A Nice Coriander Sauce

My Laotian colleague at work gave me this recipe which works well with chicken or beef as a dipping sauce.

• 2tbsp fish sauce (or more)
• 1 fresh red hot chili, seeded, diced
• Fresh coriander
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 slice lemon
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Put chili, coriander, garlic and sugar in a mortar and make a paste,

Transfer to a serving cup and add fish sauce and lemon slice, you may also add couple drops of lemon juice.

Dip your favorite meat or drizzle over meat. Especially goes well with smoked chicken or turkey.

Enjoy.

Thermophilic Culture Recipe

Thermophilic starter cultures are used mostly by the pasta filata and cooked curd cheeses. HEre is a simple recipe to produce an easy thermophilic culture at home.

1. Start with 2 cups of FRESH milk. Heat it to 185°F (85°C) on the cook top or in a microwave. Be careful not to heat too high otherwise the cream will separate.
2. Let the 2 Cups of milk cool to at least 125°F (52°C).
3. Add one table spoon of FRESH yogurt either homemade or store bought “live and active culture” type. Probiotic yogurt can also be used
4. Mix the yogurt into the milk thoroughly with a fork or a whisk.
5. Keep the mixture at 110°F (44°C) for 8-10 hours until a firm yogurt has set. This can be done by using a double boiler on a low setting or by placing the inoculated milk into a small CLEAN mason jar placed in a warm water bath. The bath can be kept warm by placing it on an electric range top at the lowest possible setting (so that ‘ON’ light is just on). Monitor the temperature closely the first few times you do this and you will become a better judge of the temperature settings of your range top. This way with future cultures you can set the process up and not worry about it for 8-10 hours.
6. Pour this culture into a full sized CLEAN ice cube tray and put into your FREEZER. As with all steps of cheese making, cleanliness is next to godliness.
7. Once frozen, remove the cubes and put into a CLEAN sealed container or plastic freezer bags. It is a good idea to label the container to distinguish it from your mesophilic culture.
8. The resulting ice cubes are each 1 oz of thermophilic starter.
9. Add these cubes (thawed) to your recipes as required. The cubes will keep for about one month.

To make more starter culture simply thaw one cube and use it as the fresh yogurt used in step 3.

Another way of cultivating thermophilic cultures is to use cultured unsalted European butter. If you can find in the shops, you can use it just like above instead of yogurt or combination with yogurt.

Mesophilic Culture Recipe

This simple recipe of mesophilic culture can generally be used for all recipes requiring a Mesophilic Starter. The taste of the final product will vary slightly from that of a true cheese culture.

1. Start with 2 cups of FRESH store bought Cultured Buttermilk.
2. Let the 2 Cups of buttermilk reach room temp. (70°F / 21°C).
3. Then allow the buttermilk to ripen for about 6-8 hrs. (Store bought buttermilk does not have a high enough concentration of bacteria to serve as a starter culture without ripening.)
4. The resulting buttermilk will be much thicker and sour then what you started with. It should have the consistency of fresh yogurt, if it doesn’t let it sit a few more hours.
5. Pour this culture into a full sized CLEAN ice cube tray and put into your FREEZER. As with all steps of cheese making, cleanliness is next to godliness.
6. Once frozen, remove the cubes and put into a CLEAN sealed container or plastic freezer bags. It is a good idea to label the container to distinguish it from your thermophilic culture. And also the date of preparation will save you guessing it later.
7. The resulting ice cubes are each 1 oz of mesophilic starter.
8. Add these cubes (thawed) to your recipes as required. The cubes will keep for about one month.

To make more starter culture, simply thaw one cube and add into 2 cups of fresh milk. Mix thoroughly with a fork or a whisk. Allow the milk/culture to stand at room temperature (70°F / 21°C) for 16-24 hours or until the consistency of fresh yogurt. Then follow from step 5.

Tulum Cheese

I am developing this cheese that is aged in a sheep or goat skin (Tulum) in Turkey. It is a crumbly cheese with sharp taste. I have found some research papers and derived this recipe. There is a blue version of this cheese as well and it is the most saught after.

When I am developing the formula, I have taken 2 cheeses of this type as a base, one is aged in a sheep stomach and the other aged in a goats skin. Both used mixture of goat’s and sheep’s milk. As I am using cow’s milk, I am adding lipas.

