The Wine and Cheese Place: 2010-04-11

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Stuffed Peppadews/Olives

Two of our most popular items in the deli....
Come in and ask for a taste of these treats!

Olives Stuffed with Cheese

These olives are stuffed with a blend of creamy goat's milk and sheep's milk cheeses. Great for picnics, snacks, garnish for cheese platters and great on antipasto trays. Get a bottle of wine, some cheese, stuffed olives, stuffed peppadews, crusty bread and you have a great lunch.

Peppadews Stuffed with Cheese
(sold by the pound in our deli department)
"Exotic, piquant, slightly sweet, delicious peppers are filled with fresh cheese made from pasteurized milk and placed in exquisite vegetable oil to offer the connoisseur a refreshing flavor with a strong and crunchy bite.

What is a Peppadew?
"The story of peppadew sweet and spicy fruit is not a long one. A few short years ago, the story goes, a businessman farmer spotted an unusual-looking bush in the garden of his vacation home in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Standing shoulder-high, it was laden with s

mall bright red fruit which looked like something between miniature red peppers and cherry tomatoes. He bit into one and discovered a mixture of peppery and sweet tastes, with a distinctive flavor. Believing that he had discovered something new, he saved seeds from the mother plant, cultivated seedlings and then developed the recipe with which to process the fruit for commercial sale (using a brine of sugar and vinegar). He named the fruit Peppadew because as it peppery but also “as sweet as the dew.”
The peppadew has a sweet-and-sour aroma that carries through on the palate. Sweet, sharp, savory and spicy flavors with a hot back note. It is made in both mild and hot varieties. Both have the crisp texture of the more familiar hot peppers, but with a totally different flavor profile (the seeds are removed, for one thing).
Peppadews are, in fact, peppers—the company calls them “sweet piquanté peppers in a sweet/sour brine solution.” Peppers are a fruit—a fruit is defined as a vegetable that holds its seeds internally (avocados and cucumbers are fruits too, as are all of the chili peppers). The particular species of pepper is believed to be a native of Central America but where this particular bush came is a mystery. Whatever its origins, no one looks a gift horse—or a gift bush—in the mouth: the peppadew has turned into the tastiest and most versatile flavor accent since the gherkin."
Info from the Nibble

Ortiz Tuna

Ortiz Tuna

The best tuna in the world?

Ortiz Albacore - Bonito White Tuna

"Ortiz Tuna is caught by rod and line, one by one, to assure the best quality in their preparations. This is a kind of fishing that helps to guarantee the future of the marine world resources." - importer

Ortiz Bonito del Norte...6.3oz

Caught in the Cantabria Sea, Northern Spain! "Bonito del Norte is White Tuna preserved or aged in extra virgin olive oil for 2 years (will keep for 5 years!). The result is an exceptionally high quality aged tuna loin. Ortiz Tuna is caught by rod and line, one by one, to assure the best quality in their preparations. This is a kind of fishing that helps to guarantee the future of the marine world resources." -- importer

Ortiz Bonito del Norte Vintage 2005

This is the best "family reserve" aged to perfection.

Ortiz Tonno Rosso... 7.7oz

Bluefin Tuna in Olive Oil. Product of Spain and Dolphin safe

Patric Chocolate Rio Caribe Superior 70% bars
Patric Chocolate Madagascar 67% bars
Patric Chocolate Madagascar 70% bars

Patric Chocolate, Columbia, Missouri

Missouri is becoming wonderful source for small batch, premium chocolate.read more about the choclates on nibble.com

"Patric Chocolate is a micro, bean-to-bar, fine, dark chocolate maker based in the Midwestern United States. Built upon chocolate maker Alan McClure’s passion for fine chocolate, Patric Chocolate officially opened its doors in January 2007, and after months of careful development and fine-tuning--including a flavor-enhancing aging process--the first bar in the Patric Chocolate line, a micro-batch 70% Madagascar bar, made only with wonderfully aromatic single-estate cacao and pure cane sugar, was released in July of the same year; the 67% Madagascar bar followed in February of 2008."

My ultimate Favorite Discovery, what I considered the "Best in Show" was Patric Chocolate from Columbia, MO." -- Slow Food Nation

Healthy nuts

Nuts

More health benefits...

