Tag: Cheese Curds

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Cooking

Humbled by Cheese Curds

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Once again, I picked up some cheese curds from a farmer’s market. This time, I got some garlic cheese curds and was wondering for a day or so what do to with them. I’ve done a fair amount of things with cheese curds including poutine in several ways. Finally, it hit me… I should fry them.

I was so excited by the idea, I texted my foodie friend who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. She said that an awesome restaurant in Oakland does that and its really good… fuckin foodies lol. I feel like its so difficult to have an original idea in the culinary world. However, nobody makes things exactly as you do. Two people could make the same dish with the same ingredients and still they would be inevitably unique to that person in some way. So I decided to fry them with some Beer Batter Tempura. They turned out so good that we ate almost a full basket before I realized I didn’t even plate them or take a picture. That’s why you now see a picture of just five cheese curds… woops.

Categories
Cooking

Poutine

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It’s time for poutine! When my friend up north first told me about poutine, I thought, “Is that some sort of slang or cuss word I’ve never heard of before?” It turns out poutine is not some strange disease or dirty word, it’s a deliciously awesome dish. You just need to find cheese curds. I don’t know what it is about Southern California, but almost every non-foodie that I mention cheese curds to gives me a disgusted look. Then I explain cheese curds and tell them that if they like string cheese they will love cheese curds. I don’t tell them this but I’m sure they would even like goat cheese curds if you didn’t mention they were made from goat’s milk. Enough about that…. back to to Poutine! Essentially, poutine is fries, cheese curds, and gravy. I keep meaning to make variations of poutine and also add something like corned beef but it just hasn’t happened yet.

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Cooking

Potato Leek Soup

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Potato Leek Soup, topped with cheese curds, chives, and croutons (oooh all “c” words at the end there, I didn’t plan that)

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Categories
Life

Ojai Farmer’s Market

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I had a great time going to the farmer’s market. When I go to a farmer’s market, I like to do a complete walk-through before going up to any stand or trying anything. This allows me to strategize. I figure out what things I want most and what my budget will be. First, I stopped by a Rivendell Aromatherapy stand. I wanted to buy something just because of the name of this company alone. I ended up getting body wash, leave-in conditioner, pet shampoo, and scented greeting cards. Next, I tasted about 5 different olive oils and picked a nice one to use for Julie’s Pasta Sauce. Then Gar and I took a break and ate a couple of really good tamales.

What excites me most about any farmer’s market is the produce. More than anything, I look forward to being inspired to cook something featuring whatever produce looks and sounds good to me that day. This time some giant leeks that caught my eye. I also saw some organic potatoes and my mind was made up, I wanted to make potato leek soup.

I was also ecstatic when I found out that one of the cheese stands had cheese curds. Cheese curds are basically the building block of all cheeses; they are very mild and extremely tasty. My favorite thing to do with cheese curds is make poutine. Poutine is so good and generally consists of french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. I’m hoping to write a post about that soon.

I just love cooking on Sundays, especially after hitting up a farmer’s market in the morning.