Clifford A. Wright - Hot and Cheesy

Also by Clifford A. Wright

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On Politics and History

Facts and Fables: The Arab-Israeli Conflict

After the Palestine-Israel War: Limits to U.S. and Israeli Policy with Khalil Nakhleh

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright 2012 by Clifford A. Wright. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Wright, Clifford A.

Hot & cheesy / Clifford Wright.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN: 978-0-470-61535-5 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-11062-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-11063-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-11064-5 (ebk)

1. Cooking (Cheese). 2. CheeseVarieties. 3. Cookbooks. I. Title. II. Title: Hot and cheesy.

TX759.5.C48W75 2012

641.6'73dc222011004543

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Michelle van Vliet

Acknowledgments

Our family ate a lot of cheese in the writing of this book. It was all delicious, but as a cookbook author one needs to pay attention to this kind of eating and incorporate plenty of exercise and keep portions small. Being a good eater is, for a cookbook author, no small matter and for that I would especially like to thank my children Ali Kattan-Wright, Dyala Kattan-Wright, and Seri Kattan-Wright and Michelle van Vliet and her daughters Alexandria Sitterly and Madeline Sitterly not only for all their appetites but also for their helpful and sometimes cheesy suggestions. I would also like to thank my agent Angela Miller for her support and belief in my abilities and to my editor Justin Schwartz, who edits and produces such great cookbooks and my copyeditor, Valerie Cimino.

Introduction

Plunging your fork into a dish oozing with melted cheese is a joy everyone relishes. So it wasnt too much of a stretch for me to think of an entire book about cooking with cheese. Melted cheese is, after all, the star of so many favorite dishes, from the grilled cheese sandwiches of our childhood to the cheese pizza of our adolescence to the fondue of our adulthood. For some years now, weve noticed an explosion of interest in cheese. This interest manifests itself not only in a greater variety of imported cheeses from a greater variety of cheese-producing countries, but also in the actual cheese-making process itself, from home cooks to small mom-and-pop cheese operations. Artisanal cheese producers are popping up everywhere, and California rivals Wisconsin as the greatest cheese-producing state. There are cheese primers coming out every week, it seems, but I noticed a lack of a cheese cookbook. That is, how do we cook with all this available cheese?

Many home cooks know what to do with cheddar cheese or Swiss cheese, but what about manchego, Saint-Andr, Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel, kashkaval, Fourme dAmbert, vacherin, Colorado chvre, queso fresco, and the hundreds of others that are now available? For the cheese-loving cook, this book offers 250 recipes in a variety of categories with explanatory notes delving into the wide world of dishes with melted cheese.

In a world of fusion this, junk that, foam, and sushi, sometimes what we crave is real food , like a cheeseburger or macaroni and cheese or a Lindys New York cheesecake from the famous deli on Broadway in New York, immortalized in the musical Guys and Dolls .

Cheese is real food, good food, natural food, but tagged with a bad rap for too long. Thats all changing now, as we see new artisanal American cheese makers from Vermont to California producing a bevy of alluring cheeses. Cheese is a terrific dairy product, and a world of delicious dishes can be made with cheese, all kinds of cheese. The grilled cheese sandwich you remember with fondness from your childhood no longer has to be made with the presliced processed cheese product called American. Now you can make it with real cheddar cheese from Vermont, teleme from California, or goat cheese from Colorado.

In the past twenty years cheese appreciation has risen, along with cheese production. The artisanal cheese producers I mentioned earlier are springing up everywhere, not just in traditional cheese-producing states. More cheese is imported from France and Italy than ever before, and the introduction of cheeses from Spain is now in full swing. All this is enhanced by traditional cheeses from Great Britain and Ireland, the Balkans, Greece, and the Arab world. For some time now consumers have had an enormous choice with cheeses, both domestic and imported, mass-market and artisanal. Our sixty-year-old acceptance of cheese-like products such as Velveeta is now reversing direction and shifting toward real cheese. But there comes a time when putting samples of cheese on a board and serving it with red wine and crackers isnt enough, and we ask ourselves Does it melt well? and Can I cook with this cheese? and What can I make with this cheese?