Last week, I took part in a fresh cheese making class and I thought you might also be interested in the recipes. It was a small class held by a farmer, who's prodcuts I appriciate very much, especially her fresh goat milk's cheese.
Yoghurt
To make yoghurt you may either use raw or pasteurised milk. It is unnecessary to heat pasteurised milk, after all it has already been heated. Among the milk you will need either a start yoghurt or some yoghurt culture, that is for example availabe in form of a powder. Some also add milk protein powder, but personally I do not recommend this because it has an aftertaste. It supposed to make the yoghurt a little more creamy, but I think it is still not worth it. You may prepare the yoghurt right away from the raw milk that is heated to 48°C and the just proceed as written in the recipe below. However in that case you should consume the yoghurt witing 3-4 days and the resulted yoghurt will be more sour and less creamy, then when heated to 90-95°C. In case you ferment the bacterias for too long you'll likely end up with a too sour yoghurt. If the yoghurt is too liquid then probably it has been either fermented over too low or too high temperature (above 50°C). Or you have moved it too often and sudden while transfering it to the fridge. So be patient while the fermentation time and do not even think about touching it. I understand that you are curios and want to so if something happens at all, but be patient! I know what I am talking about...!
Heat 1 liter raw milk to 90-95°C and keep it on this temperature for 5 minutes, then chill down to 48°C in a cold water bath. Now add a knife point yoghurt culture powder or a teaspoon yoghurt. Mix it well together and prepare the yoghurt glasses and fill with the prepared milk. Put glasses into a waterbath that has a temperature of 42-43°C and let it stand there for 4-6 hours and take care that the temperature doesn't fall under 40°C. The result is going to be a kind of coarse-grained yoghurt with a little whey. The whey can be drained. In case you desire a yoghurt that is smoother with fine grains you have to keep the mixture for 18-20 hours in water bath that is 30-35°C warm. But I think it is a lot more difficult to make at home, unless you own a machine.
Fresh cheese
Fresh cheese is made by curdling milk with an enzyme and then draining off the whey. Some fresh cheeses are curdled only by acidity, but most cheeses also use rennet. Fresh cheeses tned to be bland so it is nice to experiment with herbs and spices. My favourite is the túró (a type of curd) or quark, but the Hungarian type is a lot drier then for example the German. At home it is usually prepared from curdled milk that is heated to 60°C and then it is drained.
Heat 2 liters of raw milk, while whisking once in a while to 70°C, then let it cool in a water bath to 20-28°C. Then add 2 tablespoons of yoghurt and a drop of rennet. Now let it stand for 12-24 hours on room temperature. Then either with a knife or a cake decorating spatula cut the curd in 2 centimeters thick slices and let is stand for an hour. A layer of whey is going to appear on top. Now pour it carefully into a cheesecloth covered sieve and let it drain for 6 hours (or maximum 12 hours). By the way instead of the yoghurt you may use buttermilk or kefir. When the cheese is ready pimp it with spices or herbs anything you desire.
The next fresh cheese is a type that you can cut with a knife and it has also spent some time in salty water. You will need both culture and rennet to make it.
Heat 3 liters of raw milk to 65°C, then let it cool in a cold water bath to 34°C. Then stir in a knife point culture (MA4001) and let it ferment for 30 minutes. Then check the temperature, it should be at least 30°C, but better if it is 32°C. If neccessary then reheat it carefully. Stir in 3 drops of rennet and let it stand for another 30 minutes. It is important to keep the temperature constant otherwise it will take longer until the curd reaches the right consistency. It is just right when you put your finger into the curd and when removing it breakes and there no leftover curd on your finger. Then with a knife or a cake decorating spatula cut in 1-2 centimeteres cube. Let it stand for 10 minutes, until a layer of whey sets on the top. Remove 300 ml of whey and add the same amount of 50°C warm water. Now the curd has been washed. Let it stand for 7 minutes and now transefer it into forms. This can be special cheese form or plastic yoghurt forms that you have made holes into it so that the whey can drain. Let it drain for 18 hours while turning it first after 1 hour, then after 3 hours and then after 6 hours again. Now the fresh cheese is ready to eat but you can leave it in salty water for a while. For that cook 1 liter of water with 200 g salt, let it cool and put the fresh cheese in there for 5-10 minutes, or as long you like. But be careful because it can get too salty pretty fast!
