The Cheesy Details from Bountiful Cow

Guest of the Week
This week we had Randy Postal, owner of "Bountiful Cow", Santa Fe's best cheese company on the show. He talked about some amazing cheeses from all over the world and in our back yard.

Here is a list of some of his top picks:

Beemster An amazing cheese from the Netherlands where the animals graze on rich soil and grasses which are below sea level which adds amazing depth to the flavor. In the aged Gouda family.

Grana Padana An American Parmesan made in Wisconsin which is a great value and for my money tastier then Italian Parmesan. Widely used by restaurants all over town.

Campo de Montalban This cheese is a blend of cow, sheep, and goat's milk from la Mancha, Spain. Aged 90 days, the texture and appearance are similar to Manchego, yet much more interesting. It tastes rich and buttery.

Nature's Pasture A local organic cheese maker who specializes in Spanish style cheese such as Monterey Jack, Asadero and assorted Cheddars. Simple excellent flavors.

Romaio A raw sheep's milk cheese from Cuenca Spain which has a Rosemary crust. It is cave aged for 8 months. Very impressive on a cheese platter. Fantastic shaved onto a pasta dish.

Miticana de Cabra Randy's current favorite cheese. Similar to the famous French soft ripened goat's milk Boucheron Log, it's the first one made with sheep's milk. It has a luscious creamy texture.

Quadrello di Bufala Yes now we have Buffalo milk cheeses! This is a sensational new cheese for me which tastes like a Taleggio. It's creamy with a little sweet aftertaste, be the first on your block to try this one!

Theses cheeses can be purchased all over town. Try Whole Paycheck, Trader Joe's, The Montanita Co-op, or Sunflower Market. Thanks Randy for all the tasty information!

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Goat cheese cheesecake is something I have been serving for years and it’s always a big hit. Just make sure to tell your guests it's savory not sweet or they will be very upset when its shows up atop their salad.

Ingredients
1/2 cup each black and white sesame seeds
1 cup Panko
8 ounces (1 cup) melted butter
1 lb fresh goat cheese
1 lb cream cheese
1 lb. Sour cream
6 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon each fresh chopped tarragon, thyme, and basil
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Procedure
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. To make the crust combine melted butter, sesame seeds, and Panko and mix together. Press into the bottom of 9-inch springform pan till ready to use and refrigerate.

To make filling, it’s best to bring all your ingredients to room temperature. It will blend more easily. Combine everything but the eggs in the bowl or your electric mixer and whip till smooth. Now add your eggs one at a time. Pour mixture into prepared pan and give it a little shake to level the top. Place pan in a bain Marie filled with boiling water and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, till the cake jiggles and starts to crack around the sides. It will solidify upon cooling. Best made one day ahead of serving. Run knife around outside of pan before opening spring form pan. Top with sliced roast vegetables and serve with a pretty salad.

Tomato Salad Dressing

Low-Cal But Still Lovely
As I have mentioned, I am once again on the wagon when it comes to my food consumption and intake of sugar. Sugar is my weakness, my Waterloo, my crack, and it leads me to harder drugs. We all have our issues. Anyway, I have been looking for a good alternative to just putting balsamic vinegar on my salad everyday. And I have a recipe for a great new salad dressing, which only has 3 calories per tablespoon. If anyone has a great low cal idea please send it over, or add it to the comments below!

Ingredients
1 cup V8 juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 thin slice onion
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
Dash hot sauce
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Procedure
Just put it all in the blender and whip it up till onion is pureed. Makes 1 cup.

Rice Pudding Cake with Warm Apricot Sauce

The Altitude Adjustment Section
This week I have a cool recipe for a rice pudding cake with apricot sauce. It’s from Bistro Cooking at Home, a cookbook I picked up two weeks ago at the new animal shelter thrift store. This cake is not too sweet and not too gummy (which is my complaint about rice pudding) and it’s made with good quality Arborio rice (the stuff you use for Risotto) that makes all the difference in flavor and texture.

Ingredients for Cake
4 1/2 cups whole milk
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Arborio rice
Pinch kosher salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 large eggs
2 egg yolks
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Ingredients for Sauce
3/4 cup chopped small dried apricots
1/3 sup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup Sauterne

Procedure
Combine the milk and lemon zest into a large saucepan. If using vanilla bean, cut it down the long-ways and scrape the seeds into the milk as well as the pod. If using extract you will add that later. Bring milk just to the boil and whisk in the rice. Reduce heat to low and stir every few minutes till most of the milk is absorbed, 30-40 minutes. At this altitude, if milk evaporates before rice is tender, add more milk. Now stir in the sugar and vanilla extract if using. Let rice mixture cool to room temperature.

