Red Leicester and Asiago Pepato. Tuesday 25th August 2015

On the weekend I decided it was time to experiment with some new cheeses, perhaps to be ready in time for Christmas. I have been inspired by watching some episodes of Will Studd's Cheese Slices although I ended up deciding that I didn't have time to do some of the more fiddly cheeses like those made by Trappist monks on France. Another day when I don't have other jobs to do!

So I decided on trying some of the Annatto seeds I bought in Melbourne so hunted around for a cheese which needed some red colouring. Annatto usually comes in liquid form for cheese making so it was all experimental, smashing up the seeds and boiling in some water to extract the colour. Who knows if it will work! The recipe for Red Leicester was similar to the usual, adding starter, adding rennet, cutting the curd, warming the curd. Then it diverged more towards a cheddar style of cutting the curds into slices to drain and be flipped regularly for an hour or so. The curd is then milled and salted before pressing for a couple of short presses before a 24 hour 22 kg pressing. 

It has been drying for a few days now and is starting to change colour. Once it is quite dry to the touch, I will vacuum seal it and put it in the maturing fridge/ cave.

Meanwhile in another pot, I thought I would try a northern Italian cheese from the Veneto area. Asiago and with pepper added Pepato. This is made with a starter more tolerant of high temperatures like Parmesan as the cooking of the curd took it to a much higher temperature than the Leicester. The pressing was also much lighter which I am not sure is such a good idea as I see a few cracks in the surface. This cheese had to sit in a heavy brine overnight and is now also drying. This cheese is meant to be washed with brine weekly for months but I think with those cracks, it would be safer to vacuum seal it and let it age out of the reach of mould!

Day 2 Red Leicester and Asiago Pepato drying

The Red Leicester Day 4 starting to look a bit red.

Cabécou update. Saturday August 15 2015

The Cabécou has been drying and maturing during the week. Now it has been put into jars of oils for another week of maturation before it is tasting time! I cut the rounds into pieces and split between three jars.

 One jar has oregano and bay leaf, another chilli flakes and the third has Tasmanian Mountain pepper before they are filled with a mix of sunflower and olive oil. 

Into the fridge they go. We just have to remember to eat them up within three weeks now. 

Cabécou and Mozzarella. Saturday August 8th 2015

For months I had passed a new little shop in Wynyard called Providore but the other day when they had a sign out advertising cheese making supplies I thought it was time to make a visit. I struck up a conversation with the owner, a cheesemaker himself who had done a course with a man in Brisbane from whom I buy my cheesemaking cultures. The Providore shop is now going to his stock cultures...that will be very handy as I won't have to build up a list of things I need before placing an order and also won't run the risk of the cultures being left in the mailbox in the sun.

One of this man's favourite cheeses is Cabecou a fresh French cheese mostly made with goat's milk but which can be made from cow's. It is easy and doesn't involve lots of stirring and heating. So this morning when the day was looking a bit cloudy and not so nice for being outside, I thought I'd give it a go. Found a recipe in Artisan Cheese Making at Home and off I went. 

The milk has been warmed to 75 degrees F, some Flora Danica culture added, then a dash of rennet.

 It now sits for 18 hours to mature. 

It will end up in a jar of oil in a few days with some herbs but perhaps I will write about that next time.

I thought I would make a 30 minute Mozzarella whilst I was about it. Tis one is pretty simple. It probably isn't as great as a hand crafted proper recipe Mozzarella but it is fine grated onto a pizza so good enough for my purposes! This recipe just calls for the milk to be warmed, citric acid added, then rennet.

After the curd is cut you heat it in the microwave to get it hot enough to be stretchy .

Then it is broken off into little balls and out straight into an ice bath to cool quickly.

Fromage Blanc and Ricotta Passionfruit Cheesecake. Friday July 17, 2015

There was some some ricotta and fromage Blanc left over from last weekend which needed to be used up, so I wondered how they would go in a cheesecake. I thought that the fromage Blanc had a texture similar to cream cheese so I adapted a ricotta and cream cheese recipe. I topped it with passionfruit pulp thickened with cornflour. Yum. It had great texture and flavour and the bonus of much less fat than a regular cheesecake. I'll certainly be adding that to my list of recipes to repeat one day.

