthaler are combined with red-leaf lettuce, a pitted olive and a grape tomato on a toasted bread round (first toast, then use a cookie cutter). Photo by Eugene Bochkarev | IST.
|
STEPHANIE ZONIS focuses on good foods and the people who produce them.
|
|
April 2008
|
|
Flavored Artisan Cheese: Beyond Smoke & Herbs
Part III: Artisan Cheeses Flavored With Pepper, Jalapeño, Habañero, Other Hot Chile Peppers & Wasabi
This is Part III of a six-part article. You can click to the different sections via the yellow box, below.
Biting Back: Hot, Peppery Cheeses
It would be a simple matter to do an entire article (or several) on cheeses flavored with peppers. Black pepper, cayenne pepper, pink peppercorns, green peppercorns, wasabi and any of numerous chiles are added to cheeses to give them zing. So what’s out there if you’re one of the “some like it hot” crowd?
Marin French Cheese Company, in California, offers both a Peppercorn Brie and a Jalapeño Brie. On the opposite coast, in Virginia, Everona Dairy has a Cracked Pepper version of its sheep’s milk Piedmont; sometimes, there’s a Hot Pepper variation, too. Serrano chiles and epazote, an herb common in Mexican dishes, are added to a Queso Blanco by Mozzarella Company.
Chipotle, which is smoked jalapeño, flavors Bravo Farm’s Original Chipotle Cheddar (the orangey veining in the cheese is a dead giveaway). If the taste of habañero is more your style, try Loleta Cheese Factory’s Habañero Jack (photo at right—the company makes several other hot varieties as well). Both companies are California-based. Massachusetts’ Westfield Farm produces a Wasabi Disk, accented with a bit of chive.
|
Have some habañero with that jack cheese! Habañero Jack is just one of the hot cheeses from Loleta Cheese Factory, which also makes varieties with jalapeño and green chiles. |
See our Chile Glossary to learn about the different types of chiles.
Proceed to Part IV: Cheeses With Herbs, Spices & Flowers
Go To The Article Index At The Top Of The Page
Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. Images are the copyright of their respective owners.
|
