Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

Celebrating the bitter, and the sweet

Bored with hearts and cards? Try falling in love with the thorns … and the roses of Valentine's Day

 

Heart-shaped foods: Coeur a la creme means "heart in cream," and that's exactly what this simple but prepare-ahead dessert is. You'll need cheesecloth and eight individual heart-shaped molds for this recipe and 24 hours to drain the cheese. This recipe from Tory Miller, chef/co-proprietor of L'Etoile restaurant in Madison, Wis., calls for fresh chevre from Fantome Farm in Wisconsin. You can use any fresh artisan goat cheese. The recipe was published in "American Cheeses" by Clark Wolf.

Coeur a la Creme

Prep: 24 hours. Cook: 10 minutes. Makes: Eight servings

1 pound fresh chevre or goat cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

For the raspberry sauce:

1/4 cup sugar

1 pint fresh raspberries (or blueberries or strawberries)

Garnish:

Fresh raspberries

Fresh mint sprigs

Biscotti or decorative cookies

1. One day before serving, using a spatula, combine the chevre with the sugar until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks. Fold into the cheese mixture until thoroughly incorporated.

2. Line each mold with a square of cheesecloth cut large enough for the ends to cover the mold once it is filled. Fill the molds with the cheese mixture. Cover, refrigerate until the molds are firmly set, about 24 hours.

3. Make the raspberry sauce, combining the sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar caramelizes to a rich amber color. Add the raspberries and 1/4 cup water. Allow the mixture to sit for about 10 seconds. Begin stirring the mixture and simmer about 5 minutes, until the berries are soft. Remove from heat; strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Refrigerate the sauce.

4. When ready to serve, remove the cremes from the molds, place on dessert plates and discard the cheesecloth. Pour raspberry sauce around each serving. Decorate with fresh raspberries and mint. Serve with biscotti.

— Bill Daley

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American cheese: Forget the yellow squares

 

Clark Wolf gets excited when he starts talking about cheese -- American cheese.

The restaurant and food consultant, who is also an author and occasional magazine contributor, is passionate about the wealth of American cheeses he now has at his disposal when he hosts classes in San Antonio, Texas.

That was not the case in 1976, when Wolf ran a small cheese shop in San Francisco or in 1980 when he helped open Oakville Grocery, also in San Francisco.

"There was nothing to sell, American," he says. "There were all kinds of imitation cheeses; there was dry jack and there was Oregon blue.

"Now, we can actually do a whole class in Cheese 101, really learning all about cheese, using American-made cheeses."

Wolf spent years smelling, tasting and researching the growing number of artisan cheese made in this country. He's fascinated with cheese, and he's not alone.

"There's a huge interest. It's got a lot of good nutritional value. It's a perishable food that isn't real perishable. It's got this sense of freshness," he says.

His book, "American Cheeses," is a guide to "The Best Regional, Artisan and Farmhouse Cheese, Who Makes Them and Where to Find Them" (Simon and Schuster, 2008). He's most proud of the fact that every one of the artisans featured in the book is still making cheese. His favorite is Laura Chenel's California Chevre. Chenel was the first to hit it big making goat cheese in the late '70s. Wolf loves it for several reasons:

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