July: Cheese Classes Bay Area, Bubbles (!), and off to Ireland

Bubbles & Camembert Blog

Happy Burrata Season. If you're anything like me, you're wondering how we already made it almost halfway through July. There were signs, of course. Like, June ending, BBQ's coming and going on the 4th, sweet corn hitting the markets, and the smell of funnel cakes at state fairgrounds. But July 2016 feels like June-July-August crammed into one. It's a full force month.

On this end, one reason July was so busy was because in addition to teaching many private and public cheeses classes, I'm preparing for my August trip to Ireland where I'll be guest-lecturing a tour, then staying on for a bit solo. I'm dreaming of our cooking classes at Ballymaloe, and am arranging visits at creameries whose cheesemakers craft their wheels with seaweed. So you'll be seeing me a little less around town late July and early August.

Cheese brining in salt water, Cork, Ireland

Here's a list of where I'll be when. Check out the top class- Bubbles & Cheese, at Solano Cellars. Very excited to return to my alma matter and teach with my friend. Marin and Contra Costa cheese lovers, keep posted. Next newsletter I'll be announcing classes at new spots near you, like Cavallo Point and the Walnut Creek Recreation Center.

I hope you see you around, and may you all get your season's fill of fresh mozzarella with hierloom tomatoes!

CHEESE CLASSES BAY AREA

Bubbles & Cheese Pairing: Summer Sparkles

Tuesday, July 26th, 6:00-7:30pm, Solano Cellars

Bubbles are for celebrations, warm days, cool nights, and creamy cheeses. Join cheese book author Kirstin and sommelier Julie for a seasonal look at summer sparklings and the cheeses that love them.

Light & Bright: Cheese and White Wine

Monday, August 29th, 6:30-8:30pm, The Cheese School, San Francisco

While cheese and wine pairing is more art than science, one thing is true: white wines are significantly easier to pair with cheese than reds. Cheese expert Kirstin Jackson will lead you in a tasting of summer’s most thirst-quenching white wines...

Cheesemaking: Camembert!

Sunday, September 4th, 11:00-2:00pm, The Cheese School, San Francisco

Your ovalini are moist and perfectly round. Your chevre is fluffy and tangy. Now you’re ready for your next challenge: Camembert. In this class, you’ll learn how to make the French classic (with a twist) from author Kirstin Jackson. Kirstin will lead you in inoculating fresh milk, recognizing when the curd has set, then layering the curd in the form. Over the next month you’ll take your little cheese home and watch it grow fluffy and white as you care for it. We’ll keep in touch via Facebook to see how our camembert ripen! As a friendly reminder, these public cheese classes fill up fast. If they're listed but sold out, ask about a waiting list- sometimes spots open up. If you want a customized cheese making or cheese & wine pairing class for your next party or team-building, you don't have to wait for dates to open for public classes. Email me at kirstin@itsnotyouitsbrie.com for more information .

Cheese and Wine Pairing with Baetje Bloomsdale, Goat's Milk Style

Today,I'll be your cheese and wine pairing guide! A couple weeks ago Miss Cheesemonger and I got together to make paneer (you might remember her gorgeous pictures of the fluffy pressed cheese or the recipe link to her blog). Well, we had so much fun we decided to team up again.

Baetje's Bloomsdale: Goat Cheese and Wine Pairing

We decided that Vero would match Bloomsdale to whatever snack the cheese's heart desires and since I'm a wine girl, I would be your booze lady. Cool thing is, this pairing also pays it forward.

Baetje Bloomsdale

Since Baetje's Bloomsdale is a classic example of a Loire Valley goat cheese, today's cheese and wine pairing can also be applied to most Loire Valley friends and many soft, rinded goat cheeses, and the same goes for Miss Cheesemonger's picks.

Now for Bloomsdale.

Bloomsdale's maker, Veronica Baetje, makes cheese in a Mennonite community in Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri. As the NY Times reported when they covered the creamery after a recent World Cheese Award win, Baetje is an inspired creamery. Bible quotes grace her labels and the Baetje considers themselves devoted followers. Yet she's very modern and not afraid to stray from the course. From driving her used Porsche through Mennonite sedan-country to making time-consuming goat cheese that could topple over a Valency in a cheese competition, Veronica is not afraid of doing things her own way.

