macarism and cheese

Macarism. To rejoice in another’s happiness.

One of my classmates from culinary school started a small catering business after we graduated. I’ve had the chance to work with Nati on a few memorable events. There was a cocktail party for the launch of a fabric studio in a very industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, a warren of empty streets and warehouses. We set up the assorted sweets and savories on the worktable in the center of the studio, with votive candles and flower arrangements helping to transform the workspace into a welcoming room. A few months later there was a buffet dinner for 75 Russian executives, prepped in a rented kitchen with smoke alarms on the vents 20 feet above the floor. Smoke alarms that started sounding as we seared 40 pounds of fish fillets and had us standing underneath waving sheet pans to direct fresh air upward. Smoke alarms that wouldn’t stop despite our best efforts. Smoke alarms whose sound was drowned out only by our laughter at the ridiculous situation.

In addition to her catering, Nati has had some gigs as a private chef and as an assistant to a food stylist. They’ve worked on a few cookbooks together, and it has been a vicarious thrill to hear the stories from those adventures. Today I picked up a copy of one of their recent styling projects. It was wonderful to open the beautiful cookbook and read about my friend in the author’s acknowledgements: to N.G. “who made working hard a joy; even cleaning up was fun.” Truer words were never spoken.

Before culinary school, Nati worked in architectural design. She is a huge fan of another woman who made a career change through food. To celebrate seeing Nati’s name in print, I cooked up a little “macarism and cheese,” using Julia’s bechamel sauce as the base.

Macaroni and Cheese

From a recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Serves 4 to 6

1 box of penne or other pasta

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups of milk, heated to a boil

1 ½ cups of grated white cheddar

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and Pepper

In a large saucepan bring 2 quarts of salted water to the boil. Cook pasta for 8-10 minutes or until cooked. Drain pasta, reserving a cup or two of the cooking liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, make a white roux: Heat the butter over low heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When melted, blend in the flour. Cook slowly, stirring until the butter and flour froth together, about two minutes. Do not let this mixture continue to cook or it will color and become a brown roux.

Remove the roux from the heat. Add all of the heated milk at once, beating vigorously with a wire whip. Return to a medium-high heat, stirring constantly with the whisk, until the sauce comes to a boil. Cook on a boil for one minute, continuing to whisk.

Remove from heat, add grated cheddar, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the hot cooked pasta. Stir in a little bit of the reserved pasta water as needed to thin the sauce.

Say cheese!

When I decided to retire from the Navy, I also decided to do some exploration before launching full throttle into a new career. Among other things, I’ve been very fortunate to do a lot of travel during this “gap year.” An unexpected discovery from these trips has been cheese.

During a short stay at Blackberry Farm in eastern Tennessee this summer, I took a class on cheesemaking. I spent a good couple of hours with Adam the cheesemaker, walking through the process. We started with how they milk their beautiful flock of East Friesian sheep and then how that milk is transformed into curds, whey and eventually into lovely cheeses, which we enjoyed in a special tasting with complementary wines. It was fascinating. A culinary tour in Santa Fe this fall culminated in a visit to South Mountain dairy, with a good lesson about their goats and how the ladies there lovingly create an incredible chevre and wonderful marinated feta.

Continuing my cheese education, I recently paid a visit to Saxelby Cheesemongers in the Essex Market in the Lower East Side here in New York City. The gal behind the counter and I talked about sheeps milk cheeses, and I picked up a new one to try, Brebis Blanche, a fresh (soft) cheese from Three Corner Field Farm of Shushan, NY. (I also added to my French vocabulary, learning that “brebis” means “sheep.”) The February Eating Well magazine has a recipe for a goat cheese and honey-filled fig muffin. I decided to try the recipe, but using the Brebis Blanche instead of the goat cheese. The recipe also calls for buttermilk, but I decided to try a liquid yogurt from Milk Thistle dairy at the Union Square Greenmarket instead.

I tested the recipe with a culinary school classmate. It had been ages since we’d been in the kitchen together, and it was great fun to chop, stir and fold with Andrea again. We were thrilled with the results and also found that they are even better the day after baking.

Here’s the recipe, with hopes that you will enjoy your own discoveries in cheese:

Cheese and Honey-Filled Fig Muffins
Adapted from Eating Well magazine

Yield: one dozen muffins

¾ cup crumbled soft cheese (goats cheese, Brebis Blanche, cream or farmers cheese)
2 tablespoons honey
Freshly grated zest of one lemon
¼ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup liquid yogurt, or low-fat buttermilk
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 ¼ cups chopped dried figs (preferably black mission figs)
3 tablespoons turbinado or granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425 F and prepare muffin pan with paper liners or by lightly coating with oil.
2. In a small bowl, combine soft cheese, honey, lemon zest and ¼ teaspoon vanilla.
Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and egg white; add brown sugar, remaining vanilla and whisk until the sugar is dissolved, about one minute. Gradually whisk in the yogurt and oil until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined. Use care not to overmix. Fold in the figs.
4. Fill each muffin cup about a third of the way. Add 1 very generous teaspoon of the cheese mixture to the center of each muffin, and cover with the remaining batter. The filling shouldn’t be visible. Sprinkle the muffins with the turbinado sugar.
5. Bake the muffins until the edges start to brown and the tops spring back when gently pressed, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool in the pan before turning out on a wire rack to cool.