Eat. . . Homemade halloumi and ricotta cheese

Knitapotamus' Adventures in Cheeseland - Part 3!!

Fried, sliced halloumi with ratatouille

So, having gained some confidence from successfully making feta and mozzarella cheese in the last few weeks, I turned my attention to Halloumi (or "squeaky cheese!) This is one of my all-time favourite cheeses, and a pretty expensive one, so I was really keen to try making it. The recipe I was following called for 10 litres of milk, but I don't yet have a pan big enough for that, so settled for 5 litres Wangapeka Dairy milk instead. One of the great things about halloumi, is that while the halloumi is pressing you can make ricotta cheese from the whey, so two cheeses for the price of one! Here's what happened. . .

Heat milk up to 32C, add veggie rennet and once curds have formed, cut them up then cook them at 38C

I think it's the cooking at 38C for half an hour that gets the firm but elastic (& squeaky!) texture.

Pile the cooked curds into a large feta/halloumi frame 

The feta/halloumi frame above was from Mapua Country Trading.

Press the halloumi for half an hour whilst making ricotta from the whey

Heat up the whey to around 90C, add salt and vinegar and gradually strain off ricotta

About 200g of ricotta cheese, after draining in a muslin-lined sieve

Meanwhile, back to the halloumi. As you can see, this is quite a process - the most involved cheese-making episode so far!

Unwrap the pressed halloumi and cut it into 8 or 10 pieces

Lower the blocks of halloumi into 85-90C whey, to cook for 30 mins.

All the blocks of halloumi are added to the whey to be cooked together. Now, I don't think this is necessarily supposed to happen, but I found that while the halloumi cooked, little bits of ricotta curds kept coming to the surface for me to strain off and add to the rest in the sieve. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the tiny bits of ricotta curd floating in the whey. . . and you can also see some little bits of ricotta stuck to the halloumi blocks in the next photo.

Cooked halloumi blocks

Sliced halloumi fried in a tiny bit of olive oil

Sonny Jim's favourite way to eat halloumi is fried and drizzled with sweet chilli sauce

I have to say that for $10 worth of milk (5 litres) we got a big result! 900 grammes of halloumi cheese, and 200g of ricotta. I checked the prices in the supermarket yesterday and the halloumi was $8.95 for a 100g block, ricotta $5.50 for an equivalent amount. In other words, it would have cost us around $86 to have bought that much cheese from the supermarket!! Not that we even buy halloumi more than once a year usually, I have to admit. Of course we can't (and arguably "shouldn't"!) eat 900g of halloumi in one sitting, but luckily it keeps well in the fridge in a whey/water/salt brine, and we are sharing it around a bit too. The (low fat) ricotta keeps well in an airtight box in the fridge for several days. But who would have thought that my cheese-making endeavours could actually save us that much money?!! At least that is my spin on it, my ploy to keep on making cheese - I'm enjoying the cheese-making so much, and somehow no matter how much I make we seem to manage to eat it all up :) 

Eat. . . Homemade mozzarella cheese

Mozzarella with its best mate, Tomato!  Drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and ground pepper. . . mmmmmm!

It seems to me that these recent "Eat" posts could reasonably be subtitled "Knitapotamus' Adventures in Cheeseland!" And so the adventures continue!

Last week I made mozzarella cheese. Not for the first time, but certainly the first time I got a result that looked anything like mozzarella! Did you see that photo up above? Looks like mozzarella, doesn't it?! Even tastes (um, I mean "tasted") like mozzarella! Not like the first lot, which put me off cheese-making for a whole year. That looked something like this:

Gahhhhhhhh!!

But this. . . this was mozzarella to make my heart sing, and to believe that I am actually making progress with my goal to become proficient at making at least one cheese this year!

Here are a few photos to show you what happened to turn a load of incredibly creamy Wangapeka Downs milk into some delicious stretchy mozzarella cheese in around half an hour. . . But be warned, it is not the complete recipe, just enough to give you an idea of the process.

