We took a cheese class together this past Saturday at HipCooks Portland, where we made fresh cheeses. We made 5 cheeses: mascarpone, ricotta, goat cheese chevre, mozzarella, and a fromage fort. The fromage fort was our favorite and super easy to make, it’s like the meat loaf version of using random cheeses. Fromage fort really only requires some odd and end cheeses, garlic, an alcohol, food processor, and something to spread it on, which was freshly toasted baguettes for this class. Very easy. We also just spread the goat cheese chevre (after it had been rolled in freshly chopped herbs) on the bread, though this required more of a cheat because it needs a few days to age to separate the whey from the curds, so the instructor had prepared it ahead of time so we could taste what it would be like in that same day. Goat cheese is also easy though, really mainly requiring patience for the cheese and whey to separate. The ricotta was another mix and separate process, and for the usage recipe was piped onto roasted tomato halves and topped with olive oil and fresh basil. The hardest was the mozzarella (after a complicated sequence of separating whey from curd, then boiling whey to roll and stretch mozzarella balls, and all very picky on kind of milk and temperature), but had an easy use recipe as it was just sliced and melted onto a pizza bianca. Finally, the mascarpone was part of our dessert, sandwiched between poached apricots and rolled in pistachios. Everything was delicious, and it was fun to be hands on in making fresh cheese and being taught in a practical way that you could do at home. More detail…
After class, we took a walk that brought us to the artsy Mississippi Avenue area, and on the way we stopped at Pistils. In Oregon, raising chickens at home is not that uncommon. One particular chicken caught our eye. And for some reason, someone still thinks it would be a good idea to keep bees. P also so appreciated that during the cheese class introduction of going around the room, F only said he was mainly there for P after 13 other people talked about what cheeses they liked, which sometimes included naming an exotic cheese or being overseas eating cheese in France, Italy, or a particular way they eat cheese etc- including one (who F actually knew from work coincidentally) who said she wanted her friend to sign up but the cheese class was full. Full including one person who said he would do it but then tells everyone, including the person who tried to gauge interest and paid for it, that he doesn’t care too much. Boooooo.
