Milky way (+recipe)

Hohepa farm manager Grant Hughes and cheesemaker Inacio Guimaraes are celebrating big wins for their cheeses. Photo / Herald on Sunday

In his adopted Hawkes Bay hometown right now, Inacio Guimaraes should be enjoying all good things that come his whey. The locals already knew Guimaraes was a great cheesemaker; their regular visits to his farm-based shop and the local farmers market for his supplies paid testament to that.

Now he's been recognised nationally for his efforts. In the recently announced Cuisine New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards, Guimaraes, cheesemaker at Hohepa Cheeses, took two top gongs. His Hohepa Herb Quark won gold in the champion flavoured-cheese category; the Hohepa Tasty was named champion European-style cheese. There's more to add to the Hohepa skite sheet: Guimaraes' danbo took a silver in the same awards.

It was a big night for the cheesemaker and his home of nearly two decades - Hohepa Hawkes Bay.

"We were bouncing off the walls," says farm manager Grant Hughes.

Hohepa is a residential community which cares for people with disabilities. The boutique cheesery is part of that community, in the Hawkes Bay town of Clive. Brazilian-born Guimares came to Hohepa in 1989, and has been making their cheeses for the last 12 years.

Clearly, he puts his heart and soul into all he produces. "What you carry as a person ... your thoughts and your state of mind, is reflected in what you are making," says Guimaraes. He admits to "thinking good thoughts" - and occasionally breaking into song _ while at work.

His tunes certainly struck a chord with the judges, who tasted more than 430 cheeses before reaching their verdicts. Commenting on the quark, master judge Russell Smith said: "The tanginess of the quark works beautifully with the subtle herb flavour and is just so fresh. It has a beautiful clean finish on the palate. Gorgeous."

The Hohepa Tasty, continued Smith, was "an absolutely stunning cheese. It's beautifully aged, and in the danbo style. The front palate is very fruity with a lovely nutty finish. It also has a long finish." It's all about goodness, explains Hughes. "You can make good cheeses with good milk." And so they do: Hohepa farmhands milk about 45 hand-reared shorthorn cows (something very unusual for New Zealand, the judges noted) on their bio-dynamic farm.

Guimaraes, who was born on a farm and studied agriculture in Brazil, before going on to study bio-dynamic culture in England, believes this is the only way to go. "Being involved in the organic movement, you want to add value to what you make."

The Hohepa line-up, some of which have picked up prizes at previous awards, also includes mozzarella, feta, Greek yoghurt (made in the traditional way, without the use of added protein or fat or thickening agents) and plain quark.

Although it didn't win a prize, the yoghurt also merited special mention from the judges. "It had a beautiful flavour, a fantastic creamy texture and the acid balance was perfect," they said. Hawke's Bay locals and visitors would be familiar with such sentiments. Hohepa Cheeses are often featured on menus in top local vineyard restaurants.

Guimaraes' face was already famous in his district before he took these prizes home for Hohepa. His face features on Ngatarawa Wines' Farmgate label - a selection of varietals dedicated to a celebration of the artisan food producers of Hawkes Bay. Guimaraes is the face of Farmgate's 2008 Chardonnay, a wine specially chosen to match his creations. He talks of his passion: "Our cheese is good because of the way we farm. Our cheese tastes of this land. You can make a mild cheese in eight weeks. But wait, if you can wait, in eight months you get something rich, complex, powerful. I like powerful cheese."

Certainly, the judges were awed by the power of the cheeses on hand at the national awards. They spoke of the great diversity of cheeses showcased, and raved about the overall standard that resulted.

Smith, visiting from Australia, got especially enthused with the blues, awarding champion of champions to Mainland Cheese's Special Reserve Creamy Blue. Top artisan prize went to Pukeatua Peak Cheese for their Maungatautari Goat Cheese.

Talk about first time lucky: Waikato couple Fiona and Jeff Graham from Pukeatua Peak are new to cheesemaking and this year was the first time they'd entered the awards. They did, however, have some award-winning backers in the form of Sue Arthur, owner and cheesemaker at Over the Moon Cheese, who collaborates with the Grahams in making their range of handcrafted original cheeses. Arthur has won top prizes in the past, and this year won the award for top washed rind cheese with her Over the Moon Galactic Gold.

The South Island impressed at the awards too. Among those to collect a gong was Henk Lettink from the North Canterbury cheese company Karikaas Natural Dairy Products, who was named top cheesemaker, while Canterbury's Emilio Festa won prizes for both champion hobbyist cheese and champion hobbyist cheesemaker.

All this achievement is bound to make you hungry. If you'd rather take a short cut and just use the cheeses as they are, try one of Guimaraes' quick ideas.

A personal big fan of the mozzarella, he suggests using it atop home-made pizza, or as a fresh salad - sliced and served with tomato and basil. And then there's the feta which goes well with salads, suggests Guimaraes. But if you want to be more adventurous, try this recipe, (below) from the Hohepa cooking selection.

It's a very simple cheesecake that uses their plain quark. You don't even need an oven to bake it, so there's no excuse not to give it a go.

QUARK CAKE

There are many recipes for quark cakes and for some of them you have to bake a base first. For this one, you don't even need an oven.

For the base:
200g biscuits, finely crushed
3 tsp jam
4 eggs, separated

For the filling:
3 tsp gelatin
3/4 cup caster sugar
500g quark
Grated rind of one lemon
Three lemons
500g fresh fruit, peeled and chopped as necessary

Combine biscuit crumbs with jam and spread over the bottom of a greased round cake tin.

Beat egg whites until very stiff, add half the sugar and beat again.

Beat egg yolks until very frothy with the rest of the sugar and add quark with grated lemon rind in it.

Squeeze lemons and heat juice with the gelatine, stir until well dissolved.

Mix with quark mixture and spoon through the egg whites quickly with half the fresh fruit.

Pour filling on to base in cake tin and decorate with the rest of the fruit.

Leave in fridge for 24 hours to set.

- DETOURS