Isigny Ste.-Mère Crème à la Vanille de Madagascar

Who knew whipped cream in a can would cause such a stir?

On April 16, the New York Times Diner’s Journal mentioned the fact that you can once again purchase real, imported French whipped cream in a can from us!

A while back, the FDA outlawed imported whipped cream in pressurized cans, leaving you with a choice of “Reddi Wip,” or store brands of mostly faux whipped cream “toppings.” Now, the restriction has been lifted, and life as we know it has changed forever.

Isigny Ste.-Mère Crème à la Vanille de Madagascar is now available at our New York City location, with the FDA’s blessing, Go ahead and top a bowl of fruit, ice cream, chocolate mousse, or your favorite yogurt-and-granola parfait with some delectable vanilla-scented French cream, produced here in the United States at an organic North Carolina dairy. The American made product adheres to the same French standards, which keep the fat content below 30 percent, and uses very little added sugar. So, you can feel free to indulge whenever the mood strikes.

Pick up a 7 ounce can of Isigny Ste.-Mère Crème à la Vanille de Madagascar for only $3.99 the next time you drop by. You might even be tempted to squirt some in your mouth for a midnight snack á la Betty Draper from “Mad Men.” Don’t worry; we won’t tell.

On Wednesday February 27, we held a tasting event in our Huntington, Long Island store that was attended by some of our best customers, along with some folks from Yelp.com, the Internet review site that gives people the opportunity to post reviews about local businesses in their area.

Prior to the event, we were contacted by a group of reps from Yelp, asking if they could visit our shop to sample our vast selection of cheeses, in order to establish a review page on the site. We decided to turn it into a celebration, inviting our locale clientele, and even providing an informal “Cheese 101” class on selection, pairings and other interesting cheese tidbits.

The event was a resounding success, resulting in a bunch of five-star reviews on our new Yelp page. If there was any doubt that word-of-mouth can influence a business, we are proof that online word-of-mouth is worth its weight in gold (or cheese)!

Online review sites like Yelp have become a vital cog in the success of businesses like restaurants and shops such as ours, particularly because everyone is looking for more bang from their bucks these days. Purchasing luxury items like the fine, imported cheeses we sell takes a bit of knowledge and skill on the part of the customer, and even more on the part of the merchant. So, when you have a positive experience, you want everyone to hear about it.  Yelp is the perfect place to express your opinions (positive and negative). The feedback we get from our customers enables us to be better merchants, helping us to provide the best possible products and service to you, our valued customers.

Check out the photos below from our event, and be sure to visit Ideal Cheese on Yelp at http://www.yelp.com/biz/ideal-cheese-shop-huntington and tell everyone where to get the best cheeses on Long Island!

INGREDIENTS:
1 package of large cherry tomatoes
½ lb. of Brillat Savarin Triple Crème Cheese
Chopped Honey Roasted Pecans
Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Black Pepper
Baby Arugula

DIRECTIONS:
Wash tomatoes and cut the top off of them. Scoop out the tomato about half way and fill it with the Brillat-Savarin triple crème cheese. Place the baby Arugula on the serving plate and then place the tomatoes on the plate. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil on the tomatoes and then add the chopped honey roasted pecans to the top of the tomatoes and add black pepper, to taste.

Take those tomatoes and try stuffing them with Brillat-Savarin from France.

Region: France
Type: Cow
Texture: Soft
Texture: Mild

A triple-creme, soft and luxurious cheese best served at room temperature. At 75 % butterfat for every 3.5 oz., Brillat-Savarin embodies the true opulence of cheese cultur. This soft, luscious, creamy cave-ripened cheese is a favorite of cheese connoisseurs around the world.

Tasting Notes:
Early summer blossom honeys and maple syrup, edamame.

Pairs Well With:
Olive Oils
• Tuscan

Vinegars
• Fig

Wines
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Prosecco
• Chardonnay – Napa Valley
• Champagne

Beers
• Porter

INGREDIENTS:
20 – 24 Large, Seedless Green or Red Grapes
Small Cornilly Goat Cheese (room temperature)
Chopped Walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
Wash grapes and cut top and bottom off so that grapes can stand on the serving dish.
Scoop out the grapes about half way and fill with the goat cheese and top with the chopped walnuts and
serve.

We encourage you to try Cornilly cheese, a special goat cheese from France.

Region: France
Type: Goat
Texture: Soft
Texture: Mild

Soft, mild and easy-going goat’s milk cheese. Le Cornilly is a great cheese to begin exploring the world of goat’s milk cheeses. Its light, cake-like textures are balanced by a soft lemon freshness that cleans the palette and opens the cheese up to many summer pairings.

Tasting Notes:
Le Cornilly is delicious sprinkled over a salad, as a light side to a cheese platter with crackers

Pairs Well With:

Olive Oils
• Tuscan
• Organic Basil
• Milanese

Vinegars
• Fig
• Lemon Eureka
• Sicilian Lemon

Wines
• Chardonnay

Buy Cornilly cheese now and the Ideal Cheese Shop, where cheese is guaranteed fresh and hand-cut to each order

INGREDIENTS:
20 – 24 Peppadews
¼ – ½ lb. of St Agur, Blue Cheese (room temperature)

DIRECTIONS:
Drain the peppadews in a small bowl. Stuff the peppadews with the St Agur blue cheese and serve in a nice serving dish.

