May 21, 2013

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Today, I wanted to try making some flavored cottage cheese, and ended up making some lovely Ricotta cheese. Strictly speaking, Ricotta is a snowy white cheese that is made from the whey [drained liquids] of other cheese such as mozzarella for instance, you can also make it at home using buttermilk.

You’ll need:

Flavoured Ricotta Cheese
  • 2 Liters Milk
  • 100ml Buttermilk
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp cumin seed
  • 1 tbsp salt

Method:

  1. Dry roast the cumin seeds using a heavy bottomed pan. Roughly grind them, leaving a few seeds intact.
  2. Pour the milk into a steel utensil. Add all the spices and seasonings.
  3. Heat the milk on high heat, stirring every once in a while.
  4. Add the buttermilk after about 10 minutes, or when the milk is about to rise, whichever is earlier.
  5. The milk should curdle shortly – somewhere around 180 degrees.
  6. Pour into a muslin/cheesecloth lined sieve.
  7. Gather up the cloth, tie on top and hang till it stops dripping.