Feta Cheese Recipe

I am finally able to post my Feta recipe! 

Feta is a greek word meaning "slice" and is always exclusively made of goats or sheeps milk.  It originated from the hillsides of the Balkans.

We make Feta Cheese using cows milk and this recipe makes delicious cheese.! 

2 Litres Farm House Milk

1/8 tsp = 1 Level “Dash” Spoon of Mesophillic Culture

1/8 tsp = 1 Level “Dash” Spoon of Thermophillic Culture (we suggest TCC-3 for flavour)

1/16 tsp = 1 level “Pinch” Spoon of Calf Lipase (or more for a stronger flavour)

2 mls Calf Rennet (please check your Rennet bottle for exact amounts per litre of milk as this can vary)

½ ml Calcium Chloride

Plain Salt (Non-iodised)

1 x Feta Mould

 Don’t forget you can double this recipe to get two decent sized fetas! (You will require two square moulds)                                  

1.   Sterilize all of your equipment by boiling in the pot you will use to heat the milk. Put them to the side covered with a paper towel whilst you prepare your milk.

2.   Boil some water in the jug and put aside ½ cup of cooled boiled water to mix with the rennet and Calcium Chloride at a later stage.

3.   Add 2 litres of milk to the pot, place cheese thermometer in the milk and cover. Slowly heat milk to 31˚C on a very low heat. (Use a warm water bath if you have a gas stove top).

 4.Once the milk is at 31˚C add the Mesophillic and Thermophillic Cultures and then the Calf Lipase. Stir gently for at least 1 minute with a slotted spoon (do not break surface of milk).

 5.Leave milk for 20-45 mins to ripen allowing the cultures to start acidifying the milk. Ensure that the pot is kept warm by placing it in your cheese cave to maintain the temperature (especially if working in a cool room). Or by leaving in the warm water bath to make sure the temperature is maintained.

 6.Mix 2-3mls of Rennet (check bottles instructions) with ¼ cup of the cooled boiled water. Mix 1 ml of Calcium Chloride with ¼ cup of cooled boiled water. Pour Calcium Chloride in first, stirring gently for approx 30 seconds (do not break surface of milk). . Next pour Rennet in, stirring gently for approx 20 seconds (do not break surface of milk). Leave to set for 30-40 mins. Leave Thermometer in the milk and cover. Place in your polystyrene cheese cave to maintain the temperature if the room is cool.

 7.Check that your curds have set by lifting out the thermometer, you should see a clean break on the surface of the curds. Leave for a further 5-10 mins if the curd appears too soft.

 8.Cut the curds into 2cm blocks with a long knife. Turn curds gently with a slotted spoon a couple of times. Leave for approx 20 mins, this helps expel more whey and make the curds firmer. After the 20 mins turn curds again once and leave for another 20 mins. Turn curds one more time and leave again for 20 mins. After this your curds should be firm enough to spoon into your feta mould.

 9.Pop your molds onto your draining mat/tray and gently lift the curds into the molds with your slotted spoon until the molds are full. If you are left with excess curds, wait for 5 mins. You will find that the curds in the molds have reduced and you can keep adding more curds. (It should be 2 litres of milk per mould).

 10.Leave curds for at least 12 hours in the molds at room temperature, covered with muslin or similar. The next day gently remove the cheese from the mold and flip over putting it back into the mold to leave for another 12 hours or so (until evening). Depending on how firm you like your feta you can either proceed to brine after 24 hours or leave your cheese at room temperate for another 12-24 hours to make the cheese even firmer. (I think it is better firmer but you may prefer a softer feta).

 11.After approx 24-48 hours your cheese should have firmed up firm enough to be brined in a salt water solution.

 12.Follow our feta brining technique to brine your feta. (See our website for the brine recipe and instructions).

Aspartame in Milk?

New Petition by 2 huge dairy organizations to allow aspartame to be added to milk.. see link

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/aspartame-in-milk-without-label-big.html

23 February 2103 Copy of article:

Aspartame in Milk Without a Label? Big Dairy Petitions FDA For Approval

Activist Post

Two powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.

The FDA currently allows the dairy industry to use "nutritive sweeteners" including sugar and high fructose corn syrup in many of their products. Nutritive sweeteners are defined as sweeteners with calories.

This petition officially seeks to amend the standard of identification for milk, cream, and 17 other dairy products like yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and others to provide for the use of any "safe and suitable sweetener" on the market.

They claim that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners would promote healthy eating and is good for school children.

According to the FDA notice issued this week:

IDFA and NMPF state that the proposed amendments would promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products. They state that lower-calorie flavored milk would particularly benefit school children who, according to IDFA and NMPF, are more inclined to drink flavored milk than unflavored milk at school.

