I love cheese. Soft, hard, goaty, sheepy, blue, crumbly or creamy, tangy ormild, orseriously smelly,rarely aday goes bywithoutme squashing some ona piece of bread, scattering a handful into asauce or over a gratin or salad, orsimply grabbing achunk and consuming it greedily on the hoof between kitchen and garden ordesk.
We're lucky in this country to have some of the world's finest cheesemakers producing deeply delicious, complex and sophisticated cheeses. But only a few generations ago manypeople made their own simple cheeses at home. Ithink it's a tremendous shame thatso few attempt it now, thinking it too difficult, too complicated andrequiring specialist equipment. It's not and it doesn't. You could probably whip up a quick batch withthings you have in your kitchen right now. So today I'm sharing some of my favourites, from a simple curd cheese to more challenging mozzarella.
The key to great cheese is the quality of the milk. If you can – thatis, if you're not pregnant or someone with a compromised immune system – try to seek out raw, unpasteurised milk at your local farmers' market. The cheese will have a fuller, richer flavour. Failing that, it's best to use organic unhom*ogenised milk. The hom*ogenisation process means that the fat particles are evenly distributed throughout the milk to create a uniform emulsion, which makes itvery difficult to get aproper set – you want milk that has an enticinglythick layer of cream at thetop of thebottle.
You don't have to use cow's milkor yoghurt for today's recipes, either– try them with goat'smilk oreven buffalo milk, which, of course, is wonderful in the mozzarella. Laverstoke Park Farm produces organic buffalo milk,which isavailable in some supermarkets and online.
You'll make your life a lot easier ifyou invest in an instant-read thermometer, too. They're not veryexpensive and you can use them for other things, such as deep frying or jam-making, so they're a useful piece of kit. You'll also need some citric acid, which you can buy from most chemists, to help acidify the milk; and some rennet to separate the curds from the whey – you'll find that in healthfood shops and some supermarkets. Though it'salso worth experimenting with lemon juice instead of rennet – allow the juice of a lemon to a litre of milk as a guideline.
And now a bit of housekeeping. Make sure everything is scrupulously clean, from the utensils you use to the pans, bowls, muslin, jelly bags (scald them in boiling water beforehand) and your hands, which you don't have toboil but you do need togive them a very good scrub.
Then you're ready to go. Today's yoghurt cheese is astonishingly easy and a great thing to make with kids. And once you've mastered the curd cheese, you can tuck into it as it is orpress it for an hour or so to create a paneer-style cheese. Making mozzarella, though more tricky thanthe others, is like some kind of miracle – you take a pan full of milk and transform it into stretchy, silky, milky bliss. One of the huge rewards for making your own is the enormous pleasure of enjoying it newly rolled, while it's still warm. And a homemade pizza with homemade mozzarella is the apex of all-my-own-work kitchen satisfaction.
Rosemary yoghurt cheese
Possibly the simplest cheese you can make. You could use a few gratings of unwaxed lemon zest instead of the rosemary, or in combination with it, if you like. Makes about 350g.
½ tsp black peppercorns
1kg whole milk organic yoghurt
1 tsp salt
1 small sprig rosemary, leaves only, finely chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil, or pomace oil, for preserving
Crack the pepper in a pestle and mortar, or with the end of a rolling pin in a small bowl, until slightly more coarse than if you ground it in a pepper mill. Stir it into the yoghurt with the salt and rosemary, then spoon the mix into a scrupulously clean jelly bag or double layer of muslin. If using muslin, tie the top with kitchen string and tie to the middle of the handle of a wooden spoon. Suspend the bag or muslin over a bowl in the fridge (or in a very cool place) and leave for two days.
Discard the whey. Lightly oil your hands and roll the strained yoghurt into balls about 2.5cm in diameter. Place in a sterilised jar and pour over enough oil to cover. The cheese balls will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. Eat as they are in salads, as part ofan antipasti platter or as a snack. Or roll them in finely chopped herbssuch as chives, basil or rosemary; mix the herbs with finely cracked black pepper and/or fine chilli flakes if you like, too.
Fresh curd cheese
This isn't ricotta, but it has a similar taste, texture and flavour. It's enormously versatile, and you can use it in both sweet and savoury dishes.
2 litres whole organic milk, either raw or unhom*ogenised
A pinch of salt
2 tsp rennet
Pour the milk into a clean non-reactive saucepan and add the salt. Heat the milk gently to 38C, or blood temperature, and immediately remove it from the heat. Stir in the rennet until it's well combined, then leave for 15 minutes, for the milk to separate into curds atthe top and whey at the bottom.
Either use a jelly bag or line acolander with a large, double-layered piece of scalded muslin. Usea slotted spoon, spider-type spatula or small sieve gently to scoop up the curds in as large piecesas possible, and put into the muslin. Tie up the corners of the muslin andhang to drip above a bowl or sink for about three hours.
Unwrap the muslin, place the cheese in a jar or bowl, cover andstore in the fridge. The curd cheese will stay fresh and "sweet" for around two to three days, beforeturning more tangy and cheesy, atwhich point it's probably better suited tocooking with or to adding to fresh, savoury dishes. Usewithin aweek.
How to serve your curd cheese
With honey, almonds and perhaps some fresh fruit for breakfast.
With chopped chives, grated parmesan or gruyère and some cooked, cooled spinach as an omelette filling.
In warm lentil salads with some lardons fried until crisp and a mustardy vinaigrette.
When it's very fresh, serve the cheese crumbled on a plate with some unwaxed lemon zest, freshly groundblack pepper, soft, fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped fresh red chilli or some dried chilli flakes, and a generous trickle of olive oil orrapeseed oil.
Mozzarella
I'm not going to lie: making mozzarella is more difficult than today's other two cheeses. But it'san enjoyable way to spend an hour or so, andthe more often you makeit, the better you get at it. Makes four balls of mozzarella, about 200g.
1 tsp citric acid
2 litres whole organic milk, raw orunhom*ogenised
¼ tsp rennet
2 tbsp salt
Dissolve the citric acid in 60ml of water – boil the kettle and let the water cool down to just warm, as this will help the crystals dissolve. Pour the milk into a large, non-reactive saucepan and heat gently just to take the chill of the fridge off it – you need it at about 13C. Add the citric acid, and heat to 30C, stirring gently – it will start to curdle.
Dilute the rennet in a tablespoon of boiled, cooled water and add it immediately to the milk. Warm gently to 38-39C, stirring from time to time – it will begin to separate. Remove from the heat and leave forabout 15 minutes, to let the curdset and separate from the wheyeven more.
Carefully scoop the curds out ofthe pan with a slotted spoon and place them in a sieve – leave the hot whey in the pan. Press the curds gently toremove some of the whey –but becareful: you want them to be dripping a little, and if you remove too much the mozzarella will be tough. Add the salt to the whey in the pan and heat to 80C.
Put the curds on a chopping board and cut them into four 2cm-thick slices. Have a bowl of iced water ready. One at a time, dip the curds into the hot whey for a minuteor so, until they begin to soften and stretch. Remove a piece of curd from the whey with a slotted spoon, dip your hands in the iced water (the cheese will be quite hot) and gently stretch out the cheese, folding it back on itself and working it just until it's stretchy, shiny and smooth. Don't betempted to overwork.
Mould and pinch the cheese into aball about 3cm wide, then drop it into a bowl of chilled water. Repeat with the remaining curds, refrigerate and use within twodays.
For details of one-day cheese making courses at River Cottage, go to rivercottage.net.