"Nuts have long had a bad rap for being high in fat and calories, prompting weight-conscious runners to relegate nuts to their lists of forbidden foods. But as researchers take a closer look at walnuts, almonds, and other nuts, they're discovering these delicious, crunchy foods are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. And that fat we were so wary of? Turns out it's good for our hearts and our running.
That was the conclusion of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which released a qualified health claim in 2003 that states eating 1.5 ounces (about a handful) of nuts a day may reduce the risk of heart disease. That's because most of the fat in nuts is monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, which have been shown to lower levels of LDL (so-called "bad" cholesterol). "These fats are important for runners because they have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body," says Nancy Clark, R.D., "and can help repair tiny muscle injuries that create inflammation."
It's also a good idea to steer clear of prepackaged nut mixes, which are often coated in oils... -- The Nut Case, Betsy Noxon, Runner's World

Our nuts are dry roasted (no oils or preservatives) in the store fresh every day.

A very healthy snack. Try our mixed nuts for everyday health.

Deluxe Mixed Nuts....$9.99 / lb

A blend of Almonds, Cashews, Pecans, and now Macadamia

(this year was a bad crop of Pistachio and the price skyrocketed. Now our mix includes the delicious Macadamia nut.

Great for any get together, picnic, party, or weddings. Your guests will enjoy the quality and flavor of fresh roasted nuts. Come in for a taste!

Almonds are considered the healthiest of all nuts!
"Almonds had been considered too fatty to be a healthy snack, but research has shown that the nuts actually lower blood cholesterol levels. 90 percent of the fats in almonds are unsaturated, and the nuts are high in protein, fiber, calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin E, and other antioxidants. Almonds help prevent osteoporosis and they regulate blood pressure." -- http://www.naturalnews.com/more health benefits of nuts

White Anchovies

In our Deli Department

White Anchovies from Italy

(sold by the pound in the deli)

White Anchovies are one of those items that customers get upset when we run out of them at the store. We have built a strong following for these little fish. They are marinaded in sunflower oil, wine vinegar, and salt. They are more delicate and less salty than "canned" anchovies. They can be used in a variety of ways: on top of spinach salads, caesar salads, chopped into olive tapenade, pasta salads, or just with good french bread and olives and a glass of Hughes Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet wine. They are delicious!

Cheese

The Wine and Cheese Place

Cheese Department

The best in the midwest!

Each cheese is cut fresh to order, try before you buy

Come in for a taste.

Here are some selections at our Forsyth location, but all of our stores have some great cheese in stock now!

Here are some featured cheeses from our huge selection!
Pecorino Ginepro - Italy

A semi-hard sheep's milk cheese from Romagna bathed in balsamic vinegar and steeped in juniper and then aged in oak barrels. The apprearance is a dark reddish brown, often spotted with mold as it is not vacuum sealed. It is full-flavored with a hint of sweetness and the juniper is very subtle.

Pecorino di Fossa - Italy
A strong tangy cheese with some similarities to parmesan. In fact, it can be grated nicely over pasta for a stronger more assertive kick than parmesan. It is also used as a table cheese served with honey to create a nice tangy, salty and sweet experience.

Produced in Sogliano al Rubicone, a region of Romagna, this began accidentally when farmers hid their treasures in caves during the Saracen pirate raids of the 12th century. As per tradition, the cheese is wrapped in cloth and buried underground inside caves in mid August and dug up November 25 during the holiday of Santa Caterina. The cheese becomes deformed from its long stay underground yet it acquires exceptional fragrance and flavor.

Toma della Rocca -- Italy

(looks like a thicker version of Brillat Savarin)

What a gorgeous, creamy and rich cheese! 63% of butterfat goodness. A rich, creamy, mouth-filling blend of cow's, goat's and sheep's milks, Toma della Rocca hails from the Alta Langa region of Piemonte, Italy where soft mixed-milk cheeses are the norm. Aged about 8-10 days, it has a bit of runniness under a thin rind with a thick, chalky, slightly sour core. Its luscious creaminess has hints of saltiness and lemon in the finish. Thicker texture than a Brillat Savarin or St. Andre and much richer and tangier. This cheese had a great intense flavor that goes a long way.

