Beef Wellington

This dish is often avoided by the home cook because it is perceived to be complicated to prepare. It really isn’t—it is much less time-consuming and complicated than stuffing and roasting a turkey, for example. If you like succulent, tender, tasty beef and want something a bit more formal and impressive to serve your family or guests, this is the dish for you!

Ingredients

1 chunk of beef fillet weighing approximately 1 kg (2.2 lbs), aged in your refrigerator for 10 to 14 days

1 packet phyllo dough or puff pastry (phyllo dough preferred), thawed

1 onion finely minced

½ to 1 cup minced fresh mushrooms

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1-2 tsp Fines Herbes

½ to ¾ cup soft, spreadable chicken liver paté (can be vegetable if you don’t like liver)

Olive oil

Butter

Salt to taste

Shallow bowl of cold water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 220˚C (425˚F)

While oven heats, prepare meat: rinse under cold running water and pat dry. Brush lightly with olive oil. Place on a rack in a small oven pan and when oven is up to temperature, put meat in centre of oven. Allow to cook for 15 minutes to sear the outside. Remove from oven after fifteen minutes and set aside. Increase oven to 230˚C (450˚F).

While meat is cooking prepare duxelles:

Melt some butter in a skillet and add mushrooms, onion, ginger, herbs, salt and sauté, stirring constantly. When onions become transparent, add garlic and cook for another minute. Remove from stove and set aside to cool slightly.

Spray the bottom of a baking dish with non-stick spray or brush lightly with olive oil. Unroll dough and lay in the bottom of the dish with excess overhanging the sides. Set aside.

Mix the paté with the duxelles until thoroughly blended. Spread about ⅓ of the mixture on the dough in a rectangular shape large enough to make a base for the meat.

Remove meat from roasting pan without piercing it—use tongs or your hands—and place on top of the spread mixture. Now spread the rest of the mixture on the meat, including over the sides.

Fold up the sides of the dough to cover the meat, using cold water spread with your fingers to seal the edge. Now fold the ends of the dough to fully encase the meat, also sealing with the fingers and cold water.

Place in a 230˚C (450˚F) oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 220˚C (425˚F) (leave oven door open until the temperature reduces). Cook for another 10 minutes for medium-rare or 15 minutes for medium. (Beef Wellington should always be served pink in the middle).

Allow to rest 5-10 minutes before slicing. Serve with horseradish sauce on the side.

Key Lime Pie

Violet’s Key Lime Pie for non-American households

(American substitutions in italics)

This delicious tart (“pie” to Americans) is a light and luscious summer dessert treat. Originally invented in the Florida Keys (small islands off the southern tip of Florida), it is properly made with the small Key Limes once plentiful in the area. Unfortunately, these limes are not available any more due to a hurricane that destroyed the original key lime plantations…there are a few small commercial growers but mostly, key limes are now found only in back gardens and not available for purchase. The pie is just as delicious and refreshing when made from the limes you get from your grocery store though, but it must be made with sweetened condensed milk, not plain evaporated milk. A proper Key Lime pie, by the way, is yellow in colour, not green!

Ingredients
1/2 cup fresh lime juice—4 or 5 limes (12 or more key limes)
2 to 4 teaspoons grated lime zest
4 egg large yolks (3 jumbo)
1 – 385 g (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 packet Woolworths “home made” shortbread biscuits (shaped like sticks)
    OR enough digestive biscuits or ginger biscuits to make 2 cups of crumbs
    OR (2 cups graham cracker crumbs)
(3 tablespoons granulated sugar—for use with graham crackers only)
3 tablespoons butter, melted (may need more with graham crackers)

Preparation
Start with the crust:
Preheat oven to 190C (325F)
Using a food processor or blender, process the biscuits or graham crackers into fine crumbs. Pour crumbs into a bowl (if using graham crackers, add sugar) and add butter. Mix with fork and then fingers. Add a little more butter if necessary to moisten the crumbs enough to hang together.

Now, press crumb mixture into pie dish. Be sure to build up the sides as the crust will shrink while baking.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, then remove and cool to room temperature.

Filling
While the filling is baking, zest the limes.

Slice zested limes in half and remove all seeds. Squeeze limes until you have ½ cup of juice.

Separate the eggs, setting aside the yolks. If you are going to make a meringue with the whites, make sure there is not even a trace of yolk in the whites or they won’t whip.

