Thursday 29 July 2010

Forging Fromage - labneh and gouda

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Imagine my surprise and, um, delight when I realised that not one but TWO cheeses were due for Forging Fromage on the 30th July! Fortunately we'd had a good long run up to one of them, but that made the deadline for the second slightly stressful.

I'll take them in order of complexity.

Heather and Natashya, the hosts of Forging Fromage, realised that the challenges had been getting pretty scary, so they threw in this little mini-challenge, for yoghurt cheese.

Now, yoghurt cheese, or labneh, is just about as easy as a cheese can get. You take a pot of yoghurt, drain it until it is really thick and then eat it. Seriously, that is all there is to it. No cultures, no thermometers, no weights. Just a bit of time and a bit of gravity. I gave mine 24 hours in a (brand spanking new and scalded) dishcloth before I decided that it was firm enough.

The first dish we ate using the labneh was this wonderful warm salad of roast tomatoes in a saffron dressing. Amazing. The only real tweaks I made were using chipotle in adobo instead of harissa, and pinenuts instead of almonds. Absolutely gorgeous with barbecued rib eye steaks and halved courgettes. I will be making this one again really soon - the saffron is so pretty and the mellow, sweet heat from the tomatoes is perfect with the cool, tangy cheese.

The rest of the labneh I rolled into balls and marinated in olive oil, with garlic and peppercorns. I could have added some fresh herbs, but I didn't think of that until I had closed the jar and washed up, so I didn't bother.

A couple of days later I put some of the marinated labneh in a quesadilla, along with my first gorgeous, ripe cherry tomatoes and a few baby spinach leaves. I didn't add any salt to the labneh, to allow me to season each dish I used it in individually.

I have also used the labneh to stuff some little pickled red chillies as a snack, and I have designs on some more of it to add to a savoury tart. Very versatile and very delicious!

The more complicated cheesey challenge for this round (which actually started in May - told you it was complicated) was gouda.

Here's a fun fact - they eat a lot of gouda in South Africa, and my husband swears it is pronounced chowda, with a ch like in challah, Chanukah or loch. As a result I am now too paranoid to call it anything in case I mispronounce it and bring shame to my inlaws. Much like my last name, I'm afraid.

I bought an actual baby gouda mould for this one, so the shape was excellent, but my jury-rigged pressing contraption left a bit to be desired. I couldn't get the pressure even and it kept falling over with a loud clatter in the middle of the night.

This is the first fromage that we have forged that needed aging. I ran into some trouble with mould, although the directions said to just wash it off with vinegar. Which I did - but I still didn't feel comfortable leaving it any longer than the minimum time for aging.

You know what? It was really good. It was very pale in colour - South African gouda tends to be a lot yellower than mine turned out; I think they add annato colouring - but the texture was a perfect sliceable, fine-grained hard cheese, and the flavour was just spot on. Very gratifying!

14 comments:

sharonfruit said...

This whole post had me drooling!

The Gouda looks fabulous and, dare I say it, really quite cute! I'm tempted to give the labneh a try myself. It sounds fuss-free enough for a novice cheese-maker!

S xx

Heather S-G said...

Your gouda turned out awesome!! Love your moulds...and that slice just makes me want to reach in and grab some! And of course, the labneh...so easy, but such fabulous returns, eh? I love the sound of it with the lamb and roasted tomatoes...mmmm. Great forging w/ u as always, FC ;)

Alicia Foodycat said...

Sharon - try the labneh!

Heather - do the tomatoes, I insist.

Jenny said...

Wow, that gouda looks amazing.
The tomato salad is bookmarked and ready to go. I have some veg box tomatoes which will be perfect for it if I set the yogurt to drain this evening.

Andreas said...

Lots of great recipes.
I'll take some of the stuffed, pickled chiles, please.
The pronounciation could be a remnant from colonial days, because in Dutch "g" is (sometimes ??) pronounced "ch".

NKP said...

Wow, your gouda is absolutely amazing! The texture is perfect.
And such versatility with the labneh! You are the master. ☺

mscrankypants said...

Someone in the world makes gouda moulds ... what a fascintating profession :-). Both cheeses looks delicious, and I particularly like the quesadilla.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Your gouda is so impressive--it looks really delicious. I love making yogurt cheese / labneh plain and flavored--it is so easy and so good too. Great job with your cheese-making adventures! ;-)

hungryandfrozen said...

Wow, well done you for making Gouda! It looks beautiful, and definitely worth the challenge!

I've always wanted to make labneh, not sure why I've never done it. Will have to buy some nice yoghurt and get cracking already.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Jenny - I think you will love the tomatoes!

Andreas - yes, it is definitely the Dutch influence in Afrikaans that gives the pronunciation.

Natashya - very happy about the nice, firm slice on that gouda, I can tell you.

Deb - I think the labneh is one I will make again.

Laura - oh you really must!

Bettina Douglas said...

I love these cheese making endeavours.

We had bought labne last week. Sold in EVOO and flavoured with fennel seeds made from lovely Queensland organic milk. Delicious.

Rebecca said...

Your Gouda turned out beautifully! Love the post. Thanks for sharing all the details.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Mother - flavouring with fennel seeds sounds so delicious!

Rebecca - thank you!

Choclette said...

I do love to read about your cheese making adventures. Labnah I can cope with and it is amazingly delicious, but your gouda is seriously impressive.

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