Poutine Cup winners hope to melt hearts with pop-up dinner, share a cheesy recipe

If you're a cheese-lover in Winnipeg, the menu at a pop-up restaurant this weekend is sure to make you melt.

Dustin Peltier and Rachel Isaak of Loaf and Honey — part catering company, part cheesemaker — are hosting a pop-up event called Save the Cheese at Marion Street eatery.

It's the latest instalment in the Hachere (that's pronounced "hatchery") pop-up series, which sees a collective of chefs host weekly dinners.

Loaf and Honey's Nov. 11 meal is meant to raise awareness and funds to help the business grow its cheese plant, and help the couple who own it navigate the logistics of being a new raw-milk cheese company in Manitoba.

Isaak and Peltier are carrying on the centuries-old tradition of making unpasteurized Trappist cheese.

That's why every dish in the seven-course meal will have cheese in it, including a twist on their Judge's Choice Poutine Cup-winning dish.

"We like it to be like the food people grew up on, but a little bit more elevated," Isaak​ said.

"We try to do as true to local as we can, supporting as many of the small guys as we can."

That commitment to farm-fresh led the two to buy their own farm.

"The best way to get sheep's milk is to buy a farm," Peltier said.

"Our biggest goal is to showcase Manitoba farmers," he said.

"There is no food system without the people growing it. They're always the last ones to get recognition or acknowledgement for the work that they do."

Tickets for Sunday's event are sold out, but there are more coming up in the Hachere series.

And if you don't have a ticket, you can try making one of Isaak and Peltier's recipes on your own. Here's their savoury mushroom cheesecake recipe.

Savoury mushroom cheesecake

Ingredients:

• Half a small onion, finely diced.
• 2 cloves of minced garlic.
• 3 cups finely chopped mushrooms.
• ¼ cup white wine.
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme.
• 2 tablespoons butter.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• ½ tsp ground black pepper.
• 32 oz. cream cheese
• 2 cups grated prairie tradition cheese.
• ½ cup sour cream.
• 3 eggs.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch.
• 1 teaspoon salt.

Directions:

Step 1 — Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat butter in a skillet. Add onions and garlic and saute till soft.

Step 2 — Add mushrooms, salt, pepper, dried thyme and wine. Cook out on medium heat till all the liquid is cooked out and mushrooms are tender.

Step 3 — In a food processor, mix cream cheese, Prairie Tradition cheese, sour cream, eggs, cornstarch and salt. Blend until smooth.

Step 4 —Transfer mushroom mixture into a bowl, add the cream cheese mixer and mix well.

Step 5 — Lightly spray 12 silicone muffin tins or lined regular muffin tins.

Step 6 — Pour in batter ¾ of the way.

Step 7 — Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set in the middle.

Step 8 — Remove from oven, let cool and enjoy!

With files from Nadia Kidwai