Bloomsdale getting ready for its cheese and wine pairing party

Her cheese shows this. That little number above is made in the traditional Loire Valley goat cheese style. Meaning it's a lactic-acid set cheese covered in a thin layer of vegetable ash over which a thin white layer of Penicillium Candidum mold grows.

Which brings us to goat cheese and wine pairing. There are two things to mind with this little Bloomsdale when pouring a glass of juice.

1.When pairing soft- in this case lemony and sometimes lightly grassy- flavors with wine, keep it simple. Cheesemakers work hard to preserve those lovely subtle notes in their cheese and you don't want to pick a wine that overwhelms them. Don't go too big.

2. Bloomy rinds are fussy, and their lists of annoyances are as long as Kanye West's. They dislike a lot of oak- doesn't let them stay the star of the show. They don't like tons of red fruit- gets in the way of the PC mold. And when left in a room together bloomy rinds and tannins dry the mouth and have been known to get into a slapping fight (it's embarrassing, really).

Cheese and wine pairing, on.

Goat Cheese and Wine Pairing Picks: Bloomsdale

The type of wine to focus on for a cheese like Bloomdsale is a wine like Chasselas from the Savoie region of France, pictured in the third photo above. Though un-oaked, it's lightly creamy mouthfeel mimics soft Bloomsdale. Sur lie-style Muscadets (made with the Melon de Bourgogne grape) and light sparkling cremants would have a similar effect.

Another way you can go is go citrusy and zippy. Not surprising because it's from the same region as any Loire Valley cheese, Sauvignon Blancs make a perfect goat cheese and wine pairing. You can extend this to a lean Chablis too. But stay away from uber-fruity wines. They will overwhelm.

If you need to go red for your cheese and wine pairing, try a Beaujolais or Cabernet Franc. Most are zippy and have low oak and tannins (see consideration #2).

I've left a glass on the table for you.

Head on over to Miss Cheesemonger's blog to see the second part!

Making (and Eating) Paneer with Miss Cheesemonger

Paneer curds draining in cheesecloth – photo by Vero Kherian

If you haven't already discovered Miss Cheesemonger's blog, welcome to the world of beautiful cheese photography! Vero and I have known each other for years but we've never actually had the chance to collaborate on a project. So when she asked me if I'd like to be featured on her blog after I announced I was leaving my full-time job to focus on teaching cheese making classes, I jumped at the chance (not only is Miss Cheesemonger a wonderful photographer, she's an opera singer/former lawyer too. So, you know, she's got some good stories). Our cheese of choice? Paneer.

Paneer is a soft, mild, fresh, and lightly pressed cheese popular over much of South Asia. It's fluffy even when pressed, tastes like the milk from which it's made- use the good stuff-, and is meant to be consumed within days of making it. Not a problem for Vero and I- we ate a half-batch topped with sea salt while chatting.

And... it just so happens to be only slightly harder to make than ricotta. Just takes a little patience.

Paneer & Paneer Recipe

Head on over to Miss Cheesemonger's blog to check out more of her beautiful photos (all featured here are Vero's) and for a paneer recipe if you'd like to try your own batch. Or, if you need a photographer - Vero is one of my faves.

Squeezing lemons to acidify the milk. Photo by Vero Kherian.

Vero took this picture right after she asked if anyone ever told me I looked like Britney Spears. I may have laughed.

Thank you, Vero, the day was very fun! I had tons of fun and enjoyed eating a half-pound of cheese with you.

Spring Cheese: My Top 5. Fresh, Light, with Regional Love

Baetje’s Coeur de la Creme

My Top 5 Spring Cheese Picks

In my book I say that if I were to ever come back as a cheese I'd want to be burrata. Lightly stretched under hot water, then massaged with cream and kept cozy in a plush mozzarella blanket, being burrata translates to spending a spectacular day at the spa. But I've been thinking. There's also spring cheese.

With bright mustard sprouting in wine country fields and happy baby goats and lambs bouncing about pastures, I've been debating whether I would rather be spring cheese than burrata. It's a big question. Here's why.

