Rex Makes Ricotta

It was a snowy day like many we have had this winter in New England, and the dinos were restless, roaming around the living room, hopping onto countertops, and occasionally nipping at my toes under the table. They were so pesky, I exiled them to the kitchen. That's when things started getting interesting.

As some of you may have read in a previous entry, a few of my dinosaurs read One Hour Cheese by Claudia Lucero over my shoulder the other day and were inspired to make cheese. And they did make cheese, in 20 minutes no less!! Seriously. I was impressed. 

Being exiled in the kitchen must force creativity, because next time I check on them, they were juicing lemons. The next recipe in that cheese book was "Meyer Lemon Ricotta." And what better day to make ricotta than on a snow day!  

"We need 1/4 cup of lemon juice, guys! To get the most juice out of these lemons you've got to get your back into it... and your tails!"

After they juiced the lemons, Rex poured the lemon juice into 4 cups of cow's milk and 2 cups of cream (optional) a big pot on the stove. 

He turned the heat to medium. You want it to heat slowly, but steadily.

Stir occasionally and gently. This is not the right time to show your innate dinosaur fierce-ness, says Rex. Be gentle and don't break any curds that may be forming. Heat to 190 F.

You'll need to stay close by to keep an eye on the milk, but while you are waiting (dinosaurs, as I am sure you know, are not good at being patient), you can prepare the strainer. 

Here's Rex showing Salty the Saltosaurus and Stripes the Baryonyx what a cheese cloth is and why it's important.   I'm not sure how this dinosaur has become an expert on all things cheese-related, but the other dinos did seem impressed.

"It's got to be a very fine mesh," I heard Rex say authoritatively, "You don't want to loose your tiny cheese curds through a big mesh cloth!"Salty and Stripes looked appropriately shocked that such a thing could happen at this stage in your cheese-making process. 

The curds are reaching 190 degrees F!

"Now we have to wait 10 minutes. And let the curds sit in the whey."

"What? 10 MINUTES!? Rarghhh!"

"Ten minutes... but I want cheese NOW...! RRRAGHHH!"

As I mentioned earlier, patience is not a quality that is inherent in dinosaurs. 

After 10 minutes, they poured the curds gently into the cheesecloth-lined strainer with a bowl underneath to catch the why. 

"Wow," said Stripes, and all three stood in awh for a moment looking at the cheese curds and listening to the drip, drip of whey draining away slowly. 

"Ok, Rex. Now what?"

"We have to wait another 10 minutes," said Rex.

I heard wails of agony from the kitchen followed by dreadful stomping and moaning which lasted a full 3 minutes!

Waiting....

Even Rex was getting fidgety. 

But as it always does, time does move and the timer went off with a loud buzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzz. The dinosaurs jumped to their feet and ran over to the cheese. Rex bundled the cloth up and gave the ricotta a final squeeze to get the last whey out of it. "Time to add the salt!"

Rex stirred in the salt gently.

Rex then spooned some ricotta out into a bowl for Stripes and Salty to look at and taste. 

"Wow, it's so fluffy," said Salty.

"And creamy - looking, too," said Stripes.

"What are you waiting for! Try some." Gleeful chomping and smacking noises.

Let me just say at this point that dinos are messy eaters. There was ricotta on the floor! But they did enjoy it. I heard happy munching and slurping sounds and occasional roars of pleasure coming from the kitchen. 

"RARRGHHH! Let's just eat it all RIGHT NOW? Yeah? Yeah! YEAH!"

"Now, now," said Rex, "there IS SO MUCH you can do with ricotta besides eating it fresh. Even though it's tempting, it's not good for dinos to eat three cups of dairy in one sitting. Our digestive systems were not built for it. We should save some for fun recipes."

"Like what?" said Stripes, ricotta smeared across his jaw.

"Well," mused Rex, dipping a claw into the bowl and slowly licking the cheese off his talons one by one, "you can easily add powdered sugar and vanilla and make cannolis. And if we can't find cannoli shells in this kitchen, we could use waffle cone pieces." 

"Or we could make lasagna!" said Salty.

"Too true!" said Rex"

"Or spinach spanakopita with that crunchy filo dough?"

"No, no, we should do a gourmet pizza with ricotta blobs on top... they get all toasty and nice in the oven..."

"Or sweet ricotta cake with honey!!! Ooh, I want cake."

"Or any kind of cake with ricotta and jam on top."

"Those are all good ideas," said Rex, "I think I'm going to go for oatmeal made with that leftover whey topped with this tasty ricotta. And frozen blueberries. Rarghhh, life is good!"