This Cheese Doesn't Suck: Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano

    Colorado is bursting with goat cheese makers these days.  Goats are a hardy creature well suited to the harsh climates of Colorado.  From perennial favorite Avalanche Cheese Company, to today's feature Haystack Mountain, there's a goat cheese for every taste.  

    Queso de Mano was the first raw milk offering from Haystack Mountain.  Drawing heavily from the goat and sheep cheese of Spain, Queso de Mano bears a strong resemblance to the famous Spanish goat cheese Garrotxa.  Starting with the vaguely fluffy, dusty grey rind, which carries with it a damp earthy/goaty aroma.  The paste of the cheese its self is supple and springy.  Giving way to a toothsome cream when young and a bit more dry fudge crumble when aged.  Flavors of blanched almond, sun dried grass, and minerals weave together to form a pleasing nod to those Spanish cheeses Queso de Mano is inspired by. 

    Aged 4 to 12 months makes this cheese perfectly in season for late summer.  Depending on the wheel, the milk used to produce Queso de Mano was made from either sweet spring grasses or the herbs and flowers of summer.  Either way this cheese wins and so do you. 
    Queso de Mano can be found regionally in the western U.S. and is perfect paired up with a locally brewed Colorado pale ale.

Avalanche Cheese Company: Lamborn Bloomer

 

     The Avalanche Cheese Company has become something of a summer time darling around The Board and Wire.  Made locally to me in Basalt, Colorado, cheese can't get any fresher than this.  Well, unless it's aged on purpose, you get the idea.  My current obsession now that June is fully upon us is the Avalanche Lamborn Bloomer.  

    

    Those lady goats grazing on the Western Slope in Paonia are getting the best of the spring grasses and flora.  As a result the milk produced is rich in flavor and nutrients.  Making it ideal for creating bloomy rinded, milky, fresh cheese.  Hence, the Lamborn Bloomer.  

    Based on the Robiola style cheese of Italy it oozes out of its light, snappy rind.  Lactic and creamy at first bite it blossoms into floral and fresh-mowed grass.  Finishing gently with subtle flavors of citrus and yogurt.  Best served with seasonal fruit (right now, strawberries, get 'em while they're good) and slices of soft french bread (not crackers. do yourself a favor on this one.). 

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Bloody Mary Week: Classic B.M. w/Capricho de Cabra + Manchego Stuffed Olives

     As the cocktail train keeps rolling I realize that I should have labeled this "Garnish Week"  being that it's what I'm most excited about in these Bloody Mary's.  I am pretty stoked about today's offering.  
    What we have here is an olive stuffed with a mixture of Capricho de Cabra and One Year Aged Manchego.  That's right, I'm mixing milks here.  Goat Cheese + Sheep's Milk Cheese = Love (Forever).  I told you it would get crazy in here this week.  
    The Capricho is bright and balanced, with a touch of that familiar lemon zest of fresh goat cheese.  Meanwhile the Aged Manchego adds depth and fatty-earthy aroma.  Together they make my favorite stuffed olive yet.

 Olives w/Capricho de Cabra and 1 Year Aged Manchego

Pitted Olives

(Green works best with this variation)

Capricho de Cabra, plain

1 Year Aged Manchego

• Bring Capricho and Manchego to room temperature.  About 20 minutes out of the fridge.
• Drain and pat dry olives.
• Shred Manchego using a hand held cheese grater
• Mix 1 part Capricho with 2 parts shredded manchego
• To stuff the olive roll a pinch of the cheese mixture in the palm of your hand and gently poke it into the  olive. 
• To get the pretty "snowball" effect from the photos dip the large end of the stuffed olive into any remaining Manchego shreds.  This is also good for extra Manchego flavor.  

Enjoy!

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Capricho de Cabra with Colorado Honey + Lavender Blooms

    A fresh half-puck of Capricho de Cabra lightly sprinkled with french lavender blossoms and local honey.  This is what springtime breakfasts are made of.  There's just something about the clean, lemony tang of goat cheese that lends its self so well to sultry lavender and vaguely astringent clover honey.

    Thanks to my dear friend Lyn, back East, I have harbored an obsession for lavender flavored anything.  This dense, cakey Capricho being no exception.

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Hello, July. I love you.

Bijou Goat Button.  Vermont Butter and Cheese Co.

July.  I love you.  But you keep me so busy.  That's okay, though.  You bring fresh Crottin style cheese into my life.  I know that May has a better grip on goat cheese.  With it's sweet spring grasses and lovely flowers for lady goats to munch on.  Resulting in chevre that is sweet and gentle.

  July, don't fret, I adore the sun-dried grass and lip-puckering citrus you lend to my little chunk of goat cheese.  I'll take a chance and pair fresh Washington cherries along side.  

Tart and heavenly sweet together can't possibly be wrong. 

Breakfast. Simply.

Bonne Bouche, Palisade Peaches, Bing Cherries, Black Pepper Water Crackers

  Meet my breakfast.  It is a far cry from the cult of bacon and eggs.  It is perfection.  

A handful of heady in-season stone fruit and an earthy piquant puck of well aged Bonne Bouche are what breaking the nightly fast should be.  I often forget to slow down and savor the morning.  To turn off my various screens and let in the cool dry air.  To putter amongst the handiwork of my tiny garden.  

To just be with my Fiancee, a cup of coffee, and a leisurely meal shared.  

Taking the time to eat, truly eat, what we've set before us. 

This Cheese Doesn't Suck: Avalanche Chevre

It's springtime on the Front Range.  The woodpeckers are making a ruckus, the rivers are just starting to swell with snow melt, but most importantly the goats that are herded out here are in the middle of kidding season.  What does that mean exactly? It means the goat milk is flowing!  Finally the first batch this year of fresh chevre from Avalanche* is now available!!! This cheese is worthy of those 3 exclamation points.

It's those little logs. c/o Avalanche

 It is hands down the best chevre I have ever had the pleasure to consume.  Some chevs end up with a dense clay like texture (which is not a bad thing, however).  This little log of goat cheese goodness is actually fluffy all through, with springy moisture and melts as soon as it hovers over the tongue.  Amazing, right?  It has the classic citrus note of a chevre but on a much subtler scale.  It's creamy paste brings up notes of lightly sweet fruit preserves, cut green grass, and hint of winter alfalfa.  In Englishy speak: It's damn fine cheese. Go eat some. Right. Now.


*Avalanche lets their does have some maternity time before & after they kid.  Hence we don't get any fresh chevre from them during the winter months.  Those long, long months where we all craves the milky delicioussss...*drool*....  But I digress.  They love their animals and even elect a "Goat of the Month" rather than an "Employee of the Month".  Three cheers for excellent animal husbandry resulting in oh-so-happy animals!

Arroyo: March's Goat of the Month. c/o Avalanche