The additional butter and yogurt is to add flavour during the 4 months of aging.

For casing, I will be using cow bungs which are large enough (about 6 or 7 cm) and fill them with my sausage stuffer.

CaCl2 is also added to fix store bought milk.

Both recipes I used are doing tremendous amount of pressing to get rid of the whey as much as they can. I am keeping temps on the higher end to remove the whey also an extended period of pressing with smaller cube sizes during the cutting.

One recipe also uses whey ricotta mixed with this cheese before stuffing.

There is no indication of bacterial flora for this cheese and I am guessing it will be diverse as they used fresh milk, I have decided to use mesophilic flora danica type. Later addition of cultured butter and yogurt will add required thermo type bacteria for ripening. Butter will also help excessive moisture loss from the casings.

Ingredients
20 litre cow’s milk
Mesophilic starter
1/8 tsp Lipas
1/2 tsp CaCl2
Rennet
%3 cultured butter
%2 or %3 salt
%20 Yogurt (clean, unopened box)

Making
Add CaCl2 and lipas to cold milk stir well.

Take the milk to 34C and add mesophilic starter according to factory default dosage.

Wait an hour for ripening of the milk

Add rennet according to factory default dosage and wait about 1.5 to 3 hours for the clean break.

Cut to 1cm cubes, keep the temp at 34C

Stir slowly and wait for 10 minutes. Do this 3 times.

Take the curd to a cheese cloth lined colander and gravity drain between 10 to 36 hours.

While the cheese is draining, make a ricotta from the remaining whey. Drain ricotta as much as you can.

Mix cheese and ricotta by breaking into small pieces by hand.

Prepare your press and press the mixture with 30kg for 2 days.

At the end of the press, weigh your cheese and calculate how much salt, yogurt and butter you will need.

Mix cheese, yogurt and butter, mix well and start adding salt slowly. You may not need to add all the salt. Keep it to your preference. More salt will keep the cheese better and longer.

Some recipes of Tulum also incorporate roasted onion seeds. You can add them now.

Fill this mixture to cow middles.

Get your cave working on %70 or %80 humidity and 5C to 10C degrees and hang your cheeses. this is to simulate cave conditions. Weigh each cheese so that you can calculate how much water is lost.

Aging will take about 2 to 3 months according to the atmospheric conditions.

Mascarpone Cheese

Mascarpone cheese is used in various Italian pastries and desserts. It also tastes great on a piece of toast with sprinkled sugar!

Ingredients

1 qt Light Cream (940ml)

1/4 teaspoon Tartaric Acid** (5ml)

1. Heat 1 qt of LIGHT CREAM to 180°F (82°C)
2. Add 1/4 teaspoon TARTARIC ACID
3. Stir for about 10-15 minutes
4. The cream should thicken with small flecks of curd.
5. Using a DOUBLE layer of FINE cheesecloth in a strainer, pour off the whey and let it drain for about an hour.
6. Put the strainer in a bowl and place it in the refrigerator to drain overnight (or 12 hours).
7. In the morning, scoop out the cheese and put into an airtight container.

** Tartaric Acid is available from any cheese making supply company and most wine making companies. Since at home winemaking is much more common, look in your phone book for a local winemaking supply store. Many wine and liquor stores carry wine making supplies and may have tartaric acid.

Queso Blanco

This is by far the easiest cheese to make. Called Queso Blanco in the Spanish speaking (it means “white cheese”) world. It can be eaten strait or mixed in with various dishes. Try it in your lasagne recipes instead of Ricotta or in addition to it. Yum!

Ingredients

1 Gallon Whole Milk (3.78L)

1/4 Cup White Vinegar (60ml)

1. Heat milk to 180°F (82°C) stirring constantly. Be careful not to burn the milk.
2. While mixing with a whisk, slowly add the white vinegar. You will notice the milk begins to curdle.
3. Keep stirring for 10-15 minutes.
4. Line a colander with fine cheesecloth.
5. Pour the curdled milk through the colander.
6. Allow the curds to cool for about 20 minutes.
7. Tie the four corners of the cheese cloth together and hang it to drain for about 5 – 7 hours (until it stops dripping).
8. The solidified cheese can be broken apart and salted to taste or kept unsalted.

The juice of 3-5 lemons may also be used in substitute or addition to the vinegar. The resulting cheese will have a much more tangy flavour.