We are asked to make Halloumi for the month of October. This is a cheese that originated in Cypress. Traditionally made of sheep's milk or a combination of sheep's & goats milk. Mine will be made with cows milk, cause that is what I have. I will add Lipase powder (an enzyme) to the milk to simulate sheep's or goats milk. Halloumi is a hooped, brined cheese.
This morning I milked my cows. I came in strained this through flour sack cloth into a gallon jar. The picture shows my supplies for making this cheese.
Here I warmed the milk to 90 deg. I am preparing to add the Lipase powder. You add this lipase powder to water to dilute it.
Stirring the lipase powder into the milk with an up & down motion using the slotted skimmer.
Dilute rennet in water to make this milk into cheese.
Stir the rennet mixture into the milk using an up & down motion for 1 minute. I use an imported animal rennet. I just like the way it changes the milk properties & like the flavor of the animal rennet better than the vegetable rennet.
Using the up & down motion incorporating the rennet into the milk.
When the milk rests for 30-40 minutes...this should make a clean break. It does.
Here I am cutting the curd. It says to cut it into 3/4 inch squares...but I live in such a dry part of the country, I cut mine more of an 1 1/2 & then make a couple swipes diagonal both directions. This will allow my cheese not to be overly dry & end up being like it is suppose to be.
Heating the milk to 104 deg over a 15 minute period. Stirring gently you can see the curd changing.
This sets at 104 deg for 20 min. See the curds taking shape.
The recipe says to let this set for 5 minutes. The curds sink to the bottom of the pot. This whole time I kept the temperature at 104 deg. by putting this in a sink of hot water.
I carefully ladled the cheese curds into a cheese cloth lined colander, saving the whey for another step in this process. I put the whey in the fridge to keep it from souring. This cheese will set in the cheese cloth lined colander for 15 min. This process is called hooping the cheese. Resembling Cypress we put mint leaves on the cheese...to impart a flavor of mint into our cheese.
The next step is to carefully pick up the cheese & set into the cheese cloth lined 5 inch tomme mould. I then folded the cheese cloth over this cheese & put the top follower on & a weight to begin the pressing.
This is the whey that I put in the fridge. It sours fast...by putting it in the fridge you keep it sweet. We will use this in about 6 hours from now.
Here I used a water jug. This is 8 pounds, as I weighed the water jug. The cheese will press for 3 hours.
Flipping the cheese. Doing this makes a more evenly pressed cheese. I unwrapped the cheese this is the picture here. Undressed the cheese cloth I trimmed the edges, mostly to sample the cheese (OH MY so yummy! I think I have never tasted such a glorious cheese before!) & flipped the cheese, redressed & put the weight back on. Three more hours of pressing.
I unwrapped the cheese. Now I am going to cut it square, near 4 inches by 4 inches and remove the mint leaves.
Here it is cut square, I am warming up the whey to 190 deg...taking 1/2 hour to bring it up to temp.
I put the cheese in the whey that is 190 deg. I can see that some of the milk solids left in the whey are turning to ricotta. This part was frightening...it said DO NOT LET IT BOIL....I did not let it boil....but I could see the ricotta swimming around & felt like yikes....will my Halloumi melt? NOPE it didn't!
You can see after about 20 minutes it started to look like it would float a little. When it shrinks a little & floats it is ready to come out.
It is floating & ready to come out of the pot of hot whey.
I scooped it out of the pot & am going to let it rest on a mat.
I am letting it rest for 40 min flipping once to let it dry. It feels like a soft marshmallow...it held it's shape great!
I put the Halloumi in the brine solution. It will stay here 5 to 20 days.
I set my grill on the burner & turned it on while I put the ends in the brine. They were in the brine for about 40 min. I did this while the main cheese was resting & drying.
Oh!!!!! I can NOT tell you how yummy this is!!!!! OH MY!!!! The taste is like NOTHING I have ever ate! SO YUMMY!!!! This was perfectly little salty, a very suttle HINT of mint & melt in your mouth!!!! This is served on a wooden plate my son made me & on a hand woven cloth my Aunt that taught me how to make cheese gave me for Christmas a few years ago.
Appearance: Grilled to a golden brown.
Nose (aroma): Smelled like fried mozzarella.
Overall Taste: Tasted like fried cheese, a "hint" of salt & mint (if I wouldn't have made this...I would not have even tasted the mint)
Sweet to Salty: Slightly sweet & ever so slightly salty...as mine was in the brine only one hour.
Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): mild
Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): very smooth & creamy & melty & cheesy on the inside & slightly crunch & like satin on the outside.
YUM!
Appearance: Grilled to a golden brown.
Nose (aroma): Smelled like fried mozzarella.
Overall Taste: Tasted like fried cheese, a "hint" of salt & mint (if I wouldn't have made this...I would not have even tasted the mint)
Sweet to Salty: Slightly sweet & ever so slightly salty...as mine was in the brine only one hour.
Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): mild
Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): very smooth & creamy & melty & cheesy on the inside & slightly crunch & like satin on the outside.
YUM!
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