Fresh Cheese (Queijo Fresco)

As a child, fresh cheese was something I wouldn’t eat very often, since it wasn’t always available at the local Portuguese grocery store. I remember spending an afternoon at my cousin’s house and having sandwiches of fresh cheese that my aunt had just made. I was always amazed by the fact that she had actually made the cheese right there, while we played during the afternoon.

Years later, during dinner at my godmother Carmen’s house, one of her guests had brought fresh cheese that she had made. I immediately ambushed Rosaria for the recipe and was amazed by how easy it really was to make. I proved it this weekend during a few cooking demonstrations I hosted at the Western Fair. A video of that demonstration will be posted in about a month, once my trusty film/tv guy Marco has a chance to edit the footage.
What follows are some of the pictures I took backstage before the demonstration as well as the instructions on how to make your own fresh cheese.

Ingredients

1 bag of 2 % cows milk (approximately 1.3 L)

1 capful of powdered coagulant (combination of bacterial culture & rennet)

1 tsp. Sea Salt or ¼ tsp. iodized salt

Tools

Cheese mold

Big Bowl

Slotted spoon

Clean cutting board

Note: If you're looking to buy a cheese mold and the coagulating agent, LetsMakeFoodandWine.com sells both as a kit.

Step 1: Warm the milk to 32°C to 35°C using a water bath (if possible)

Step 2: Add the coagulant and the sea salt to the bowl, then slowly pour in the warm milk. Stir gently until the coagulant and salt are incorporated into the milk.

Step 3: Cover the bowl and wait about an hour or until you can see the milk starting to ‘set.’ It will look like kind of like plain yogurt.

Step 4: Place the cutting board at the edge of your sink and place something under the end on the counter to create a slant. I usually use the rim of a mason jar lid, or a saucer. The cutting board needs to be on a slant so that the liquid from the cheese will be able to drain away from the cheese and into the sink.

Step 5: Place the cheese mold on the slanted cutting board. With one hand, securely hold the cheese mold and while using a slotted spoon, transfer the contents of the bowl carefully into the cheese mold.

All the contents of the bowl won’t fit in the mold right away. You’ll need to wait for the liquid (whey) to drain out of the cheese. You can speed up the process by using a shallow spoon to scoop out more of the liquid and make space for the remaining contents of the bowl.

Step 6: Keep adding the contents of the bowl into the mold until the bowl is empty. Make sure the cheese mold is secure on the cutting board and will stay put once you let it go. Now all you need to do is wait until most of the whey drains and the fresh cheese is left. If you leave it overnight, it will definitely be ready by the next morning.

Step 7: Carefully remove the mold from the finished cheese and transfer to a serving dish. You can keep the cheese refrigerated for 2 or 3 days (if it stays in your fridge that long!) It will lose more liquid and become denser with time, and you’ll likely need to drain the excess whey from the container that you store it in.

Serve with fresh cracked pepper, red pepper dip or anything else you can think of!