StraCapra - Italy

(basically Goat Cheese Taleggio)
From our favorite Taleggio producer, comes an excellent and unique cheese: StraCapra, is a washed-rind semi-soft goat cheese essentially a goat's milk Taleggio. Goat's milk cheeses are becoming ever more popular in Italy and Ambrogio's StraCapra is a true standout. Creamy and sweet, it is rich and full bodied with a mellow tanginess. It is a really nice new Italian cheese to add to any cheese board. This one is selling fast and will not last and looks like it will sell out on Saturday.

Nocetta di Capra - Italy

Nocetto di Capra is a soft-ripened goat cheese from Lombardy, Italy. It is made form milk from Orobica goats, which are indigenous to Bergamo. The cheese is sweet, well balanced and like velvet on your tongue. Wow, this cheese is delicious, and it is even a little young right now. It is going to get better over the next week!!! It melts in your mouth and will continue to get creamier by the day.

Malvaroso - Spain

Back in stock!

This is a relatively new cheese to the country. We have carried it before and customers loved it! It is an aged Sheep's milk cheese from Spain. It has a unique shape because of the ageing process in the cheesecloth. It is made from a rare and native breed of sheep, the Guirra, in Valencia, Spain (this cheese basically helped save this breed from extinction). Malvarosa was designed to be similar to Manchego but it turned out much more firm and stronger. The flavor is buttery and rich and has a sweetness on the finish. It reminds me of the 5 year old Gouda with that nutty, maple, sweetness (but not quite as sweet as that). Malvaroso would be great sliced wafer thin on pasta or on salads (don't grate it, use a cheese place).

Cabra Romera - Spain
A semi-soft goat's milk cheese produced by Don Lorenzo in Murcia, Spain. The same producer of the extremely popular Drunken goat. It is made from the rich, creamy milk of the Murciana goat (this goat is chosen for its quality and great milk production). The cheese is then covered with loads of fresh rosemary and aged for roughly 90 days. It is creamy and silky smooth, with a very clean finish that hints of rosemary. This cheese looks great on a cheese tray and tastes great!

Juni - Italy

Juni is a new one to us, it cow's milk from the great Piemonte region of Italy. What makes it unique is that it has dried Juniper berries through the whole cheese! Tasting this cheese makes you feel like spring is here from taste of the juniper berries. Small wheels with a white paste specked with juniper. Give this new cheese a taste and see what you think.

Capuccetto Rosso - Italy

This "Little red-riding hood" is a cow's milk cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy. It has a washed rind and is soft with a strong flavor.

"Produced exclusively from raw cow's milk from 20 local farmers, each owning just a few cows, Cappucetto Rosso is handmade according to an ancient recipe that uses natural fermentation. The noble molds that grow on each of these cheeses are indicative of its exceptional quality and craftmanship. Each piece spends 60 days adorned by the bark of the red fir tree, which imparts the intriguing combination of intense, decisive flavors, with a subtle earthy finish."

Foglie di Noci - Italy

A rare cheese from Romagna, Italy. It can be made from either Sheep's milk or cow's milk, with the sheep's milk being the better of the two. We just got in a batch of the Sheep's milk version. The cheese is wrapped in walnut leaves and aged in caves. It has a nice tangy flavor with hints of walnuts from the leaves. A great table cheese to serve with fruit like pears, nuts (walnuts of course) and a glass of Gavi di Gavi or a nice white Bordeaux.

Greg Koch visits STL

Greg Koch of Stone Brewing at Schlafly's Tap Room in Downtown St. Louis (doing the Greg face).

I think a good time was had by all, he brought lots of great Stone Brews for the Stone faithful. He also signed autographs for everyone that wanted one.

I got an autographed Stone Video Collection DVD

"I promise...next time I'm in St. Louis, I will come by The Wine and Cheese Place...but when the hell are you going to add "Craft Beer" to the name? Cheers" -- Greg Koch

Longshot labels...

In stock now at Forsyth -- Sam Adams Longshot 2010

Sam Adams Longshot 2010...$6.99 / 6pk
2 bottles of each beer below...

