Say cheese!
Yep. That’s gotta be the worst blog title ever. I am nothing if not terribly cliched. But that’s what brings you back. Hang on. Are there any repeat customers out there? Anyhow.
What brings you here today is cheese. Of the haloumi variety. And it is goooood.
It’s really easy too - you just need a bit of time. I can’t say I’ll be rushing to make other cheeses now, mainly because I’m not a huge cheese eater person, but I’m not very good at saying no to halloumi.
Let’s get to it.
Haloumi
What you need:
4L full cream milk
1 rennet tablet dissolved in 10ml of boiled, cooled water
Sieve or colander
Cheesecloth (I used a chux cloth)
Thermometer
Slotted spoon
Big pot
Righty. So first up you need to dissolve that rennet tablet. Boil some water, let it cool, then dissolve the tablet and set aside. You’ll be using it later.
Next put the milk in a large pot and insert the thermometer. Heat on medium-low until the milk is 45 degrees celcius. Make sure you’re constantly stirring so that it doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pot.
Once at temperature, take off the heat and mix through the rennet. Put a lid on that pot and leave for about 45 minutes, or until it’s firm. It’ll still be a bit wobbly. During this step I went to the gym. How good am I.
Once set, you’ll need to cut into 1cm cubes. Cut vertically, widthways and finally horizontally - we just cut on an angle, as you won’t be able to tilt the pot without it all coming out. It’s no biggie.
Once you’ve done this, use your slotted spoon to lift up the curds and drain away the whey. Do this over and over, for about 10 minutes. It’ll end up breaking up the whey and looking weird. Don’t worry.
Now it’s time to line you sieve or colander with the cheesecloth, and spoon the curds into it. Take a spoonful at a time, drain the whey away and then put into the sieve/colander. Check out that action shot!
Once you’ve scooped all the curds in, you’ll need to weight it down. If you’re using a colander, top with a small plate and use canned foods on top. My sieve was too small for that so it was a matter of scouring the kitchen for something that would fit, and weighing it down. Leave for about half an hour now, to drain all the excess whey.
Now it’s time to cut that haloumi up!
Bring a pot of water to the boil, and lower in your halloumi. You’ll probably need to do this in batches. Wait for the haloumi to rise to the top - it’ll take about 2-5 minutes. Then take it out and put aside on a cooling rack, coat generously with salt. When you think you’ve salted it enough, add a bit more.
It’s done - you’ve made haloumi! It will store in the fridge in a sealed container for about 2 weeks. When you’re ready to cook, just fry until golden on both sides.
Eat whichever way you please - I chose the virtuous salad route.
And finally, ignore that great big mess in your kitchen. And thank the bf for cleaning it all up. Major bf points.
I used the recipe from this website, and it worked a treat!