And finally, my favourite, that is also a fresh cheese but a lot more creamy then the once before. It has a slight, but really very slight sweet touch and it tastes pretty much like crème fraîche.
Heat 1 liter raw milk to 70°C, then cool down to 25-30°C. Stir in 2 tablespoons of yoghurt and 3 drops of rennet and stir well. Let it stand on room temperature for 6-18 hours. Now cut it in 2 cm slices with a knife or a cake decorating spatula and let it stand for an hour. Now carefully transfer it into a cheescloth and let it drain for 7 hours. Then transfer it into a plastic form with holes and salt the top of it. Turn it the next day and salt it again. In case it has been drained very well, then you can also put it into oil with herbs and spices.
Instead of the millet, I could have used couscous or even bulgur, but frankly I am not so much a fan of those. It is not that, I eat it, but it is not my cup of tea. However, I am fan of millet. Actually, the plan was to use quinoa, but I did not find it in the pantry. Maybe it was even better that way. This salad is for those who enjoy sweet and salty in in dish. Everything started with a bottle of pomegranate syrup, that I wanted to try for such a long time in combination with beetroot. Yeah, beets again, but frankly why not? No local radish or spring onions are availabe yet, and honestly that imported stuff has no taste, at least then not if you know how it actually can taste like. Okay, imported vegetables are not autmatically bad! After all artichokes are also imported and taste great, not to mention all the citruses. But no spring vegetables please! Not to mention the imported south-american asparagus. That's just so unnecessary! Anyway, that's another story so let's get back to the salad! So pomegrante, beetroot and millet together are not really exciting, not yet. But if you add some chervil, raspberry vinegar, cardamom and cinnamon oil you might be on the right way! Just get some fresh sheep's milk cheese and roasted almonds and you are right there, where you should!
Thinking about this week's sinful dessert, I thought it might be a good idea to cook something light for lunch. Altough, cauliflower is not in season yet, I am here with a soup, simply because these days I recieved one as a gift instead a bouquet of flowers. This might seem to be a little strange, however I am not a fan of cut flowers, therefore I was surprised by a green cauliflower. I have already had yellow, but I did not really like it, now after this one I am really keen to get a purple one. However my greengrocer is not willing to plant it, because she says it is not enjoyable at all. As far as this soup is concerned it is pretty spice, yet still light thanks to the buttermilk and the lime.
Ingredients:
500 g cauliflower
1 teaspoon butter
1 shallot
1 potato
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
600 ml vegetable or chicken stock
200 ml buttermilk
1 lime
nutmeg oil
salt, pepper
Sautee chopped shallot, add cubed potato and garam masala, then the cauliflower florets and pour stock over it. Cook over medium heat until soft, then puree it together with the buttermilk. Season with salt, pepper and the juice and zest of a lime. Serve with breadcrumbs, nigella seeds and a few drops of nutmeg oil.
Believe it or not, even though I bake so many cakes and chocolate treats, my all time favourite is crêpes. And it is always best when it is baked by my mom and filled with apricot jam. Once in a while I like to have some with raspberry jam or with curd cheese and vanilla sauce. Only the so called szilvás gombóc is threatening its first place. Anyway, I can't tell you why I've waited so long with these beet-poppy seed crêpes. After all it is definitely something that may not be missing from my beet collection, right?
Ingredients:
for the crêpes:
125 g flour
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs
325 ml milk
50 ml cream
50 ml beet juice
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
clarifed butter for baking
for the blood orange sauce:
juice of 3 blood oranges
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
100 g butter
Sift flour, stir in sugar and salt. Then stir in the eggs and mix until it is well incorporated, then add milk in small portions while whisking. When it comes to a smooth batter, add the rest of the milk, cream and beet juice. Let it stand at least for an hour and stir in poppy seeds right before baking. Bake them one by one adding a bit of clarified butter every time. For the suace bring lemon and blood orange juice together with the sugar to the boil, then whisk in the butter. If the sauce is not thick enough stir in some cornstarch that is dissolved in a little water. Do not use too much, just enough so that you get the desired consistency.
