Some kind of extreme sport?
Well, yes. Cheese-rolling in Gloucester. Upside-down man was admitted to hospital.
I’d probably actually do this - yes, I love cheese that much. Even English cheese.
Of cheese and men
Look at me, I’ve been awfully inactive on this bloglette - of late a bloglette du fromage. So here’s where things stand.
I made paneer. It’s really really really REALLY easy. And REALLY good.
- Boil however much milk you want to. I boiled about two litres. Stir it as you go to make sure it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pot, but you can have the heat up pretty high. When it gets super-boily it’ll go a bit nutty and try to froth over and destroy your kitchen, so watch for when it gets really frothy (the massive amounts of steam produced will be a pretty good giveaway too).
- When boiled, take it off the heat and add lemon juice. Use about one medium-sized lemon per litre milk. Curdley curdley yay yay. Stir for a minute or two (gently).
- Leave to rest for ten minutes or so.
- Pour through cheesecloth. This works well if you line a colander/steamer with cheesecloth (available at Moore Wilson’s, just ask) and set it over a pot (the steamer pot if you’re using a steamer!). Tie the ends of the cheesecloth tightly and leave to drain for a couple hours. Hold onto the whey (you can use it to make roti - or instead of water for any recipe [it’s really high in protein so make the most of it]).
- Up to you, but you might want to put the tied cheesecloth under something heavy to shape it. I put a two tea-towels on the bench and put the curds on them. On the curds I put a breadboard with a couple of bricks on top.
- Cut up and enjoy! It’s great in curries - especially with capsicum curries. It’s even (shock horror) good on toast with marmite!
I can’t vouch for how delicious my feta is, because it’s currently being pressed into a mould. When I say mould, I rather mean it’s under a few bricks to get it into a nice shape. Feta’s only a little more compliqué…
- Heat, like, 3 litres of milk to 30 degrees centigrade. Or so. (My recipe was really anal about measuring this but it doesn’t matter at all.) Again with the stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn. It won’t if you’re using a good pot.
- Mix 1 tablespoon yoghurt (proper) with 1 tablespoon of milk and stir to mix. Add to the pot and stir until mixed. You have just INOCCULATED the milk with bacteria. Leave covered for an hour at room temperature for the magic to happen.
- Add a teaspoon or two of rennet (in a glass of cool water) to the pot and stir until combined. Leave overnight, covered, at room temperature.
- THE NEXT MORNING YOU’LL HAVE SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT! With a big knife, cut the curds! What I did was use a French whisk - insert it and twist then pull out; do the same over the whole surface of the curd.
- Pour into a cheesecloth-lined colander to drain. Save the whey for later.
- Drain until no more liquid comes out (2-4 hours).
- Mix half a teaspoon of salt with the curd then press into a mould or do what I did (see above). Let sit overnight so it’s nice and firm.
- Make the brine! Mix 5 tablespoons of salt into the whey.
- Cut the cheese into feta-shaped cuboids and put in the brine! Let pickle for a few days.
- It’s good from the start, but it only gets better! You’ll probably want to rinse it before you use it to let excess salt run off.
Sorry about the gratuitous exclamation marks in all of that; it’s really really exciting though.
I wish I could give you photos but I don’t have a camera and my flatmate’s one broke. Next time (yes! next time!) I make cheese I’ll hopefully have a camera to document the whole beautiful process.