Heat oven to 300 degrees. While rice is cooling, butter bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake round. Line the bottom with a parchment circle and butter. Dust the sides and bottom of pan with graham cracker crumbs and shake out excess. In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and extra 2 yolks. Stir into the cooled rice mixture. Now pour this mixture into your prepared pan. Bake until the center of the cake feels somewhat firm to the touch about 45-50 minutes. Don’t let overcook and puff, as that will adversely affect the texture. Don’t worry about ugly top as that will ultimately be the bottom. Cool the cake at room temperature and then run a knife around the outside to loosen the cake. Invert onto a serving platter and remove the parchment from what is now the top. Dust cake with powdered sugar and serve with warm apricot sauce.

To make apricot sauce: Bring 2 1/2 cups water to a boil and then pour over chopped apricots in a bowl. Let cool to room temp. In a small saucepan combine sugar and 1/3 cup water and bring to the boil. Drain cooled plump apricots and add to sugar syrup with the lemon juice. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 5 minutes, stirring often until sauce becomes flavorful and syrupy. Remove from heat and add Sauterne.

Roast Garlic Soup

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
You know you can’t go wrong with homemade soup. It’s so delicious, easy to make, economical, and nutritious. And those in the know recommend garlic for what ever ails you — from sinus congestion to energy problems.

Ingredients
2 garlic bulbs, cloves separated (about 40), plus 2 cloves thinly sliced
1 large russet potato (about 12 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large yellow onion (about 12 ounces), trimmed, peeled, and cut into six-inch wedges
4 fresh sage leaves
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons
1 1/2 teaspoon Coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup good quality dry sherry
3 1/2 chicken stock
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
6 slices (3/4-inch thick) whole-wheat baguette, toasted, for garnish
Snipped fresh chives, for garnish

Procedure
Preheat oven to 400. Toss whole garlic cloves, potato, onion, sage, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper in a large ovenproof skillet. Cover, and transfer to oven. Roast, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the garnish: Put remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil and the sliced garlic into a small skillet. Cook over low heat, swirling skillet occasionally, until garlic is browned but not burned, about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer garlic slices to paper towels to drain.

Remove skillet from oven, and stir in 1/3 cup water. Cover, and return to oven; roast until potato is deep golden brown and garlic and onion are very soft, about 20 minutes. Transfer garlic cloves to a plate, and let cool slightly. Squeeze garlic from skins into skillet; discard skins.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add sherry, and cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits, 1 minute. Add stock and 1/2 cup water, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and let cool slightly. Puree vegetable mixture in a blender in batches. Heat over low heat; stir in lemon juice, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Divide soup among 6 bowls, and garnish with toasted baguette slices, fried garlic, and chives. Serves 6!

Faux Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies

The Altitude Adjustment Section
Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies? But they are available for only a short time so when I saw this recipe for the famous thin mint variety I flipped out. I found this recipe on Instructables.com which is a very cool website with instructions on how to make thousands of strange, unusual, and useful items.

Ingredients for the cookies
1 (18 1/4 ounce) package fudge cake mix (like Duncan Hines)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 tablespoons water

Ingredients for the coating
3 (12 ounce) bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Procedure
Combine chocolate wafer ingredients in a bowl until well mixed. You may need to get your hands in there! On a surface lightly dusted with flour, shape dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap, waxed paper or parchment and freeze for at least 1 to 2 hours, until dough is very firm and can be sliced into wafers.

Preheat oven to 375F. Slice dough into rounds not more than 1/4 inch thick — if they are too thick, they will not be as crisp — and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. These cookies are firm and will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until cookies are firm at the edges. While cookies cool completely on a wire rack, prepare the coating.

Combine chocolate chips with peppermint extract and vegetable shortening in the top of a double boiler. Simmer over medium heat and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.Now use a fork to dip each wafer in the chocolate. Tap the fork on the edge of the bowl so that the excess chocolate runs off, and then place the cookies side-by-side on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm. These taste best after they've been refrigerated for a day, but who can wait? Store these in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or two. Or freeze them for up to a month! They're great right out of the freezer too. Best if you keep them cold.

