Friday, October 5, 2012

A Cheesy Adventure

I made my first cheese.  It was creamy and tasty and so easy, so now I'm trying Mozzarella!  This was all thanks to the really excellent marketing of Lakeland.  If you don't already get their catalogues full or useful and thought provoking products (who has room for a special plastic dish just for soaking oven racks, and a special brush for cleaning your electric grill and panini maker! ) you can browse their shop here http://www.lakeland.co.uk.  So the catalogue with the picture of cheese on the front cover and the cheese kit on the first page caught my eye and I duly purchased the moulds and book.

I tried to find some non-homogenized goats milk but in the end used Glenisk goat's milk which worked just fine.  Here are the instructions:

1 litre Glenisk goat's milk - heat gently to 24 degrees (watch out, that doesn't take long) the remove from the heat and add 2 tubs of Glenisk goat's plain yoghurt (100ml total) the mix in 1/8tsp (a few drops) of rennet.

Leave to stand overnight and in the morning cut into 2cm blocks with a knife and pour into the foot of a pair of tights.  You won't find the tights in the usual recipe but I'd lost the muslin I'd bought and the tights worked just fine.  Save the liquid Whey that comes off.  The cats loved it or you can use it in the bread machine.  After a couple of hours mix the curds gently with a large teaspoon of sea salt and pour into the cheese moulds and put in the fridge to drain further.  By the evening the cheese was ready, about a quarter of a litre.  I scoffed it all within 24 hours!  It's quite bland so I'm going to try adding crushed garlic and chives to the next batch.

Now must go see how the Mozzarella is getting on!