2 litres milk @ 31 C, plus 1/2 tsp veg rennet

40C, forming curds into a ball

60-70C, stretching 1/3 of hot curd ball to get mozzarella texture

Plunge stretched balls of mozzarella into icy water for cooling and storage

Slice up, add tomato, season with olive oil, salt & pepper and devour!

Cheese-making equipment from Mapua Country Trading, and mozzarella recipe from "Cutting the Curd - Cheese-making at home" book by Katherine Mowbray.

And guess what? Just when you thought you couldn't take any more cheesy adventures, tomorrow I plan to make halloumi for the first time ever. More on that soon ;-)

Eat. . . Homemade feta cheese

My first attempt at feta cheese

Having recently discovered the delights of Wangapeka Downs Dairy, I was excited to try making my first cheese. Well, at least my first successful cheese! There had been one ill-fated attempt in January 2011 when I tried to make mozzarella but failed dismally, but the less said about that the better!

So I ordered some full cream raw milk from Wangapeka, and with some trepidation started to make my first ever feta cheese. I used the recipe in my cheese-making kit from Mapua Country Store, and it was surprisingly easy to produce perfectly edible results first time! I will show you what happened. . .

Milk heated to 31C, then culture and vegetarian rennet added, and left to form curds and whey.

Cutting the curds

Breaking the curds into "pea-sized" pieces

Preparing the feta mold

Packing the curds into the feta mold

Pressing the block of feta with a jar full of water - 8 hours each side

Unwrapping the block of pressed feta from the muslin

Sprinkling with salt to "cure" the cheese (I slightly over-did the salt quantities this time)

The finished feta cheese - firm, crumbly and salty, just like it should be!

For a first attempt, I think this feta cheese turned out remarkably well - I could hardly believe that it looked and tasted "just like the real thing!" However, it was just a little too salty for my tastes, so for the following week's batch I used a different technique for curing (rubbing in rather than sprinkling) and less salt in total, and was even happier with the results.

This is just the beginning of my adventures with cheese-making. I have my sights set on halloumi and ricotta next, then possibly another try at mozzarella, or a dalliance with mascarpone, hopefully building up to brie and Cheddar. Watch this space!! 

Eat. . . Bean curry

Bean curry with yogurt. . .

. . . or without!

This is another curry taught to me and a group of workmates several years ago by a former colleague, "R". She was so generous to have us in her home week after week and patiently teach us how to cook some of her delicious curries and accompaniments. The aloo gobhi recipe in this blog post is one of her recipes too. This bean curry recipe is one of my favourites though, because if you use tinned beans it is super-quick, and in any case it uses only store cupboard ingredients and is always fragrantly delicious. I was struggling to think what to cook on Monday evening after work, when I looked in the pantry and saw several tins of beans and chickpeas. Instantly I knew that a bean curry was just what we needed, and it's pictured above! The curry's proper name is "Lobia," which is mildly amusing in our household, but you could just call it "Bean Curry"! Here's the recipe:

Lobia/ Bean Curry

Either 2.5 cups dried black-eyed beans, soaked overnight and then boiled

Or 3 tins various beans, chickpeas etc. The curry above was made with 1 tin each of chickpeas, 4 bean mix and cannelini beans

Generous splash of oil

9 garlic cloves, minced

2 inches grated ginger root or 2 generous spoonfuls minced ginger

2 tsps cumin seeds, crushed

2 cans chopped tomatoes

2 - 3 tsps salt

1/2 tsp chilli (or more to taste)

3-4 tsps ground coriander

1-2 tsps garam masala

Fry garlic and ginger in oil till really brown. Stir in beans and remaining ingredients. Bring to boil then simmer for approx 30 mins. Serve with basmati rice cooked with some cardamom pods, and an optional dollop of natural yogurt. 

Yum!

Eat. . . Spicy peanut sauce

I cooked up a batch of spicy peanut sauce today and  thought I would share the recipe with you. . . It comes courtesy of my wonderful friend VG, who gave me the recipe way back in 1994. It has been a firm favourite since then. It keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks, and also freezes well for several months. Peanut sauce goes wonderfully well with all sorts of things - especially good with barbequed food, and stir fried veggies. The possibilities are endless!

