Cheese! Not something you would normally expect to whip up during your average weekend. But whip it up we did. We can blame all of this on an unnamed daily deal site and an impulse purchase by Number Two. After purchasing a Mad Millie cheese making kit, Number Two rushed home to attempt all her cheesy favourites. The kit makes Mozzarella; Feta; Halloumi; Cream cheese; Cottage Cheese; Quark; Mascarpone and Ricotta. But first, a few hurdles. Despite all his lofty pioneering, Mystery DIY Man will not allow a cow in the backyard. Might also be some council bylaw against it, but when would that get in the way of the pioneering spirit? So where does one find un-homogonized milk? After a frantic web search on goolge-a-pedia, it turns out that it’s not very hard – just use silver top milk.
Number Two decided that mozarella would be the easiest cheese to start with (also the quickest). It wasn’t too hard and only a wee bit messy. The odd bit of watery milk splattered around the place adds to the authentic pioneering look. Rather than reinvent the wheel – if you want to make you’re own cheese check out Mad Millie’s How To video. You don’t need too much equipment to make fresh mozarella so don’t worry about going out and buying an entire kit! If you’re going to make fresh mozzarella you have to make a margherita pizza (basically: basil, tomato and mozzarella). As we did, yum!
Following the success of the mozzarella, we decided to step up the cheese difficulty and had a go at marinated feta. This took a lot more time, with a whole load of brining required. We discovered that if you leave the feta in the brine for the absolute minimum amount of time you will get a more creamy (instead of crumbly) and slightly unflavoured feta – Number Two wasn’t much of a fan.
Number Two’s father provided some freshly marinated olives that saved the day and once it was marinated it was quite tasty. Rather than bow out after one middle of the road result, Number Two made another batch of feta. This time flavoured with some cumin seeds. After a bit of a memory fail, the feta was found in the fridge two weeks after it was put there. Whoops – this turned out to be a blessing. The feta was firm, crumbly and quite tasty. Was even tastier once it was put in a marinade of olive oil, fresh rosemary and garlic. It looked good all bottled up and tasted fantastic.