I am pretty sure that it was about half a year ago, that I fall in love with this cake. I never miss a chapter of Eric Lanlard's show, because you can learn so much! Not to mention the interesting background informations about the classic desserts. And this one? Well, already its name: Piedmontois, doesn't sound elegant? Of course might have already figured out that it is all about hazelnuts! After all the best hazelnuts come from the Piemont! The cake is made of two layers of hazelnut biscuit with a hazelnut omusse in the middle and covered with a gooey chocolate glaze. Though there is a hazelnut mousse cake on the blog already, but this is so different! I really like, that the basis for the mousse is crème pâtissière, butter and Italian meringue, because I haven't tried this kind of mousse yet. Though I already prepared crème pâtissière based mousse but with the addition of gelatine and cream. My favourite type is still the pâté à bombe based, followed by the Italian meringue-cream kind because that is just so light, however there is even one more that is a lot lighter, even though it contains chocolate. It is Pierre Hermé's gorgeous dark chocolate mousse. Anyway, now back to the cake! I decided to make six small ones instead a big cake. Originally it is coated with milk chocolate, but as I am not really a milk chocolate kind of person anymore, I used dark. Luckily! Because it seemed to be a little too sweet to my taste, therefore next time I would reduce the amount of sugar. The mousse contains quite a lot of butter, but still it is amazingly light and fluffy! However do not serve it directly from the fridge, but let it stand for about half an hour on room temperature, it will be just perfect that way! I think this is anyway a general rule with cakes, not to mention that any cake is better the next day. This one here is perfect for those who are addicted to milk chocolate bars with hazelnuts!
Ingredients:
based on a recipe by Eric Lanlard
for the hazelnut biscuit:
5 egg whites
200 g roasted, ground hazelnut
100 g sugar
50 g flour
for the Italian meringue:
180 g sugar
90 g egg white
for the hazelnut mousse:
2 egg yolks
50 g sugar (now i would only use 20 g)
25 g corn starch
125 ml milk
25 g butter
1/2 vanilla pod
150 g soft butter
50 g hazelnut paste (see details below, used 90 g instead)
Italian meringue
for the glaze:
100 g corasly chopped hazelnut
100 g butter
200 g milk chocolate (used 60% cocoa dark chocolate)
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt to firm peaks, then stir in the ground hazelnut, sugar and flour. In case you want to bake a 25 cm round cake, then pipe two circles onto a baking sheet, each 25 cm and bake for 20 minutes. Then prepare the Italian meringue. Bring sugar with 125 ml water to the boil and cook until it reaches 120°C. Add syrup onto the almost beaten egg whites in a thin strain and beat until firm. Bring milk with the vanilla seeds and pod to the boil and pour it onto the egg yolk-sugar-corn starch mixture. Put it back to the stove and cook until it thickens, then stir in the butter and let it cool.
The original recipe calls for hazelnut praline, however in the show he used some hazelnut spread, if I remember it well, therefore I prepared that myself. You can also prepare the hazelnuts as a praline and then prepare the spread in a food processer with the molten chocolate. Roast 100 g hazelnuts and then process with 100 g of molten chocolate and 1 tablespoon oil. One tablespoon is for your sweet tooth, the rest is ready to mix it together with the previously prepared crème pâtissière. Then stir in soft butter and fold in the Italian meringue. Cut the baked biscuits in form and pour the mousse on top and cover with the other biscuit. Chill for at least an hour. For the glaze melt butter and chocolate, then stir in the hazelnut and pour it over the cake. I used the double portion of the glaze for 6 mini cakes.
