Not too long ago I found myself flicking through the SixThousand site, which is supposedly covers the Perth subculture. Right, anyway. Flicking through I saw a post about making your own cheese. Awesome.
The recipe explains the very simple process of boiling milk then curdling it to seperate the curds and whey. If you take the curds away you’re left with a Paneer Cheese, which is a pretty bog standard soft cheese.
As I was already trying my hand at some Chocolate Panacotta (yum), I thought I’d give this a go as well, as I’ve always wanted to.
First up, I decided to make the Paneer and add some Chilli flakes, to end up with something like the soft flavoured cheeses you get at the shops. The process is pretty straightforward:
- Bring 2L of milk to the boil
- Turn off heat
- Add 1 cup of lemonjuice or vinegar
- Stir the milk thoroughly to ensure maximum curdlage (yes, curdlage!)
In the end, you end up with something like this:
Lovely, om nommy cheese. Whilst the cheese was tasty and “dericious” (thanks Neil), it was a bit crumbly - and I suspected that I squeezed far too much liquid out of the cheese.
Ultimately I ditched this after leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight, as it had gone rock hard (strange thing that). Not letting my feelings get hurt by cheese, I decided to give it another shot, this time opting to replace chilli with pepper and chives.
Unfortunately I don’t have nommy photos of this cheese, however leaving more liquid in the cheese while it was setting gave me the desired soft cheese (essentially, a hard ricotta in texture and shape).
I served this up with a glass of my red wine (more on this in another post!) at a BBQ, and it was received pretty well, and I’m stoked.
At only around $2.80 for ~500gm, this cheese is not also unique and personalised but cheap! Cheese for everyone! The secret lies in how much liquid you leave in!
I’ll play with this a bit more, but am very tempted to start getting some of the low-end cultures so I can make proper soft cheeses such as boccocini and brie/camambert at home. I’m not expecting much but like my beer, wine and spirits - it’s a fun experience.
More soon, I promise :)