Micro Mozzarella - made some again this morning.
Such a tricky little cheese but well worth it
Not as shiny as it should be but still tastes great
MICROWAVE
MOZZARELLA
l Full Cream Milk, not ultra-pasteurized
1/2 tsp. Citric Acid
powder, dissolved in 1/4 cup room-temperature water
¼ tsp. Rennet,
dissolved in 1/4 cup room-temp water and salt.
1 tsp. Cheese (Flake) Salt or Kosher Salt
Instructions
1. Pour the milk in to a large pot on medium-low, heat slowly to
15º C Stir slowly and continuously to
keep from scalding.
2. Once the milk reaches, pour in th15ºC add citric acid mixture
and stir well. Keep heating.
3. When the milk hits 31.2ºC, add the rennet mixture and stir
well. Right around this time the milk will start to thicken, and you’ll see
little white flecks stick to your spoon as it starts curdling.
4. Once the milk is in the 33 ºC range, it should be noticeably
curdled. Stir very gently at this point, if at all — you want to encourage the
curds to knit together.
5. Between 35 and 40ºC, the curds will be quite thick. Turn off
the heat once they start separating from the sides of the pot, and there’s a
very clear distinction between the curds (white clumps) and whey (yellow
liquid).
6. Let the curds rest for 5 minutes.
7. With a perforated or slotted spoon, ladle the curds into a
bowl.
The curds will continue expelling whey once they’re in the bowl,
which is fine. Once you have pulled
most of the curds out of the pot (some little bits will probably still be
floating about), pour any excess whey back in the pot.
8. Using a microwave, heat the curds for 60 seconds. Drain off any excess whey, then fold the
curds over once, then once again. This
is to distribute the heat evenly.
9. Microwave again for
about 30-40 seconds, depending on the strength of your microwave Pour off the whey.
10. Sprinkle the salt onto the cheese, and then fold the curds
over twice again. Put them back into the
microwave for another 30-40 seconds.
Pour of any excess whey.
11. At this point, the
cheese should be very hot, and look like melted mozzarella!
12. Stretch the cheese,
and then fold it back on itself. If it tears when you try to stretch it, the
cheese is not hot enough; just repeat the microwaving process.
Stretch it again once or twice. If you want a more string-cheese
like cheese, do it a few more times. It
must be shiny to be correct.
13. You can then twist or
braid the cheese, or tear off pieces and roll
it into small balls of
you’re going to refrigerate the cheese for later, drop it in a bowl of ice
water to get the temperature down quickly..
Otherwise, just dig in while it’s still warm!
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