Sometimes we feast on a certain food for several days in a row. Backyard gardeners will recognize this from their “zucchini days” when every meal seems to have at least some of the backyard bounty. This week was cheese week for us. I found a great deal at Trader Joe’s on a white Stilton cheese I’d never tried, tasted a sample of Tomato Basil Cheddar at the Farmer’s Market which inspired me, and had a snack scheduled involving “Yo cheese”, cheese made from yogurt with the whey drained off.
So, in the words of Wallace, “Don’t forget the cheeeeeeeeese, Gromit!”
This delicious snack is easy if you start the yo cheese before hand:
Yo cheese and Cuke
1 quart whole milk yogurt
1 local, organic cucumber
sea salt
The day before serving, put the yogurt in a large piece of cheesecloth. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth and suspend over a bowl. Allow to drain overnight. Reserve the whey for another use and refrigerate yo cheese until ready to serve. Cut a cucumber lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Fill the both trenches with yo cheese. Put the two halves back together and slice crosswise for a cute snack. Season with salt, if desired.
Yo cheese is very similar to homemade cream cheese in flavor. If you are used to storebought cream cheese, you’ll definitely want to use the salt.
Zucchini with Apricot Stilton
3 pounds local, organic zucchini, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup cottage cheese
4 ounces crumbled White Stilton Cheese with Dried Apricots
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt, if desired, or to taste
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, cut up
Steam the zucchini chunks for 5 minutes and drain. In a large casserole dish, combine the cottage cheese, Stilton, eggs and salt. Fold in zucchini. Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 350° degree oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the zucchini mixture, and dot it with the butter. Bake the casserole for another 15 minutes.
I loved the Stilton in this recipe. The sweetness of the apricots smoothed out the tang of the zucchini. My husband, who is an avid squash-hater called this recipe “simply fabulous” and finished the leftovers for breakfast the next day. I’d call that a success!
Bagel pizza
For each serving:
1/2 sprouted wheat bagel
1 slice Tomato Basil Cheddar cheese
1-2 slices organic, local tomato
Layer cheese and tomato on top of bagel. Broil until cheese is bubbly but remove before tomato turns black.
You can add any of your favorite pizza toppings. I preferred the tomato on top where it would cook just a little over the one I made with the tomato under the cheese. Isn’t this a gorgeous hunk of tomato? It’s from a weird-looking gigantic heirloom tomato I found at the Farmer’s Market. What an amazing flavor!
Happy Cheese Week!
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
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August 5, 2009 at 9:33 pm
emily
the zucchini bake sounds amazing. i love trader joe’s cheese selection and prices. i find kerry gold dubliner for 6.5$/lb compared to 11.99 per lb at the local coop.
February 22, 2010 at 9:47 am
28-day Real Food Challenge week 3 recap « Local Nourishment
[...] and flavor. When cucumbers are in season, one of our favorite ways to use yogurt cheese is filled between rings of cucumber! [...]
March 17, 2011 at 10:07 pm
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[...] in the bowl while the yogurt becomes thick like cream cheese. We call the solids yo-cheese. Here’s a post I did with a yo-cheese recipe and use. Raw milk yogurt is very easy to make, some types of cultures don’t even need the milk to be [...]