Fromage Blanc. Sunday July 12, 2015

On Friday as I was trying to fight off a winter chill, I decided to stay nice and warm inside the house and make cheese. As well as topping up my halloumi supplies, I decided to experiment with a soft cheese, Fromage Blanc. It was a very simple to make, merely a matter of warming the milk, adding culture and rennet and then letting it sit all day. I then drained it in cheese cloth all night and by morning, it was ready.

It is a slightly sour flavour, creamy in texture so it makes a good spread for bread.

I tried it spread on some toasted rye sourdough with some sweet chilli sauces and it was very tasty. I think it would be really nice with jam too. I wonder if it would work in a cheesecake as it has the consistency of cream cheese but without the fat content. ....maybe next time.

The best of bartering - Cheesemaking Lesson for a bottle of The Retiring, an artisanal gin. Saturday June 6th 2015

Yesterday I had a cheesemaking day with a difference. A work colleague retired a few months ago and I had promised to give him a cheesemaking lesson one day in winter when the garden harvest was over.  Our paths crossed last week so we arranged to meet yesterday for a big day of production. My plans were almost foiled by the milk truck arriving at 8.30am. That meant me hot footing it up to the vat with several bottles to fill before all the milk disappeared off to the factory.

This is the first time I have actually taught anyone to make cheese and it was a bit hard to decide which cheeses to make to teach to not have too much time to kill in between steps but that also taught some of the basic processes. After a lot of deliberation, I decided on Parmesan, Camembert and Ricotta and the timing was pretty much perfect. Five hours later after much talking, timing and curd cutting and stirring, we had Parmesan into its final stage of pressing, Camembert halfway through its 5 hours of flipping, Ricotta drained and ready to use. I sent Bert home with some ricotta and a few Camembert to flip on his own and then sit back and have the pleasure of watching the mould grow over the next week or so.He also took some bottles of milk to try to make some Fetta at home. 

This is what mine look like this morning.

Camembert

Parmesan just out of the press

and into a saturated brine for 24 hours

And the Ricotta into an Egg and Bacon Pie

And my reward?    Only a bottle of the gin judged to be the best Tasmanian gin by the staff at the bar at the fabulous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art)!!! Bert hasn't been idle in his retirement but has started making a beautiful artisanal gin called ,appropriately, The Retiring. Guess what we had with our dinner last night! 

The Retiring Gin

And after he left,just to finish off the day, I made some Cherry Chocolate ice cream with the cream I had skimmed off the milk used in the Parmesan .

Today has been wet and drizzly outside all day so a perfect day for staying in the Preserving Patch Kitchen. I have been busy making some Jostaberry and Gooseberry Jam

And a nice crusty loaf of bread to go with it.

Harvest of the Sea. Sunday May 24 2015

I suddenly realised the other day that I hadn't done a blog post for some time after such a good start to the year.

The autumn garden harvest is finally finished so as the weather has been spectacularly beautiful this weekend, I decided to go fishing. Vegetarians stop reading now!  I thought my kayak fishing for the season had finished but couldn't resist the temptation when the forecast was for calm and sunny days and decided to go for one more trip before putting the kayak in the shed until late spring. Rocky Cape National Park , where I have had a bit of previous success ,was my destination. The day was frosty but with no wind. It was just beautiful on the water today.

Yesterday I caught three Australian or cocky salmon and one less tasty blue throated wrasse or parrot fish. The salmon went straight into the freezer for another day and I filleted the parrot fish to use tonight.

Today ,even though the day was calmer, the fish weren't biting and I was almost ready to give up and come home when I suddenly landed a squid. That made the trip worthwhile so it is Squid ink Risotto on the menu for tonight ( with the parrot fish which is not so tasty on its own).

 From this....to this