Showing posts with label Soft Cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soft Cheese. Show all posts

2012/08/17

Le Barbu


Fromagerie La Suisse-Normande

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to the Lanaudière region of Quèbec with my sister Pauline and our maman. Our first stop on our journey to discover Lanaudière, was in St. Roch de L'Achigan to visit the Fromagerie La Suisse-Normande. This artisanal cheese producer is the maker of one of my favourite Quebec goat-milk cheese Le Sabot De Blanchette.

Goats from the Suisse-Normande farm

The farm and cheese production is owned and operated by husband and wife team Frédéric & Fabienne Guitel. Fabienne is a Swiss native and her spouse is from Normandie, hence the name "Fromagerie La Suisse Normande". The cheese production is done on the premises directly across the street from their goat farm. Visitors can view the artisans making the cheese from the glass windows inside the cheese shop.  It was a wonderful visit, where we were welcomed by a lovely friendly lady who introduced us to several Fromagerie La Suisse Normande cheeses.

Le Barbu

Le Barbu is a delicious artisanal pasteurised goat-milk cheese with a soft paste and a white bloomy rind. Le Barbu has a fresh mushroom aroma with a lingering floral and woodsy flavour. The texture is slightly chalky but creamy on the tongue with a fairly pronounced nutty goat-milk taste. This chèvre comes in a small 90 g. conical form.

Le Barbu pairs well with a Sauvignon Blanc or California Chardonnay.   
                                                 

2012/07/12

Jac Le Chevrier

Jac Le Chevrier is a soft paste, natural rind pasteurised goat milk cheese.

Jac Le Chevrier

This artisanal cheese is presented in the form of a small cylinder 6 cm (2 1/2") round and 4.5 cm (2") high and weighs approximately 135 grams (4.75 oz.). Jac Le Chevrier has a golden wheat coloured wrinkly rind with a white fine chalky paste.

Jac Le Chevrier has a mild to medium intensity with a delicate goat milk aroma and hazelnut flavour. Its texture is rather smooth and creamy if ripened one month.

Jac Le Chevrier is produced by cheese-maker and farmer Jacques Mailhot on his eco-cert organic farm located in Saint Flavien in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Québec.

http://www.routedesfromages.com/repertoire/detail/413

2012/06/27

Monte Enebro

Monte Enebro is an award winning soft paste full flavoured pasteurised goat milk cheese from Spain.

Monte Enebro

The striking blue-gray coloured mold rind made from penicillium roqueforti covers the 2 1/2 lbs. elongated tubular shaped log. The snow white paste is dense and chalky when the cheese is young with a mild tangy flavour. As Monte Enebro ages the paste becomes creamy and runny and the flavours and aromas strengthen and become more pungent.

Monte Enebro is very tasty on its own but it is a delight with a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil or served with fresh figs when young. A more mature Monte Enebro is great served with olives.

Monte Enebro is produced by Queserías del Tiétar. This artisanal cheese dairy is located in Ávila, Spain in the La Adrada area in the Tiétar valley. The Tiétar Dairy is run by father and daughter team, Rafael and Paloma Báez Bravo-Murillo.

http://www.queseriasdeltietar.com/indexeng.htm

2012/05/17

Un Chèvre À Ma Manière

A delightful new cheese has arrived at La Fromagerie Atwater that I'm quite excited about. It is a new Québec artisanal pasteurised goat milk cheese called Chèvre À Ma Manière.

Chèvre À Ma Manière

My first impression is that it looks so similar to a Saint-Félicien. Chèvre À Ma Manière weighs around 200 grams (7 ounces), measuring 9 cm (3 1/2"), round shaped, it has a pale golden natural mold rind and a very creamy runny white pâte. It is a fairly young cheese with an affinage of a couple of weeks. It has a nice balanced sweetness, sourness and acidity with a pleasant caprine lingering flavour. 

When trying to describe how I feel about this cheese the lyrics of the 1991 song “What Is Love?” by the group Deee-Lite comes to mind; “ How do you say delicious? How do you say delovely? How do you say delectable? How do you say divine?”

Chèvre À Ma Manière is fabricated by Simon Hamel of L’Atelier Fromagerie in Ste-Hélène-de-Chester in the Centre-du-Québec region.

Chèvre À Ma Manière pairs well with a Chenin Blanc. 

