Martin came across a recipe for Wild Garlic Goats Cheese,
As having a go at making cheese with the goats milk is on the agenda, I have given it a go.
It seemed fairly straight forward, all I had to do was pick some wild garlic.
1pint of raw goats milk, juice of half a lemon, 1oz of wild garlic and sea salt, I was pleased to see there was no rennet needed I have a bad reaction to rennet and avoid all cheese, I might get to try some of this one.
Bring the milk up just to the boil and remove from heat
Add the lemon juice a bit at a time to the milk and it starts to form curds,
Strain the curds through a cloth
Leave to drain for a few hours
Tip into a bowl and add the chopped wild garlic, add a pinch of sea salt and taste, this is were I had a problem, not being a cheese eater how is it suppose to taste, I winged it and added another pinch.
Make it into a ball and wrap tightly into a ball, put it on a slanted board and put a weight on top, leave overnight.
This is it this morning,
A cheese a small one but still a cheese, it seems very firm and smells lovely and garlicky, they say you can eat it straight away, I shall keep it until Martin comes home and he can do a taste verdict, if its OK then I can do some more perhaps with some different flavors.
Now the Yacon,
I am a bad gardener I planted the Yacon last year and forgot about it, so it was not a great harvest, but enough to do an experiment with.
Scrubbed the Yacon tubers and chopped the up, into the food processor
Blitzed to a pulp
Into a saucepan and stewed down to release the juice
strain it over night, it was still fairly wet this morning, so I popped it into some muslin and squeezed it as dry as possible.
The juice looks just like muddy water
On to the stove and reduced down to a syrup.
Yacon syrup, very sweet and calorie free,
It can be used to sweeten drinks, added to baking or just as a syrup on pancakes.
Pancakes might be on the menu this week end.
Yacon produces two types of tuber
The big edible tubers they have the texture of water chestnut, can be cooked, eaten raw or use to make syrup.
And knobbly growing tubers you divide and grow on the following year.
I have replanted the growing tubers and this time I wont forget about them.
That it for today need to get outside and get some jobs done, also need to find some recipes for crackers to go with the cheese.
Well done on the cheese. The yacon is interestig.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of yacon before but calorie free sweetness has to be a winner. Do you do anything with the mashed stuff?
ReplyDeleteThe cheese looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Yakon....it looks very interesting-x-
Add me to the list of people who have never heard of yacon. At first I thought you must have done a typo and meant "cheese and bacon." Jokes on me! I wonder if I can find yacon anywhere around here.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting...never heard of Yakon...looks like a giant chrysalis! x
ReplyDeleteThe cheese sounds delicious. Calorie free sweetness how great I that.
ReplyDeleteYacon is very interesting! We looked into it when looking for sugar substitutes. It does contain calories though, 20 calories per tablespoon...which is small really. The only truely calorie free natural sweetener is stevia...but that's a pain to work with unless you're sweetening a drink tbh. With Yacon syrup, it can also produce gastric distress if you over do it as the sweetness comes as indigestible, some get wind, some get upset tummies. I'd love to hear how you guys go with it!!
ReplyDeleteI love the look of your cheese...perhaps a goats version of boursain!? Yummy!
i can't remember where i first heard of yakon...on someone's blog a bit ago. but forget the yakon....can you please send me some of that cheese?!??!?!
ReplyDeletesending love. your friend,
kymber
The cheese looks and sounds delicious, I had planned to grow Yakon but the time slipped away from me, perhaps next year.
ReplyDeleteI am always surprised at the new things that I learn and find out about by reading your blog Dawn and today was no exception. So interesting! Hope the cheese is tasty
ReplyDeleteAfter you mentioned making a cheese Martin loved I had to come see right away. ;) I love how simple the recipe is and that it only uses a pint of milk. As others have commented, it looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteAlso like the others, I'm not familiar with yacon. I love that it can be used to make syrup! Always looking for ways to make homegrown sweeteners (in addition to the bees).