Goats Milk: Part II

A couple weeks ago, I saw Aarti Sequeira make paneer, a really easy Indian cheese.  It's basically just curdled milk, patted into block form, and used in Indian cooking.  After successfully reproducing her paneer, she mentioned that it's similar to making ricotta, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Now, I don't really like to dirty up my measuring cups and spoons too much if I don't have to.  So I just dumped.  But if you like measuring and that sort of thing, here's the recipe that I used like the Pirates' Code-just guidelines.  I substituted about half the milk for the leftover goat's milk.  I warn you:  if you have not had it before, it is gamey, grassy, and almost pungent.  

You basically have to slowly bring the milk up to a boil, then reduce the heat, and add an acid to curdle the milk.  In this case, I used some vinegar and lemon juice.  

Here it is in the pot.  You'll want to heat it slowly and stir to
keep the curds from burning.  If you look closely
you can see how the surface is bumpy.  Those are the curds. 

So you know that nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffet?  Well "curds and whey" is exactly what we're creating here.  The curds become the cheese.  The whey still has some riboflavin and a nice umami flavor, if you ask me.  I've heard that you could use it instead of buttermilk in some recipes if you don't want it to go to waste.  I draped a folded, thin woven cloth towel over a colander to drain my cheese, but cheesecloth is recommended.  Hence the name, I assume.

This is the cheese draining.  No spiders here!

So I took my half-goat's milk, half-cow's milk ricotta and spread it over top of some homemade lasagna.  I had leftover spaghetti sauce, a bunch of lasagna noodles I bought on sale, some frozen zucchini and some mushrooms on their way out.  Layered and topped with the ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella.  Sorry, no picture of the lasagna.  Sometimes I get so excited when the food comes out that I forget to take a picture of it.

Don't be afraid of homemade cheese!  This was super easy, it only took about an hour and a half to go from yucky milk to yummy lasagna.  

And don't ask me what a "tuffet" is.  I still don't know.