Weekends the request for lunch is always meat with sauce and if possible a lot! I guess this time I have just picked the right dish, after all what else could have been better then the French classic, Boeuf Bourguignon? If you want to be authentic, then you might want to go for the recipe by Escoffier. According to that, the meat should marinate for three hours in red wine and brandy. Then comes the frying and the long cooking in sauce Espagnole. However, most of us surely do not have a portion of that mother sauce in the fridge. Therefore I decided to go for Joël Robuchon's recipe. This fabulous dish wouldn't be Bourguignon without lardons, onion and mushroom.
Ingredients:
800 g rump pot roast
1 bottle red Burgundy
1 tablespoon peanut oil
45 g butter
2 medium carrots
2 medium onions
2 tablespoons flour
1 twig thyme
2 stalks celery
1 bay leaf
3 stems flat leaf parsley (i used a small parsley root instead)
2 cloves garlic (degermed)
650 ml veal or beef stock
handful of small white onions
1 teasoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
125 g lardons
150 g button mushrooms
1 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt, pepper
Bring wine to the boil, then let it simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime heat oil, add butter to the hot oil and as soon as it starts to foam fry cubed beef in small portions until brown, then set it aside. Sautee sliced carrot, onion and garlic cloves (Robuchon adds it only later, together with the bouquet garni) for about 5 minutes, but do not brown it. Sprinkle meat with flour and add it to the vegetables with a teaspoon of ground black pepper and fry for another 5 minutes. Now add half of the stock, the wine and the leftover liquid in the bowl where the meat was set aside. If needed add more stock so the meat is just covered. Pack celery and herbs into a leek leaf and add to the rest. Now simmer it for 2 hours, the meat is ready when you can simply half the cubes with a fork. While the beef is simmering boil onions for 2 minutes in salty water. Melt butter, add sugar and the onions and let it simmer for about 20 minutes over low heat or until it gets golden brown (huh, I forgot this part...). In another frying pan fry lardson, then set aside and fry mushroom in the same frying pan. When the meat is ready remove it from the sauce, sieve the sauce and simmer for about five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and mix everything together. Serve with freshly chopped parsley.
For a very long time I really could not even think of using frozen mushroom, I just was not convinced enough, and could not imagine that it actually can be good. After discussing about frozen mushrooms with some fellow foodies, I decided to give it a try. Why should one use frozen mushrooms, after all so many different kinds of fresh ones are available throughout the year. Well, in my area it is absolutely impossible to get wild mushrooms, whether fresh or dried, but at least some types you can get frozen. And wild mushrooms are just absolutely amazing, and if frozen is the only way to get them, well, then I do. And so good, that finally I gave in! Since today morning I could not get the charactheristic taste of cep and the slight sweetness of parsley root out of my mind, so I had to get them together in one dish! I think the parsley root foam goes perfectly well with the soup and the crispy oat flake balls bring the missing excitement. The idea which is by the way so simple, yet ingenious is adapted from Nils Henkel. Basically it is nothing else, but deep fried hardend fat coated with breadcrumbs or anything like that. The inside of the balls simply melt away while frying and you end up with empty and crispy balls. Perfect instead of the traditional croûtons in soups or with salad.
10 g dried cep
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot
500 ml veal stock
1 twig thyme
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
few drops of lemon juice
salt, pepper
for the parsley root foam:
20 g butter
1 shallot
50 ml white wine
2 large parsley roots
200 ml vegetable stock
50 ml cream
salt, pepper
you'll need these also:
coconut fat
flour
egg white
oat flakes and breadcrumbs
For the soup sautee chopped shallot, add diced mushrooms, soaked cep and thyme twig. In case you use frozen muhsrooms, sautee it over low heat until all the water has absorbed. Then add veal stock, cep water and cook for 15-20 minutes, then remove the thyme twig and puree with crème fraîche. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. For the parsley foam melt butter and sautee onion, add white wine and reduce. Then add sliced parsley root and cook in the stock until soft. Sieve (do not through it away, you can either prepare a soup or a puree), add cream, season and foam it with mixer right before serving. To make the crispy oat flake balls dice coconut fat in equal pieces, then freeze for 15-20 minutes. After dust in flour, then roll in egg white and then in the oat flake-breadcrumb mixture and freeze again. Deep fry in 170°C hot oil.
