LAST EDITED ON 12-02-11 AT 04:16 PM (EST)Game on, Tribe! These are going to be fun.
We have a weekly standing milk home delivery order. (Yes, I have a milkman who leaves glass bottles of milk on my doorstep.)
Last week, because of Thanksgiving, we were not home much and thus, the Little Fros did not consume the normal amount of milk that they usually would (which is A LOT because they only drink that and water.)
So when this week's milk bottles showed up there were already a few from last week in the fridge, and I had decided that I was finally going to make ricotta with the surplus. I hadn't gotten as far as what to do with the ricotta after I'd made it, yet.
So! I am happy to report that the ricotta is already in the cheesecloth, draining away. It was super super simple to make, obviously, since I managed to do it in about 20 minutes while on a work conference call and having both kids orbiting around me in the kitchen.
Yes, I already tweaked the recipe. (game ON!) I used skim milk because that's what I have. I did use heavy cream. I had to supplement the fresh lemon juice with some bottled because the two little wimpy lemons that I had in the fridge were not terribly juicy.
Also, after pouring the cheese into the cheesecloth/strainer, I tied the cheesecloth into a little bag and hung it from a spoon over the original pot to catch the drips. I had read (when researching ricotta-making previously) that the weight of the cheese unto itself promotes better draining.
Fair warning, I have no basil, so the gnudi are going to be made with something else. Not sure what, yet. Here's the cheese, in a bowl, resting in the fridge until I put together dinner this evening. It's about a cup of cheese. I assume that had I used whole milk, I may have gotten a greater amount of cheese, but I'm not sure.
I also saved the liquid drained off of the ricotta and am trying to determine whether I can do anything with it. (It's a little over 1.5 quarts of whey leftover.) Waffles?
(ETA: I used a cup of whey to make a loaf of bread. I poured the rest of it into jars and stashed them in the fridge and will figure out what to do with them later.)
Pictures to come soon. Have to find the camera cable. Found the cable.
Bobblefred by Tribe. Fred's snowed in by Agman