Check out: Radio Canada's  Bien dans son Assiette' video and article: "
Le gagnant du Caseus de bronze".

2012/04/25

Brebichon

Brebichon is a soft artisanal pasteurized sheep-milk cheese. The light wheat coloured rind is washed with apple cider. Brebichon has a soft mild creamy texture that is luscious with a light apple flavour and aroma. 

Brebichon
Brebichon is produced by Les Fromages du Verger operated by Michel Guérin et Brigitte Maillette, situated on a lovely apple orchard located in St-Joseph-du-Lac in Quebec.
Apart from harvesting fourteen varieties of apples, the farm produces a variety of both fresh and refined sheep milk cheeses. The dairy ewes of East Friesian and Lacaune breed of sheep are fed apples from the orchard, which results in a rich and unique milk that is highlighted in their original and consistent cheeses produced at Les Fromages du Verger.

2012/02/24

Coeur Du Berry



Coeur Du Berry

Le Coeur Du Berry is a lovely French pasteurized goat milk cheese shaped in the form of a heart. Coeur Du Berry has a fresh white paste with a distinctive earthy tangy flavour and the ash covered rind leaves you with a pleasant smoky lingering taste.

This heart-shaped chèvre is a must for Valentine’s Day. Offer it as a gift or share it with your loved ones.
Available with a plain natural rind or ash covered.

Coeur Du Berry is produced by Fromagerie Jacquin in La Vernelle located in the south of La Loire in France.

2012/02/01

Grey Owl

Grey Owl is a striking ash covered pasteurized goat milk cheese.

Grey Owl

The edible dark vegetable ash rind contrasts beautifully against the snowy white uncooked paste that is quite dense. The fresh crumbly texture is quite smooth and creamy in the mouth with a sweet tangy nutty flavor.  
Grey Owl cheese pairs well with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Grey Owl is produced by Fromagerie Le Détour located in Notre-Dame-Du-Lac, Québec in the region of Lac Témiscouata near the New Brunswick border. Grey Owl cheese is named after a legendary conservationist, who inhabited the region of Témiscouata; Archie Belaney who was known under his adopted Ojibwe name “Grey Owl”.

The milk for Grey Owl cheese comes from Saanen Goats, a Swiss breed of dairy goats.

Saanen Goats

http://fromagerieledetour.ca/

Photo source: informedfarmers.com

2012/01/10

Banon


Banon is a raw goat milk cheese fabricated in the village of Banon in the Haute-Provence Alps of France. The lovely 100 gram chèvre is presented wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia. 

Banon cheese wrapped

Le Banon cheese is golden cream coloured with a soft moist pungent uncooked un-pressed paste.  It has a nice sweet nutty taste with a lot of character.  Its unique flavor is developed when the cheese is matured in the chestnut leaves. Le Banon was awarded AOC status in 2003.  

Banon goat cheese unwrapped


Read more on: The conditions of production for Le Banon AOC:
http://www.banon-aoc.com/en/conditions.html

2011/11/21

Pouligny-Saint-Pierre

Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is named after a small town in the Berry area of central France.

Pouligny-Saint-Pierre
 
The Pouligny-Saint-Pierre goat cheese is distinctive, being pyramidal in shape and golden brown in color with speckles of grey-blue mould, and is often known by the nicknames "Eiffel Tower" or "Pyramid". Its delicate and dry crust is covered by a superficial grey-bluish mould that develops with age. The central pâte is bright white with a smooth, crumbly texture that mixes an initial sour taste with salty and sweet overtones with a slight “caprine” odor.
Pouligny-Saint-Pierre received AOC status in 1972.
 

Sabot De Blanchette

This beautiful pyramid shape natural rind goat milk cheese is always a winner for me. In fact the shape of the cheese is like the goat’s hoof, hence its name Sabot De Blanchette.

Sabot De Blanchette
The Sabot De Blanchette central paste is white with a smooth, creamy texture that just melts in your mouth. This chevre’s beautiful light natural wrinkly rind (sometimes spotted with tiny blue mold specks) has a slight tart taste, followed by a salty flavor which turns to a nutty sweetness. Mmmm... One of my favorite Québec goat milk cheeses.

Le Sabot is produced by Fromagerie La Suisse Normande located in St-Roch de l'Achigan in Quebec's Lanaudière region.
A lovely goat from the Suisse Normande farm