Forging Fromage - Feta

I'm back, did you miss me? Well, sort of back. I'm still on the spare computer and it has Paint, not Photoshop, which is very frustrating and I don't know how to use it properly so I don't know how much blogging I will be able to bear!

But I had a good incentive for persevering with Paint! The current Forging Fromage challenge is a two-fold one: feta this month and gouda next month, and I was very keen to show you the first half of my endeavours.

Our local supermarket sells goats milk reasonably cheaply, so I was able to make my cheese with all goats milk. I made a half-quantity, but that was enough feta for 3 meals.

I used a jellybag to drain the curds, and it has a seam down the centre, hence the brain shape of my feta!
I found this one really very straightforward. It came together very easily and looked exactly right at every stage.

I jumped the gun a bit - we ate the first half of the cheese a day early because I just couldn't resist. We had it in a Greek-ish salad of cucumber, tomato, avocado and red onion, dressed with oregano, basil, olive oil and white wine vinegar. It was delicious! Not too salty, not mushy, not too crumbly, with just the right hint of goaty tang.


The rest of the cheese was allowed to age for a week before we ate it. Some of it went in a warm broccoli salad with tomato and pinenut vinaigrette. Some of it was crumbled on top of roast lamb and aubergine. After a week it was drier and crumblier with a more pronounced tang, but it still had a lovely creamy mouthfeel.

This was a great success! Definitely worth doing again, the amount of effort was well worth it for the results!

Do visit us at Forging Fromage after June 29th, to see what everyone else has been doing with their feta. And you still have time to get on board for the gouda challenge!