Mile High Barley Wine Ale by Ben Miller

Lemon Pepper Saison by Jeremy White

The back label description of the Lemon Pepper Saison

Old Ben Ale by Michael Robinson

Here is the back label description...

Shop for beer online at http://www.wineandcheeseplace.com/

Summer Magic Hat Mixer

Magic Hat Summer Variety 12 pack

(in stock now at Forsyth)

Includes 3 bottles of four different beers..

1. Magic Hat #9

2. Magic Hat Odd Notion Summer 2010

"A wild ginger ale with a sharp, snappy finish that is sure to get the root of thirst."
TYPE: Ginger Ale
YEAST: Belgian Ale
HOPS: Columbus
MALTS: Pale, Carapils, Sugar
ABV: 5.5

3. Magic Hat Wacko Summer Seasonal

Wacko — The Liquid Song of Summer
"Wacko is the liquid song of summer: Crisp like the morning, cool like the evening and quenching all day long. Pop the top and set your summer loose. Wacko is a delicious summer beer with a big malty aroma, a subdued hop bite and a clean, slightly sweet finish."

4. Magic Hat Blind Faith IPA On Tour

"An ale of enlightenment created to aid in deciphering the puzzles along life's road, and to interpret signs in the voyages of the spirit. Blind Faith is an extremely well-balanced India Pale Ale with a crisp, refreshing hop bitterness and a deep malt body to match."

TYPE: India Pale Ale
YEAST: English Ale
HOPS: Apollo, Cascade
MALTS: Pale, Crystal
ABV: 6.2

"Name the new O'Fallon Beer" Contest

Contest is over!!
"Name the new O'Fallon Beer" Contest

Tony and Fran Caradonna started O'Fallon Brewery in 2000 producing small production craft beer here in Missouri and then in 2002 they hired on Brian Owens to head up the brewing. O'Fallon has grown into an award winning brewery and a Missouri favorite over the past 10 years and this year they have some amazing new brews slated for release. Back in January, they had a press release to announce two new exciting beers. The two new beers that were announced: Wee Heavy and a Hemp Hop Rye Amber (these are coming soon).

The Contest!!
We are proud to announce that one of their next beers will be a rare style -- O'Fallon Sticke Alt. That is where you come in to the picture: O'Fallon Brewery has been generous enough to allow you, O'Fallon Beer lover, a chance to name the O'Fallon Sticke Alt. A good example is the O'Fallon Wheach, it was derived from a combination of Wheat and Peach, so be creative and come up with a name for O'Fallon "?? ?? ??" Sticke Alt.
Below you can read Brian Owens' description of the beer and click on the link for more details about the style. The rest is up to you. Come up with a creative name for the O'Fallon Sticke Alt that Brian Owens has created. The O'Fallon beer family will decide whose name is the winner!

Brian Owens' description the O'Fallon Sticke---
"So here’s the skinny on the Sticke! As you probably know the word “Sticke” is a mangled version of the “low german” word “stickum” which translates to “secret”. The secret lies in the recipe where only a small few knew what actually went into the beer. German brew masters of the day measured their ingredients by the bucketful and if they weren’t paying attention or maybe they had a bit too much beer to drink they sometimes added too much grain. They had to add more hops to balance the maltiness of the extra grains and ended up with a bigger and typically darker version of their Alt. Our version will be an Imperial version of the original. Coming in at 10% ABV this beer will be big and malty with hints of toffee and a subtle roastiness, but will be fully attenuated and relatively dry for being such a big beer. The hops that are used are of the German noble variety giving a healthy bitterness and a noble Pils hop aroma. There is a short list of people who will actually know the recipe and I think the winner of the contest ought to be one of those few."
-- Brian Owens, brewmaster
Beer Specs:
ABV 10%
SRM 17OG 22 brix
FG 4.3 brix (anticipated)

More Links:
O'Fallon Brewery -- read more about O'Fallon for ideas
Sticke Ale -- click here to read more about the style
Beer Advocate on Alt beers

What you win if your O'Fallon Sticke Alt name is picked:
* The prestige of a beer that you named to tell your friends
* O'Fallon schwagg
* The winner has the option to go to O'Fallon and help brew the beer that they named.
* Oh! They will be in on the secret recipe as well!!
* Plus a Gift Certificate to The Wine and Cheese Place

Contest Rules:
* You must be 21 to enter
* No purchase necessary, see store for details.
* One "free" entry per person
* You will be informed if your name is a duplication of a previous entry.
* Deadline for entering April 15, 2010
* The winner will be announced soon after that.
* You do not need to be present to win.

