Tag: cheese

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Yogurt = cheese. No, really!

What happens when you ask your husband to by you plain yogurt to go with your muesli and instead of coming back with the 500ml bottle you were expecting he presents you with a 3L bottle instead?

You ask FB for recipes to use up the yogurt, that’s what.

You also get some great options.

  • Fruit yogurt smoothies
  • Frozen berry yogurt drops
  • Yogurt chocolate chip muffins
  • Tsatsiki
  • Yogurt pancakes (which I made last night and were delish)
  • And a half dozen suggestions to make Labneh cheese

After doing a bit of research and buying a brand new pair of knee high stockings I set about making cheese. It was really really easy and I will definitely be making more of it!

Look closely, you can see the liquid draining out the stocking

 

Cream cheese!

 

Labneh balls rolled in sweet chili mix, rosemary & garlic mix and a few plain ones for the kids.

 

Labneh Cheese
A simple and delicious Lebanese style cream cheese
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Ingredients
  1. 1 cup full cream (or high fat percentage) plain yogurt
  2. pinch of course salt
  3. cheesecloth (or a pair of new knee high stockings - I used 20 denier)
  4. a colander or large sieve
  5. a bowl big enough to fit the colander/seive
Instructions
  1. Place your colander into your bowl and then your cheesecloth over your colander.
  2. If you are using stockings, double them up and get someone to hold them open for you.
  3. Mix your salt and yogurt together.
  4. Spoon or pour your yogurt into the cheesecloth/stockings.
  5. Tie the top of the cloth/stockings closed at the top, squeezing the yogurt towards the bottom as you go.
  6. Now you can either leave the cloth/stockings in the colander as is or you can hang them above the colander and let gravity help (I hung mine from the kitchen tap).
  7. Leave your yogurt to drain for at least 24hrs, the longer you leave it the firmer the cheese will be.
  8. You can leave it out on the counter (in winter) or in the fridge if its too warm.
  9. When you are ready to unveil your cheese, give it one last squeeze to remove any residual liquid and then, over a plate, unwrap the newly formed cheese.
There are a few options once your cheese is ready
  1. You can place it in an airtight container in the fridge and use it as a plain cream cheese spread.
  2. You can roll the cheese into small balls and then roll the balls into various herb and spice mixes before placing in an airtight container in the fridge.
  3. You can roll the cheese into small balls and then place them in a glass jar with a well sealing lid. Top the balls of cheese with a high quality olive oil to preserve them. You can also add various herbs and spices to the oil to infuse the cheese with flavour.
Other options
  1. You can also add your herbs and spices to the yogurt before draining if you like which will give you a flavoured cream cheese when you are done.
Adapted from various recipes on the web
Adapted from various recipes on the web
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/
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Cheese, cheese, everywhere!

Shavuot, a celebration of the day the Jewish people received the Torah. As with all Jewish celebrations, we have special food related to the holiday. For Shavuot that means dairy.

Cheese, cheesecakes, pasta with lots of cheese and cream, ice cream, and most importantly (to me anyway), cheese blintzes. Yummy crepes filled with a sweet cream cheese mix and fried. They can also be made as savoury blintzes.

I found a recipe on Tori Avey’s site and modified it slightly. They were delicious!! Recipe below. All the lovely pictures taken by Paul.

batter
batter

 

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Fold over the bottom

 

Fold sides in
Fold sides in 

 

Keep rolling up and tucking the sides in
Keep rolling up and tucking the sides in 

