Did some one say cheese!
I only order one of two things for breakfast, sourdough toast with poached eggs, avocado, mushrooms and spinach, on the side. The other is sour dough toast with ricotta and honey on the side. That’s it, I have NEVER ordered anything else, actually I tell a lie I do order something else every now and then but I ALWAYS cancel and ask for the usual. I know, I am really adventurous…
However, a lot of the times that I do order ricotta cheese with toast they are out of ricotta. Or if ricotta is on hand, isn’t always great but, hey, it’s ricotta. Like the other morning I was out for brekky and I was craving my R&T, but they were out of ricotta!
And I was under the spell of one of these cravings where you just had to HAVE it and they didn’t have it and you’re like, that’s okay, but you’re inner toddler is like, but I want my ricotta, now, but why don’t you have ricotta why???? My inner toddler doesn’t understand the concept of first-world problems.
So I toddled off home, obsessing over R&T toast with honey, with the infantile whine of my inner brat echoing in my head: how hard can it be to get a bit of ricotta it, it’s not like I’m asking for fried white tiger balls skewered on pygmy rhinoceros horn (not that I would). Finally an adult turned up in my head and suggested that instead of whining like a toddler, Nava, if you could get over yourself for a minute you’d realise that you can whip up some of that particular fromage yourself; it’s not that hard. So I did! And let me tell you, people, it was the amaaazing, and one of the easiest things I made. It was creamy, soft and and smooth and once I added some strawberries and pistachios ... well, it’s going to be hard to go back to regular ricotta cheese. Maybe I’ll sneak it into the café, next time, in a small container, and just order toast with honey.
Before you start here are some tips:
You can use full fat milk, low fat or skim milk , the texture and taste will vary.
You can't use UHT (ultra-high temperature) pasteurized milk. This process changes the protein structure of the milk, stopping it from separating and you wont get the beautiful curds that we need to make ricotta cheese.
If you want a really rich creamy ricotta add 2 cups of cream to the 2 litres of full fat milk (recipe is below)
when you see the curds begin to form don’t stir, you willl break the curds up.
Be PATIENT allow the milk to heat up SLOWLY.
To make your ricotta cheese smooth, place it in the food processor until smooth, just for a minute.
Ricotta cheese
Ingredients
Makes 2 cups
2 litres full-fat milk
½ teaspoon salt
60mls lemon juice, strained through sieve
Super creamy ricotta cheese
Ingredients
2 litres full-fat milk
2 cups cream
½ teaspoon salt
60mls lemon juice, strained through sieve
Method
Cover a colander with cheesecloth and set aside.
Pour 2 litres of milk into a pot over a medium to low heat. Add ½ a teaspoon of salt and stir. Bring milk to a gentle simmer, you’ll know it’s simmering, when the milk starts to bubble all around the side of the pot. (or you can use a thermometer and see that it reaches 90c and no more) Pour in 60mls of freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir for about thirty seconds. Curds will start to form. Once the curds have formed, don't stir turn off the heat and let the curds settle for 10 minutes.
Once you’ve removed the pot from the heat, place the colander lined with cheese cloth on top of a bowl to catch the whey.
Using a slotted spoon, gently scoop out the curds and transfer to the colander lined with cheese cloth. Do this until you removed all the curd and then let it stand for 15 minutes to drain off the excess whey.
Transfer to a sterilised jar and seal with a lid, storein the fridge.
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