Spring cheese, and early summer cheese, has the benefits of being made from the best seasonal milk around. The flavor of the green hills and wildflowers that the animals are prancing on goes directly into the milk (you are what you eat...) and makes the cheese especially delicious.

And then.....

Cheesemakers especially in love with celebrating spring milk and their region go a little further than just making cheese with the milk. They dress it up a little. While I debate whether I'd rather be born burrata or spring cheese, here is a list of my favorite top 5 cheeses that celebrate the flavors of spring. Some are just young and taste of the field and others are wrapped with regional plants or herbs. They tend to be domestic because, well, if you want fresh, close just makes sense.

Baetje Feta on a spring cheese plate

Piece from the heart

My Top 5 Spring Cheese Picks

1. Fresh goat cheeses surrounded in herbs like Baetje's Coeur de la Crème, pictured above. Rich, made with the family's own goat milk, then patted down with Herbs de Provence. Beautiful on a cheese plate. You can also look a little further out to Fleur Verte and try one of the largest fresh goat cheeses made in France.

2. Cowgirl Creamery's St Pat & Pierce Pt:Those of us in California jump on the chance to try Cowgirl's seasonal releases. St Pat is almost out of season (grab it if you can) and Pierce Pt is just making its entrance. Demonstrated by their yellow, buttery-hued interior, both are made with rich Jersey cow's milk. St Pat is a cute, dense little creamy bloomy rind that's wrapped in local nettles as it ages. Sweet, with light green and white pepper notes. Pierce is rolled in local California herbs and flowers like chamomile and calendula.

3. Zingerman's Lincoln Log: Zingerman's works with small Michigan farms to get some of the best organic goat's milk around Anne Arbor. Meaning you taste Michigan's green pastures in this very lightly-aged cheese. Its made Bucheron style so it has a lightly bloomy rind perfect for holding the cheese together when you bake it for chevre chaud.

4. Bellwether Farms Whey Ricotta: It's always great, but in the spring and summer its amazing because it takes on a lightly grassy note that speaks of the Sonoma hills and of the farm's happy grazing sheep. Silky, buttery and savory. I like serving this simple and baked. Does someone sell whey sheep's milk ricotta near you? Try it too. It's a blessing.

5. Looking Glass Creamery Ellington Trifecta: This pyramid is made in the classic Loire Valley style- with a plush rind, velvety layer under the rind, and a soft flaky center. But it's not a goat cheese like most Loire Valley cheeses- rather it's a lactic acid set cow's milk cheese. Fresh and less tangy than goat's milk, this one is delicoius served with simple sides like peppered pecans or fresh fruit.

A little note: I'm also super excited about my seasonal cheese Ricotta Workshop July 9th in Berkeley. In it we'll learn how to make 2 types of ricotta (whole milk and cream and ricotone) and then make 3 easy recipes with the cheese we just made taking advantage of seasonal local produce. Perfect for easy spring and summer entertaining. A few spots still open.

Cheese Making Classes: Creamy Camembert & Flying Solo

Cheese making classes Bay Area, here I come.

After ten years, this week is the first week where I have complete control over when I wake up. I don't have to leave my home at a specific time to open the doors of a wine shop in fear of a delivery person absconding with our wine if I'm five late. Don't have to pack my lunch the night before or start prepping dinner before I leave because I won't arrive home from work till 9pm. Don't have to obsess about if I'm adding cultures to milk too early before I leave for work since I can now monitor my cheese making experiments from home all day long. 

I am now flying solo. 

From June on, you can find me either at home obsessing over camembert fluffiness (rather than while at the wine shop- good change?), teaching cheese lovers how to make ricotta or mozzarella at their homes or at public cheese making classes in the Bay Area (lucky, lucky girl), or writing. It's taken me a while to get to this place.

Camembert stacks- cheese making classes

In addition to teaching cheese making classes where I show people the proper way to massage mozzarella curds into cream to create burrata, now I have time to pitch magazines and pursue that England and Ireland writing project I've been researching and dreaming about.

Though leaving a place you've been working at with dear friends for ten years, and doing things that reflect the realities of self-employment like spending two hours on the phone and on the Covered California website makes me feel a little anxious, I'm overall so happy. I'm venturing out on my own (and also, those Covered California people were really nice).

