Cheese making post no. 1 : Cream Cheese

This marks the beginning of a new venture for Rhubarb & Ginger - cheese making!  Not your actual cheddar (although I don't rule anything out!), that's a bit advanced for me just yet. No, I'm starting with soft cheeses.

You see, for my recent birthday my hubby bought me all the extra paraphernalia I needed for cheese making - cheesecloth, a digital thermometer, some vegetable rennet and the very important book of recipes. The book came from Lakeland and is written by Gerard Baker, a chef who I have seen on t.v. on occasion but who has more recently been on active duty as a chef and lecturer in Antarctica!

Home made cream cheese with smoked salmon & cucumber panino

So, getting back to the cheese.  I chose this recipe for Cream Cheese to start with as it seemed fairly simple and I could pretty much guarantee that so long as the cheese at the end of everything was good, the menfolk would eat it. All of which is fairly critical as I suspected we were going to have quite a bit to wade through!

The process itself is really very simple, which is nice.  You do need some particular items in order to make clean, untainted cheese - such as stainless steel pots, pans, a colander and cutlery, glass bowls, cheesecloth and a digital thermometer to ensure that the milk mixture reaches the right temperature. You also need to ensure that everything is absolutely spanking clean and free from all chemicals, so rinse - rinse everything copiously with clean water.

My first go - edible but unexceptional

Now I will admit that this was my second go at making cheese - the first one was a bit of a failure.  However, it was worth the failure as it taught me a lot about how to heat the milk, what quantities I can easily cope with and what to expect from the curds themselves. I shall pass on as much as I can in this blog post, so that your first go will be rather more successful.

So, the initial process is to heat the 500ml of whole, full fat milk and 500ml of single cream (light cream in the USA, table cream in Canada) together in the one pan. You're not heating it very much, just to 29°C, so the easiest way (avoiding the possibility of burning the milk on the bottom of the pan) is to employ a Bain Marie style arrangement with a pyrex bowl containing the milk/cream mixture sat on the top of simmering water in a pan underneath. This way, if the contents heat too quickly or too much, it is easy to remove from the heat.  In fact, my milk/cream zoomed up to 34° at the speed of light and I had to place the bowl in a sink of cold water to bring it back down to the right temperature.  Ah well, live and learn.

Home made cream cheese with smoked salmon and cress
oven bottom muffin

It was important to reduce the temperature as the next step was to add the live yoghurt (I used Yeo Valley yoghurt and very nice it was too!) and had the milk/cream been too hot, it would have killed the live cultures within it.  So, in goes the 200ml yoghurt and half a teaspoonful of diluted rennet.  Make sure to stir gently but regularly so that the rennet is mixed in quickly and effectively as it begins working quickly.  One of the things I learned in my first attempt with rennet was that my rennet - it is vegetable rennet - is very weak.  As a result, I used twice the amount required.  You will only know how your rennet performs by using it, unfortunately.

Following 30 minutes of exercising of what little patience I possess, I took a look inside the bowl.  Honestly, the satisfaction of finding a bowl full of coagulated curds and whey is quite ridiculous and almost as good as the next stage of cutting the curd.  It is worthwhile popping your (very clean) little pinky finger into the curd to check whether it splits cleanly before cutting the curd.  If it doesn't break cleanly, leave it for another 15 minutes or so until it does.

The next stage, cutting the curd, is my favourite bit.  ~shrug~  I have no idea why. Anyway, find yourself a super-clean, fine bladed, stainless steel carving knife type of knife and cut the curds into squares (well, rectangles in fact, but they look like squares from the surface!).  Believe it or not, this helps to release the whey from the curd.

A word about cheesecloth.  If you're using a new piece of cheesecloth, it is essential to give it a good rinse through to ensure that any loose threads have been cleared before using it in anger.  I usually do this bit before doing anything else and leave it sat on the side in a dish.

So the next bit is to line your stainless steel colander with cheesecloth and place it over a big bowl.  Then gently spoon the cut curds into the cheesecloth. About now, you should start feeling a little bit like a cheese maker.  *chuckle* Immediately, you will see the whey begin to drain from the curds - which is what you're after.  If you're in the U.K., you can probably leave the cheese out of the fridge for the next six or seven hours as it drains.  However if you live somewhere hot, it's best to put it in the fridge.  Good luck with finding room for a large bowl and colander in the fridge.  We had to play some serious fridge tetris to get ours in!  Take a look at it from time to time and drain off the whey.  I kept mine and drank it with a little cherry syrup added.  Major lushness.

You will need to put the cheese into the fridge overnight (complete with colander and bowl), however at around the 8 hour mark, it is worthwhile very gently turning the sides of the curd to the middle, just to ensure that the centre of the curds get to drain properly.  I did this just before it went into the fridge.  Sneak a flavour now too - isn't it divine?

