The Amul Cheese Memories

Growing up in india in the 80’s, cheese was not very common. In fact I remember the first time i had it because i was old enough to remember! I think i mist have been six or seven years old when my dad presented me the most curious looking treat. A cube of silver. I had no clue how to eat it. Then we figured out we need to peel the covering off and dad cut a small piece of it. I tried it and had instantly found my favorite treat. This cheese was made by a company called Amul and till not too long ago was equivalent of “Foster’s – australian for beer” as far as cheese in india was concerned. It is a semi soft pasteurized cheese made from buffalo milk using rennet and curiously slightly on the saltier side which makes it unique and irresistible for us as it complements the grassy notes. It is white and it is sharp. In wisconsin when we cannot find Amul cheese we substitute it with local grass fed cows milk sharp white cheddar.

Moms cheese toasties

As we were Growing up on amul cheese there also was nothing like grilled cheese sandwich in our lives as we know it. But there was this Amul cheese toastie my mom would make which still sticks in memory. It would use sharp red onion, cheese, green chilies and crushed black pepper stuffed in bread which was toasted in a sandwich press which cut it into two triangles diagonally. The bread was crispy and the cheese would melt and flow out of the sandwich and get crispy and the black pepper would get steamed and release its peppery goodness as you bit into a particle.

Remembering those flavors we tried to use the same combination but use the puff pastry sheet left over from our nagpur cilantro puff night.

So on top of the puff pastry went the chopped onions, green chilies, crushed black pepper and then followed by generously grated Amul cheese.

Story of Little hearts or Palmiers

Palmiers, the heart shaped puff pastry treats baked with lot of butter and sugar are sold in tiny sizes and brilliantly labelled little hearts. On our recent trip my wife got some of these succumbing to her memories. Seeing them gave us an idea of baking our kali miri and amul cheese puffs in the shapes of heart.

We folded one side quarter of the way and then another fold to make it to half the way of the rectangle. We did same from the other side and then bunched the two together to get this folded log. This we then refrigerated to make it easy to cut and handle as we pre heated the oven to 400. We then took them out, cut them into pieces which we lay flat and propped to get the heart shapes. A little optional eggwash (1 egg yellow whisked with 1 tsp water) was brushed on top and then they baked for about 15 to 20 minutes.

They come out shiny and golden brown and crispy and perfect two bite treats to go with your tea or coffee. Beauty is you can freeze them unbaked (without eggwash) in a tray. Then collect in a ziplock bag when frozen and then bake them on demand.