Anyway, this is what you do: 

Sauté 2 tblsps/40 mls of oil, 1 very finely chopped onion and 2 cloves of crushed garlic or a couple of teaspoons of pre-prepared minced garlic.

Add 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsps curry powder, 1" piece fresh ginger (or 2 tsps pre-prepared minced ginger) and 4 oz finely chopped peanuts.

Add 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup sweet fruit chutney, 2 tblsps peanut butter and 1 tsp salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for approx 1/2 hour until mixture darkens and thickens. . .

Store in glass jars in fridge or plastic containers in the freezer. I usually make a double mixture, keep some in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer. . .

Our family love this sauce so much that I included it in a "Favourite Christmas Recipes" book I made. As I said, it goes really well with barbeque food, so over here in NZ it's the perfect Christmas (summer) recipe, but it's great all the year round. . .

Thanks to VG for such a popular and delicious recipe! 

Eat. . . Garlic naan bread and aloo gobhi curry

Freshly cooked garlic naan bread

Back in the day, I loved eating vegetable curries but had no clue how to go about making one. I knew that it was best to use a blend of spices rather than commercial curry powder, but had no idea where to begin. To be honest, the idea of combining all those Indian spices intimidated me and that froze me into inaction. Curries were a rare treat, made by someone else or bought from the local Indian restaurant. Then around 6 years ago, my lovely generous Indian work colleague ("R") offered to have some of us round to her house one night a week over the course of several weeks, to teach us how to cook authentic Indian dishes. I learnt so much, and can now cook a range of vegetarian Indian dishes confidently. But still naan bread was a mystery. Then for my birthday in January this year we had a potluck Indian feast with some friends (was originally going to be a whale-watching boat trip, but Sonny Jim broke his leg, which put that plan on hold!) The Wifie made some absolutely delicious naan bread, as well as a couple of curries for our shared dinner. The naan bread was amazingly good! Anyway, that gave me confidence to have a go myself and my first attempt is pictured above and below. It was surprisingly easy and delicious!

Naan bread cooking on the griddle, brushed with melted butter - yum!

 For once, I followed the recipe exactly as specified, and here it is: Naan bread recipe from Allrecipes.com We ate half the naan bread fresh with curry last week and froze the rest. I am pleased to report they froze very well and were almost as delicious when reheated. Sonny Jim proclaimed them better than bought ones!

This afternoon I decided to make Aloo Gobhi, which is a simple potato and cauliflower curry taught to me by "R" all those years ago. Here's how you do it:

Cut a whole cauliflower into small florets (save the stalks for soup?) and peel and chop 4-5 potatoes into small cubes. Heat a splash of oil in a big frying pan and add 2 inches grated ginger, a couple of teaspoons of coriander seeds, 2 tsps ground turmeric and 2tsps salt. Fry for a minute, then add the cauliflower and potato. Cook on a low heat.

Meanwhile, roast and crush the spices. In a small frying pan, dry roast 2 tsps whole coriander seeds, 1 tsp whole black peppercorns and 1 tsp cumin seeds.

Roughly crush these in a pestle and mortar.

Add the crushed spices to the cauliflower and potatoes. Cook for a while longer, then taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Garnish with fresh coriander if available (it wasn't!)

Bear in mind ALL quantities are approximate. This is supposed to be a dry curry, not a wet one with a sauce, but I often find the mixture starts to get too dry and sticks as it cooks. In that case, add a bit of ghee, butter, oil or water depending on what you have to hand and whether you are trying to keep the fat content down or not.

Eat. . . Funny face sushi

A couple of weeks ago, Sonny Jim and one of his friends decided they were going to make some "funny face sushi" using the rice moulds and nori punches I had bought in Auckland. See this post for details. They had a ball, as you can see!

SJ's friend applies nori face to the rice shape

SJ shows off some of the funny faces

They both had great fun doing this and it was super easy. I just prepared the rice for sushi as usual (see this post), and put some of it aside for them to get creative with, whilst I prepared some sushi rolls as per usual. We will definitely do this again sometime, the faces were fun to make and fun to eat!

