This week’s project was to attempt making cheese myself. I daydream about ditching city-life more & more lately. I guess I’m getting my farm-girl on & learning some skills, in the hope to becoming self-reliant one day.

It seems funny timing, since this week all that’s on the tv over here is economic collapse, hysteria about food costs & a general mass-panic that the country is going to hell in incredible debt, bringing the suburban survivalist out in even the most financially secure of the country. Yep, you better withdraw all your investments & stock up your cans of beans! The world is ending people! .. Pfft.

So yeh, where was I?  Oh yes, upskilling! Last month I went crazy baking bread. I was a bit of a bread-failure beforehand you see, due to a phobia of working with yeast. ..Don’t ask. Anyway, since then I’ve been busy making my own pizza bases, focaccias & baked goods. I’m surprised I haven’t posted on that yet considering how many pizzas I’ve made now. I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered the process yet, but I’m quite capable now of making a meal out of a bag or flour, teaspoon of yeast, salt & olive oil for under a buck. Screw you Pizza Slut! I shall never order your over-priced flavourless cardboard pizzas again.

Bah, moving on.. (Apologies to foodies just wanting a recipe, I’m in a rambling mood; don’t hold your breath. And hell, it’s amazing this is my second post today.)

Cheese!

So, I started reading how to make cheese at home. It all came about from my love of a good Indian paneer curry & I researched how to make it at home from scratch. I’ve never separated curds & whey on purpose. It was quite daunting at first but I was a girl on a mission.

It read out like a pretty simple chemical reaction & preparing for the event I was confident enough to get my camera ready to document my experiment. I poured in the milk & brought it up to a simmer, I aim the camera.. and there’s a damn knock at the door.

(There is no instructional photo-post to follow. I was forced to monitor the stove only intermittently between listening to the neighbour’s dramas. My attention was taken away from my beloved project & all concentration was lost.)

Next thing I know, I’m pouring in the vinegar & the reaction is taking place at a temp way too high & my pot of curds & whey isn’t looking quite like the recipe I’m reading from. I try adding more vinegar, things still aren’t looking right & I’m trying to act interested in my neighbour’s story about her axle breaking. She seems mighty distressed. Ah shit, I better take this off the heat.

So I come back to the pot after she’s left & I’m a little concerned I have just wasted a half gallon of milk. It just doesn’t look right. Still I continue, I strain the mixture in the cloth & am pleased to see the separation working anyway. I now have solid curds wrapped in cloth & pot of clear liquid-waste.

The curds drip, they compress & then I squish them under a heavy weight in the fridge overnight.

Today I wake up & check on it, it looks good! I cut up my cheese-lump & try to fry a few pieces on the stove. Unfortunately I can’t get the heat high enough & throw a hissy fit at my lackluster kitchen. I stick the remaining pieces under the grill to brown.

I whip up a simple zucchini curry & add the paneer.

Hoorah! My “failure” came out super yummy magically!  It’s now 2am & I’m contemplating seconds!

Sorry to waste your time, I won’t post the recipe just yet. I’ll repeat the whole process again real soon, so I guarantee there is my “instructional blog” to come.. as originally intended.

And after that super long post, all I can reward you with is a bad photo of my plate while I’m eating.

Roasted spiced-potatoes, paneer zucchini curry & rice.

The next experiment for me is to make ricotta. Then I move onto aged cheeses, when I source some vegetarian rennet.