Friday, February 25, 2011

Homemade Mozzarella and Ricotta!

We had a Yankee swap/White Elephant gift exchange this past Christmas. The gift I threw into the mix was a make-your-own-cheese kit from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company. Secretly (or not so secretly, as it were), I wanted to get my own gift back at the end of the day. While I didn't win it back in the swap, Tim ended up with it and promptly handed it to me (yessssss!).

I finally put the kit to use this past weekend. The Real Martha was in town, so we busted out the kit, bought a couple gallons of whole milk and had at it. We made a ricotta, which is ridiculously easy, and mozzarella, which is only slightly more complicated. Both turned out really great, although the mozzarella ended up with a bit too much salt (due to a typo in the written directions in our kit) and wasn't quite as stretchy as it looked like it should be. But the flavor was great anyway. We used both cheeses that night in some lag roll-ups (which were a hit here a couple weeks ago), a riff off of this Boobs McGee, I mean, Giada De Laurentis, recipe. Yum. Can't wait to make more cheese! Anyone wanna join me?