Whisk, or beat on high speed, the yolks and lime zest together for about 2 minutes. Beat in the juice for one minute and then slowly add the condensed milk. Incorporate the milk into the egg mixture thoroughly, then set aside to thicken at room temperature.

When the crust has cooled to room temperature, pour in the filling and spread evenly.

Because the acid in the lime juice “cooks” the egg yolk (by a process known as “souring”), unless salmonella in the eggs is a concern, the filling does not need to be baked. In the original Key Lime Pie, the filling was not baked and there is considered by some to be a significant texture difference between the two methods. (If you live in America, however, or any other place that has a concern with salmonella in their eggs, you must now bake the pie for 15 minutes at 325F—190C—to make sure the salmonella is killed. Cool to room temperature and then follow the remaining instructions.)

If you are going to put a meringue topping on the pie, now is the time to do it. Otherwise, place the room-temperature pie in the refrigerator until well chilled (at least 3 hours)

Topping
There are 3 schools of thought regarding toppings on the pie: plain, whipped cream or meringue. Meringue is the most cost effective because you have egg whites left over and by making a meringue, they will not go to waste.

Meringue
3 to 4 egg whites
A scrupulously clean (and devoid of any kind of oil) deep bowl
3 tsp castor (granulated) sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Pour eggs into bowl with cream of tartar. Whisk briskly (or beat on high speed) until foamy. Sprinkle in 1 tsp sugar. Continue whisking until soft peaks begin to form. Sprinkle in 1 tsp sugar. Continue whisking until peaks become somewhat firm. Add remaining sugar and whisk in. Pour meringue onto top of pie, swirling to make peaks. Put into oven and bake up to 6 minutes or until peaks start to brown. Remove from oven, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 3 hours or more.

Photo of authentic Key Lime Pie by Marc Averette

Pumpkin pie!!

An American Thanksgiving favourite, pumpkin pie is a delectable treat. When my kids were young, instead of cutting up a pumpkin for a jack o lantern, we drew a face on it with markers and saved it until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We carved it up into chunks and made pumpkin puree and and from there made delectable, delicious, mouth-watering fresh pumpkin pie! Try it! You'll like it!

Pumpkin pie
Ingredients
1 c granulated sugar (make it sugar free with 1 cup Splenda instead!)
½ tsp salt
3 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice*
1 ½ cups freshly cooked and drained pumpkin puree**
1 ⅔ cups evaporated milk (unsweetened)
2 eggs, beaten

Prepare
Heat oven to 425F (220C)

Combine dry ingredients then add pumpkin, milk and beaten eggs. Mix until smooth. Pour into chilled unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 15 mins at 425F (220C), then reduce heat to 350F (180C) and bake another 45 mins. Insert silver knife in centre to ensure it is done before removing from oven. Chill until set (4 hours or more) then serve with whipped cream on top.

* If you don’t live in the US and you can’t buy pumpkin pie spice, make your own:

Spice                     1 pie   2 pies   3 pies   4 pies   6 pies
tsp cinnamon          1 ½        3       4 ½       6         9
tsp ground ginger    ½           1        1 ½      2         3
tsp ground nutmeg  ½           1        1 ½      2         3
tsp allspice             ½           1        1 ½      2         3
tsp ground cloves    ½           1        1 ½      2         3

** To make pumpkin puree:
Cut a fresh pumpkin into chunks about the size of the palm of your hand.
Remove strings and seeds.
Boil pumpkin until a fork can easily pierce both the pumpkin and its skin.
Cool quickly under cold water. Remove each pumpkin piece and scoop pumpkin from shell with knife.
Puree pumpkin in a blender or food processor.
Put in bowl, cover, and allow to rest in refrigerator for 24-48 hours.
Pour accumulated liquid off top of pumpkin puree.
Pumpkin is ready to use.

PIE!!

Photo by DailyInvention, Flickr

Who doesn't like pie?? Whether one-crust or two, fruit or custard or something more exotic, nothing pleases like pie!

But even the best fillings are diminished if the crust isn't perfection. Here in South Africa I have found that dessert pies (called "tarts" here, no matter their size) are made on what is called a "short crust" base, something I have found at best to be crumbly and messy, at worst to be hard as a stone and impenetrable even with fork and knife (no kidding here!). Nobody, it seems, has even a passing acquaintance with traditional American pie crusts, those lovely, flaky, tender morsels of deliciousness that define a "good pie."

