A lovely lunch followed and then a couple of quiet hours with the ponies. So what does an out of work gal do to chill out. Well, she makes cheese of course!!!
Boil a stip of muslin and string to sterilise.
Pour 1litre of milk into a large pan and gently heat to 180c. I use goats milk because I can't drink cows milk. Semi or skimmed milk is fine, as the cream from full fat milk is wasted in the whey.
When the milk reaches 180c, stir in a couple of large spoonfuls of natural yogurt, bio is best, and 6 or 7 drops of rennet. You can buy vege rennet and I've recently discovered that you can make it from herb extracts. I may give it a go sometime.
After a while, the milk will Clabber, that is, separate into curds and whey. carefully slice the curds into chunks to let out more whey and after 15 minutes (or so) bring it gently to the boil to firm up the chunks.
Cool a little (mainly for safety's sake!) and pour into the prepared muslin. Hang the muslin over a bowl to let the cheese drip. You could squeeze the muslin to get the fluid out, but then it gets all sticky with cheese and it seems a bit of a waste. You can salt the cheese and add herbs if you want. It will keep in the fridge for a few days, but it rarely makes it to the fridge here as it's so scrummy!
There are loads of tutorials on youtube and I've probably watched them all! I've not had the courage to use vinegar to clabber the milk as I think it might affect the taste, but lots of people do use it! I've had a go at the mozzarella, without much success, so that's still on my list to try.
The whey isn't wasted, I pour it back into the original pot and make a large batch of porridge for the chickens :)
So as I say goodbye to conventional work for a while, I'd like to say a big hello and welcome to the new people who have found their way here :)
5 comments:
I've had such a nice time catching up and reading through your recent posts.
I popped over to your website - VERY nice! Your work is so magical- it draws me right in.
Love the flowers, and your garden looks great. I'm envious of 'the incident tent', I wish I had even that! Oh what wouldn't we do with greenhouses?
Take care!
ICQB
Thanks for dropping by, ICQB. Hmmm, greenhouses! One day maybe and then we'd take over the World, mwahaha!
Aww how lovely you got so many hugs :) And the flowers look beautiful!
wow...the cheese looks & sounds rather yummy! I like the idea of flavouring it with herbs too...mmmm
It's a really cool and refreshing cheese, Julia. I'm building the courage to try a hard cheese next, but there are so many things that can go wrong with that whereas soft cheese is soooo simple :)
Gosh no sitting back and putting your feet up with a cuppa then?!?
I LOVE cheese but as I am on a weight loss thing at the moment cheese is off the menu- so enjoy on my behalf!!
Warm Wishes,
Cally x
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