The following day, simply peel the cheesecloth away from the cheese curds and spoon them into a storage bowl with good fitting lid.  Hey presto - your cream cheese is ready for use.  Break out the smoked salmon and celebrate, you're a cheese maker!

The yield you will get depends entirely on the degree of milk solids in your milk products.  I'm afraid I can't tell you how much mine made because we'd eaten a third of it before I remembered I should have weighed it.  I guess if you think of a standard 180g pack of Philadelphia cream cheese, I must have made approximately four of those - so around 700-800g in total.

What all this fuss has been about - home made cream cheese!

Another thing is your milk.  Without doubt, raw milk is the best.  However, finding it is like finding rocking horse poo.  So don't be worried about using homogenised, pasteurised milk - it's what I used.  So long as the cream is accompanying the milk, the cream molecules will be able to help the homogenised cream molecules work in the required fashion for cream cheese.

I suppose I'd better provide a smaller, more concise version of the above recipe, *chuckle*, but I'd recommend if you're new to this process, you read all the above before getting cracking.

CREAM CHEESE   

Ingredients :

500ml whole, full fat milk
500ml single cream
200ml live plain yoghurt
0.5 tsp rennet, diluted in 15ml warm water.

Method :

To begin with, rinse a large piece of cheesecloth through and place to one side in a bowl.

Place a large pyrex bowl over the top of a saucepan containing a small amount of simmering water.  (Or use a double boiler, if you're lucky enough to have one)  Add the milk and cream to the bowl and slowly bring to a temperature of 29°C (84°F) stirring gently all the time.

Remove from the heat and stir the yoghurt into the milk mixture.  Mix the rennet with the water and stir them into the milk mixture, making sure to stir right through to the bottom of the bowl.

Set the bowl aside in a warm place for 30 minutes.  The milk should have coagulated into curds and whey.  Test the curds by inserting your pinky finger to break the curds.  If they break cleanly, proceed to the next step.  If a bit of a ragged break, leave the curds for another 15 minutes.

Take your knife and gently cut the curds in a chequer board pattern, so as to create squares.

Line a stainless steel colander with the rinsed cheesecloth and set it over a large bowl.  Gently spoon the curds into the centre of the colander.  You will see the whey begin to drain.  Set the cheese aside to drain, checking it from time to time and emptying the bowl of whey.

At the end of some 8 hours (or overnight), gently fold the cheese from the sides to the middle, so as to help the draining process.  Place the whole lot (colander, bowl and all) in the fridge overnight or until the curds have virtually stopped draining.

Spoon the drained curds into a super-clean, lidded storage container and plan your lunch.

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Today's dinner : Indulgent potatoes and pesto chicken

Owing to the Vegibox deliveries - which are a weekly delivery of locally grown fruit and vegetables - we have had something of a potato glut in the house.  Now this is very okay where myself and son & heir are concerned, but not so good for hubby - who would see all potatoes fired into the face of the sun, if he had his way.

So this has set me the difficult task of trying to find potato dishes that hubby either does like (one in a million) or might like (even rarer).

I remembered that I cooked a dish of scalloped potatoes that he enjoyed - and reported that he really quite approved of - so I decided to go there again.
 

Looks good to me!

Scalloped potatoes (well, my recipe anyway!) involves slicing the potatoes very thinly and laying them in a dish interspersed with finely cut celery and grated garlic and pouring over a concoction of milk, cream cheese and cream.  Bake in the oven for the next hour or so until the potatoes are soft.  So very indulgent!  Definitely not something to have more than once a year!  I paired them with some chicken that had a layer of green pesto through the middle - just for a bit of added flavour - and was then roasted with a little butter on top for around 30 mins at 180degC.  A final flourish of steamed carrot, broccoli, peas and a little gravy rounded off the plate.

Myself and son & heir loved it - poor hubby was less than impressed with both the potatoes and the chicken.  Oh dear.  I'll try to do better next time!

For dessert, son & heir and myself had our current favourite thing - little pre-packed jellies with fruit inside.  Our choice this evening, was orange flavour jelly with mandarins.  They are so refreshing - and just a few spoonfuls big.  They really hit the spot.

Bacon & Blue Cheese Filo Tart - quick, before the sun disappears!

In actual fact, this tart isn't reliant upon sunny days.  We've eaten it with potato wedges instead of salad in the middle of winter - and it was just as good.

However, in this instance, I served it with a Melon & Cucumber salad - the sweetness of the Canteloupe melon went so well with the salty bacon and blue cheese.

I've been making this dish for quite some time now and when I remembered it the other day, I looked back across the Recipe Index and was surprised to note that it wasn't there.  Mind you, this was cause for some celebration because it meant that I could tick off another "bloggable" dish on the menu - one which I had done countless times before and was not only easy but reliable!

