Feeling Cheesy part 1
I was building a cheese tray this afternoon when I decided to do something special with some of the cheeses. I have, in the past, marinated hard cheeses like parmesan, cheddar and Swiss in a vinaigrette but that would leave a messy tray. Today I decided to modify the soft cheeses.
I had two soft cheeses on the tray, a log of goat cheese or chevre. and brie. The goat cheese was easy. All that it needed was a roll in any dry herb or spice. I chose black pepper. I already had one cheese with a little bite to it. I thought a second would compliment the other cheeses.
Brie with maple and walnuts.
The other soft cheese, brie, had me thinking. Brie takes to both savory and sweet modifications. I like sweet applications, especially with nuts. One of my favorite recipes is to take half a cup maple syrup, the good stuff, and bring it to a simmer. Add in a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon of vanilla and as many toasted walnuts as you dare. Simmer this for about 5 minutes and pour this on a wheel or wedge of room temperature brie.
Of course before you pour the goodness on the cheese you need to perform a few steps. To toast the walnuts, place a half pound of them in a bowl and toss them with a quarter cup of canola oil, a teaspoon of salt and a ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Spread the nuts out, on a sheet pan, and roast at 350° for 10 minutes. Start checking the nuts after 5 minutes. They should be fragrant and just starting to turn a darker shade of brown.
To get the brie ready simply go to the fridge, open the door, grab the cheese and place it on the counter. Preferably away from children, spouses, canines, felines, capuchin monkeys, stray armadillos, ferrets, and expatriated French nationals!
Brie Crusted with Honey and Macadamias
I wanted to modify the brie in this way but I didn’t want to make a sticky mess. I was going to use enough sweet syrup to get the nuts to adhere. I searched dry stores for possibilities. I found several different nuts, all of which would work but macadamias jumped out at me. There were already toasted and lightly salted. They would be perfect.
Now, I needed to find a sweet factor. I thought about maple syrup but I didn’t care for the product we had on hand and the maple may overpower the macadamias. I looked on my spice shelf and saw honey. Perfect!
First step was to split the brie in half making two disks. This is a bit tricky but not difficult. I needed to observe two rules. Make sure the cheese is cold and the knife hot. To warm the knife, simply run it under hot tap water. Be sure to dry the knife. Stand the wheel on edge and cut down through the cheese using a slight sawing motion. Be patient and don’t try to rush this process. You’ll make it through soon enough.
I chopped the nuts until they were fairly fine but I left some nice size chunks. I then spread the honey on the open sides of the two wheels and sprinkled on the macadamias. I gave them a firm press to help the nuts to stick. I then cut them into wedges and placed them on the tray.
The flavor was excellent. Yes, I tasted a wedge. Okay, maybe three I needed to be certain the flavor was spot on!
There is another modification I could have made but I strongly caution you to be very and I mean very, very careful how much you add. Truffle oil. If used miserly it can be a nice addition.
Serving and on!
These two modifications to brie, remind me of another recipe. Baked brie. Imagine a wheel of brie with a layer of raspberry jam wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden brown. I think that will have to wait for an essay of its own.
Both of these I would serve with some neutral flavored crackers, flat bread or crusty French bread.
~T
