Mozzarella

Today I have been making mozzarella cheese and some of it is now melting beautifully on top of a pizza in the oven. This morning I beat the milk truck and got enough milk to experiment with a batch of cheese. This recipe is pretty easy - meant to take only 30 minutes but it took me a bit longer. I think I may have cut the curd too small or stirred too much as the end product is a bit dry. Still fine for pizza though!

Rhubarb Relish

This week in the Preserving Patch kitchen I made a batch of Rhubarb Relish. It's a very easy recipe that someone gave me, with just rhubarb, onion, vinegar, sugar, curry powder and a bit of seasoning. Great with cheese and bread for lunch. My rhubarb is looking a bit sad in the garden at the moment with the onset of winter but I still found plenty to make a double quantity. Last weekend I planted onion seedlings sticking to the old rule - plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest day. There is still plenty of variety to choose from in the vege patch - broccoli, bok choy, leek, parsnip, fennel, carrot, beetroot, lettuce, silver beet, cabbage, turnip, plus of course 4 different varieties of kale.I think I went a bit overboard with kale this year (had 5 varieties on the go at one stage) When will we ever get around to eating all the veges in the freezer as well as the pumpkins hanging in baskets under cover but out of possums' reach?

Sauerkraut

Last weekend I finally got around to making a batch of sauerkraut for the first time.I have been wanting to do something with the cabbages in the vege patch for a while but it's taken me this long to work out what equipment I could use for the fermentation process.I found a straight sided stoneware pot in the cupboard in which fits a bread and butter plate nicely. With a heavy jar of preserved lemons on top the plate stays under water and keeps the cabbage below the brine. I have just removed the scum from the first week's fermentation and now just have to wait for the fermentation process to continue. This could take several weeks so let's hope it is worth the wait.

Fetta Cheese

This weekend I decided to take the plunge and try some fetta cheese, inspired by my successful yoghurt making. Before I launch into buying the proper ingredients, this is my test batch using yoghurt for a starter culture and junket tablets for rennet.
It is a pretty simple process but a bit time consuming. I need to work out a better starting time next time so that I don't end up doing all the fiddly bits late at night. The fetta is now sitting in a brine whey in the fridge maturing for a few days until I am game enough to taste it. At this stage it still tastes very much like a home made cottage cheese -boring. I think I might try it in a Greek spanakopita recipe first as I am not sure if it will achieve the flavour and consistency of the Fetta I am used to eating.

Morello Cherry Jam

I have a neighbour who owns a commercial cherry farm. Some years ago when I asked if they had any sour cherries in their orchard and they said no, I thought no more of it. Then when I was buying some sweet cherries last summer, the owner told me that "my cherries" would be ready in around New Year and I found out they had planted a morello cherry for me that was now bearing fruit. I was very excited as I love sour cherries after tasting sour cherry juice and sour cherry jam in Europe. Polish "Dzem wisniowy" is absolutely delicious! Just after New Year, I picked the entire crop off the tree . I made some jam and froze the rest with a sprinkling of sugar. These I can use in fruit salads in winter or just pop a couple in my mouth when I am searching for something else in the freezer (instant cherry sorbet!). I have just opened the one jar of jam I made. I told Max that it was pretty horrible and that he wouldn't like it, but that was just so I could eat the whole jar myself!!

Yoghurt making

 One of the benefits of living on a dairy farm means I have access to a lot of raw milk. Many years ago I tried my hand at cheese making but found it very time consuming and the results were not at all what I hoped for! At the moment, I limit myself to making yoghurt once a week, a job which takes very little time and with delicious results, especially when teamed with some frozen raspberries or passionfruit puree as a lunch time treat.  I have finally honed my recipe to give me a thick creamy texture, with a dollop of honey to take away any excess acidity.I heated the milk up while I was having breakfast, added the culture and poured it into a wide-necked thermos. By this afternoon, my weekly batch will be ready to put in the fridge.