. It's got gorgeous pictures, and, most importantly, simple easy-to-follow recipes for making jams, biscuits, cheese and other basic but delicious fresh foods. In fact, the instructions for cheese-making seemed so simple that I decided to try making some for our New Year's Day party.I made a soft, cow's milk cheese good for spreading called Labneh. The recipe is crazy easy, but I won't write it out here because I don't want to steal from the author of Home Made. I'm guessing you can find directions online pretty easily, although the book is worth purchasing. Basically, it involves yogurt, salt and garlic.
You put all that stuff in a clean dishcloth. And here's a tip: Use a dish cloth, not cheese cloth. Cheese cloth is too porous for this particular method. Then, you hang your bundle-o-yogurt over a big pot or bucket and walk away. I left mine hanging--which strains out the water--for about 24 hours.
Finally, you open up the dishcloth and put your cheese on a platter. Add fresh herbs and you're done.
I thought the cheese was very tasty, and I got many compliments from my party guests. In fact, they ate it all, so I know it must have been good. Home Made has a few other cheese recipes that I'm hoping to try, including a sweet breakfast cheese with vanilla bean. Yum.
So, it turns out soft cheese making is one of those awesome things that seems really fancy and time-consuming, but are actually easy-peasy. I love those things.
I love simple things, too.
Thanks for the link to the book!
Sounds delicious! I make one from milk and vinegar a lot that turns out like a cross between ricotta and farmer's cheese. I should do that this week...
In Mediterranean food, this is called Labneh and its eaten like hummus. It's delicious smoothed with some olive oil sprinkled on top for nummins.