You might think that, being made with Filo pastry instead of shortcrust or puff, this might be a low-calorie, "good for you", healthy option.  I have very great delight in putting you right where this is concerned and would quite categorically state that there is very little about it that is good for you - apart from being good for your soul.  You will very definitely feel downright spoiled, indulged and maybe even a little bit naughty when eating this tart.

You see, fundamental in the creation of the filling is the use of 300g of your best, creamiest, rich and delicious Philadelphia cream cheese.  Oh, don't suck your breath in like that - the wind might change and you'll stay looking like it.  Yes, I know I could have used low fat Philadelphia - but why?  This tart is supposed to be rich and delicious - and nothing but the full fat version will do.  If you're so bothered about it, don't make it very often and don't eat a huge piece - but do make it, and do cut yourself a generous piece.  Go on - you're worth it!

One word of warning as regards the ingredients though.  The Rocket is absolutely essential.  I can remember baking this tart once in the past when I had forgotten to buy some Rocket.  "Oh, it can't make THAT much difference, surely!", I thought.  Wrong.  So wrong.  This is one of those tart fillings that something magical happens to when it goes into the oven.  One of those clever chemistry things.  Now obviously, the eggs are there to bind it all - that's a given.  However, the Rocket seems to act as some kind of subtle scaffolding that provides aeration as well as flavour.  When you first start mixing it in, you don't think it's ever going to lay down and behave - but it does.  Then, once it has baked, it emerges with no discernible Rocket.  It's there, doing a valuable job, but quietly and in the background.  The one time I tried to make the tart without it was an utter disaster as the filling was too rich, too thick, too claggy and just, well, too much of everything.  So - don't be tempted to leave the Rocket out.  I've tried it and it's not good.

One more thing - when you are shopping for ingredients and if you shop at Sainsbury's, do try their common or garden "English Blue Cheese" which is vaguely red coloured (not unlike Shropshire Blue) and completely unassuming.  I picked some up purely because of its price (it was the cheapest blue cheese I could find - it was the end of the month and money was a little tight) and was surprised to find that it is actually very palatable indeed.  Perhaps a little on the salty side - but knowing how salty some of the Danish blues can get, we can forgive it that.  I think it did a sterling job at being crumbled on top of the tart - and is responsible for that deep yellowy orange hue.

If you're curious about the Melon & Cucumber salad, it was a simple matter of getting a bowl and putting into it some rocket, some Canteloupe melon balls (cubes would do fine, if you don't have a melon baller), some finely sliced cucumber that had been skinned and had its pips removed and several sliced cherry tomatoes.  Once served onto the plate, I added a couple of marinated Sweetfire beetroot, which provided the zing! to the melon's sweetness and the saltiness of the tart.  We didn't bother with a dressing, as the melon provided plenty of juice.

I like to think of it as a beautiful partnership.  The incredibly unhealthily rich and delicious tart, paired up with a very healthy sweet and sour salad.  Delicious.

BACON & BLUE CHEESE FILO TART   (serves 4-5) 

Ingredients :

4 large sheets of filo pastry, cut in half to make 8 individual sheets
extra virgin olive oil
300g (or slightly less) of lean back bacon, diced
3-4 spring onions, sliced finely
2 eggs
300g tub soft cream cheese
2 large handfuls of rocket leaves
50g (approx) blue cheese
2 tbsp pine nuts.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas4.

2.  Taking a spring form tin, lightly brush some oil around it.  Then, brush the first sheet of filo pastry lightly with oil and lay it into the tin, sticking it to the oiled sides.  Continue with the other sheets of pastry, brushing with oil and laying into the tin, until the tin is completely covered and the edges are stuck to the sides.  These edges will be turned down and form the "crust".

3.  Place the bacon pieces into a heated but dry frying pan and cook over a medium heat until any water has been removed and the bacon is just beginning to brown.  Hopefully any fat should have rendered out by now.

4.  Add the spring onion to the bacon pieces and continue to cook until the onion is wilted.  Remove from the heat and set to one side to cool a little.

5.  Taking a large bowl, add the cream cheese and crack in the eggs.  Using a hand whisk mix lightly together until all the lumps are removed.  Season with a good pinch of pepper but do not use any salt - the bacon will be salty enough.

6.  Add the cooled bacon & onion mixture, leaving as much of the bacon fat in the pan as is possible.  Add the rocket leaves and the pine nuts.  I usually chop the pine nuts just a little before adding to the mixture.  Stir until everything is combined, then pour into the filo pastry case.

7.  Break the blue cheese into pieces and scatter them across the top of the filling mix.

8.  Turn down the edges of the filo pastry neatly (I usually roll them), to form a crust around the edge of the filling.

9.  Place into the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the centre of the tart is firm to touch.

10.  Give the tart some 5-10 minutes to cool before turning it out and cutting.

Serve.