ABOUT SAINT AGUR CHEESE:

Region: France
Type: Cow Blue
Texture: Soft
Texture: Strong

A product of the endlessly eye-catching and tongue teasing blue cheese molds, St Agur is a delicate journey from salty to creamy with a hint of blue cheese spicy tang along the way. St Agur is especially buttery and is exemplified by its less-intense blue cheese tasting notes.

Tasting Notes:
Crumble this over fresh salad greens, melt into el dente penne pasta.

Pairs Well With:
Vinegars
• Balsamic (18yr)
Wines
• Ice Wine
• Desert Wine

Buy St Agur cheese now and the Ideal Cheese Shop, where cheese is guaranteed fresh and hand-cut to each order

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup of thinly sliced sweet yellow onion (or shallots)
• 1 ½ cup dry white wine
• 3 ½ cups (14 oz.) Gruyere cheese grated
• 2 tablespoons flour
• a pinch of nutmeg
• a pinch of mustard powder

Dipping Ingredients

• Sourdough loaf, Pumpernickel, or bread of choice cut into 1 inch cubes
• green apple cut into 1 inch cubes
• vegetables: baby carrots, celery, or other selected vegetables cut into bite sized pieces
• bite sized pieces of sausage

Preparation
.
1. Melt butter in a medium sized skillet over medium heat, once melted add in the onions or shallots. Saute for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and season with a little salt and pepper. Saute on low heat until onions/shallots are caramelized (15 minutes). Transfer caramelized onions/shallots to a separate bowl for later.

2. Add the 1 ½ cup wine to the skillet and boil for 1 minute. Transfer the wine to a large saucepan, over medium/low heat.

3. Toss the grated Gruyere with the flour in a medium bowl until it is coated. Incorporate a handful of the cheese mixture into the wine, waiting until it is smoothly combined before adding the next handful. As the cheese is incorporated the onion/shallots can be combined at the same time. Nutmeg and mustard powder are optional additions to taste.

4. If the fondue is smooth of consistency it can be transferred to a fondue pot. If it is a little too thick additional wine can be poured into the mixture until the perfect consistency is met. Set the fondue pot over a candle or canned heat burner. Serve the fondue with a large spoon for catching lost bread/vegetables.

Background of the dish:

Fondue was invented in the 18th century in Switzerland by villagers who had little food, and very little fresh food. Originally fondue was only cheese fondue, and only bread was used to dip in it. Stale cheese and stale bread from the previous summer was made into a warm and tasty dish just in heating it and use of some basic preparations.

Kung Hei Fat Choi is the Chinese term for their New Year, and this happened just a couple of days ago. Here I am not yet even finished with listing my goals for the coming year, when another kind of New Year steps in. Anyway, because of this, we had a celebration at my son’s house with the Chinese New Year as motif. And one of the dishes presented was shomai, which was a pork shrimp concoction wrapped in wonton.

When the shomais were done, there was still two cups of filling left, thus my daughter in law thought of a way to improvise. She took out phylo dough from the fridge, wrapped up some shiomai filling and baked it for a couple of minutes. I did say it came out as a very creative dish and did not loose its savor. As a matter of fact, it made it more nutritious when baked as against steaming. It had a crispy end with lots of meat to be savored.

And so when I saw a friend posting pictures of Chinese food with fried wontons and my daughter in-law with her phylo dough creation, an idea struck me. I decided to switch my recipe of baked puff pastry spinach gruyere into fried wonton spinach gruyere. Sohere’s the recipe: (actually you are getting two recipes) I just wanted to be creative.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mushroom
• 3 tbsp. Butter
• 1 c. Gruyere Cheese grated
• 1 pack 8 oz. Frozen spinach thawed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pack of 25 pcs square wonton wrappers or 1 pack puff pastry
• oil for frying

Filling: Place pan on stove over medium heat. Melt the butter and sauté mushroom for 5 minutes. Press out as much water off the spinach. In a large bowl, place the cooked mushroom, the spinach and the gruyere cheese. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Mix until combined.

Recipe 1: (using puff pastry) Spray oil on a cookie sheet. Set aside. Thaw out puff pastry. Make the filling as mentioned above Sprinkle a little flour on the table before spreading the thawed out puff pastry. Spread the filling evenly on the rolled out pastry. Roll tightly into a log, making sure that there are no spaces inside when you roll it. Then cut into thin round circles. Place the circles on tray. Place the cut up circles on the tray and bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Serve.

Recipe 2 (with wonton)
Get one sheet of wonton wrapper and place it like a diamond in front of you. Rub the sides with water or egg whites. Place filling at the center and form it like a log. With the pointed tip nearest you, cover the filling until just until slightly concealed. Then fold the opposite edges towards the filling and roll everything until it reaches the other tip. Seal well. This forms like a mini cigarette.

