One thing that I really love doing in my Thermal cooker, are things that I would never normally cook if it weren't for having this amazing appliance in my kitchen! I find I can cook well enough without my Thermomix, but there are some things I just wouldn't otherwise attempt due to either lack of time, lack of skills or the difficulty level. Not anymore! Having made yoghurt already a few times, this month I have decided to branch out into cheese making!
Step 1...... Decide which types of cheese to attempt. This part was easy - I started out with halloumi cheese. I had a couple of reasons for beginning here - I have two customers from a Greek/Cypriot heritage who had previously asked me if you could make halloumi in the Thermomix, so I set about seeing if you could, I LOVE halloumi cheese AND I purchased the new Greek cookbook - Mezze -which of course inspired me to give it a whirl.
Halloumi!
It appeared to be a great place to start - it's an easy cheese to make. A little time consuming, as in there are a few different steps, but in each step the prep work is reasonably quick. It cost me a total of around $2.99 for a bottle of full cream, unhomogenised milk at Woolworths and a couple of dollars for a 10 pack of junket tablets, of which you only need 2. You can find junket tablets in the pudding aisle at your local supermarket. I found this recipe the easiest and clearest instructions to get me started. http://www.quirkycooking.com.au/2016/06/make-halloumi-step-step-photos/ Of course you could also attempt this with goats milk as well. Goat or sheep's milk makes a delicious halloumi cheese and is often better tolerated on the digestive system than cow's milk.
Moving on from the success with the Halloumi and my interest was piqued! I needed to know more and now! As a Thermomix consultant I am often granted the good fortune to see different chefs in action and one of these I have had the pleasure of watching was Dani Valent. During Dani's recent class she showed us how to make Paneer - a type of milk curd cheese often used in Indian cooking. She mentioned during this class that ricotta cheese is made in a very similar way so of course this became cheese #2.
Ricotta cheese making!
Of all the cheeses - if you are time poor but still want to attempt cheese making - this is your main man! All up 20 minutes of cooking time, 30 minutes of resting time and voila! Ricotta cheese. I turned to one of my favourite Perth Thermo foodies Tenina Holder, of Cooking with Tenina fame, and her recipe for Ricotta cheese https://tenina.com/recipes/fresh-ricotta-cheese. I really feel like I will be hard pressed to want to purchase these cheeses again - knowing both the financial difference in buying the cheese compared to making it, the taste factor and the ease in which they were to prepare! Half of this glorious rich and creamy ricotta cheese went on to become a key ingredient in a decadent lasagne bechamel sauce, while to the other half I added a spoon or so of sugar to taste, a little extra cream and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and served it alongside roasted balsamic strawberries. Ahhh spring desserts, I love you! <3
Despite my love of cheese, I've spent a large amount of time avoiding dairy in my diet, due to tummy upsets and I know that so many of my customers also feel the pain of loving the taste, creaminess and melty-ness (is that even a word?!) of cheese, but just cant handle the affects they receive from consuming it.
This is for you!
There has been two "cheeses" on my mind lately that I felt could be a good substitute. One is Yoghurt cheese - the easiest cheese recipe to master - make your yohurt - place inside a cheesecloth or nut milk bag and strain until the yoghurt is super thick and as tangy as you like. This can be done with both dairy yoghurt and coconut yoghurt. The yoghurt cheese makes a delicious base for sweetening with a little maple syrup or other flavourings and serving with fresh fruit. I prefer to use this coconut yoghurt recipe http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/basics-recipes/creamy-coconut-yoghurt-dairy-soy-gluten-corn-rice-free-vegan/207853 But surprisingly, I found the coconut yoghurt cheese an amazing opportunity to make a completely dairy free cheesecake base. YES! I am serious! Recipe coming your way very, very soon!
Dairy Free Lemon Cheesecakes
But yoghurt cheese is no match for melty, cheesey, toasty deliciousness and so my search brought me to zucchini cheese. Say what?! You did actually hear that correctly. "Cheese" made out of zucchini. And cauliflower if you will. But shhhhh! Don't tell the kids! I pinterest-ed the bejeebers out of dairy free cheeses and this little baby kept coming up time and time again. Unfortunately I had a big fail with the recipe I chose to use.... So this is one for the future posts. I'm not giving up on this one just yet!!! I'll keep you posted!