Although the FDA considers aspartame to be a "safe and suitable" sweetener, a recent Yale University study appears to directly challenge the claim that aspartame would reduce obesity. In fact, the study concluded just the opposite, that artificial sweeteners actually contributed to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

The IDFA and NMPF argue "that the proposed amendments to the milk standard of identity would promote honesty and fair dealing in the marketplace" yet they don't want changes to the labels on dairy products.

Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”

It's unclear how consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners without labels.

Quoting Section 130.10 of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, the dairy giants claim a new label is not required because sugar is added to milk without labeling it, and "the modified food is not inferior in performance" and "'reduced calorie' (labels) are not attractive to children" so marketing as such is of no benefit or detriment.

The FDA has opened public comments until May 21 for anyone interested to "submit comments, data, and information concerning the need for, and the appropriateness of, amending the standard of identity for milk and the additional dairy standards."

To submit a formal comment or send data to the FDA concerning adding aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to milk products CLICK HERE.

Tomatoes Galore!

I really do have to write about my tomatoes as they have just gone beserk this year!

I did quite a bit of reading in the spring when I planted my seeds to ensure that I grew a spectacular crop but little did I know that I was in for much more than that!

You may have all read about that guy who reckons that he has the magic technique for growing the best crop of tomatoes (Called: Organic Tomato Magic) Well I was determined to give it a try regardless of all bad press he seems to get as I found a download of his technique here for free.  Not everyone believes it but after loads of reading I have come to believe that he is on the right track.  It seems that the technique of pruning back your tomato plants creates bushier and more fruitful plants!  According to the old Italian way they used to prune back the leaves and this made the plant put all of its energy into fruit.

I, of course, rushed out to my glasshouse as soon as I read this (before reading everyone else's opinions) and cut back all the leaves off my plants below the first branch of flowers. This left the main leaves on top like giant solar panels. My plants looked awful to begin with, I thought that maybe I had been a little hasty in my pruning as the leaves started to shrivel up and go all curly.  The plants looked terrible for the first week.

But then the magic occurred.  My plants started to produce huge amounts of flowers, I keep trimming back the leaves below the flowers and bingo all the energy goes into the plant instead of the leaves. It really works.  Then you can trim the top to stop them growing too tall and get a second crop from new shoots coming off the main branches.

So in summary:

• Once the first branch of flowers appears prune off all the lower leaves below the flowering branch.
• Keep doing this each time a new flower branch appears.
• Cut off the little side shoots at each leaf junction as well
• Really water your plants, not just a hand water - give them a soaking and every couple of days mix up some liquid blood and bone and water and feed this to each plant. (Nitrosol is easily bought from your local supermarket).  This keeps your plant healthy.
• I have heard egg shells are great to sprinkled around the base of the plant and comfry leaves are an amazing natural tomato compost. I also use tomato food every few weeks sprinkled around the top soil and water it well in.

Please let me know if you have any other special tips I can add to this.

Another great technique is shown on this French website where they shown you diagramatically how to prune you plants to generate bigger crops. You'll get the general idea. Ill translate it and make a new post to explain the technique.

You can see how I have trimmed back all of the leaves at the base of the plant.
I still have a lot more trimming to do as the plants are fruiting like crazy at this level!

This is the result at the top where the plants are flowering profusely and I have to yet again do some more pruning of the leaves. I have cut the tops of each plant before they touched the roof so will allow for some lateral growth and a second crop of flowers.

View from glasshouse door. You cant see much fruit as it is all green but under the mid section leaves it is brimming with fruit.  It is now time for me to prune back the mid section leaves to below the top section flowers.

Christmas Gingerbread

This has to be my favorite time of year when it comes to the garden but also to kitchen as it is a time of making and baking! As I prepared myself well for my Christmas cheese platter by making plenty of cheese well in advance I had the pleasure of just plain and simple home baking. Filling the tins and making treats for family and friends. My favorite is always gingerbread and you can do so many things with it and it is a treat that everyone likes. My children just love it and love to decorate gingerbread men knowing that they will be eating them!

This recipe makes a lot of gingerbread so you can halve it if you like!

Perfectly delicious Gingerbread Recipe:

200g Butter
120g Soft Brown Sugar (Firmly Packed)
280g Golden Syrup
720g Plain Flour
3 tsp Ground Ginger
3 tsp Ground Cinnamin
3 tsp Ground Cassia
1 tsp Ground Cloves
3 tsp Baking Soda
2 Eggs (Beaten)
1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract (Essence)

Royal Icing:

2 Egg whites
250g Icing Sugar (more or less for firmness, etc)
Food Colouring, cachous and decorations as required

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius
• Melt Butter, Golden Syrup and sugar in a pot and let it cool for 5 mins
• Mix dry ingredients together and add melted mixture, beaten egg and extract. Mix well.
• Knead the dough and roll to about a 5mm thickness between two baking sheets (waxed paper or teflon sheets work well and saves adding more flour!)
• Cut out your shapes and place on your oven trays (using baking paper or teflon sheets is the best)
• Bake for around 10-15 mins depending on how light or dark you like them.
• Decorate with Royal Icing 

Ready to eat!

