You don’t need a long white coat and a blue hairnet to make cheese – some yogurt, muslin and a little time should be sufficient.
By making your own cheese you become a producer of food with a sense of mystery and no less alchemy. By straining the whey from yogurt it becomes a lot thicker, with a hint of sourness that places it somewhere between yogurt and cheese.
The Middle Eastern dish labneh is great dappled among sweet roasted vegetables or placed like thick snowy peaks on bulgar and couscous salads. It can be formed into little balls and rolled with fresh herbs or spices, or stored in sterilised jars and topped with olive oil. They make a great addition to slow roast lamb or beef.
For a dip, mix it with mashed smoked garlic. Alternatively, add swirls of honey or fresh fruit for an early morning sweet kick or a refreshing after-dinner snack.
Ingredients:
500g Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp sea salt
Mix the salt with the yogurt in a bowl. Scoop out the mixture into a muslin cloth, tie up and hang over a bowl to catch the whey (which can be discarded later). Alternatively, the yogurt can be strained through a fine sieve. Leave for at least 24 hours or longer if you want the cheese to have a firmer set.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist
