Curd cheese is thickened cultivated milk product. It’s often used in desserts but can also be used in salted baked pies or by itself as a spread. We made it with cow milk.
Ingredients:
1.5 l full-fat milk
2 cups kefir
Instructions:
Curd cheese preparation
Heat the milk to about 60°C, add kefir. The milk should not be too warm, or the bacteria will die and the fermentation process will be finished. Stir gently – neither too fast nor too vigorous – or the curds will disintegrate and the cheese will become grainy. Wait for about 10 minutes for the milk to separate into curds and whey. Cover the saucepan with a clean cloth and put it on the kitchen counter, away from direct sunlight, for the contents to ferment. On the second day, heat the contents to about 60°C again. The whey will become green. Stir gently and leave it to cool down.
Straining the curd cheese
Line a colander with cheesecloth and put it over a bowl or sink. Pour gently into the colander and wait for about two hours for the whey to drip out (the most of it). Tie up the curds into the cheesecloth and then squeeze the whey out or leave it to drip out completely. You can use Cheese maker to make straining easier. Your curd cheese is now ready.
Serving tip: Spread the curd cheese on wholemeal bread with seeds, add slices of pear, top with honey.
