Truffle Tremor - Lots of It!

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I've never bought a 3-pound wheel of Truffle Tremor before.

At it's usual price per pound, the cost of a wheel hovers around $75; more if purchased outside of Humboldt County.

The other day, however, our beloved, award-winning cheese company, Cypress Grove Chevre, which, by the way, is a mere 12 miles from my kitchen (oh how I love saying that), had a special sale of their  Truffle Tremor and I snatched up a wheel of it lickity-split.

 Do you see the price per pound, people?

What you see here on my kitchen counter is a well-aged wheel of Tremor; to my palate, the most perfect state this cheese can achieve.  The bloom is velvety and white, the ooey-gooey layer just under the rind (called the proteolysis - my favorite part) is thick and runny, the texture of the cheese is dense and crumbly. The taste?  You can read a review I wrote some years ago here.

So, why was it marked down?  I have no idea.

Maybe the good folks at Cypress Grove just wanted to give us an early Valentine's gift.

Well Cypress Grove, I love you too!

Copyright © 2005-2012, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Christine's Recipe For Creamy, Garlicky Chevre Sauce With Steamed Green Beans And Toasted Pecans

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While it's true that I'm no longer eating pasta, it is not true that I can't enjoy a thick and deliciously creamy pasta sauce from time to time. I just drizzle it over steamed, sautéed or roasted vegetables and I'm completely happy.

Intensely garlicky, beginning with a white wine reduction, this is a sauce that will compliment a number of vegetables served as an entrée or a side dish. (Mr CC even enjoyed it on his lunch tacos!)

Last week we roasted purple potatoes and topped them with this sauce along with some freshly chopped basil.

Decidedly unphotogenic in its white-on-white demeanor, roasted cauliflower nonetheless is the perfect compliment to the garlic and goat cheese flavors imbued here.

For its debut, however, green beans steamed to a tender crispness were the perfect vehicle to showcase this bright white saucy offering, needing only a sprinkling of chopped toasted pecans to round out the visual feast.

This sauce can be made with full, low or no fat dairy. The amount you use will need to be adjusted to achieve the creaminess you desire. It's ready for your vegetables in less than 25 minutes and will keep in the refrigerator for one week.

Christine's Creamy, Garlicky Chevre Sauce
Ingredients:
6-ounces dry white wine
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 pinches kosher salt
1 cup cream (or 1/2 & 1/2, or milk)
11-ounces good chevre (goat cheese), crumbled
Preparation:
Place the white wine and the minced garlic in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the wine has reduced by one-half, about 6 minutes.
Add the salt and stir.
Add the chevre and the cream and whisk over low heat until the mixture is smooth. The amount of milk product will vary depending on its fat content.
Serve over your favorite vegetables or roasted potatoes, or, gasp!, pasta.
Reserve left over sauce in the refrigerator.

Copyright © 2005-2009, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Chevre-Pesto Stuffed Chicken Breasts

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Because we're headed east for two weeks in a few days, and I've got a lot to do before hand, like get ready, I'm trying to do as little food shopping as possible. So, looking to see what was lurking in the freezer and the fridge, I brought some leftovers together and came up with this rather spectacular dish, if I do say so meself.

Chicken breasts, the last of Kalyn's Buttermilk-Mayonnaise coleslaw dressing (thank you Kalyn!), a few of the frozen mini-muffin sized cilantro pecan pesto cups from a previous post, and local herbed chevre all made for some fine ingredients. Put this together per the instructions below, or add your own twists, saute some vegetables, add a salad and you've got a meal fit for company.
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded (I'll tell you about that below)
1 8oz round Cypress Grove Herbed Chevre, or other chevre
1/3 cup Cilantro Pecan Pesto or your own pesto or storebought
1 cup finely ground almonds (I get almond flour from Trader Joe's)
3/4 cup Kalyn's Buttermilk-Mayonnaise dressing, or my version of same (scroll to the bottom of the post), or storebought ranch dressing
1/2 cup grated Grana Padano (or good parmesan)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

Set your oven to 375 degrees.
To pound the chicken breasts, remove the tenders from the underside of each breast and set aside for another use. Take a large zip-lock plastic bag and cut open one of the sides. Insert a chicken breast into the bag (don't seal) and, with your handy-dandy meat mallet (smooth side), pound the breasts to a uniform 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness.
Mix the chevre and the pesto together until well blended. Place a chicken breast, cut side up, on a work surface. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper if desired then place about 2 tablespoons of the chevre mixture at the more ragged end and roll up, burrito style, tucking in the sides to keep the cheese filling in place. Set roll seamside down. (You can secure the rolls with toothpicks, but finding them after cooking is a pain, let alone removing them.) Repeat with the rest of the breasts, reserving any leftover chevre mixture for another use - like spreading on crackers, or in your lunch tacos...


















Place the dressing and the almond flour in separate shallow, wide bowls. Dip a rolled chicken breast first in the dressing and then roll it carefully in the almond flour. Set seamside down in a roasting pan that has been drizzled with a small amount of olive oil. Repeat this process with the rest of the chicken rolls. See my note below.

Pour the white wine into the roasting pan around the chicken. Sprinkle the rolls with the grated cheese and the chopped cilantro. Dot the butter over the top. This will all melt together to form a great sauce when the chicken is done.

Place in the 375-degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the oven and place breasts on a cutting board to rest for a few minutes. Whisk the pan liquids together to combine.


To serve, cut each breast into 4-5 slices but not all the way through. Fan each breast on a plate and top with the pan sauce.
I served this with asparagus, cut on the diagonal, sauteed in walnut oil until tender-crisp, and sliced tomatoes with slices of champagne mango, dusted lightly with finely ground black pepper and drizzled with a very small amount of walnut oil.

Note: Dipping the rolls in buttermilk dressing not only adds a delicious tang, it will help seal in moisture which is often lost when baking white-meat chicken. It's amazing how tender and juicy these are when they come out of the oven. And, using ground almonds is a low-carber's option. If you prefer, you can use flour with good results.