Herewith, my grandmother's recipe (which she got from her mother, making this more than 100 years old!) for the flakiest, most tender pie crust you will ever taste!

CAVEAT: you absolutely must use lard to make this come out right. If, for whatever reason, you cannot use lard, you can substitute vegetable shortening, but nothing else. Even with shortening, it doesn't come out quite right, but pretty close.

Gramma’s Pie Crust

2 ¼ cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
¾ cup lard
5 tbsp ice water

Mix flour with salt. Cut lard into flour using a pastry blender or two knives cutting in opposite directions, scissor-fashion. Do not use a food processor or other electric appliance as this pastry must be handled as little as possible to retain its flaky texture and prevent toughening.

When flour/lard mixture is the texture of coarse meal with lumps no bigger than peas, sprinkle with 3 tbsp of the water and pull together with fork. Add more water as needed until the mixture holds together (use fingers if fork is not doing the trick). It should not be sticky and all of the flour mixture should be rounded up from the bottom of the bowl.

Shape into a flattened ball. If the day or kitchen is particularly warm, allow dough to rest, wrapped in foil or plastic, in the fridge for up to 30 mins.

On floured pastry board, cut dough in half. Shape each half into a ball. Starting centre, roll first ball out into a circle with a well-floured rolling pin. If dough cracks, seal cracks with a dab of ice water. Lay first circle of dough into a slope-sided pie dish.

Baked pastry shell:
If you are making a baked pastry shell for a pie that will not require baking (like a slipped custard or pudding/mousse pie), trim the edges of the crust, then prick all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes at 450F (230C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Check after 5 minutes and if the crust has bubbles, prick them with a fork. Makes two pies.

Cool pastry shell on a wire rack before adding filling.

One crust pie:
If you are making a one crust pie that requires a baked filling (such as Dutch apple, pumpkin, or melktert), do not prick the crust. Trim the edges, add filling, and bake according to directions for baking the filling. To prevent the crust edges from over cooking, lay strips of foil over them, removing during last 5 to 7 minutes of baking. Cool on wire rack. Makes two pies.

Two crust pie:
For a two crust pie, such as a traditional fruit pie, set the pie dish aside and roll out the second ball of dough until its diameter is at least 1 inch (2.5 cms) larger than the top diameter of the pie dish.

Fit the bottom crust into the pie dish and do not prick it. Fill with desired filling, heaping it if using fresh fruits, such as sliced apples, as they will compact as they cook. Moisten the top edges of the crust with ice water. Carefully lay the top crust over the filling (folding it into half or even quarters makes handling easier) and press the edges together to seal the top pastry to the bottom. Trim edges. Cut vent holes into the top of the pie with a sharp knife. Bake according to instructions for the filling. Cool on wire rack. Makes 1 pie.

Dinner Party!

I had a dinner party a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, my broken foot is not fully healed and I can't spend long periods on my feet, so although I prepared and served dinner for eight, I did a lot of cheating...and nobody figured it out! So, if you don't think you are up to all the "from scratch" preparation of a dinner party for eight or more, take a peek at how I cheated my way through a great meal and had a happy, satisfied bunch of guests.

First, the menu:

Appetizers: Corn chips and Salsa Fresca (recipe on this blog)
Salad
Entree: roast leg of lamb and roasted whole chicken
Veg: baked potatoes, corn on the cob, stir fry
Sides: Fresh specialty bread
Dessert: Pound cake (madiera cake) and fruit salad

Actually, it looks like a lot more work than it is!

Let's begin at the beginning: the appetizers
You do not want to put out a lot of appetizers because if people fill up on them, they won't want dinner. And then you'll feel bad watching the lamb roast congeal while everybody moans about having no appetite. Figure one bag of corn (or tortilla) chips for every eight guests. Make the salsa a day early and make it a bit spicy. Drain the excess liquid before serving.

