It's a good thing I am not lactose intolerant, because I have
been on a dairy kick recently. First it was cultured butter, and now it's homemade ricotta cheese. It amazes me that
something this simple can produce such fantastic results.
Two of my more recent cookbook purchases have been Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade
Cheeses by Ricki Carroll and Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques &
Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses by Mary Karlin.
Between these excellent books, and the techniques I found
using the EYB "how to" filter, I cobbled together a
recipe for homemade ricotta. (I can never seem to follow just one
recipe, I like to grab bits and pieces from different recipes.
Usually it's a successful strategy, but disaster always lurks in
the shadows.)
I added cream to up the richness factor, but you can make
homemade ricotta with but three ingredients: milk, lemon juice, and
salt. Just add heat to the mix and magic happens - cheese curds
form. Once you drain the curds, the cheese is ready to use. (I made
manicotti with this
heavenly, creamy ricotta.) Besides taking bits and
pieces of several different recipes, I also fiddled with the
instructions. Since I put my cheesecloth away so well that I
couldn't find it, I drained the cheese using an oversized coffee
filter set in a wire mesh strainer. It was effective, if not
pretty.
One question that always comes up when making cheese is what to
do with the leftover whey. If you have a garden, you can pour it on
your acid-loving plants (after it's cooled, of course). You can
also use the liquid for bread making, and I found an especially
good use for it this time around: I made pancakes with it,
substituting the whey for the buttermilk in my usual pancake
recipe.
What is your favorite simple yet magical kitchen discovery?