Matzoh and Cheese Pairings for Passover
Passover is everyone’s favorite food holiday. Well, kind of. We celebrate the power of food in our lives, and share a ritual meal where food serves as both a symbolic presence and as nourishment. We gather around. We eat. The first night is a wonderful experience with family and friends.
But now we’ve arrived at the Passover hump.
The matzo has been open for a few days. It’s dry; it started out dry. You’ve eaten fried matzo for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner and the gefilte fish in the fridge is developing a
personality. And you live in San Francisco—the
foodie’s paradise, never mind your friends are Instagramming Tartine breakfast
buns and The Mill’s monster pieces of toast.
Matzo may be a fact of life for the remaining
days, but there’s no reason to not gourmet up your Passover. Bread may be off
the table. But there’s always cheese!
So we’ve asked some of our favorite cheesemongers to think about some tasty
Passover pairings.
First stop Bi-Rite, where an employee
enthusiastically shared a taste of Vermatzah—a handmade matzo from Vermont made
with Emmer, an ancient wheat varietal. It tasted exactly like the burnt undercrust
of a Delfina pizza! However, Zach Berg, Bi-Rite’s unofficial Jewish expert and official
head cheesemonger considered both taste and symbolism when he suggested the
following options.
Zach Berg, Bi-Rite with his cheese selections to pair with matzo |
“In terms of three cheeses that I thought
would go great with any matzo, I decided to do a cow, goat, and sheep cheese:
Nuvola di Pecora: Sheep’s milk cheese that
translates to “Cloud of Sheep”—mild with a yogurt-like tang; this would be
great with toasty notes of matzo.
Little Napoleon: A small goat cheese with a
pretty big punch. From the Zingerman’s creamery in Michigan. This goat disc has
a slight tang that tastes of all the leavened foods you can’t have this time of
year like yeast and beer.
Cheese selections to pair with matzo by Bi-Rite |
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar: to represent the
time we were in bondage. This is a cheddar made from Cabot Creamery in a more
traditional English style. They take young wheels of cheese and bind them with cloth
(instead of wax like in the states). The cloth protects the cheese but still
allows for a lot of oxygen exchange. This really allows the cheddar to develop
some very pronounced horseradish notes.
Rainbow Grocery had one of the first gourmet
cheese departments in San Francisco. The long time cheesemonger there, Gordon
Edgar gave us three more symbolic and tasty options.
Horseradish Havarti, for obvious reasons.*
(*Horseradish is a staple on the seder plate—it represents the bitterness of
enslavement.)
Sweet Alyssum because it is a fresh sheep
milk cheese that is available starting on Saturday April 4 (*just in time for
second seder). It's like the sheep were bred to start giving their 2015
milk just in time for Passover. Goes great with honey.
Mt. Tam because the milk comes from the
Straus Creamery, the first organic dairy farm West of the Mississippi (and they
are Jewish dairy farmers). Vivian Straus even did a one-woman show called “E-I-E-I-OY.”
But nothing is more crucial to the reputation
of the Bay Area as a foodie’s paradise than Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto and The
Cheese Board Collective who gave us three more delectable selections.
The Cellars at Jasper Hill: Harbison
Cheese pairings with matzo by The Cheese Board Collective |
Harbison is an extraordinarily silky cheese
that oozes everywhichway. The cheese itself comes wrapped in spruce bark which
not only looks beautiful on a platter, but lends a woodsy flavor to the cheese.
Just slice the top rind off the cheese and dip pieces of Matzah right into the
lush paste.
Vasterbottensost with cornichons, pickled
onions, and horseradish
This firm Swedish cheese is slightly granular
with a sharp, tangy bite. Paired with crunchy cornichons and pickled onions,
your mouth will water and your taste buds will sing. Since Vasterbottensost
also has a sweet finish, why not try it with some bitter horseradish?
Point Reyes Creamery Bay Blue with Charoset
Bay Blue is a sweet and nutty blue cheese,
very reminiscent of Stilton. Since blue cheeses generally pair well with honey,
nuts, and sweet dessert wine, Charoset is the perfect match.
Point Reyes Creamery Bay Blue cheese pairing by The Cheese Board Collective |
If you aren’t ready to shell out for
Vertmatzah but still want something a bit new, the Cheese Board also shared a
few of their favorite recipes.
Deconstructed matzah Brie
Spring Brook Farm's Ashlyn, melted onto matzah
and topped with a soft cooked egg and chives. Ashlyn is the newest offering from Spring
Brook Farm in Vermont. This Morbier inspired cheese has a layer of vegetable
ash in the middle, and a velvety semisoft texture. Tangy, lactic and just a tad
pungent, this cheese would be great melted over matzah with a soft cooked egg
(fried or poached) and a sprinkle of chives.
Breakfast matzah: Gjetost with Bellwether
Farms Jersey Ricotta topped with jam
Make this the year where you don't fall into
a PB&J matzah slump. Gjetost is a Norwegian goat cheese made of reduced
whey and cream, traditionally eaten on toast. Its cheese candy: caramelly sweet
with a fudgy texture, it goes great with fluffy ricotta and a schmear of
jam.
Harbison and Vasterbottensost cheese pairing by The Cheese Board Collective |
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