Yesterday I started on another new adventure - cheese making. Starting simple I made some cream cheese from yoghurt (to be honest I'm not really sure what it is called, but it tastes exactly like cream cheese to me. Basically all you have to do is mix a teaspoon of salt with a litre of yogurt (we make our own caspian yogurt) and then hang it in a bag for 24 hours. Yum! I will definitely be making more!Of course cream cheese is no use unless you have some delicious bread to go with it so it was fortunate that my friend Sunny stayed last night and brought her bread making bag with her - complete with all the necessary thermometers etc.
We made (well really she made...) some delicious bread with natural yeasts and I now have a great container of raisin natural yeast in the fridge that I need to learn how to use properly and how to feed properly to keep it alive. This months challenge! We also had a fantastic chicken curry last night courtesy of Sunny - having visited India to study cooking and also having worked in a curry 
restaurant for over a year it was definitely delicious! Thanks Sunny!In other news.... we have hit a really cold patch here. The snow has gone, but it is freezing outside every day. That hasn't stopped the chickens from laying though - still 5 each day with the occasional 4 thrown in every now and then.
I am so impressed - your idea of a 'productive day' is on a whole different level from mine! I'd like to have a go at making the cheese, but then I'd have to eat it (like you, with some good bread) but my waisteline wouldn't thank me Can't wait to see what you try next!
ReplyDeleteOooh love your hanging contraption (is that a coat hanger I see?) I've only ever made it in my coffee pot using a coffee filter but I like your way better. If you add a tablespoon of icing sugar and hang it you get a really yummy cheesecake substitute. :) And your chooks rock! Mine go on strike as soon as it snows. :(
ReplyDeleteJo - you have no idea of chilling out!! I am very impressed at what you do in a day. Long way from the teenage days in Dunedin, but it all fits pretty much the same picture - always up for a challenge!! I am really enjoying reading up on your family and what you all get up to. By the way, it was a heat wave here in Alex to day - I made pizza and melted in the process! Love Jo
ReplyDeleteCan you come round sometime in February and be productive at our house too!
ReplyDeleteLet me know when you start the winery - happy to be official taste tester.