30 Friday Aug 2013
Posted in cheese making
Tags
For those of you who found your way here from the Guardian article How to make your own halloumi cheese, you might want to check out some of these previous posts:
https://handyface.wordpress.com/tag/halloumi/
Halloumi
Halloumi is really easy cheese to make, as it’s very difficult to get wrong. Plus, it’s much cheaper and tastier than supermarket halloumi!
05 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in cheese making
Tags
cheese, cheese making, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, halloumi, underground farmers market, vegetarian rennet
Ingredients:
As part of the Underground Farmers Market on September 19th i’ll be offering grilled halloumi in pita with rocket, so thought i’d better get cracking on making it!
I’ve had fantastic results with Ellies Dairy unpasteurised goat milk previously, so ordered a large batch direct for delivery on Friday, for a make on Saturday afternoon.
Lots of milk
Unpasteurised tasty goat milk
After having used a couple of stock pots to make cheese in for about a year now, I decided to splash out and buy a KochStar WarmMaster from Ascott, which is intended for keeping soup or punch warm, but is also perfect for cheese making!
The unit itself is massive – 27 litres capacity – but to ensure the milk didn’t burn, I also purchased an insert which decreased the capacity to around 18 litres – still pretty big!
It makes such a huge difference during the make, allowing easy modification and maintenance of temperature. My only small gripe would be that the outside gets very hot indeed, and when the water boils, it can start bubbling out around the insert.
Aside from this, it really is fantastic! Can’t recommend it enough!
The new cheese vat
Filled to the brim with lovely white milk
After heating to 32C, I added 5.1ml vegetarian rennet diluted in previously boiled and cooled water.
No need for starter with halloumi – the unpasteurised milk has enough going on anyway!
Vegetarian rennet with new syringe
Clean break
A clean break was achieved after 40 minutes (pH 6.3), at which point it was time to crack out my other definitely-necessary purchase from Ascott – Plastic Curd Cutters!
These are a bit of a luxury, but save a fair amount of time when cutting the curd, and also keep the cauldron insert safe from knife-edge scratches.
Cutting the curd
Leaving the curd to heal
Once the curd has rested (healed) for 5 minutes, it’s time to start raising the temperature to scald.
Target temperature is 40C, over the course of around 20-25 minutes, stirring gently by hand to keep the curd suspended – unfortunately this is quite difficult to get a picture of!
Target temperature reached
Ladelling out the scalded curd
Curd in cheesecloth-lined mould
Curd after draining
After the curd has knitted together in a cheesecloth-lined mould for an hour or so, cut it into rectangular chunks around 10cm x 8cm.
Heat the whey to around 70C, and carefully add the chunks of curd.
Maintain the temperature, gently moving the curd around from time to time for around 90 minutes, or until the curd starts to float to the surface.
At this point, carefully remove the curd and place on a draining mat to dry & cool for around 20 minutes.
Drying and cooling curd
Cover in a thin layer of salt, turning the pieces to ensure good coverage, rubbing in if necessary.
Leave to cool completely, then it’s ready to eat!
Home-made halloumi has a lot more texture to shop-bought, especially when grilled – the insides are almost creamy, and it’s lovely raw too!
I’ve managed to resist tucking in too much, and placed the rest in the fridge immersed in a weak brine solution, which should keep it for a few months, although hopefully it’ll get eaten before then!
21 Sunday Mar 2010
Posted in cheese making
Ingredients:
Jess's Ladies whole cow's milk
Heating milk to 32C
Diluting 0.5ml rennet in water
Adding rennet
Heat milk to 32C, add rennet diluted in previously boiled and cooled water.
Leave for around 40 minutes, or until curd gives a clean break.
Cutting the curd
Once curd has set, cut into 2-3cm slices and leave to rest for 5 minutes to allow the curd to heal.
Heating cut curd
Heat the curd gently to 40C, stirring gently over the course of 20 minutes.
Ladelling curd
Carefully ladel curd out of the whey and into a cloth-lined colander, keeping the whey for later.
Draining curd
Allow the curd to drain further, adding weight to squeeze out the remaining whey if required.
Drained curds
Once fully drained, cut the curd into 10cm x 10cm blocks
Boiling the whey
Heat the whey to boiling point, removing any remaining curd (ricotta!), which can be cooled and eaten.
Floating curd
Take the whey off the boil, add the curd slices and leave for 45 minutes, or until the curds begin to float.
Drying on sushi mat
Remove the curd from the hot whey and place on wooden mat to dry for 20 minutes or so.
Salting cooled curds
Once curds are cool to the touch, add salt and turn over and allow to cool completely.
Halloumi is ready to eat once it’s cool, or can be placed in 25% brine solution to preserve.
Can’t wait to give it a try – Halloumi is one of the most fun cheeses to make, and easiest to get right as there’s no affinage required!
27 Sunday Sep 2009
Posted in cheese making
Ingredients:
Heat milk to 32C, add previously diluted rennet and stir well.
Allow curd to set (should take 45-60 minutes), then cut into 2cm cubes.
Gently heat curd over the course of around 25 minutes to 40C, stirring by hand.
Drain the curd in cheesecloth, keeping the whey for later.
Leave the curd to consolidate into a single mass, adding a small amount (2-3kg) of weight to squeeze out the last of the whey.
Once whey is no longer draining from the curd, cut into centimetre thick slices.
Bring the whey to boiling point, and and add the sliced curd.
After about 30-40 minutes the curd should start to float.
Leave the curd floating for 20 minutes, then remove and place on a draining rack, sprinkling on some salt once cool.
Ready to eat immediately, but best left in 30% brine solution overnight.
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