Recently I was contacted by someone from Ile de France Cheese about reviewing their product.   I was quick to say YES.  Ile de France Cheese is one we’ve enjoyed on visits to France many times.   In Dallas, it’s a little harder to find, I tried several stores before I found it at a Tom Thumb (not every store carried all their different cheeses). 

Believe me I’ve tried lots of goat cheeses and this is one of our favorites.  It has wonderful smooth texture and a mild but still wonderful tangy in the flavor.  How good is it/ how much to I like it?  I like it so well the first thing I did with it was spread it on toast for breakfast one morning. 

This seems like an excellent time to tell you about two of our old time favorite and wonderful goat cheese recipes.

To my mind salad isn’t really comfort food . . . UNLESS,  you can put beautiful warm creamy cheese on it.

Spinach and Baked Goat Cheese Salad. 

Really not a recipe except for perhaps how you coat and heat the cheese.  I’ve tried all sorts of bread coatings and my personal favorites are a mix of whole wheat panko and melba toast.  Either by themselves or together will bake up crisp and light.  I’ve tried pan sautéing; perhaps the professional practiced hand gets consistent results but I don’t.  I bake mine.  I ball the cheese, dip in the egg and melba/panko and freeze them.  Then they’re waiting for me in the freezer for just the two of us or some company.  While they bake, I made the simple salad and a vinaigrette. 

Baked Goat Cheese

mix of melba toast fine crumbs

and

whole wheat panko

to equal  about 2 cups total

Aleppo (or black) pepper to taste

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 extra large eggs or 3 medium/large eggs

2 tablespoons fresh herb - I use whatever is out back, rosemary on this occasion

goat cheese

Mix the fine crumbs with the pepper(s) in a shallow bowl.

Whisk the mustard and eggs together in a small bowl, shallow for dipping the cheese balls into for coating.

Chop fresh herbs; place in small shallow bowl.

Divide the cheese evenly into balls that will be coated first in

fresh herbs

egg mix

fine melba/panko crumbs

I aim for a ball that when coated I can shape into a cylinder slightly less than an inch high with a wider dimension than it is high.  Does that make sense?

They’re going to look like this.

Place on parchment paper, wrap and freeze.  These should be frozen when placed in the oven.  Makes me happy because they’re done ahead of time. 

Bake at 450°  for between 10 to 13 minutes.  Because they’re frozen, the crust has time to get crisp and then the cheese starts to warm and head to melting = perfect.

Do you have a favorite vinaigrette?  That’s the one to use.  This is the one I most often shake up.

My Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh herb (thyme in this case)

2 cloves fresh garlic chopped fine

salt & pepper to taste

Shake all together.

I keep this salad very simple with just greens with a heavy emphasis on the spinach. 

If you look at all the flavors in this and remember I described this goat cheese with the word mild.  It’s hard to explain but the mild here is still able to standout just enough to notice and still be great up against garlic and rosemary.  They manage to keep a beautiful individuality.  The same is true for the next recipe.

What was old is new again . . . remember that old Spinach and Artichoke Dip.  Have you ever tried it with Goat Cheese?  You need to.

Old is New Again

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

10 to 12 oz wilted in microwave spinach squeezed dry

3/4 to 1 cup Greek yogurt

1 cup goat cheese

1/2 cup Asiago cheese finely grated

4 cloves garlic chopped

14 oz (1 can) artichoke hearts, drain well

Pulse the spinach and yogurt in a food processor to chop the spinach.  Add all other ingredients and pulse again.  How long depends of how chunky you like it.  I like to have recognizable pieces of the artichoke so mine doesn’t take long.  Unless you chopped the garlic cloves, you’ll end up with chunks of garlic that you don’t want so remember not to drop them in whole.

Bake 30 minutes at 350°.

Neither of my recipes are really new but if you’ve got an idea for using one of the many cheeses made by Ile De France you should check out their recipe contest to win money ($500) and free cheese.

Me?  I’m still enjoying my spinach and Goat Cheese Dip and trying to dream up what I can make with this.