Cheese Class!

Today I taught my first cheese class with Claire! The first official class was two weeks ago, but I was unable to attend... good thing considering we tried all of the "cheeses": Cheez Whiz, American cheese, Laughing Cow with Real Swiss Flavor, Easy Cheese... Yuck.

Today's theme was "East of the Alps." While there is no official designation for such a region of cheesemaking, we wanted to emphasize that there is cheese from Asia and Eastern Europe!

We had (in this order):

Paneer

Russian farmer's cheese

Kashkaval

Greek feta

Bulgarian feta

Various tasting notes in case you are curious--

Paneer: tastes like milk. And that's it. Can be considered vegetarian considering that it doesn't use rennet. Curdling achieved by using some sort of acidic solution + milk. Sweet, firm, tofu-like.

Russian farmer's cheese: definitely polarized the class. Sweet and salty. Consistency of ricotta, more flavorful, like yogurt. Smells like it too. Fresh cheese.

Kashkaval: hard-er cheese, from Bulgaria. Considered to be Bulgarian cheddar. Salty, sharp.

Greek feta: salty (makes sense considering it's brined). Crumbly (makes sense considering it dries out when removed from the brine solution). Acidic (makes mouth water after you eat it).

Bulgarian feta (aka. sirene): SUPER salty, SUPER acidic. Moister than the Greek feta. Lemony.

For house meeting tonight, fresh baked cookies (courtesy of Pillsbury hah).

Also, revelation: I think Motown music might be one of my favorite genres. Aside from classical. It's always music you can sing along to, and it makes me feel so cheery :) {ex: Ain't no mountain high enough; Ain't too proud to beg}