The big count.

Microgreens Kit Instructions

We are super pleased to let you know that we can now supply you with a special kit for growing microgreens at home! It is now available on our website HERE!

In the the Microgreens Kit you get:  2 x Growing Trays, 5 x Growing Pads, A Starter Seed Pack and Instructions.

The unique growing pads have been sourced from the USA and are specifically designed for growing microgreens, they are super absorbent and you can throw them in the recycling bin when you have finished. Once you buy our kit you can buy the growing pads from us separately which makes this super economical.  One growing pad grows an awful amount of microgreens in one hit! You can also cut them into strips and grow different seeds side by side in the same tray.

Microgreens are super expensive to buy so get cracking with this kit and grow them at home cheaply and experience the taste sensation of growing your own.

The instructions are simple, check out how to grow them below!

Place your growing pad in the tray.
Saturate your growing pad and sprinkle seeds on top.
Mist the surface of the mat to ensure that the seeds
settle into the growing media.
Place cover over your tray.
Ensure growing media is kept super moist until germination,
this can be achieved by misting the seeds and mat 2-3 times
a day until germination.

3 days - Seeds Germinating.
Remove Tray Lid and expose to sunlight.
Keep growing pad saturated (not swimming!) at all times.

7 days - Seeds fully sprouted and growing!
Continue to mist your microgreens and keep moist.

At 7 Days.

This was a little experiment, growing microgreens in pure Vermiculite
in cheap flower bulb trays, placed in a tray with a little water in
the bottom.  The seeds sprouted well and this is the result!
You can buy Vermiculite from Mitre 10, Bunnings, etc and
the bulb trays come from any of the above or nursery.

Dont forget to visit our website for more great home harvesting products!

www.urbancheese.co.nz

Elderflower Cordial!

Our gorgeous Elderflower Cordial ready to leave for 48 hrs!

My girls watch out each year for the Elderflower to spring into bloom along the river. They get excited about going picking as they know the result is a delicious summer drink that they love.

Yesterday I prepared the sugar syrup and allowed it to cool and today was the day to go down and pick the flowers.

The best time of the day to pick your Elderflowers is when the sun is shining, this is supposed to be when it is at its best for flavour.  Sadly today was the only day we have been able to go and storm clouds gathered so we made a dash to the river to quickly pick what we needed.  My youngest was first to the door with a pair of scissors ready to pick. We use scissors so as to cause as little damage to the flower head as possible, cutting just below where the flowers fork out from the flower stem.  You want as little stem as possible as the stems may alter the flavour.

An Elderflower Head

We managed to get more than we needed and made a run for it as the clouds burst upon us. My daughter made an interesting little comment as we gathered the flower heads by saying her hands were sticky..... this is exactly what happens as if you look really closely at each flower it has a nice little dollop of nectar sitting on top. This of course gets on your hands as you are picking.

On return to the kitchen my daughter went to pick 4 big fat juicy lemons off our tree and continued to grate the rind off each lemon gently. We then cut up all of the lemons into wedges and popped them into the sugar syrup along with the rind.  This was followed by the citric acid and the Elderflowers.

Then a good stir, cover the pot and leave for 48 hours.  You can stir from time to time of course and check to see how it is going.

She loves to pick!

Here is our recipe, super simple and super delicious!

Elderflower Cordial

30-40 Small Elderflower Heads (or 20-30 large)
1.3 kg white sugar
2 litres of water
60 grams Citric Acid
3 lemons

Day 1: Place your 1.3 kg sugar in a pot or glass bowl and cover with 2 litres of boiling water: Stir and dissolve all of the sugar - allow to cool.

Day 2: Grate the rind of 5 lemons and cut the remainder of the lemons into wedges, popping both into the sugary syrup: Stir.  Add the citric acid and then the Elderflowers: Stir again. Cover your creation with a cloth and stir from time to time over the next 48 hours.

Day 4: Strain your liquid through a muslin cloth into cold STERLIZED jars or bottles.  Seal the bottles and drink your cordial within 3 months, best kept refrigerated. Great for a Christmas gift!

Added extra: WE made ours with added Rose Water to see what it will taste like... we simmered fragrant rose petals in water from our garden the day before and strained the liquid out from the petals.  The result was a "tea-stained" looking water but smelled divine.  Will keep you posted on what the end result it!

Some people prefer to pop their flowers in the hot sugar syrup but I have done some research and the cordial ends up a very dark colour and not as pretty as the light coloured cordial we are all used to drinking.  Might be worth a try though to see what the flavour is like, it may be more intense?

My wee cherub super happy with her picking!

8 more cheese makers in the world!

Today Eve and I hosted yet another of our cheese an bread making courses. I thoroughly enjoyed my day, thanks to the keen group we had around the table!

Just remember that cheese making is super easy and a great skill to share with your friends once you have mastered the basics.