We made cheese!

Hi!

Okay I have to say that making cheese was exciting. I have never tried or seen in any way the process of making cheese. Some of my friends and I attended a seminar that was conducted from a green organisation in Greece and in that seminar we made our own cheese, a salt and herb mixture and bread. The bread was quite fantastic as well, with that crunchy and delicious crust, but the cheese was the highlight for me. I have to say that the smell was weird, something in between burnt milk and warm yogurt (if that makes sense). The taste was not so good either because we didn't have the time to complete the process (which can take up to one week) or on second thoughts I would say that the taste was blank. There was no time for the cheese to absorb the salt or take any flavour from the olive oil that is preserved in afterwards. Here are some pictures...

 

 

I will try to explain the process as simply as I can:

You need fresh whole milk or if you have cows feel free to use their milk after you strain it very carefully twice. You then have to boil the milk, while stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn on the bottom. For every litre of milk you have to juice 1 small lemon. When the milk starts to boil you add the strained, freshly squeezed lemon juice and turn off the heat. Keep stirring and you will see the fat separating from the water in the milk and forming small white balls. As soon as the separation is completed strain the mixture through a cheesecloth and place it with the cheesecloth in a plastic bowl with halls. Press it really well with a spoon to give it the shape of the bowl and in order for the excess moisture to escape place weight on top of the cheese. Leave it like this to strain well for 24 hours. Then take it out and cover it with salt and dry herbs if you like. Leave it for another 24 hours. Preserve it in the same bowl that you used before, covered completely with olive oil and dry herbs if you like.

That's it. It was actually simpler than I thought it would be. I really liked the fact that I participated in that seminar and it made me really excited to try new recipes and ideas. I think that it is important to try and do creative activities instead of just staying at home and doing nothing. That's what I am working on now. Gaining new experiences from doing things that I would just pass a few weeks ago!

Thank you for reading.

 

Mouah!

Eva