I've learned that sometimes you have to firmly close some doors for others to open. And they're opening. This week I've taught students at 18 Reasons how to make burrata, am prepping for private classes and a writing retreat-lockdown next week, and I met with amazing people for whom I'll be teaching classes in the future. There are a lot of cool people around here, and now I finally have time to work for and with them (you may of course include yourself in this list).

If you'd like to schedule a private event, consider me more open. If you'd like to come to one of my public classes, you can find me all over the bay area. If you come over to my house any time soon, expect it to smell of cheese recipes I'm testing. Camembert pictures are the results of test batches (cheese babes, a couple days old, no mold rind yet) for an upcoming class I'm teaching at The Cheese School. Yes, I added extra cream.

Thank you all for helping to make this happen. I look forward to cheese and writing adventures with you in the future. Thank you family, friends, and readers for your support.

Ricotta & 3 Seasonal Recipes: New Cheese Making Class, Berkeley

Cheese Making Class: Two Ricottas + 3 Easy Seasonal Recipes

July 9th, 3:00-5:30pm, Potliquor, Berkeley

I'm pleased to announce my first public Berkeley cheese making class!

After months of teaching ricotta, feta, and burrata cheese making classes all over San Francisco, I'm broadening my public cheese making class circle to Berkeley. Hello, Berkeley!

My first cheese making class is all about ricotta. But not just ricotta made from milk and cream. Traditional, true ricotta, made from whey, too. And three seasonal ricotta recipes from the cheese we made.

The class will kick off with us making fluffy ricotta from whole milk and cream (always, cream). With its clean and rich flavors, ricotta is a perfect cheese to have at your fingertips for easy summer entertaining.

Then we'll make -ricottone- also known as true Italian ricotta from our own ricotta whey.

I'm excited to show you howto make whey ricotta in a cheese makingclass- mainly just whole milk ricotta is the focus. Dense and rich, this ingenious cheese has long had my heart.

Next we'll make 3 easy, seasonal dishes that are perfect for summer entertaining with the cheese we just made.

• Spring green salad and baked ricotta

• Herbed green pea and ricotta crostini

• A simple Italian dessert of fresh ricotta, local nuts, candied fruit and zest

Then we'll eat them together at the end of class!

I hope you can join me for this fun workshop! Don't hesitate to reach out with questions, my cheese making classes can fill up fast.

National Wine Day! Ridge Montebello: Cheese, Wine & Fatted Calf

Estero Gold made a winning pairing with Montebello 2011

Ridge Montebello grapes topping the foggy Santa Cruz Mountains

This past weekend I had the pleasure of sipping lots of gorgeous Montebello wine. In other words, I curated the cheese for the Ridge Montebello Release and may have hit up a wine station more than once. In honor of glasses being refillable, and today being National Wine Day, otherwise known as Wine O' Clock (nope, you don't have to check the clock, it's all day long!), here is a little photo diary of my weekend at the Ridge Montebello Release. 

Here you'll find pictures of the future wine drinkers of America (a little below), some California artisan cheese I picked to pair with Ridge Montebello, and the Fatted Calfcharcuterie stations. And if some of you readers think you may have seen me talking cheese at the Kermit Lynch event too, yes you did. It was rich and wine-filled weekend.

Fatted Calf and I have been the fermented edible purveyors at the Ridge Montebello release for the past four years. Perfect coupling? I prefer to think of Fatted Calf, Ridge and I as a trio. 

Kathy, the esteemed Ridge Winery chef slicing bread for the 500 - 700 Ridge club members attending each day, and future wine drinkers of America. These kids loved cheese.

Sideways be damned, Ridge makes one of the best Merlots in the country. Rich with plums and blackberries with a touch of brambly pepper, it's elegant, ageable, and most importantly, delicious.

From 375ml to Jeroboam (double-magnum) to magnum, Ridge for every size drinker.

Pennyroyal's Velvet Sister making an oozing appearance at the Ridge Montebello release

Silicon Valley seen from Montebello hills

The view of the tasting room at Montebello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The rarely seen Ridge Rosé. This unicorn is only made on the occasional wine year (yup, I snagged two of them).

Happy National Wine Day!