When I opened the French Laundry, it was clear we didn’t have the space to roll a cheese cart around the room. But I like cheese and wanted to serve it. Traditional French service includes cheese, some dried and fresh fruit, some bread. I thought “Why not put this all together on individual plates to begin with?” So when the restaurant opened, I offered two composed cheese plates, one of them the Brie with balsamic vinegar and Tellicherry pepper. Today the cheese course has its own station in the kitchen, requiring its own chef.
I’m a fan of all cheeses, even Cheddars. We get an amazing Cheddar from a farmhouse in Wisconsin. Cheese has really come a long way in America. Proper French cheese service was a novelty as recently as the late 1970s. And now we’ve got countless American cheese makers creating excellent cheeses. It makes me happy; it’s as if we’re finally putting together all the pieces of what European and French cuisine is all about.
12 ounces ripe Brie, chilled
Extra virgin olive oil
12 thin slices baguette
Balsamic Glaze or Port Wine Glaze (recipe follows), in a squeeze bottle
Freshly ground Tellicherry pepper
1 cup baby mâche
Fleur de sel
This is a very simple, elegant way to serve a familiar cheese and was, in fact, how I began composed cheese courses. Not only did I want to compose a cheese course, but I also wanted to manipulate the cheese into an elegant form. Brie is creamy and cream whips—therefore, I figured, I could whip Brie, and it worked. Be sure to use a very good, ripe, creamy Brie in this dish. Whipping makes it light and luxurious, even surprising. You recognize the flavor of Brie, but here, because the cheese is light and airy, that flavor is pleasantly out of context and feels new, especially paired with the spicy pepper and delicate greens.
Remove the rind from the Brie; you will have about 8 ounces of trimmed Brie. Put the cold cheese in a mixer with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed, scraping down the sides from time to time, for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is very white and creamy.
Place a film of oil in a large skillet and rub each side of bread on both sides in the oil. Place over medium heat and cook on each side until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Squeeze the balsamic or port glaze in an X or other design on one side of each plate. Form a quenelle, or small oval scoop, of the Brie (about 1 tablespoon) and place it in the center of one plate. Sprinkle with pepper and angle a crouton on top. Angle another quenelle of Brie over the crouton, sprinkle with pepper, and top with a second crouton. Repeat with the remaining Brie and croutons.
Toss the mâche with a small amount of olive oil. Place a small pile of mâche at the side of each serving of cheese and sprinkle the greens with fleur de sel.
makes 6 servings
2 cups balsamic vinegar or port wine
We use glazes often in the cheese course, always sparingly, because they are so intense. When making a vinegar or wine glaze, reduce it slowly, almost as if you were letting it evaporate. If you boil it too hard, the acid will remain and make the glaze too sharp. Reducing it slowly and gently results in a much softer tasting glaze. It’s easiest to control the heat with the aid of a heat diffuser.
Heat the vinegar or port in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until steam rises from the liquid. Place the saucepan on a heat diffuser and let the liquid reduce very slowly (it shouldn’t simmer) for 2 to 3 hours, until it has reduced and thickened to a syrupy glaze. There should be approximately ½ cup of balsamic glaze or ¼ cup of port glaze. Keep the glaze in a squeeze bottle at room temperature for garnishing plates; if the glaze is too thick, warm the bottle in hot water to loosen the glaze.
pictured here makes about ½ cup using vinegar, ¼ cup using port
Baguette or other bread, cut into thin slices, or Brioche rounds or triangles, cut ¼ inch thick
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
FOR CROUTONS FOR CHEESE COURSES AND OTHER DISHES: Place the slices of bread on a baking sheet and drizzle or brush with a little olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until an even golden brown.
FOR BRIOCHE CROUTONS FOR FOIE GRAS: Arrange the croutons (without any oil) on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until an even golden brown.
Store all croutons in airtight containers.
1 cup red beet juice (from about 1 pound beets; or purchased from a health food store)
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 to 2 yellow beets at least 2¼ inches in diameter (enough to yield twelve ⅛-inch slices), scrubbed
1 to 2 red beets (enough to yield thirty-six 1-inch-long batons, scrubbed
2 tablespoons canola oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
6 ounces ashed Chevreaux or other ashed goat cheese, at room temperature, cut into 6 wedges or portions
½ cup baby beet greens
FOR THE BEET GLAZE: Heat the beet juice to a simmer in a small saucepan and cook until there are large bubbles forming at the top. Add the red wine vinegar and reduce until the liquid has a syrupy consistency. Pour into a small squeeze bottle.
