I’ll be planting potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day and probably wearing green. Alas, no Irish cheeses for dinner. My favorite Irish wheels—Gubbeen, Durrus, Coolea—are too hard to find these days. Their high prices make them slow movers at American cheese counters. But green cheese? I can do that. This creamy feta dip (recipe below) gets its hue from pistachios, cilantro and dill. You’ve seen it here before but I’m reprising it to honor the holiday and the imminent arrival of spring. I’ve heard raves from readers who’ve made it and hope you’ll soon join that club. (An update for Bay Area readers: Cheese Plus in San Francisco has Gubbeen and a couple of other less-familiar Irish cheeses for the holiday.)
On another note, U.S. cheesemakers garnered a lot of blue ribbons at last week’s World Championship Cheese competition, a biennial event held in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ll list a few of the American winners below but what really jumped out at me was the Camembert category, where cheeses from Japan took first and second place. How do you say “ouch” in French?
Four-time cheese champ: Michael Spycher
If there were a Mt. Rushmore for cheesemakers, Switzerland’s Michael Spycher would surely be on it. This curd whisperer has now taken top honors in the World Championship Cheese judging four times, including the last three contests in a row. The first three wins were for his Gruyère, this time for Hornbacher, an original recipe that topped 3,300 other international entries. Spycher’s cheeses are marketed in the U.S. by Gourmino, so we do see them on occasion at the top cheese counters. Demand for Hornbacher will likely be off the charts now, but watch for it. I hope to secure some for my World Cheese Tour cheese and beer class on August 13.
Among the U.S. creameries to win blue ribbons:
Beecher’s Cheese (for Flagship Reserve and Flagsheep)
Cypress Grove Cheese (for Humboldt Fog mini)
Farm at Doe Run (for St. Malachi Reserve and Batch #17, thw second runner up overall)
Hook’s Cheese (for Little Boy Blue)
Jasper Hill Farm (for Harbison and Willoughby)
Marieke Gouda (for Gouda, less than 4 months; and Gouda, 4 to 10 months)
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese (for Bay Blue)
Find the complete winners list here.
Pistachio and Feta Dip
Adapted from a recipe on Tasting Table from Shuka Restaurant in New York City. Serve with pita or pita chips, radishes, cucumber spears, hearts of romaine, roasted beets, fennel wedges, scallions, boiled creamer potatoes, cherry tomatoes, baby turnips, carrots, cauliflower or sugar snap peas. (I would blanch the last four.) It keeps for a couple of days in the fridge but bring to room temperature to serve.
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon raw (unroasted) pistachios
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 large garlic clove, sliced
¾ cup cilantro leaves and tender stems
2 tablespoons fresh dill
1/2 pound feta (about 1-1/2 cups), preferably Greek feta or French Valbreso, crumbled
¼ cup plain yogurt
Put the pistachios, olive oil and garlic in a food processor and pulse to a paste. Add the cilantro and dill and process until blended. Add the feta and yogurt and process until smooth.
Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil.
Makes about 2 cups