A Super...and super simple!...salad
The best time to make the salad is after the meat and potatoes go in the oven. At the market, buy a bag of baby salad greens and a "salad kit" with at least 3 ingredients in it: my preference is baby tomatoes, chopped green onion, and chunks of cheese,

For the salad, make sure you have the following:
1 carrot (you will grate it)
6 Fresh brown button (or Portobellini) mushrooms, (you will thinly slice them)
1 Avocado (you will peel and slice it)
2 cold boiled eggs, peeled (you will slice them)
Grated Romano cheese (preferably hand grated from a hard cheese)
Dressing of choice, poured out of dressing container and into a pretty decanter or pitcher

Make sure the greens are clean, then tear them into smaller pieces. Add greens from the salad kit and toss together with 1/2 of a grated carrot. Add the other ingredients in the order listed above, adding the remainder of the salad kit before grating Romano cheese over the top. Do not add salad dressing...it will make the salad limp! Place a paper towel directly on top of the salad, cover loosely and refrigerate until time to serve.

Meats: tricks and shortcuts
Roasted chicken: buy a pre-roasted chicken from the deli or rotisserie of your market. For 8 people, make sure you have about 2 lbs (1 kg) of chicken (buy two smaller chickens if necessary).

Peel and coarsely chop a medium sized onion. Slice 1/2 cup celery including leaves and tops. Mix lightly with 4 cloves roasted garlic and some sea salt. Place mixture inside chicken. Microwave until chicken is hot and onion is soft.

Make a mixture of honey, whole grain German mustard and lemon juice. Heat in a ovenproof measuring cup in microwave. Stir until honey is dissolved. Pour over chicken just before serving

Leg of Lamb
Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Buy a 2 lb (1 kg) lamb roast that has already been deboned and seasoned. Place the roast, fat side up, on a small roasting rack (if you don't have one, see the recipe for Roast Turkey and the instructions for making a simple alternative out of foil) and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the centre of the roast. You will need to cook it for 20 minutes per pound (500g) plus 20 minutes. Allow roast to stand for 10 minutes before carving. Serve with cold mint jelly (this cuts the greasiness of the lamb)

Potatoes
Allow one potato per person. Wash and clean potatoes of eyes, blemishes. Insert a potato nail through the length of the potato. Rub all over with olive oil. Prick each potato several times with a fork. place on baking sheet and put into oven with the lamb roast.
Do not wrap in foil!! This steams the potato rather than bakes it.
Caution: use smallish potatoes or they won't get done.
Tip: if they don't get done enough, removed nails and finish in the microwave

Vegetables
Corn on the cob: Corn should be fresh. Clean, removed silk and green husks, break into halves. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Once boiling, add corn, cover, and turn off the heat. Allow to stand for 20-30 minutes. This will cook the corn without toughening it. If possible, use white corn or bi-colour corn as they are sweeter than yellow corn. Serve with butter, salt and pepper.

Stir fry: you can make this with any vegetable combination you like. This is one I like a lot:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh shallots
1/2 cup finely sliced brown or Portobellini mushrooms
1/2 grated carrot
1 packet snow peas, fresh or frozen (but thawed)
3/4 cup fresh asparagus tips (snap off tough stalks)
3/4 cup fresh baby corn, cut into bite sized pieces
4 to 6 cloves roasted garlic
mixed herbs
sea salt
red wine
butter and olive oil

Heat butter and oil together in large skillet or wok. When sizzling add shallots, mushrooms, garlic, salt and herbs. Stir vigorously for about 1 minute or until fragrant. Add remaining vegetables and stir for about a minute, then add up to 1/2 cup red wine, cover, and reduce heat. Allow to cook until corn can easily be pierced with a fork. Uncover and cook off wine until just a bit of syrupy liquid remains.

Bread
Buy small sour dough rounds, the ones intended to be used as sandwich rolls. Allow one for each adult. Slice like a loaf of bread, creating multiple slices per roll, but do not slice all the way through the bottom. Butter between the slices. Place on a baking sheet, cover the whole sheet with foil. When the roast and potatoes come out of the oven, turn off the oven, pop these into the oven and shut the door and allow the residual heat to warm them. They can be removed from the oven as soon as the lamb is sliced and ready to serve.

Dessert
Buy a pound cake or a madiera cake. If the cake is frozen, make sure it is fully thawed before dessert time.

Use the recipe on this blog for Fruit Salad. Dress the fruit salad with a tub of artificially sweetened lemon or vanilla yoghurt. If you have a dieter or diabetic among your guests, this will be an acceptable dessert. For everyone else, put a slice of pound cake in the bottom of a shallow bowl (like a soup bowl) and pile on a ladle of the fruit. Top with a squirt of whipped cream if desired.

