Homemade Ricotta

I love most kinds of cheese. Making and enjoying fresh cheese at home is the best. I really love making and enjoying delishious things from scratch and often times it's more the process than the result that I find soothing and enjoyable. Today I'm not sure if it was the process or the result that I liked better. Homemade Ricotta is so simple and easy to make, and the product devine.

While the process I use here to make Ricotta is really the same as Indian Paneer cheese, it is also the quick way to make a cheese very similar to Ricotta at home. The difference is that real Ricotta is made from the whey that is a byproduct from making other cheeses. This process uses milk that is curdled by adding an acid. The acid can be citric acid, lemon juice, buttermilk or distilled vinegar.

A few simple ingredients: basically milk, vinegar and some salt to taste. Bring ingredients to temperature and the acid will curdle the milk, leading to whey and milk solids to separate.

The curds are scooped into a strainer lined with multiple layers of cheesecloth. It is drained to desired consistency, and can even be pressed when making Paneer that is to be cut in cubes.

After letting the cheese dry for about an hour in the fridge, the result was a pretty firm cheese with a great crubly texture. Two cups of whole milk made one disk of cheese that was about 2 inches wide and I'd say a pretty good portion for one person!

It made a perfect topping to awonderful open faced sandwich. Had some good walnut levain bread from Acme Bread on hand, topped with leftover fresh basil pesto that I made for dinner over pasta a few evenings ago, a few slices of tomato (picked fresh of the vines from my home grown urban patio container garden I should say!). Some crumbly Ricotta and a few grinds of fresh black pepper and sea salt. It does not get much better than this.

Grilling the sandwich under the broiler for a few minutes melted the pesto and lightly toasted the bread. The cheese softened a bit but retained structure and got some nicely browned peaks.

Definitely delishious either warm or cold!

Banana Wheat Muffins Go Nuts for Bread

A small hand of bananas in my fruit bowl starting to turn brown, had me reaching for a recipe to use it today. When you live around the corner from Tartine bakery, why would you bother to bake anything from scratch you may ask. Aside from making use of the ripe bananas I had on hand, here's my other two reasons for doing that today: For one, in the time it takes to wait in line for a breakfast pastry, you could bake muffins from scratch (it's true - this morning 35 minutes before opening, the line at Tartine was already a dozen people deep...) Second reason: You get to control the ingredients and bake some healthy goodness into it. With that in mind, I tried this Banana Wheat Muffin recipe from the Vegetarian Times today. It's a pretty simple and very basic recipe. First mix dry ingredients by lightly whisking to incorporate baking powder and baking soda into flour. It consists partially of all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour and added wheat bran. Lots of fiber! Then mash bananas and mix wet ingredients together. This recipe even cuts out the high calorie egg yolk, and only uses 1 egg white. I did not have the chocolate chips that the recipe called for, but my substitution of chopped walnuts were a perfect addition, and making it even a bit more healthy. Tip: Nuts stay fresh in the freezer much longer than outside. I always have an assortment of nuts in the freezer to use in impromptu baking occasions just like today, or to add to a salad, or make a quick pesto sauce. You may have wondered why the pictures above are of bread slices when the post is about a muffin recipe. I've decided to bake in a loaf pan as I'm planning to freeze some of the bread for breakfast on the go over the next few weeks. I find that a bread slices are easier to wrap and freeze than awkward shaped muffins. One can also then pop slices into the toaster for a quick defrost and light toast. I baked the loaf approximately 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 375F. Keep testing for doneness after about 20 minutes until baked through. I found the bread surprisingly moist considering the very low fat content and delicious as is, but really good served with some berry preserves. Lots of fiber and fruit, and low fat - this turned out great!