Serious Eats
Serious Cheese: The Ile De France Cheese Recipe Contest
Gone are the days when the Pillsbury Bake-Off stood proudly as the only recipe contest in the world worth entering. Nowadays every food company has a contest; there's the Uncle Ben's Rice Recipe Contest, the Quebecois Grain-fed Veal Recipe Contest, and absurdly specific Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest. But for a cheese geek like me, Ile de France's Cheese Recipe Contest takes the cake, so to speak.
Unfortunately the deadline to enter the contest has passed, but until November 3rd, cheese lovers can go to the Ile de France site to peruse and rate all the thirty-seven recipes chosen as finalists for the grand prize ($1000 cash--a paltry sum compared to Pillsbury's million dollar prize).
What I love about this contest is that it really showcases the versatility of cheese as an ingredient (especially soft cheese, Ile de France's specialty). Most of the time when we think about cooking with cheese, we think about mac 'n cheese, pizza, cheeseburgers, fondue. To be sure, those are all great ways to cook with cheese, but there's so much more you can do.
So I always enjoy seeing new and creative ways to cook with cheese, like the goat cheese tart pictured above. Or how about the insane-sounding chocolate smothered raspberry goat cheese butter cream cakes. I definitely want to try making this recipe for a Brie souffle.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Deborah Madison, one of my favorite cookbook authors, has lots of great cheese recipes in her book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, including the incredible Leek and Goat Cheese Galette on page 498. Paula Lambert of Dallas' Mozzarella Company published a cookbook last year called Cheese, Glorious Cheese that's filled with interesting ideas like Chilled Pea Soup with Minted Mascarpone, or Gouda Bread Pudding. She also generously offers a bunch of free recipes on her website.
What about you? What are your favorite cheesy recipes? Where do you turn for new ideas?
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.