Don't forget to put out the salad dressing, the mint jelly, the bread rolls and some butter (you can give them a choice of plain butter or garlic butter (use the roasted garlic) or even herbed labneh--recipes on this blog).

Now, if you really look at this, the only thing that actually requires honest-to-goodness cooking is the stir fry. Everything else is pre-prepared and you are basically heating it up or dressing it up.

This was pretty much our menu the other night and it was a HUGE hit!

Enjoy!

Tortillas (Vegetable Oil)

Tortillas are traditionally made with lard (rendered pork fat). This is nearly impossible to find here in South Africa, so I have gone to making them with vegetable oil. The tortillas are not as fragrant as traditional ones, but they do taste good and are a wee bit less difficult to prepare than those made with lard.

Ingredients:
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp vegetable oil
¾ c milk, warmed just to take the chill off

Preparation:
Sift together dry ingredients into medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle oil over the top.

While stirring, slowly add milk until all liquid is absorbed and you have a sticky ball of dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until dough is no longer sticky…add more flour to the board if necessary (about 2-3 minutes). Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Cut dough into eight pieces. While rolling one piece, keep the others covered with the damp cloth. Lightly flour your pastry board or counter top. Roll dough into a ball, then flatten with your fingers into a circle about 4” (10 cm) in diameter. Using a rolling pin and starting at the centre of the circle, roll to the edges (like rolling pie crust) until you have doubled the size of the tortilla.

Heat an iron skillet or griddle (or a roti pan) on high…do not add oil, although a shot of non-stick spray may be ok. Place the tortilla on the hot surface and cook until bubbles form on the surface. Turn and cook the other side until it puffs up a bit. Remove to a warm plate and cover with a napkin or towel. Keep covered even at the table to keep them warm.

If there are leftovers, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge. Reheat in a dry skillet (I do it over the open flame on my gas stove, but you have to be quick or you’ll get either burnt tortillas or blistered fingers!)

Use with Mexican food, make burritos or wraps, or just butter and eat as a snack!

Easy, fresh, spreadable, homemade cheese!

Cheese…easy, delicious, spreadable, flavour-it-yourself soft cheese

I was at a farmer’s market some weeks back and came across a couple of girls selling little balls of white cheese. I thought at first that they were baby mozzarella, but upon closer inspection, found them to be labneh, a soft, spreadable cheese made from yoghurt. I bought a packet of six balls for R15 (about $1.50) and took it home to try.

They had flavoured the cheese by making little balls of the plain cheese, then covering the balls in olive oil into which they had put minced garlic, coarse black pepper, and some dried herbs. The idea was good, but the raw garlic was just overwhelming. But it had promise…I decided to experiment. It has taken some time, but I have finally come up with an easy way to make the cheese at home…and the results are spectacular!

The trick to making the best cheese is to get the right yoghurt. First of all, it cannot have any stabilizers in it…no gelatin or vegetable stabilizers, either. A stabilizer is a binder that prevents the whey (the watery stuff that sometimes comes to the surface of yoghurt) from separating from the curds (the body of the yoghurt). The success of your effort depends on that separation…the more thorough the separation, the drier, more robust your cheese.

I at first assumed that if the yoghurt was organic, it would have no stabilizers…wrong! Apparently there are organic stabilizers…I spent weeks buying big and little tubs of various yoghurts, eventually arriving at the conclusion that the best yoghurts for cheese making were 1) without stabilizers, 2) organic, and 3) full fat. Low fat yoghurt, if it doesn’t have stabilizers, will separate, but the cheese will be softer, taste less rich and have more tang than the full fat variety. I haven’t tried fat-free yet, but that’s the next experiment.

I also discovered that covering the cheese in flavour-infused oil was not necessary. The oil adds fat (and calories) and the flavourants do not penetrate the cheese and flavour it. The best way to flavour the cheese is to add the flavourants directly to the cheese itself.

You can make this cheese sweet or savoury. Flavourants can be fruits (well-drained, finely chopped, and sweetened to your palate with either sugar or sweetener) or herbs and spices. I like it with roasted garlic and sea salt, but caramelized onions, minced chillies, lemon zest, all have their merits. The cheese also has multiple uses: spread it on bread or crackers, thin it a bit and use as a dip for chips or crudités, use on potatoes instead of butter or gravy, on hot vegetables instead of butter or rich sauces. Use in sandwiches instead of sliced cheese, or spread it on hot toast. The sweet varieties can be used on toast, pancakes, waffles, hot cereals, scones…anything you might be tempted to put jam on. Some of this cheese, flavoured with a bit of lemon or lime zest, would even complement a mild fish. You can also use the plain cheese in the same ways you ordinarily use cream cheese.