Close up of one of the sushi, with soy sauce bottle in foreground.

Eat. . . green pea and feta soup

Pea and feta soup I made last week.

This is one of my favourite soups and the whole family love it too - even Sonny Jim, who refers to it as "Swamp Soup"! It is loosely based on a recipe I found in my Jamie Oliver iPhone app. How 21st century! As always, I adapted it to suit our tastes and pantry. Best served with fresh crusty bread - last week I served it with olive and garlic French bread from the bread-maker.

Here are the instructions:

3 sticks celery, chopped

2 large onions, chopped

Splash of olive oil

3 or 4 large potatoes, grated

1 litre vegetable stock

500 g frozen peas

1 cup natural yogurt

Salt and pepper

Feta cheese and olive oil to garnish

Sauté the onion and celery in a large pan. Add the grated potato, frozen peas and veggie stock. Bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 mins or so, adding more liquid as necessary. Stir in the yogurt. Season with salt and pepper. Whilst still in the pan, attack with a stick blender until the soup is more-or-less smooth. Pour into bowls, and crumble feta cheese over the top, then drizzle with your best quality olive oil, in random squiggles (or even a heart shape as above!)

Eat. . . Sushi, Kiwi style!

We love sushi in our family. . . so much so that several years ago I painted a ceramic plate with the words and symbols for "Love Sushi" in Japanese. Later I found out I had the symbols a bit wrong, but hopefully it's the thought that counts and I didn't write anything rude by mistake!

Jamie has loved sushi since he was a toddler, less than 18 months old and I gave him a small piece to try. He's never looked back. When we lived in Blenheim when he was aged 2 and 3 we occasionally used to go to the local Japanese restaurant for a treat and he loved to have a "Children's Bento box" including sushi, tempura prawns and some other treats. We still buy sushi from time-to-time, but now usually make our own. The way the Wifie and I make sushi is definitely not authentic, but it's the way we like it! We usually make homemade sushi at least once every couple of weeks and I made some a few days ago (which is when I took these photos). This is how we do it:

First rinse 2 cups of  sushi rice in a sieve, until the water runs clear or until you get bored of waiting! Then boil 3 cups of water in a pan and add the rice. Boil fast for 3-5 mins then put lid on pan and take off  the heat. Leave the lid on and don't remove the lid for at least half an hour. Once the rice has cooked, make the seasoning mix. Add 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsps salt to 2 tblsps white vinegar. Stir to dissolve, possibly with the help of a little warming in the microwave. Stir this through the warm rice. Taste rice and see if it is tasty enough for you. Adjust seasoning to taste. We used to use the proper rice wine and rice vinegar usually recommended, but eventually swapped to this cheap version - tastes pretty similar.

Allow rice to fully cool.




Get a piece of nori seaweed and lay it on your sushi rolling mat. Not sure if it makes much difference whether it is shiny or dull side up!

Spread the rice over the nori with a spoon dipped in water, leaving a margin at the top of the sheet with no rice.

Place fillings in a row across the rice. We use a variety of things including strips of egg omelette, long slices of carrot, cucumber, avocado, capsicum/sweet pepper, asparagus, French green beans depending what is in season. Yes, sushi can be vegetarian! We sometimes add smoked salmon or tinned fish such as tuna or pink salmon. The sushi filling above is for Sonny Jim by special request - tinned tuna, carrot and avocado, with egg omelette about to be added. . .

Brush some water onto the riceless portion of nori, to act as "glue". Then roll up the sushi in the rolling mat, starting from the front edge. Once you have rolled the first bit to encompass the filling give it a little squeeze, then proceed to roll up the rest.   

Give the roll a squeeze all the way along, to make sure it will stay together when it is unrolled.

Repeat the sushi making process until you run out of rice. . .

Using a sharp knife dipped in water, cut each sushi roll into individual pieces. We usually cut them between 1 and 2 cm thick. Serve with pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi to taste. . .