Continue with the remaining wontons and heat oil in pan. Fry the wontons in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with your favorite dip. Enjoy.

And if you want to make this out as an appetizer or as a snack, don’t forget to purchase your cheese at the best cheese shop in town, the Ideal Cheese Shop. And I made two recipes for you today. Didn’t I just say I experienced two New Years within this month? Well it’s a good way to start. Happy Chow!

More and more people are going vegetarian these days mainly because of health reasons, I am presupposing. I can’t see any reason aside from what I just mentioned, why these health freaks steer away from juicy steaks, crispy chicken and cholesterolific hamburgers. On second thought, it might be also a belief, but, who knows?

What is more perplexing is when vegetarians go a step further and become vegan, which means that not only do they not eat animals, but they don’t eat animal products as well such as dairy or eggs.

What? No Dairy which means no cheese? Well, how can I live without cheese– the essence of my existence? Well almost. Didn’t I have my first food from my mother’s milk, just like the bull’s had theirs from their mother’s milk as well. And if there is more than enough milk from the bull, they make it into Bufala Mozzarella which by the way, I have a recipe to share and it’s called: Bufala Mozzarella Salad.

• ¼ c. olive oil
• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. Salt
• 1 tbsp. Dried basil
• ½ tsp. Pepper
• ¼ tsp. Dried oregano
• 1 round ball buffalla cut into cubes or crumbled

Mix the above and marinade the Bufala Mozzarella in the mixture for an hour or more. Then mix it with the following veggies.

• 20 pcs. Grape tomatoes or 6 Roma tomatoes quartered
• 1 small cucumber sliced
• 1 small red pepper sliced
• 1 small green pepper, sliced
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• Greek olives (optional)

Prepare the vegetables and place in a serving bowl. Add the marinated Bufala Mozzarella Cheese to the vegetables above. Toss well and serve.

Vegetarians or vegans can do away with cheese substitutions in the form of other plant products derived from grains which processed, could be made to look like cheese. Thus even with the above recipe, this can be modified and if one is vegan, they just do away with the cheese component. Crumbled tofu could be a substitute for the above recipe. However every original recipe is always best with original ingredients.

Anyway, back for as long as I can remember, vegans didn’t become such the moment they were born. Can you imagine giving a newborn baby carrot juice or soy milk. It’s possible though, but generally, we all started with mother’s milk, which to every infant is the best food ever. And speaking about the best cheese, it’s found in only in the gourmet cheese shop online, the Ideal Cheese Shop. And you don’t want to miss that.

It’s still winter although the snow hasn’t come, but the weather is still chilly, your hands and feet get frozen if you expose them even for such a short while. So it comes to no surprise that a hot meal is always what we crave for.

After the holidays, it’s always comforting to just prepare a simple meal of soup and salad, or just soup, bread and a glass of wine. If I’m lucky, I’d end it up with lots of fruit and still more wine. Then I would say I had a complete day.

This is what I did a couple of days ago. It is not only a recipe but also a run through of my thoughts when I came home that night. And therefore I shall call my article:

Hot Squash with Stilton on a Cool Night

• 1 butternut squash
• half of an onion
• about 2 oz. Blue Stilton Cheese
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 1 8 oz can chicken broth
• 1 french baguette
• 1 bottle of your favorite wine

Turn oven on ‘roast’ temperature. Take out the butternut from pantry and peel the butternut squash. Get a pan and place cut up squash. Half an onion and place with squash. Sprinkle olive oil, and dash with a little bit of salt and pepper. If you like, spread some of your favorite herbs. I didn’t have any so I didn’t include it here. But normally I do.

Place the pan in the oven and set for 20 minutes roasting. Go to facebook and check for any news. Nothing much, except that your best friend is having a ball in the tropical islands while you’re slaving away in this cosmopolitan city of New York, freezing. Feel depress.

Move away from the computer and switch on the television for some news. While listening check on your roasted butternut squash and see if it is soft enough to handle. Remove from pan. Mash the squash along with the onions. Transfer to a pot, and add the can of chicken broth. If your broth is too thick, and you want a thinner consistency, add water and a bouillon cube. Now that will add more flavor. Turn on heat, and let boil until bubbly enough.

Meanwhile get your bottle of wine, and pour yourself a glass. Go back to the television and see what’s on. As you watch the news, there are too many killings around the world, too many politicians promising stuff they can’t keep (it’s political season once again), and the stock market is going down which means too many jobs will be lost. Feel more depressed.

Go back to the pot, by then it’s boiling and is calling for you as if to say, “sssslurp me!” For better texture you get your immersion blender to smoothen the soup, but decided, “I like it chunky”. You turn off the heat, and scoop some soup in a bowl. You top the soup with the tasty, yummy, delectable mouth watering Blue Stilton Cheese on top. The aroma of your cooking is just so memorable. It can’t get any better than this, you say.

Then you remember that a few hours ago you passed by your favorite cheese shop, the Ideal Cheese Shop. And you said to yourself, you need some cheese loving and you got the blue stilton because they always have it the best. This is a sure cure for depression. And now it has come to pass. You are happy.