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Wrap the yellow beets and red beets separately in aluminum foil, adding 1 tablespoon of the canola oil to each. Roast for 1½ to 2 hours, or until they are tender.
Peel the cooked beets. Cut the yellow beets into twelve ⅛-inch slices, then cut them with a cutter into 2-inch rounds. Cut the red beets into 36 batons about 1 inch long by ¼ inch thick. Season all the beets with a little olive oil and salt.
TO COMPLETE: Pipe some beet glaze in dots of decreasing size down one side of each plate. Place a round of yellow beet in the center of each plate. Top each with 6 red beet batons laid side by side and another slice of yellow beet. Lay a wedge of cheese over each slice.
Toss the beet greens with a little olive oil and salt. Stack a small pile of greens on each round wedge of cheese and sprinkle the plates with beet powder.
pictured here makes 6 servings
CLOVE OIL
1 tablespoon cloves
½ cup canola oil
PLUMS
6 red plums
1 teaspoon minced summer savory
Kosher salt
½ cup lola rossa (or other greens)
2 teaspoons minced chives
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
6 ounces Chaource, Camembert, or Explorateur, cut into 6 wedges, at room temperature
Chaource is a double-cream cow’s milk cheese (double cream contains 50 to 60 percent fat), very luscious. This is a late-summer dish, when plums are harvested. If you can’t find Chaource, you might try using a good Camembert or even Explorateur.
FOR THE CLOVE OIL: Toast the cloves in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Finely grind the cloves in a spice grinder or coffee mill. Mix with the oil, place in a squeeze bottle, and let the flavor infuse for a day before using.
FOR THE PLUMS: Separate the flesh from the pit by cutting the flesh off in two vertical slices, one on each side of the pit. Cut the pieces crosswise into ⅛-inch slices (the pieces will be half-circles). Toss them with the summer savory, a little of the clove oil, and salt to taste.
Place a 2-inch ring mold (see Sources) on one serving plate. Layer one sixth of the slices of plum in the ring, overlapping the pieces and working in a circular pattern, with the skin side of the plum facing out. (There will be a hole in the middle.) Lift off the ring and repeat with the remaining plates.
TO COMPLETE: Toss the lola rossa with the chives, a little olive oil, and salt to taste. Arrange small “bouquets” of lettuce leaves and stand them in the holes in the center of the plums. Stand a wedge of cheese at the side of each bouquet. Squeeze a small amount of clove oil around the edges of the plums, letting it drizzle down onto the plate.
pictured here makes 6 servings
Ashed Chevreaux with Slow-Roasted Yellow and Red Beets
Beets with goat cheese—that’s a perfect combination. I think beets are underappreciated; here, with their sweetness playing off the acidity of the goat cheese, they’re just wonderful. I’m partial to this ashed Chevreaux—it’s rolled in wood ashes, which add color and depth to the cheese—but you can use almost any goat cheese.
SPICE MIX
1½ teaspoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
One 1-inch piece cinnamon stick or 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon cloves
¾ cup carrot juice (from about 1¼ pounds carrots; or purchased from a health food store)
½ cup golden raisins
Juice of ½ lemon
One 8-ounce wedge Corsu Vecchiu or Gruyère, Emmenthal, Mahón, or Petite Basque, rind trimmed
¾ cup shredded sweet bunch carrots
2 teaspoons Brunoise
Kosher salt
6 sprigs chervil
Corsu Vecchiu is a semi-hard Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, about the consistency of Gruyère, that has a nuttiness I like. It works very well with spices, so we created a sweet carrot salad that we season with a spice mix and added a golden raisin purée that links the carrots and cheese nicely. If you can find it, Mahón, another Spanish cheese, would work well in this dish.
Cutting the cheese into thin slices for serving allows more air to circulate around it; oxygen brings out the flavor of cheese, as does the proper temperature. The perfect temperature for cheese is 65° to 70°F.