Click here to enter the contest
.
Order "Name the beer Contest" and go to "Check out", for "delivery method" - use "Name the Beer Contest", and for "Payment method", also use the "Name the Beer Contest" option in the drop down screen. Fill in your "beer name" in the "customer comments".
Any questions: paul@wineandcheeseplace.com.

**Right now, you can only enter online. In a few days, you will be able to enter at the stores

Share

Here are some of the entries so far, to help avoid duplication:

Stick 'Em Up Alt (complete with a picture of a guy with a gun on the label)

Speak Softly and Carry A Big Sticke

The Big Stick(e) inspired by:“Speak softly and carry a big stick."President Theodore Roosevelt

GestALT SchWine

"Boom Sticke", as in "This is my Boom Sticke!"

Undercover Hipster Sticke Alt - Going with the secret idea...An alt is also slang for a hipster. The label could feature a tattooed, mustached hipster revealing himself behind a trench coat.

Wicked Sticke

Secret Agent Alt

O'Fallon Sticke Situation Ale

Hop Secret

Sticke Semper Tyrannis

Copper Sticke

Sticke Alt Twisted Toffee Malt

Sticke It To The Man Alt
5% of the proceeds will be used to set up a Small Brewers Fund. It will help the Little Guy get a leg up on large (BMC) breweries in the local markets. Just in time for Independence Day.

Double Naught Spye Beer

Kraftwerk: Which is a German word meaning 'power plant'. (It is also the name of Dusseldorf's other world-famous progeny, the pioneering electronic music band Kraftwerk, who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year.) The label's graphics could be German steampunk. A futuristic-for-the-1800s reimagining of a Fraktur typeface. A close view of a power plant's gears, baroquely engraved with alchemical, floral, and pinnate figures, spitting electricity through their filigreed teeth. The very sort of power plant a Modern Prometheus of the era might keep in a secret laboratory, to bring life to a creation larger and more powerful than nature intended.

Vick's Sticke (Victoria's Secret)

Über Sticke

Old Krekel Alt.
In honor of the founding father of O'Fallon, MO, Arnold Krekel.

Sticke Figure Alt

Private Alt --wordplay on "Private Eye" suggests secret nature of recipe

Swinging Shelligah Sticke Alt

Probably too Irish for a German beer, but I like the sound still. Cheers, folks!

Alt you glad it's sticke

My name is Alt, Sticke Alt.

Hushed Revelation --- Hushed as in secret recipe and Revelation in the winner (theoretically) knowing the secret recipe.

Secret Stickler Alt Ale

O'Fallon Slap Sticke

Shtickey Secret

Fruit of the Rhine

"O'Fallon Stickeasy" or "Sticke Easy" Sharing in the same secrecy as a 1920s Speakeasy

"Short end of the Stick"

Sticke Shock - an Alt Beer

"Mighty Casey Sticke Alt"
A play on Mighty Casey Strikes Out. I think that "Mighty Casey" would be good name for a big beer like this.

FETCH!

Brewmasters Darkest Sticke
(This could be used again if a 6% was made, by crossing out "darkest" and replacing with "dark". If a 10%+ version is made or a barrel aged version, then it could be "even darker")

O'Fallon's Keizer Dubbele Vogel (Imperial Double Bird)

Wicket Shtick(Wicket is very close to Wicked in pronunciation but a play on words and it would represent the St. Louis Arch since in croquet the arches are called wickets. Shtick is a play on the word Sticke but also has Yiddish origins meaning "a devious trick" representing a secret also.)

Beer Name: "Wunder Bier," the magical sticke alt of O'Fallon

X-Alt

Tree of Knowledge Sticke Alt

RumpleSTICKEkin

Alter Ego

"old brown sticke"

O'Fallon Second Shooter - going off the whole secretive, conspiratorial, and dark part of the Sticke Alt. "Maybe it wasn't just Lee Harvey OswAlt."

