My friend Jo (of 42 Things) is really the pal who encourages me in all these from scratch kitchen endeavors. Whenever I wonder about making something from scratch that I'd typically buy ready-made, I just phone her up.
"Oh, yeah, I make that all the time," she says, "It's easy..."
I've been making yogurt her way for quite a while now (I gotta get her to blog about her process), and now here's Jo's ricotta. And-- is it ever easy! It's almost embarrassing to write a post about it (like writing a post on how to brush your teeth or feed the cat)...
Start with 2 Liters (1/2 gallon) of whole milk, and 1/4 C vinegar.
[Update: You get a richer, more moist cheese if you replace some of the whole milk with full-fat cream. The more cream, the creamier the texture of the resulting cheese!]
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| I have my doubts about whether this pot is really large enough. |
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| "He built a small, smokeless fire..." |
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| Oops. Apparently the pot was really not large enough. Especially if you're going to read a novel and not watch what the milk is doing. |
Now, pour the curds and whey into a sieve lined with cheese cloth or a tea-towel. Stir the curds a little in the sieve, to let all the whey run out.
The 2 Litres of milk made about 1 and 3/4 cups of ricotta cheese, which will be enough for filling a batch of cannelloni when mixed with some sausage, veggies, onions and egg. Yum.
Congratulations, it's always a pleasure learning how to do new things and finding that it's easier than you thought...and good too! :D
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! Thank you! Will be doing this soon!
ReplyDeleteI love to peek over here once and awhile to see what you are up to. I'll have to try this with my girls. Yum. It reminds me of when I had to make my own cottage cheese in Kenya for lasagna. ~Denise...also once known as 'Aunt Denise'....hmmm...not sure how to post on these blogs...I'll go anonymous since nothing else fits. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley,
ReplyDeleteDo you guys use cast iron/enamel pots/ fry pan? We do and we are trying to find out if they do indeed scratch the ceramic stove tops. I see you have one. Is it a bear to keep clean?
(Keep in mind, in your advice, that I'm cooking with toddlers with vigorous stirring "help" and I can't always clean things right away.)
We are not sure whether to keep the one we have or go bigger or ceramic, etc...
I'd love to know your thoughts.( ;
Sandra
My pots are all stainless steel and my frying pan is cast iron. I haven't noticed it scratch my smooth-top stove. When you buy a pan, see if the bottom is rougher than a typical pot. Mine isn't, but maybe some are. I got my pan for 10.00 from Superstore.
ReplyDeleteI don't bother cleaning my frying pan if I only used it for making pancakes or other 'clean' things- I just wipe it out. The oil staying on the pan is good, it adds to the non-stickness of it over time. When I've used it for meat or onions, I use just a bit of dish-soap and scrub it clean, then oil it again right after I dry it off. It's not hard to keep clean, especially the older it gets! Keep on adding oil (canola works best because it has a very high burn temperature) right after washing it and let that sit on it between uses. Then I still use (a small amount) of other oil or butter when frying something, but I certainly don't need much.
I sometimes don't clean my pan right away; in that case the stuff in it is left dried on (like maybe overnight) but that doesn't really make it any harder to clean. Don't leave water in it for longer than about 10 minutes if you're soaking it to loosen the dried on gunk, because these pans do rust, right? If you leave it sitting in a wet sink it will leave a rust ring.
But I just love mine, and now I'm hoping to soon get a couple other cast iron pots. Sometimes I bake cornbread or other things in the frying pan. Yum. I've even seen cast iron muffin pans and I'm wondering how well those work.
wow! that does look easy! hilarious post :)
ReplyDeleteNice work- this is on my list of 'to trys'! Have you tried making any of the hard/soft cheeses (eg. havarti, mozza)? There are a couple sites I keep meaning to order the enzymes from, but haven't managed to complete the order.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried the harder cheeses- just feel kinda lazy about them... But if you do it, Avenue, I will certainly be watching for a detailed how-to on your blog. Maybe I'll just let you do the work of learning...heehee...
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