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Cream Cheese Blintzes
Yields 9
A yummy sweet cream cheese filling wrapped up in a delicious crepe.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
Crepes
  1. 4 eggs
  2. 1 cup flour
  3. 1/3 cup sugar (I used cup for cup sugar replacement)
  4. 3/4 cup milk
  5. 1/4 cup water
  6. 1 tsp vanilla
  7. Pinch of salt
  8. Nonstick cooking oil spray
  9. Oil
Filling
  1. 1 package cream cheese
  2. 1/4 cup sugar (I used cup for cup sugar replacement)
  3. 1 egg yolk
  4. 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I didnt have any and it was fine)
  5. 1 tsp vanilla
  6. Pinch of salt
Crepes
  1. Mix all the crepe ingredients together.
  2. Make sure the batter is smooth and there are no lumps.
  3. Transfer your batter to a jug for easy pouring.
  4. Spray a non stick pan with oil spray.
  5. Pour a small amount of batter (about a third of a cup) into the pan and swirl the pan around to spread the batter.
  6. Leave for a minute or two until the crepe is set, the exposed side of the crepe will feel slightly tacky if you touch it but not completely dry.
  7. Do not flip the crepe.
  8. Set aside on a plate and separate each crepe with wax paper or paper towel.
  9. You should get about 9 thin crepes.
Filling
  1. Mix all the filling ingredients together with a fork.
  2. The mix should be thick-ish and slightly lumpy.
Put together
  1. Lay out one crepe.
  2. Place a tablespoon or so of filling onto the bottom half of the crepe.
  3. Roll the crepe up and over the filling and fold in the sides.
  4. Continue rolling (and folding in the sides) until the crepe is sitting, fold side down on your surface.
  5. Set aside.
  6. Continue this process until all the crepes are rolled.
Final Step
  1. Heat a small amount of oil in the pan.
  2. Place 2 or 3 blintzes, fold side down, in the oil and fry for 30-60 seconds.
  3. Carefully turn the blintzes and fry the other side for 30 seconds.
  4. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.
  5. Repeat this process with the remaining blintzes.
  6. Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.
Notes
  1. The original recipe called for ricotta cheese as well as cream cheese. I didn't use ricotta and the filling was fine.
  2. If your batter is too thick you can add a dash more milk or water to thin it out. Your crepes should not be too thick or you wont be able to roll them up.
  3. You can leave out the sugar in the filling and add mushrooms, spinach or any other savoury filling.
  4. These are best served hot but I ate one that had cooled down and it was just as delicious.
Adapted from Tori Avey
Adapted from Tori Avey
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/
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Cheesecake Ice Cream

With the Jewish holiday of Shavuot coming up its pretty customary to make a cheesecake and eat ice cream and other dairy yumminess. But I got to thinking, why not make cheesecake ice cream?

Cheesecake Ice Cream
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Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
3 hr
Total Time
3 hr 20 min
Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
3 hr
Total Time
3 hr 20 min
Ingredients
  1. 175ml milk
  2. 200g castor sugar (I cannot find castor sugar in Israel, so I took 200g brown sugar and whizzed in in my blender until it resembled castor sugar)
  3. 350g cream cheese (I used a ‘New York’ cream cheese which is kind of salty)
  4. Splash of vanilla
  5. 1 large egg
  6. 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  7. 250ml dessert cream
  8. biscuits for decorating
Instructions
  1. Bring milk to a simmer.
  2. While milk is heating, beat sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and the egg until smooth.
  3. Once milk is heated, add the milk to the sugar mixture and whisk very quickly so the egg doesn’t scramble.
  4. Return the mixture to the stove top and simmer while continuously stirring until the custard thickens.
  5. Remove from heat and leave to cool to room temperature.
  6. Once cool, place in the fridge for an hour or two to start chilling.
  7. Lightly whip the cream and gently fold it into the chilled custard.
  8. Add the lemon juice and mix gently.
  9. Now you can add the mixture to your ice cream machine and churn as per instructions or if you don’t have one, transfer the mixture to a freezer proof dish, cover and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours, removing the dish and stirring the ice cream every hour or so to prevent ice crystals from forming.
  10. Serve with crushed biscuits sprinkled on top or as a filling between two flat biscuits
Adapted from Nigella
Adapted from Nigella
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/
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Baked Camembert in White Wine

I am a soft cheese lover of note!  I cannot get enough of Brie and Camembert cheese and will eat it until I make myself sick.

So when Tanya mailed me her recipe and pictures I let out the hugest ‘squeeeeeee’ ever.  Im off to the shops after work to get the ingredients 🙂

~~~

A simple recipe that is totally delicious if you love cheese!

Ingredients:

  • 1 wheel of Camembert cheese
  • Small amount of white wine of your choice
  • Fresh Garlic (either a clove of garlic, or I used crushed garlic from woolies)
  • Fresh Herbs – thyme or rosemary etc
  • Ramekins of approximately the same size of your wheel of Camembert

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 180
  • Pop the wheel of cheese into the ramekin… I had to squash mine in quite a bit
  • Poke cheese with a fork
  • Push a clove of garlic into the cheese… since i used crushed garlic, i basically just wiped a teaspoon in the tub of garlic and then smeared it onto the cheese… just very little as I didn’t want to be stinky the next day!
  • Stick the fresh herbs into the cheese
  • Pour the white wine over the cheese. You need very very little. Probably only 2-5 tablespoons – depending on the size of your ramekin
  • Pop the lids onto your ramekins (or cover with foil)
  • Put on a baking tray (in case of leakage!) and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
  • In the mean time, slice up some crusty French loaf
  • When the cheese is done, remove from oven, take out the stalks of herbs, and the clove of garlic if you used one…
  • Use your fresh bread to stir it up and enjoy your own little cheese pot!
  • Be careful of the hot ramekins though!

note one wheel of Camembert may be slightly too much for one person as it is quite rich , so I’d suggest sharing one portion between two people… or if you have hungry people, one portion per person could do!