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SUMMER SOLSTICE CHEESE

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Serves: a cheese

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  • Vegetarian
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I know. Midsummer solstice has passed already and I am a little late with this recipe. The good news is, it's great for the rest of the summer too! My Latvian mother used to make this every year for the solstice celebration in June. She would set a wheel of this out on the summer table, along with a big bowl of cherries and icy cold beer and we were ready to celebrate the longest day of the year. Don't be put off by cheese-making. This recipe is really easy. It makes a nice, fairly low-fat cheese that is great just plain, without crackers, or even better, as my mother used to do, spread with a little butter and sprinkled with salt.

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Ingredients

  • 8 oz Friendship Farmer's cheese (5 packets)
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 3.3 pints milk (1% fat)

Method

  1. In a bowl, mix together the farmer's cheese, caraway seeds and 5 eggs. Spray the bottom of a large stockpot with PAM cooking spray. (non stick cooking spray)
  2. Pour milk into the stockpot and bring up to just scalded. Into the scaled milk, pour the cheese and egg mixture. Bring mixture up to a boil and adjust heat to keep at a low boil for one hour, stirring frequently.
  3.  At the end of the hour, pour mixture (which is now curds) into a colander over which you've laid a large square of dampened cheesecloth. Allow liquid (whey) to drain off.
  4. Pour the curds back into the pot, off the stove. Quickly stir in the softened butter, the remaining egg, beaten, and the salt. It's important to work quickly here is it is the residual heat of the curds that binds the egg which helps the cheese to form properly.
  5. Pour this mixture back into the cheesecloth-laced colander, and squeeze out remaining liquid. Take the cheese-cloth encased mass out of the colander and shape into a wheel that will fit between two inverted plates.
  6. This now goes into the refrigerator, where you will place a heavy weight (i.e. juice can) on top. Let it sit overnight to drain and ripen.
  7. Next day, unwrap the cheesecloth, cut with sharp knife and enjoy! Can be wrapped in plastic wrap thereafter.

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