Cheese Corner: Cypress Grove Purple Haze

While I usually stay away from goat cheese due to its strong and distinctive flavor, my new favorite cheese is a soft goat cheese I picked up from Whole Foods Union Square on Sunday. Cypress Grove, makers of the delectable Humboldt Fog, makes Purple Haze. Lavender embedded in this mild and soft Californian cheese adds fragrance and tempers any "goaty" flavor. Enjoy Purple Haze with sourdough or oat crackers, or squeeze it onto some mixed greens and vinegrette for salad.

The library discovery

Late one afternoon this week, I sought shelter for the heat in the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library. I also was looking for something entertaining to read. Browsing the new books revealed nothing of interest. Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten was checked out, and the history section was full of books as wide as my cat. I considered the options in the cooking section, which seemed to consist of Rocco Dispirito's "Flavor", a large section of diet and vegetarian cookbooks, and classics by Julia Child. While cookbooks certainly have their uses, my hope was to find a book of food essays. On a lower shelf lay a plastic covered book. I reached for it and found what I had come for.

"Beard on Food" is a compilation of some of James Beard's food essays. Beard uses clear, powerful language to declare his love for food. He praises cheese and lobster, charcuterie and picnics. While Beard is revered as an American gastronomic expert, he is no snob (except for perhaps, his scathing indictment of garlic salt.) He devotes essays to items such as hamburger and pancakes. While this book was published in 1975, it has a modern feel, with an essay written about ways to reduce calories, exploration of international foods such as mezze and carnitas, and an emphasis on fresh ingredients. Beard's collection is one of the better discoveries that I've made at the library, and I hope that you will discover it, too.

On the perfection of the ham sandwich

Some might write ham sandwiches off as mundane, but I find the ham sandwich perfect for a summer lunch. The ham sandwich is easy to make, cost-effective, portable and tasty. To make a ham sandwich worthy of lunch, it is necessary to choose ingredients carefully. First, the ham should be French ham or another ham of similar quality. I prefer the boiled or baked variety and don't care for smoked hams in this sandwich (though they are certainly useful in other culinary pursuits.) Next, the bread should be a French baguette with enough crunch to be interesting, but not so much as to become as hard as a brick over a day. Finally, I like to use salted butter or mayonnaise as a spread. The assembly is simple: slice the baguette in half, pile the ham on the bread, spread one half of the baguette with either butter or mayonnaise, sprinkle some freshly ground pepper on top of the ham, close the sandwich, and slice the baguette (I usually cut 3-inch pieces). For variation, one can add cornichon to a ham sandwich spread with butter. To make banh mi jambon, choose the ham sandwich with mayonnaise, and stuff it with cilantro, sliced jalapeno, and pickled carrots and daikon radish.