Blackberry Brandy

The Refreshing Beverage of the Week
I love the idea of making homemade liquors and cordials so I found this recipe for blackberry brandy and knew I needed to do it on the show. You could use any kind of berry, but I have noticed that even in the winter blackberries have remained rather flavorful, so here goes:

Ingredients
2 pints blackberries
1 lb. Sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon Mace
2 whole cloves
1 cup nice brandy

Procedure
Mash the blackberries in a bowl to extract the juice. Put the mushy pulp in a pot along with the sugar and spices and boil for 15 minutes. Now strain out all the stuff and save juice. To each pint of liquid add 1 cup brandy. Put it into a pretty glass bottle and have a party.

Braised Turnips with Maple and Mustard

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Root vegetables are easy to grow, cheap to buy, have a long shelf life and are not eaten enough. I found this recipe for braised turnips with maple and mustard and it just wowed me! Why not braise vegetables, it does wonders for meats. Braising is the process of cooking something long and slow in a flavored liquid, which makes it very tender and flavorful, usually on the stove top, but sometimes in a casserole in the oven. So here it is:

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chicken or veg. stock
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 1/2 pounds small white turnips, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley

Procedure
In a large skillet with a good lid or in a Dutch oven, melt the butter. Stir in the broth and the maple syrup and bring to a simmer. Add the turnips bring up to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until turnips are tender. Transfer the turnips to a medium bowl with a slotted spoon leaving the liquid in the pan. Now turn up the heat and reduce the liquid by at least half till it begins to get syrupy and now stir in the mustard. Return the turnips to the sauce and stir to coat and heat. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley.

Tuscan Rosemary and Pine Nut Bars

The Altitude Adjustment Section
This week, I have a very interesting recipe for a kind of shortbread with an Italian twist and it goes like this:

Ingredients
1/4 cup pine nuts
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
1 cup all purpose flour

Procedure
Preheat oven to 350. Place rack in the middle of the oven. Spread the pine nuts on a sheet pan and toast them in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until they get light brown. Careful — they love to burn! Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar, rosemary and pine nuts. Then stir in the flour to make a rather stiff dough. Spread and pat the dough into an ungreased, square, 8-inch pan and bake till golden and firm around the edges — about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes then, using a sharp knife, cut into 16 squares. Let the bars cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes and then remove them with a small spatula. Lovely with sliced pear.

Chimmichurri, Spicy Sweet and Sour Sauce, and Toasted Pumpkin Seed Sauce

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Sauces are the difference between “Oh. Another piece of grilled chicken,” and “My! Doesn’t this look special!” All three recipes can be made ahead of time and stored ‘til needed.

Chimmichurri

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sherry
3/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup parsley chopped
3 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
6 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 shake of red Chile flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
Put everything but the oil in the blender or food processor and pulse till smooth. Then while machine is running, add the oil in a slow steady stream.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Sauce

Ingredients
2 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1 c. cold water
4 tbsp. sugar
5 tbsp. brown sugar
4 tbsp. ketchup
1/3 c. green onions cut in 1-inch lengths
1/4 tsp. red hot pepper flakes or Tabasco sauce, optional
1/3 c. fresh ginger, finely shredded
1/2 tbsp. dry sherry wine
2 tbsp. sesame oil

Procedure
Combine cornstarch and 1/4 cup water. Stir in remaining water. Stir in white sugar, brown sugar and ketchup. Set aside. Heat 1 teaspoon sesame oil in a small saucepan. Add onion, pepper and ginger. Mix thoroughly and then add wine. Cook for 1 minute or until flavor from ginger becomes aromatic. Add onion, pepper, ginger, wine and sesame oil. Cook until it boils, reduce heat and stir constantly. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture and cook for about 1 more minute. Add 1 teaspoon sesame oil to finish off.

Toasted Pumpkin Seed Sauce

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 diced Jalapeno
1 cup pumpkin seeds
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into small pieces
1 cup half and half with 1 teaspoon Knorr chicken base mixed in
1 cup water
3 shakes Tabasco (optional heat)

Procedure
In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil then add the onions, garlic, Jalapeno, and cumin. Cook till onions are tender. Then add the pumpkin seeds and cook till seeds appear toasted and brown. Next add the bread cubes and cook till the bread starts to brown and absorbs all the oil in the pan. Now add the half and half and stir and cook till it reduces by half. Now put the whole thing into the food processor and mix till a smooth paste forms. Add water to thin to a sauce consistency. Adjust seasonings.