Luscious Labanya

From the post: A Perfect Winter's Eve Supper

Make this beautiful spicy, soft mediterannean cheese ahead and keep it in the fridge for company or just for a delicious snack of an evening.

I suppose you can do this with store bought yogurt, although I prefer to make my own. It’s always creamier and milder than the sometimes gelatinous and too-tart stuff from the dairy case. If you must use store-bought yogurt, please buy full-fat and organic if you can find it.

Ingredients

1 litre creamy, mild yogurt

3 garlic cloves, peeled and partly crushed

1 small hot red pepper

a few peppercorns

a few good-sized pieces of lemon or lime rind

sea salt

olive oil

Line a sterilized colander with fresh and impeccably clean cheesecloth or butter muslin and dump in the yogurt. Let it drain, over a bowl for 6-12 hours, scraping the yogurt from the cheesecloth and stirring it up every two or so hours so that it drains properly. The yogurt on the outside will become firmer and less liquidy as it drains and it is important to allow the softer yogurt on the inside to drain as well. When the consistency is quite creamy, rather like room-temperature mascarpone, bring up the sides of the cloth and tie into a bundle. Suspend the cheese-filled cloth (I tie mine to a cabinet handle) over the colander and bowl and allow to it drain for a further 12 hours, taking it down occasionally, untying it and redistributing the yogurt as before. It should achieve a solid, creamy consistency similar to that of a thick butter icing. The firmer your yogurt was to start with, the less time it will take to drain to the right consistency.

Scrape out the yogurt into a clean, sterile bowl and mix up with a bit of sea salt and, if you like a few dashes of fresh ground cumin.

Pour olive oil into a sterilized jar until it is 3 or 4 inches deep. Add in the garlic, peppers, and rind. Drop spoonfuls of the yogurt into the oil in the same way (and same size) you would for drop cookies. When the dollops start poking through the oil at the top, add more oil so they remain covered. Continue until all the yogurt has been dolloped into the jar and the whole lot is covered with enough oil that it is a centimeter or so above the yogurt balls.

You can keep this in the fridge for a few weeks. If your fridge is pretty cold the olive oil will go all opaque and sludgy, so take the whole jar out and sit it on the benchtop for an hour or so before you want to use it. Then, use a fork to carefully scoop out some cheese blobs and put them in a little dish and spread the yummy oily cheese over nice bread or biscuits.

Comments

[Ana]

As you can see I'm perusing your food blog (how else would I leave a comment, in May, to a post from December). Wonderful to find another yoghurt and cheese making enthusiast. I also make my own yoghurt and Portuguese Fresh Cheese, which tastes better than store bought.

I know that you have somewhere farther away, a recipe for ricotta. I'm going to try that one. Already bought the milk.