A good yarn
Oaxaca, a southern state of Mexico, may be a challenge to pronounce (try Wah-Hah-Cah), and in some way Clevedon Buffalo Co’s Oaxaca cheese, a Mexican cheese similar to mozzarella, may challenge your perception of cheese. Fresh buffalo milk cheese is formed into thick ribbons then wound into balls by hand. Forget the crackers and grapes. To use, Oaxaca cheese is pulled apart into strings like a ball of yarn, shredded into short lengths and used fresh or melted with salads, tortillas, tacos, quesadillas, open-topped sandwiches, pizzas, vegetable and meat dishes and croquettes. In Mexico it is made with cow’s milk. Helen and Richard Dorresteyn of Clevedon Buffalo Co make it with buffalo milk. The taste is milky, cheesy, a bit sweet, with a hint of caramel and boiled Horlicks (a malted milky drink), a fresh note of lemongrass and a delicious browned butter overlay. And you may just want to enjoy it melted on crusts of bread with a salad of edible flowers and leaves doused with Yuzu oil, the runner-up in the Cuisine Artisan Awards, a superb citrus-scented and flavoured extra virgin olive oil produced by Nalini and Colin Baruch owners of LOT EIGHT in the Wairarapa. Team these two premium ingredients with the other artisan food runner-up, Josh Hill’s Poaka Finocchiona (fermented & dry cured salami flavoured with fennel), made at his farm in Aylesbury near Christchurch, and you’ll see there is quite a lot to get excited about when it comes to food in New Zealand. Check out more details of the Cuisine Artisan Awards here https://www.cuisine.co.nz/good-food-awards/
Clevedon Buffalo Co have steamed ahead with award-winning products since they first introduced milking buffalos to New Zealand in 2007. In February this year I wrote about their cute mini balls of buffalo mozzarella. The company went on to win the 2018 Outstanding NZ Food Producer ‘Supreme Champion’ & ‘Dairy Champion’ Award Winner, and are the overall winners of the recently-announced Cuisine Artisan Awards with their Marinated Fresh Buffalo Cheese with Roast Garlic & Thyme.
Oaxaca is a first for New Zealand. It’s available from Farro Fresh Auckland-wide, Moore Wilson’s in Wellington and Raeward Fresh in Queenstown. Better still, make the Clevedon Village Farmers’ Market a foodie destination and enjoy all of Clevedon Buffalo Company’s products, along with a wide range of artisan produce and products. http://www.clevedonfarmersmarket.co.nz
What you should know about buffalo milk
Buffalo milk contains 58% more calcium, 40% more protein and 43% less cholesterol than cow’s milk. Buffalo is a popular alternative for those who suffer from CMA (cow’s milk allergy).
Read more about Clevedon Buffalo Co here Buffalo Bliss https://sharedkitchen.co.nz/2018/02/buffalo-bliss/
https://www.clevedonbuffalo.co.nz/mozzarella-bocconcini/
