Recipe:Fresh Cheese Boursin Style

This is a cheese made without rennet. Instead, it uses yoghurt culture (or kefir).

What you need:

Ingredients

• Two liters of fresh milk
• 4 tablespoons of fresh full mlk yoghurt
• two cloves of garlic
• seasalt
• pepper
• fresh chives (schnittlauch)
• parsley
• or any type of seasoning you like: sweet pepper powder, herbes de provence, ...

Materials

• Big bowl that can go into the oven
• oven
• bowl to contain dripping whey
• tablespoon
• wooden spoon
• kitchen towel (cloth, not paper)
• cheese linen

How to make the cheese

• Day 0: stir the yoghurt into the milk. Cover with a wet kitchen towel and leave to stand for two days in a warm spot (25-35 degrees). I put mine on the boiler of the central heating. After two days, a sort of crust will have formed. If it looks a bit like the battered face of the moon, that is normal. Don't be alarmed if any molds show up.
• Day 2: Preheat the oven to 110 degrees Celsius. Put the bowl with the milk into the oven for 30 minutes.
• Poor the contents of the bowl into a cheesecloth that you put over a second bowl. Leave to drip for 12 hours or overnight in a cool place.
• Day 3: Season the cheese to taste with the herbs. You might use sweet bell pepper powder instead, or hot pepper, or whatever takes your fancy. You can eat the cheese now, in its creamy form, or proceed to the next step if you want it a bit more crumbly.
• Day 4:
• Take a clean, dry kitchen towel. Fold it in half. Shape your cheese into a disk, put a few fresh rosemary twigs on top. Put it onto the towel, then fold the towel over and around the cheese. Put the parcel between two plates and leave the towel to absorb more whey during 12 hours. This step can be a bit messy, make sure the towel does not hang over the plate or your fridge will be a bit wet. Then take the cheese out of the towel and it into an airtight container. It will keep for two weeks in the fridge.

Use the whey for baking bread, or as a soup base. Don't throw it away, it contains lots of nutrients!