Bangalow Cheese Co 'Byron Bay' Blue

Blue
Cow's milk (mixed Friesian/Guernsey/Jersey/Swiss Brown)
Northern Rivers
2kg wheels
8 weeks maturation
www.bangalowcheese.com.au

One of the things I love most about dealing with small producers is getting to know their cheeses as they evolve. Hand-made cheeses change with the seasons, and they change over time as the cheese-maker tweaks and refines the recipe.

Justin Telfer has been tinkering with his 'Byron Bay' Blue lately, and the results are impressive. One of the most striking changes is visual - it now has beautiful orange patches of Brevi mottled on the rind, helping it stand our from all the other blues in the fridge. The texture has also changed (it's now a little firmer, without being crumbly), and the flavour is far more complex and integrated, with meaty notes that I normally only taste in cheeses made from ewe's milk.

What used to taste like so many other Australian blue cheese now has a unique character of its own. Could it be due to the longer, slower maturation time, or perhaps the recent adjustments to starter cultures and salting methods?

Whatever the reason, 'Byron Bay' Blue is beautifully composed; it's not as bold as Beethoven, nor showy like Bach, but more like Brahms - gentle, melodic, harmonious. It sings in the mouth.

Thistledown Creamery 'Estrella'

Fresh
Ewe's milk (mixed East Friesian/Awassi)
Southern Tablelands
200g 'buttons'
www.thistledowncreamery.com

How exciting to have farmhouse ewe's milk cheeses produced in NSW! Thistledown Creamery is a collaboration between 4th-generation sheep farmer, Judy Bradley, and her daughter, Vanessa, who has been experimenting with cheese-making since she was a teenager.

The family run their small flock of East Friesian and Awassi sheep on several thousand acres of nutrient-rich pastures not far from Bungonia (near Goulburn), an area ideally suited to sheep farming. Their delighful range of cheeses (including a few recent additions made from cow's milk) are all hand-made on the farm.

Thistledown Creamery 'Estrella'

Their youngest cheese is called 'Estrella'. It's a fresh, unripened 'lactic set curd' cheese - think 'chevre', but made with ewe's milk instead of goat's milk. Like chevre, it is absolutely white, and has a very light, smooth texture, but it's more delicate and milky, with a pleasant sourness on the finish. Its clean flavour and rich mouthfeel remind me of very fresh ricotta, when it's still warm in the basket.

'Estrella' is available plain and also coated in fresh dill. The dill version has a faint green tinge around the edges, and the flavour of the herbs permeates nicely through the cheese. I can't wait to try it tossed through warm pasta with grilled zucchini and tuna, one of my favourite warm-weather dishes. Bring on Summer!

Jannei Fresh Curd

Fresh Curd
Goat's milk (Saanen)
Blue Mountain Ranges
100g or 200g tubs
www.jannei.com

Nothing says Spring like the first batch of new season goat's curd, and this is one of my favourites. Jannei Goat Dairy is a true farmhouse operation, owned and run by Jannet and Neil Watson (Jan + Nei = Jannei), just outside Lithgow on the western side of the Blue Mountain Ranges.

Jannei Fresh Curd

Fresh curd really allows the quality of the milk to shine through. Being the youngest of all cheese styles, with virtually no 'maturation', there's litte the cheesemaker can do to tweek or enhance its natural flavours. And there's certainly nowhere to hide if the milk quality is below par.

Not that there's much risk of that at Jannei, where sustainable farming is practiced and the goats are grazed and given natural feed suplements. The Fresh Curd has a lovely texture - thick and creamy without being heavy or dry - and a delicious lemony tang. It's really clean and refreshing, and nicely salted.

Try it spread on olive bread, or dolloped on thinly sliced smoked trout with lemon zest - yum!