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Smoked Salmon Mousse

The one dish from the Christmas Buffet we produced that took any "cooking", as opposed to simply assembly, was the Smoked Salmon Mousse.

However, it was so simple to make that I hesitate to call it "cooking".  More a case of understanding balance of flavours, plus the ability to operate a food processor!

I dithered (for an astonishing length of time) over whether to include cream cheese as well as the double cream - and then wound up using them both, but in smaller quantities.  I figured that they both had a part to play in the texture and flavour of the mousse - and I was right.

As for the horseradish, even if you are not a horseradish fan, do include it.  It isn't obvious - and adds that little bit of tang that it is apparent isn't lemon juice, but you can't quite work out what it is.

Between the fish itself, the horseradish, the lemon juice and the dill, this is a mousse of extraordinary dimensions - so take care as to what you serve it on.  It can cope with being served on something like the rye bread we used, as the bread has a flavour that is very different to that of the mousse.  However, served on something like a Blini, I can't help but think that the overpowering flavour would become cream.

I know that the supermarkets are selling small packs of smoked salmon offcuts - Asda do one for 90p - which would be just perfect for this mousse.  After all, there's no need to chop up a perfectly lovely piece of smoked salmon!

The recipe below makes double the amount seen in the ramekin above.  I only made half because I was just using it for canapés and didn't want any left over, but it just goes to show how easy it is to make the amount that you are going to require - which is incredibly useful if you've spent a lot on a little!

Thank you to Knorr for supplying us with the majority of the ingredients for this dish.

SMOKED SALMON MOUSSE

Ingredients :


120g smoked salmon
2-3 tbsp double cream
1½ tbsp cream cheese
½ a tsp of creamed horseradish 
½ a lemon, juiced
fresh Dill, to taste.

Method :

1.  In a mini food processor, or a bowl suitable for using a hand blender, place the smoked salmon and whizz to chop into small pieces.

2.  Add the cream, cream cheese and horseradish, then slightly less than the stated amounts of lemon juice and dill.  Whizz to combine, and taste.  Add more cream, lemon juice or dill as required and whizz & taste until it suits your palate and the desired consistency is reached.

3.  Decant into a bowl, ready for use.

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Greek style three-cheese & bacon filo pie - and Christmas salad

Yes, that is one heck of a title for a pie - but I can't think how I'd describe it otherwise!

It began life as a BBC Good Food recipe for "Ham & Blue Cheese Tart", but has grown and developed since then.  For instance, our preference is for cooked bacon rather than ham and because of son's sensitivity to blue cheese, I include a little cheddar and leave his part of the pie free of the blue.

I'm so glad that Sainsbury's had Springform tins on special offer the other day - and that hubby spotted them and got one!  Without the Springform, this was so much more difficult to produce.  It is achievable - for instance you could use a casserole dish to form the pie in, then carefully remove it and place it on a baking tray to cook.  However, if you've got a Springform, it's definitely my method of choice.

The Christmas Salad was my first go at such a thing.  I thought about what colours say "Christmas" and put together salad items that conformed to that concept.  I would have included beetroot if I'd have had any.  So, we had Little Gem lettuce, cucumber, spring onion, cherry tomatoes, orange segments and pomegranate seeds, all dressed with a lemon and olive oil dressing.  It was lovely with the rich pie and definitely something I'd do again.

I have to admit though, that I completely forgot to include the pine nuts.  Now I've made a version with pine nuts - and now one without - and I must say, that the difference was minimal.  So, if you're watching the pennies - you wouldn't be compromising on flavour if you left them out.

Closeup to illustrate the salad - which was really lovely

GREEK-STYLE THREE CHEESE & BACON FILO PIE (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

6-10 sheets filo pastry, depending on size
1 & 2 tbsp olive oil
a pack of smoked back bacon, diced
1 bunch spring onions, sliced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
300g tub soft cheese, room temperature
2 large handfuls of rocket leaves
50g blue cheese, crumbled (I use Stilton)
20g cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp pine nuts, chopped roughly

Method :

1.  Heat oven to 180C/fan160C/gas 4.

2.  In a frying pan, cook the bacon in the one tbsp olive oil until beginning to crisp, then set aside to cool.

2.  Brush each filo sheet with the remaining oil (reserving just a little) and layer into a 20cm springform tin, overlapping each sheet at a different angle, but leaving one sheet separate.

3.  In a large bowl, combine the soft cheese and eggs, then add the spring onions, cheddar cheese, bacon and finally the rocket.  Season with pepper and just a touch of salt.

4.  Pour the egg mixture into the filo case and spread to level.

5.  Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese and pine nuts.

6.  Lay the final Filo piece over the top, then fold the sides down to create a crust.  Brush with a little oil and place into the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until just set and the pastry is golden brown.

7.  Cool slightly before serving.