This cheese keeps well. Once made, package in plastic containers and keep refrigerated. I’ve had it in the fridge for up to four weeks (I had to hide it so it didn’t get eaten by a certain household member for a snack!) and found it still fresh-tasting and without any mould growth. It is easy to make and delicious to eat, and making the cheese from low fat yoghurt and using it in place of butter at the table will surely reduce your calorie count…and it tastes SOOO good!

Soft White Cheese (Labneh)
Utensils:
Deep bowl
Strainer
Cheese cloth or coffee filters
Plate to cover bowl.
Ingredients:
1 pint (500 ml) stabilizer-free plain yoghurt (full fat or low fat)
Flavourants (see more on this below)
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Place strainer over deep bowl. Make sure there is several inches (2.54 cm = 1 inch) free below the bottom of the strainer.

Line the strainer with 3 or 4 layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Make sure the filters/cheesecloth cover all of the strainer wire.

Pour the yoghurt into the strainer, on top of the filter/cheesecloth. Cover with a plate and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and uncover. Lift the strainer and pour the liquid in the bowl off into another container. Rinse the bowl.

Remove the cheese from the strainer to a smaller bowl. Discard the coffee filter (rinse the cheesecloth and set it aside for laundering). Rinse the strainer in running water, then return it to the deep bowl.

Add flavourants (see below) to the cheese and mix well. If using savoury (non-sweet) flavourants, add a little salt (ground sea salt recommended). Line the strainer with a fresh coffee filter or clean cheesecloth, return the cheese to the strainer, cover with a plate and return to the refrigerator for 24 hours.

The liquid that came out of the yoghurt is whey. You can discard it, but it also can be used in food preparation. It is a nutrient-packed substitute for water in baking bread, making sauces, even preparing hot cereals. It can be added to dry animal food to make it more palatable. The amount of whey drained from a volume of stabilizer-free yoghurt should be approximately 50% of the original yoghurt…so if you put a pint of yoghurt in the strainer, expect half a pint of whey in the bowl the next day.

After the second 24 hours in the strainer, the cheese should have lost most of its moisture. You can use the cheese now or, if you want it drier and stiffer, leave it to drain another 24 hours. The longer the cheese sits in the strainer, the stiffer it will become and the stronger the taste of the flavourants.

Once stiff enough to hold its shape, the cheese can be removed from the strainer and rolled into a “log,” then sliced into rounds. It can be rolled into balls in the hand, then dusted with herbs or spices. It can be pressed into moulds, like chocolate or butter moulds. Stuff cherry tomatoes with it for hors d’oeuvres. Roll balls or logs in sesame or poppy seeds for use on a snack table. Or it can simply be placed in a small bowl and served with a spreading knife. This stuff is wonderfully versatile and a quick trip to Google Images under the search criteria “yogurt cheese” will just boggle your mind!
Flavourants: Savoury:
Dried herbs, ground to a powder. Can be mixed into the cheese or balls of the cheese can be rolled in it.

Roasted garlic: 4 to 6 cloves per pint of yoghurt, mashed or pulverized and mixed into the cheese.

Chili powder: light dusting on cheese balls: serve with salsa fresca and tortilla chips.

Roasted chillies: fire roast fresh jalapeño chillies, skin, seed and mince the flesh. Mix into the cheese.

Caramelized onions: cut Spanish onions into thin rings and caramelize in butter. Once cooled, mince finely and mix with the cheese.

Spring onion: mince green spring onion tops and mix into cheese.

Masala: dust cheese balls lightly with garam masala

Capers: coarsely chop 1 tablespoon drained capers. Mix into cheese and serve with smoked salmon and bagels.

Sweet:

Mix honey to your taste with the cheese to make a toast or biscuit spread.

Drain ⅓ cup jam in a strainer overnight. Mix the drained jam with cheese.

Drain ¼ cup of crushed tinned pineapple and mix with cheese.

Sift a cinnamon and fine sugar mixture over cheese balls and serve with toast, pancakes, or waffles.


Photo by midiman Flickr