Change is in the air....

Its been a while since I've updated this blog...but I've been busy. (See here) I've packed up my apartment and moved to Texas for the summer where I plan on trying my hand at selling my ricotta cheese at my local farmstand. First step in that direction, I went to the farmstand this morning, met the organizer and discussed with her making ricotta with goats milk...she has a few goats that I may be able to try making it with. I also just ordered plastic containers in which to sell my wares...very exciting. This seems to be a good starting recipe, though I'm surprised to see the use of butter in all the goat's milk recipes I found. Anyone know why?

The pay-off!

This morning I had pineapple chunks with orange blossom ricotta (I added the "blossom" part) and for dinner I pulled together a wholewheat penne with Holland tomatoes, arugala and anise ricotta - success!

I think it's time for Phase 2

I'm sure my readers are tiring of pics of half-processed ricotta straining on my 24" stove...so the above pics are clues as to what I plan on doing this rainy afternoon. From the beginning my intention was always to get my technique /process in place before I started testing out flavoring the fabulous ricotta! As discussed in previous cheesecake post, I'm going to continue heating milk to a slightly lower temp than most instructions suggest. Basically this is a basic trial and error process so stay tuned for results...

UPDATE 1: My chemistry memories have faded, but as I was dropping the orange organic extract that contained oil and alcohol into the acid and milk mix, I was wondering how my high school science teacher Mr Slowey would explain the reaction. I tried it twice: first adding drops immediately after I added lemon juice and it seemed to almost instantly counteract the rapid "curd action"...second time, I let the milk cool before adding orange flavor. After letting both cool and set a little in the fridge, I've determined that there's not a lot in it, whether you add flavor earlier or later...I consider both a success!!! Yayy!!

UPDATE 2: now onto the anise flavor...not so successful. It required a lot more of the extract to overpower the cooked milk flavor and I'm still not happy with the flavor anyway....maybe I'll try coconut tomorrow...


FYI I realised that I should be crediting all the wonderful pics which I have appropriated...so starting now I will do so...if it's yours and would like me to remove, please let me know. (They certainly enhance my homely little site.)
Anise pic borrowed from Meeta Khurana
Orange pic borrowed from BMUN sustainability blog

Success at Last !

Sarah was able to use my 30 ounces of ricotta to make one of the best ever cheesecakes...it was her first effort, and a mighty fine one at that...the entire cake was consumed by our hungry office before the end of the day!! A note on the ricotta I gave her...as I mentioned below I was testing out cooking the milk at lower temps and I think that that helps give a softer consistency to the product.

Ricotta Fest at Falai

Dinner at Falai last night with Sol inadvertantly turned into a ricotta triple threat!!!...First an amuse bouche of what seemed like a ricotta souffle swimming in light pumpkin broth...then an appetizer of BUFALA RICOTTA FLAN, pine-nut crumble, cauliflower, candied apple, frisée salad (pictured above) folowed by GNUDI, ricotta cheese, baby spinach, brown butter, crema di latte, crispy sage then a complimentary desert sample of ricotta stuffed canolli type thing....yum, yum, yum and yum...and very inspiring!

not a good sign

Hmmmm... not sure, looks a little bit too runny to work ....but we'll see...I made the first two batches with lemon juice, but no salt...the second two I made with vinegar (also no salt), which seems to forms curds a lot more quickly...pretty careful in both case not to heat over 175 degrees (lower than most recipes tell you). I wanted a consistency for this cheesecake experiment, but next time I think I would try to heat to an even lower temp...I think it contributes to "runniness"....stand by....

big project tonight!

So I have a challenge...tonight I have to make 30 ounces of ricotta, which is the yield from 1 1/2 gallons of milk, which is about 4 pots...I might still be doing this in the morning I think...I have an "order" from a colleague who wants to make an almond-crusted honey ricotta cheesecake with my "product" ....can't let her down so will be cooking milk until Jimmy Fallon comes on tonight, I guess...I'm also experimenting with lower temps for a softer consistency...stay tuned!