Family recipes can be passed down through the generations, like the secret to the gravy for grandmother’s smothered chicken or how to get the perfect consistency for the fluffy frosting for mom’s famous devil’s-food cake.
But recipes for making cheese?
Indeed, cheese recipes passed down through three generations of the family of Zaimar Castillo are the foundation for Mrs. Rosa Foods, the Decatur-based creamery producing nine varieties of Venezuelan cheese.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Castillo’s grandmother, Rosa Carvajal, was a single mother supporting 12 children in Maturin, Venezuela, the capital of the state of Monagas. She made empanadas and arepas that she sold to the neighbors, and cheeses produced from the milk of the cows she raised.
A hallmark of Venezuelan cuisine is a wide range of fresh white cheeses often named for different regions of the country, such as queso guayanés from the Guayana region of southeast Venezuela.
Rosa Carvajal passed along those recipes and her cheese-making skills to her daughter, Estefania Carvajal, the fifth of her children.
Caravajal, in turn, married, raised four daughters, and had a small farm where she kept 10 cows and made cheese, which she sold to neighbors.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Castillo grew up watching her grandmother and her mother make cheese.
At Mrs. Rosa Foods, Castillo and her sister, Julia, along with Castillo’s partner, María Rosal, and Rosal’s brother, Carlos, produce nine varieties of fresh cheese and a range of other Venezuelan foods, such as cachapas, empanadas and arepas.
Castillo trained as an attorney in Venezuela but came to the United States in 2017, seeking asylum, fleeing persecution in her home country. Rosal arrived in 2018.
Nostalgic for the flavors of home, she and Rosal cooked the dishes they remembered. While they could find many ingredients they needed, they could never find cheese that tasted right.
“We missed the flavors we remembered from home, of very simple fresh cheese. So we started to make it ourselves from the recipes we had learned from our families,” said Castillo.
In December 2019, she and Rosal began selling their homemade cheese. Then, when Castillo lost her job at the start of the pandemic, they decided it was time to open the first Venezuelan creamery in Atlanta.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
“For many, the pandemic was a tragedy. But for us, it was a moment of opportunity,” said Rosal.
Selling cheese is not as simple as selling baked goods. Cheese making is a highly regulated industry because of the potential for spreading illness.
They started commercial production in shared kitchen space at Leaven Kitchen in Decatur. Soon, with the help of the Urban League of Greater Atlanta Entrepreneurship Center, they received a grant that enabled them to purchase their own equipment and build a creamery space to their specifications in a storefront at 4086 Covington Highway in Decatur. They were careful to follow all the regulations and credit the Urban League and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for helping them through the regulatory process.
Sales were good, and demand increased. Orders were not for 4 pounds of cheese but for 20 or 30 pounds. The staff of four may produce up to 400 pounds of cheese each week.
Their cheese and hot dishes are available weekly at seven different farmers markets from Norcross to Avondale Estates, and the cheese is sold at eight Hispanic supermarkets across metro Atlanta and the Buford Highway Farmers Market.
Recently they opened a retail store in the front of their creamery and added a food truck.
Just as Castillo’s grandmother and mother made cheese to support their families, Castillo’s cheese making supports her family both in the U.S. and back home in Venezuela. Rosa Carvajal died in Venezuela five years ago at age 90, but Estafina Carvajal still lives there with two of her daughters.
“I implored my family to come to the United States, but they want to stay there, still on the farm,” Castillo said. “One of the reasons I have this company is so I can help to support them so they can have a better life.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
RECIPES
Mrs. Rosa Foods co-founder Zaimar Castillo shared recipes for two Venezuelan favorites, learned from her grandmother and mother. She recommends using Venezuela-based P.A.N. precooked corn flours in these recipes. Both the white and yellow versions are widely available at Hispanic grocery stores, where you can find Mrs. Rosa cheeses. In addition to the cachapas and empanada recipes here, P.A.N. corn flour is also used to make arepas and tortillas. In the new Mrs. Rosa Foods storefront, you can purchase cachapas, empanadas and arepas, as well as their cheeses.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Cachapas
Cachapas are Venezuelan corn pancakes cooked on a griddle, crisp on the edges and soft in the middle. Queso de mano is the most traditional filling and gets its name from the cheese-making process. Once the curds start to form, the cheese is molded into a circular shape by hand.
Fill a cachapa with cheese, use the Beef Filling or Chicken Filling from our recipes, or fill with a combination of cheese and meat.
A filled cachapa makes a hearty meal as good for breakfast as it is for dinner. In our photos, the cachapas are topped with queso rallado, a grated Venezuelan cheese, and nata, a creamy cheese similar to creme fraiche.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
P.A.N. corn flour makes a crisp, full-flavored dough for these empanadas. The goal is to stir together a dough soft enough to roll out without cracking. A 1-quart resealable plastic bag cut along the sides makes a sturdy surface for rolling the dough.
In our photos, the empanadas are accompanied with guasacaca, a guacamole-like sauce made of cilantro, mayonnaise, lime and avocado.
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