Ricotta Cheese

“You should put your fork down between each bite.”
-William Eatwith
“Yeah, right. See if you can with this stuff.”
-Bill and Fran

inspiration
After eating homemade ricotta at an EatWith dinner in Chicago, we searched for the best recipe. Here it is. Smitten Kitchen! She’s the best!! Her link gives you the science as to why this way works best.

ingredients
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
lemon zest for serving

tools
candy or deep-fry thermometer
cheese cloth
colander
time

directions
Line colander with cheese cloth 3 or 4 layers and place colander over a large bowl.

Pour milk and cream into 3-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in salt. Attach thermometer and gently heat milk to 190° stirring occasionally to keep from scorching. Remove from heat. Gradually add lemon juice. Stir slowly one or two times.

Let sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.

Carefully pour lumpy milk into lined colander. Let strain for at least 2 hours discarding whey from large bowl as it collects.

Cheese can be eaten then or refrigerated for later. To serve, sprinkle with lemon zest and/or sea salt flakes and/or lemon-infused olive oil. Serve with crackers or toasted baguettes or a spoon.

Makes a generous cup of creamy heaven.

our comments
There are no words to describe how awesome this is. Cheese good food.

follow-up comments after several makings
I like to let this strain on the counter for about 2 hours, no longer than 3. Then I like it to refrigerate for a couple hours, taking it out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving. This gives it a firm but creamy texture.

I’ve also thought of topping with a rosemary mixture.

I’d love to try it in a pasta dish but it’s never been around long enough…though it has been good on sandwiches.

The Wedding Feast

“But we just had lunch a few hours ago?!”

(Oft said to us by Ronnie during his time as the cook at OA.)

While on staff at the Outdoor Academy of the Southern Appalachians, we ate a lot of great food with a lot of great cooks. We learned much about planning and cooking and cleaning. Making a great meal is work. But sometimes, you just don’t want to work. On one occasion (and we truly think this happened only once while we were there), the refrigerators and pantries needed to be cleaned out of many small amounts of disjointed ingredients. We had a delicious meal of this and thats. Others may call it antipasto or tapas; we call it The Wedding Feast.

Nowadays, when we are hungry but not too hungry and there is not an obvious entree waiting to be created, we create our own Wedding Feast. Taking whatever this and thats we find in the kitchen, placing them on a beautiful serving dish, and retiring to the back porch, we enjoy a lovely meal.

For this example, we had: Wickles Pickled Okra; slices of pepperoni; Beecher’s Cheddar  Cheese; goat cheese; quince paste; dates stuffed with blue cheese; green olives; a perfect avocado; dried apricots; and some fancy crackers; all presented on a big dish made by our favorite local potter Becky Bolton Crisswell. By placing the items separately on the dish, we each could make our own combinations of perfect bites. (Pepperoni and quince paste is sweet and spicy; avocado and goat cheese is creamy and salty.)

Other fine Wedding Feast options are: chicken salad; store-bought roasted chicken, wings, egg rolls, stuffed grape-leaves; hard-boiled eggs; boiled shrimp; hummus; quesadillas; cheese toast; relish tray dips and vegetables; fresh and dried fruits; nuts; artichoke hearts; bruschetta; and any leftovers you can eat with your fingers.

What’s on the menu for your Wedding Feast?