Cheese

You know how I feel about sheep cheeses? Yep, I love ‘em! No offense, goat and cow cheeses. I love you too. But sheep cheese? Extra love.

We don’t get Spenwood too often. Maybe that’s for the best; absence makes the heart grow fonder, and my fondness for this mellow, nutty, slightly caramelly English cheese continues unabated. In a refreshing change from all those cheeses made in monasteries and old castles, this one’s produced in a converted garage. Also, it’s made with vegetarian rennet and raw milk. Right now it’s a bit younger than we sometimes get it, so it’s a bit less sharp and a touch nuttier and milkier.

Good job, sheep! I salute you!

Pretty much every day someone croons, “I want your job!!”

My usual response is something surly like, “You’ll get my job when you pry it out of my cold, grimy fingers.”

In truth, we all love being cheesemongers at Rainbow. Yes, we really do get paid to eat cheese, talk to strangers, and not have a boss. Members of our department generally get along well, work hard, and have fantastic senses of humor. Things are swell, and we have you cheese lovers to thank for it.

Thank you.

Thank you thank you thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou. Thank you. We do appreciate you.

Lest you turn mold-green with envy, I’ll give you a peek at some of the less pleasant aspects of the job. It’s not actually a parade of gustatory delight.

First, everyone has preferences, and it’s our job to taste all the cheeses, not just our favorites.

Second, when a cheese comes in slimy or marbled with sinister green, or it smells like a zombie’s dirty drawers, it’s our job to ascertain whether this cheese is tasty enough to sell to you, or nasty enough to send back. This job requires us to use all of our senses and negotiation skills.

The negotiations might go something like this: “Awww, come on, I tasted the last two funky batches of Tomino de Padella.* I’m not going near that thing. Smell it! It’s pure evil!”

To which someone might reply: “Okay, okay, I’ll taste it. This is the best batch I’ve ever had! Toughen up! I’ll make a sign for the customers saying it’s ugly but delicious.”

Third, our work takes a lot of physical energy. We do a lot of lifting, working in cold refrigerators, repetetive motions, and we wash our hands constantly, which isn’t half as fun as one might think.

Fourth, because this is a worker-owned cooperative and nobody’s in charge, we have tons of meetings. When you’re coveting our job, don’t forget to covet our interminable meetings.

*Note: I’ve never ever actually seen Tomino de Padella look funky. It’s a lovely soft little cow and sheep milk cheese. Perfect in every way, tender, mellow, milky, and immensely dignified. Okay, maybe I’m projecting my own immense dignity onto this cheese, but it is very good, and it may have been unfair to use it as an example of why working with cheese isn’t for the weak-stomached.

Thing One:

Hey readers, feel free to comment on any blog post that captures your attention or piques your curiosity! We want to hear your opinions and questions here as well as at the cheese counter. We enjoy writing these posts, and it’s even more fun when we know for certain someone’s reading them. Today a customer asked me about our cheese registry and several of the cheeses we’ve blogged about, and I nearly danced with glee.

Thing Two:

Italian Scimudin. Holy gazoogles. Heck yeah. Hoohah. (Those are technical terms. We use them because we’re trained cheese professionals. Unless you are also a trained cheese professional, be forewarned that you may sound silly if you utter these phrases at your home, work, or place of worship.) This is a subtle cheese, but it’s got serious depth. It’s a raw milk cow cheese from Lombardy with a lovely sticky brie-like texture. It’s perfectly ripe right now. The flavor is mild, milky, sweet, and a bit mushroomy. It lingers on the tongue and may in fact haunt you in your sleep.

Do you ever dream of dipping a spoon into a container of ricotta the way you would a pint of ice cream? “No way” you say, “ricotta is only that white stuff you plop into lasagna!” Then you are in need of some assistance my friend. There are so many amazing foods to make with ricotta and spring is a great time to try something new.There are two ricottas’ that have my heart: fresh Calabro whole milk ricotta and Bellwether Sheep ricotta. These two cheeses stand apart from other ricottas’ by their richness and distinctly full flavors.  The fresh Calabro is a sweet ricotta that is thick and creamy, as opposed to the runny stuff.  If you are like me and could tackle a pint of ice cream with a spoon, without your partner getting so much as a taste, then proceed with caution as this cheese is addictive. A friend of mine said she “saw the light” and can’t use the other stuff anymore. This is the ricotta you can imagine sweetened and spiced with chocolate chips before being lovingly spooned into a canoli shell. Oh, here’s my delicious recipe for fresh canoli: 1 tin of fresh Calabro whole milk ricotta (2 cups)¾ cup org. sugar or confectioner’s sugar, extra for sprinkling2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise and paste scraped outoptional- ½ cup fair trade semi-sweet chocolate chips, extra for sprinkling½ cup pine nuts Mix well. Chill in the frig for at least ½ hour. When ready to serve, use a small spoon or a pastry bag to fill the canoli shells. Sprinkle the ends of the filled canoli with pine nuts and or chocolate chips. Sprinkle confectioners sugar over the canoli. Makes 6-8 depending on the size of your shells. (Lucca Ravioli on Valencia St. carries them.) Bellwether is a local company that makes amazing cheeses including two types of ricotta. Their Sheep ricotta is my favorite. It is buttery and savory. There is nothing like this cheese. It is so versatile; it can be used in savory or sweet dishes. I’ve stuffed mushrooms with it, a little salt, pepper and fresh thyme and baked them for 10 min. in a 350 oven. But I’ve got a sweet tooth today and this is my favorite recipe:                                     8oz. Bellwether Sheep ricotta, ½ teas cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling, zest from 1 lemon, fresh vanilla bean, 1 lb medjool dates, ¼ lb. pecan halves.

 Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, with the back of a paring knife scrape out the paste from the center of the bean. Mix ½ teaspoon vanilla, the zest, and cinnamon into ricotta. Mix well with spoon or fork.Cut dates in half, remove pits. Spoon cheese mixture into the halves and top with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a pecan half. 

Now you know why my cheesy name is SweetChezUs. If you let me know how you loved these cheesy recipes, I’ll write more.