Homemade Ricotta Cheese - Doing the Impossible?

This past week I have been busy making new things (or at least new to me) such as goat’s cheese, my own vegetarian rennet, different types of sourdough bread. It has been quite a learning curve to say the least.

And I am enjoying every minute of it, as per usual. I wanted to make one tiny comment on my learning/education however….and that is this:

Just because someone says it can’t be done, perhaps this is true for them. But, don’t let someone else’s experience colour, cloud or dictate your own. The things you are meant to learn might be quite different and besides you are your own unique person.

One of the reasons I am saying this is mainly because I want people to explore all possibilities and angles of an issue. That is my general approach, especially when it comes to food and cooking.

The other reason centers around some ancient wisdom carried in our cells – going through these motions (life lessons, learning, trial and error) often enables cellular memories to awaken.

Case in point – this week I was reading up on cheese making and kept finding the same thing being said – you cannot make ricotta cheese using whey from acid cheese making processes.

What this means is you won’t be able to make ricotta cheese from the leftovers of cheese making – when you make a cheese using lemon juice or any other acidic type of regulator to make that cheese.

So, for half a day I looked at my whey sitting in my pot and wondered what to do with it. Knowing in my gut that I still thought I could make some cheese….there are also many other uses for it apparently. Such as making soups, stews, soaking beans, adding to pet foods, washing hair, pouring on roses and so on. It is a useful product. And I did add some to my stew I was making….

Then I threw caution to the wind and went ahead and followed the directions for making ricotta cheese. Heating the whey to 190F while stirring and then cooling slightly before pouring the mixture into the muslin cloth again and allowing it to strain through for a couple hours.

Of course, I only started out with 1 litre of milk at the outset, I had already made some cheese – I was not expecting to get much in the way of ricotta. But I did want to see – what, if anything, would happen.

Right now I am sorry I never took a photo of it! Because I got an even better tasting cheese then the one I made earlier. This one was very much like a ricotta, it was only a little bit, but enough for us all to have a taste – and spread it on some bread.

What was different about this one is that it was so spreadable, slightly richer in taste and when I added some fresh herbs and sea salt – it was glorious.

The lesson this week – never give up trying, always listen to your gut, don’t let anyone else’s good or bad experience interfere with yours and do it anyway. I mean, the worst that would have happened is nothing would have happened and I would have not been able to make ricotta cheese.

Instead – it was the best part of my cheese making day!

April

Our goat Marigold and her kids....

Broccoli & Goat's Cheese Soup

Yesterday was an interesting day, I wanted to clear out any food left hanging around that was still useful - a general cleanup before I get back to eating again at the end of the week. With only one person (and 2 dogs, cat, turtle) eating in the house at the moment, I don't want things to go off.

With this in mind, I am cooking with the foods most likely to not last too long, early in the week while the other hardier vegetables will keep. And anything that needs to be used up - well, I have had to be creative and find ways to get them into meals.

I had a piece of very nice goat's cheese that I thought would make a lovely pot of soup - along with a large piece of broccoli. The soup started with these two ingredients - and took off from there! LOL

Making soup is something I enjoy doing, I start with sautéing leeks, onions, garlic and then place a few lentils and seaweed in the soup pot. I get all of this cooking and just add to it from there. With this particular soup, I wanted it to be mainly broccoli, but even this needs help.

To the pot I put in some sweet potato, pumpkin, a carrot and lots of fresh herbs from the garden for extra flavour. There was a very large amount of broccoli, so I wasn't overly concerned with losing the focus of the dish.

Once it was all cooked and pureed I added 1 cup of goat's milk and then some of the goat's cheese (grated up) as the soup cooled down for about an hour or so. When I gave it a stir it was nice and creamy and had thickened up.

Broccoli & Goat's Cheese Soup

And, the one thing I love about mixing some of these flavours, it didn't have an overly heavy smell from the broccoli, the milk and cheese had softened it quite a bit. I was pleased with it and will make it again at the weekend, so the rest of us can try it too - perhaps this time with a stronger cheese.

April 

A Food 'Memory' - Bread Pudding

I have been planning for the past couple of days to make a bread pudding and of course have been duly saving the old pieces of bread, instead of given them to the animals in preparation for this dish. It is something I remember having in my childhood, but not having eaten it since.

It is not a difficult dish to make either - if I remember correctly, it was basically, bread, eggs, milk and spices. Perhaps if someone was industrious there might be a sauce over the top. But often it was served and eaten, just as it was. 

So, today I got the large dish ready and had been mulling over what I might do to make this pudding tasty. I decided on  a few things and as is my usual style - I just dove in to it. The dish was buttered, the bread was placed on the bottom and I prepared an egg mixture with duck eggs, milk,  and all spices. 

Bread pudding seeded spelt bread pieces

The egg mixture was poured evenly over the top of the bread and allowed to sit for about an hour. I had a jar of unsweetened cherries in juice so, in place of additional raisins (there were some in the bread) I poured this jar of cherries over the top as well. 

Then I put this in the oven for about half an hour. In the meantime I made some hazelnut butter (always a lovely treat!) and some custard. I ended up mixing these two together to see what kind of taste I would get - it was tasty but the custard did not set enough.

Once the bread pudding was out of the oven and served up into dishes, I spooned out some of the hot custard mixture over it and voila - there was now some kind of dessert. Everyone loved it - except for me. I ate it while trying to analyze just why I was not enjoying it.

Then I realised, I don't remember if I like bread pudding. I don't even remember eating it - I just remember that it was there. But, perhaps I didn't like it then and I wasn't impressed today. I thought it was bland, which surprised me because there were so many flavours in there.

I think this was a classic food memory of an association between an unpleasant time and food - or unpleasant food and time....whatever! 

It's back to the drawing board for me with that one....

April

Bread pudding with hazelnut custard sauce