O'Fallon "Bucket Brigade" Sticke Alt
(A bucket brigade is a method of passing items from one person to the next, in order to transport them. Most often, this was used to pass water to put out fires. Here, bucket brigade plays on the fact that buckets were used to measure beer ingredients, and the secret recipes of Sticke Alts were typically passed from person to person, but never written down).

Hops & RobbersA play on the childhood game of "cops & robbers", this naming twist brings a fantastic primary and secondary packaging image to mind of the traditional 1930's masked robber who is always trying to steal the hops and secret recipe for the O'Fallon Sticke Alt, but never quite succeeds despite getting very close through the use of imaginative and clever tactics.

Old Stick - Sticke Alt

Sticke Buns

Sticke Icke

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Meet Greg Koch at the Tap Room

Greg Koch of Stone Brewing is visiting St. Louis!

Looks like this will be my first time leaving my wife and new baby home alone since she was born! I will be heading to the Schlafly Tap Room at 10pm.

As reported on STLHops...

"First the good news, Greg Koch of the Stone Brewing Company out of San Diego, California will be visiting St. Louis this Thursday, April 15th. Now, the bad news, he’s not here to announce Stone’s arrival in St. Louis.
Greg will be in town for the local Master Brewers Association meeting (which is not open for the public). Because he’ll be in town, he’ll be swinging by the Schlafly Tap Room around 10PM, after the meeting lets out.
Now, I know that’s kind of late and it’s a school night, but it would be awesome if a ton of us were to show up to show him just how passionate the St. Louis beer scene is. I don’t know if it will get it here any faster, but if you’re interested in bringing Stone to St. Louis, I think showing him that we’re a group of diehard beer lovers is only going to help." -- Mike Sweeney, STLHops

Greg has been tweeting about it...
"When I am in St. Louis, I will have a megaphone with me. You might want to bring your earplugs. Just sayin'. I will Proselytize!" - Greg Koch

"The rumor that I'm not bringing @StoneBrewingCo beer w/me to St. Louis to share @Schlafly Tap Room may turn out to be false." - Greg Koch

The best ham in the world...very rare!
Back in stock now!!!! (at our Forsyth location and now Ballwin also)

Jamón Ibérico...$79.99 / lb

"American food lovers have long prized caviar and truffles, placing these gourmet foods in a class that commanded high prices for even a scant quantity. To that luxury list you can now add jamón Ibérico, the free-range long cured Spanish ham that is so prized that its arrival for the first time in the United States has caused a collective swoon in the world of fine dining... Over the course of the last hundred years European farmers have raised more and more faster growing animals that could be raised en masse in confined circumstances, other breeds supplanted the hardy Ibérico especially. With the advent of industrial hog raising in the decades since the Second World War, Ibérico hogs all but disappeared except for the west of Spain, in a three hundred mile swath extending from Salamanca to Jerez, the Ibérico continued to reign supreme. While many high-ticket hams, such as Italian prosciutto, jambon de Bayonne, and even Serrano are almost universally made with factory-raised hybrid breeds, jamón Ibérico is still made exclusively from Ibérico hogs.Ibérico hogs will have their feeding supplemented with barley and other grains from March until the first acorns fall, but from September until late February the hogs dine primarily on the fruits of the oak tree and put on nearly forty percent of their weight. All of their fat is derived from acorns. It is high in desirable monounsaturated fat, almost as much as olive oil, which is the fundamental basis of the Mediterranean diet. Only those hogs that have been left to feed on acorns for these months can bear the highest classification 100% puro de bellota-100% percent acorn. The flavor that Ibérico hams develop is rich, nuanced, sweet and nutty, completely unlike the more pallid taste of even the most expensive conventionally raised hogs. Ibérico hogs are also allowed to live longer and put on more weight. This regimen affords them more opportunity to exercise and the meat of these hogs becomes very well marbled. This has important consequences in the production process of jamón Ibérico."
-- Peter Kaminsky, Foods from Spain
Peter Kaminsky is a well known author on the subjects of food and flyfishing. He is the author of many books including Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine."

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Boulevard Amber Ale

Looks like Boulevard has another new one coming.

Boulevard Amber label just got approved --

(no other info yet)

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