 FRONT PAGE Archive Index Feedback |
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
| |||||
Good Food
Cooking with ViggoJarlsberg Cheese
By Viggo Anderson
Chef Viggo Anderson |
Tonsberg was almost ruined in 1536 by a big fire. It was then that King Christian V decided to build a new residence there for his Count of Jarlsberg, Griffenfeld.
Later it was handed over to King Christian V's half brother Baron Gustav Wilhelm von Wedel, born in 1641, and he handed this wonderful farm and castle down to his family. The late Grev Wedel Jarlsberg unfortunately died last year, but was a good friend and customer of mine when I lived in Norway. Nevertheless, to make a long story short, this is the very farm where Jarsberg cheese first came to life, some time in the late 1700.
And Jarlsberg cheese is the most well known cheese product from Norway. A well aged Jarlsberg is a treasure, it is best on its own with a good piece of flatbread and a glass of good red wine.
But let's try to cook with it.
Warm Flour Tortillas and Jarlsberg Cheese on creamed bell pepper and celery
serves 4
2 cups chopped red and green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery
2 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
fresh ground white pepper
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
4 flour tortillas
8 slices cooked ham
8 thick slices Jarlsberg cheese
Saute the bell pepper and celery with the butter in a sauce pan 3-4 minutes on high heat (do not let it brown). Reduce heat and add the heavy cream and let cook until it thickens, 4 - 5 minutes. Add the parsley and remove from heat.
Make 4 wraps with the tortillas, ham and jarlsberg, and wrap each in foil, heat in oven 350F for 10 minutes.
Remove the foil and cut each wrap in two.
Ladle the cream sauce onto four dinner plates. Place two tortilla halves on each, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and serve with a cold light Pilsner or Lager Beer.
I hope you enjoyed the trip to the Loire in France last issue and that you have tried out the food. Here is the recipe for Swedish Pancakes or crepes, which was omitted from the June 28 issue of the Seattle Press.
Swedish Pancakes (Crepes)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups of whole milk
3/4 cups of cream
3 tbsp butter
Work flour, salt and eggs together, then add milk, cream and butter (melted) and mix until smooth. Let rest for at least 2 hours before you make the pancakes.
If you are making pancakes for desert add some sugar to your batter. If your batter is too thick, add a little milk. Remember, these pancakes are suppose to be thin.
Reader Comments
Discuss this article in the forums!
| Natalie | Mar 04, 2003 | England | Student |
| Please update ythis website a bit thanks plz reply | |||
| BARBARA | Jul 02, 2004 | ARGENTINA | english teacher |
| I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT JARLSBERG CHEESE AND ABOUT BARON WEDEL JARLSBERG.THANKS | |||
| O.G. Skagestad | Oct 07, 2004 | Norway | civil servant |
| This article contains a number of errors. The Jarlsberg cheese has got nothing to do with the estate of the same name. The creator of the cheese was Anders Larsen Bakke (1815-1899), a farmer-entrepreneur in the VÂle village in Vestfold county, some 80 km south of Oslo. Mr Larsen Bakke was a pioneer in introducing the dairy industry in Norway, and the cheese was named "Jarlsberg" becaus "Jarlsberg & Larviks Amt" was the name of that county until 1918, when its was renamed with its old (Norse) name "Vestfold". The cheese (and Mr Larsen Bakke's accomplishments) was first noted in the annual county report of Jarlsberg & Larviks Amt 1855. Production of the cheese was discontinued in the early 1900s, and the cheese was only re-invented and re-created by professor Ola Martin Ystgaard at the Agricultural Univeristy of Norway in the late 1950s. The oft-repeated notion that the cheese was invented/developed or even at any time produced at the Jarlsberg estate (some 20 km to the south of the village of VÂle), is a pure cock-and-bull story. The origin of this myth might be ascribed to a simple name confusion, probably also enhanced by the vain idea that this noble cheese must somehow be related to the barons who once inhabited that impressive estate. For those who want to know more about the Wedel Jarlsberg story: In 1683, the then owner of the estate, Mr Ulrik GyldenlŻve (who was also the Viceroy of Norway and an illegitimate son of the previous King), sold the estate and the nobility title that went with it, to Mr Wedel, a Norwegian army officer of German extraction. His descendants still own and live at the estate, and use the family name Wedel-Jarlsberg, but nobility privileges were repealed in Norway in 1821, so there are no barons around anymore... | |||
