Fromage Fort
- Contributed by Jacques Pépin
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- TOTAL TIME:
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SERVINGS:
Makes Enough for 20 to 25 Toasts
Recipe: Fromage Fort
- Making fromage fort is the ultimate way of using your leftover cheese. When my father used to make it every month or so, he would search through our leftover cheese, often finding pieces of very hard, strong, smelly goat cheese. He would scratch the top of the cheese with his knife to see if there was mold on it, which he would remove before placing the cheese in his crock. On top of this he would place pieces of Camembert or Brie, after again removing and discarding any moldy parts. He would then add pieces of Swiss, bleu and fresher goat cheese. These he would cover with leek broth (my mother was always making soup, and her standard soup was leek and potato, so there was never a problem finding a ladleful of that broth), white wine, and 2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic. These ingredients would marinate in a cold place in the cellar for 1 to 1 1/2 weeks, sometimes longer. He might add additional ingredients to the mix until, eventually, it was smelly enough and soft enough for him--the cheese would soften again with the added liquid--and then he would crush it with a large fork into a puree and add salt and pepper, if need be. He liked it really strong.
- Once every month or so, my wife picks up whatever leftover cheese we have in our refrigerator cheese drawer, from brie to cheddar to Swiss to blue to goat to mozzarella. She trims off any mold or thick crust and puts the cheese in the food processor. If it turns out that she has too much dry cheese and not enough soft cheese, she adds some cream cheese or even a few tablespoons of cottage cheese.
- Put about 1/2 pound of cheese in the bowl of a food processor, add a couple of cloves of garlic, about 1/4 cup of dry white wine and a big grinding of black pepper. Salt is usually not needed, but taste the mixture, and add some if it is needed. Process for 30 seconds or so, until the mixture is creamy but not too soft. Pack the fromage fort into small containers.
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