FOR THE SPICE MIX: Heat the spices together in a small pan until fragrant. Place in a spice grinder and grind to a powder. You will have about 2½ tablespoons spice mix. Store in an airtight container for up to a week or in the freezer for longer.
Strain the carrot juice into a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and boil for about 1 minute. Skim off the scum that has risen to the top, strain the juice again, and simmer for about 10 minutes longer, or until reduced to 1½ to 2 tablespoons. Add a pinch of the spice mix and set aside.
Place the raisins in a saucepan. Cover completely with water, add the lemon juice, and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, just until they plump. Turn off the heat and let the raisins sit in the liquid for a few minutes.
Place the raisins in a blender with enough of the cooking liquid to allow them to turn and blend to a purée. Strain the purée through a fine-mesh strainer.
Cut the cheese into 30 thin triangles. Arrange 5 triangles in a fan shape, then repeat to make portions.
TO COMPLETE: Combine the shredded carrots with the carrot reduction and the brunoise in a small bowl. Season with salt to taste.
Place about 1 tablespoon of raisin purée in the center of each plate. Top each with a haystack of carrot salad. Set a fan of cheese on top of each carrot salad and top the cheese with a sprig of chervil. Sprinkle a line of carrot powder down the side of each plate.
pictured here makes 6 servings
SAUERKRAUT
1 pound cabbage
5⅓ cups Champagne vinegar
5⅓ cups crisp, dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup kosher salt
CARAWAY SEED VINAIGRETTE
makes ½ cup
⅓ cup chopped onions
½ teaspoon caraway seeds
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
¾ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
¾ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 wheel tête de moine (you will use only a small portion of the wheel for this recipe), top trimmed, at room temperature or an 8-ounce piece, cut into 6 wedges, at room temperature
6 triangular rye bread Croutons
Tête de moine (“monk’s head” in French) is a hard cheese from Switzerland. A special cutter is used to shave it into very long thin ruffles that are folded into a flower shape. It’s buttery, if you can imagine a hard cheese being buttery, but there’s also a sharpness to it. I pair it with sauerkraut—cabbage that we’ve marinated and cooked in white wine and vinegar.
If you don’t have the special cutter designed for making the rosettes, the dish can be prepared by cutting the cheese into triangles and fanning it, as in the recipe for Corsu Vecchiu with Spiced Carrot Salad. As the cheese ages, it becomes more crumbly, and if it gets too brittle, it will be difficult to cut properly.
Begin the sauerkraut five days before you plan to serve the dish.
FOR THE SAUERKRAUT: Remove the core and thick ribs from the cabbage and cut it into fine chiffonade, long narrow strips about ⅛ inch wide (you will have about 4 cups of cabbage). Put the cabbage in a bowl or other container.
Combine 1⅓ cups each of the Champagne vinegar and white wine and 3 tablespoons each of the sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
Pour the liquid over the cabbage, cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours. Drain the cabbage in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Repeat the marinating process three more times.
On the fifth day, preheat the oven to 275°F.
Drain and rinse the cabbage and place it in a baking dish. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 2 to 3 hours, or until the cabbage is tender but not mushy. Drain any excess liquid from the sauerkraut and refrigerate it until chilled. The sauerkraut will keep for up to 2 weeks.
FOR THE CARAWAY SEED VINAIGRETTE: Place the onions in a saucepan, add cold water to cover, and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are very tender. Drain the onions and place them in a blender.
Meanwhile, toast the caraway seeds in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together the sherry vinegar, mustard, salt, and sugar. Stir in the white wine vinegar. Add the mixture to the blender and purée for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the container as necessary, until the mixture has the consistency of syrup. If it is thicker, add a small amount of water to thin. With the blender on, drizzle in the oil.
Add the caraway seeds to the blender and blend to grind the seeds. Strain the dressing and adjust the seasoning with salt if necessary and pepper to taste. Store the dressing in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
TO COMPLETE: If using a cheese cutter, form rosettes of cheese by turning the cutter about one and a half times around the cheese for each rosette.
Place a spoonful of vinaigrette in the center of each serving plate. Place a spoonful of sauerkraut to one side of the vinaigrette and prop a crouton against it, setting the crouton in the middle of the plate. Place a rosette or wedge of cheese on the other side of each crouton.
pictured here makes 6 servings
