An Angel at My Table

12 décembre 2006

I love your whey

Homemade quark

About two weeks ago I bought a tub of quark from Nosh, nice farmstyle curd. It was good but so compact it was impossible to eat it by itself. As a kid in France, I grew up on "petits Suisses", very small portions of quark wrapped in paper. Here in New Zealand I didn't manage to find quite the right consistency, it's either too firm or too runny. I therefore decided to make my own!
Making quark is not difficult it just takes a little bit of take because the mixture has to stand to allow curd and whey to separate.

I used a recipe from a French recipe book I have at home using both milk and buttermilk. Some recipes call for buttermilk only and I will try them too, to find out if there is a difference in texture.

-1 litre whole milk
-1 litre cultured buttermilk

Combine both in an oven proof dish and let stand 48 hours at room temperature.

It looks quite revolting in its early stage

Place into a cool oven - 50 degrees max - for 90 minutes. You will see the green whey separate from the curd.
Sterilise a cheese cloth in hot water and use it to line a sieve. Pour the curd, tie the cheesecloth and leave to hang for a good hour, the more it drains, the firmer the quark will be.
I got completely off tracked on Saturday afternoon and forgot about my quark. It drained for far too long so it was super compact when I came back. The good thing about it is that you can stir in a little whey to make it smoother again.

30 mai 2006

Today's pick

Sunshine in a jar - Hand picked olives in olive oil

These are the delightful olives I picked on Barbara’s olive trees. I cannot thank her enough. Being able to cure my own olives is such an exciting journey. I divided the olives in 2 batches: I used Barbara’s method to cure the 1^st batch and I crushed the second batch with a brick. What a good way to get rid of your stress! Take a handful of olives and bang! Hit them hard with a brick wrapped in cloth. 

Crushing olives, breaks down the flesh and helps getting of bitter juices faster. The above olives have been crushed 3 weeks ago and are now bathing in olive oil and rosemary as per Barbara’s method. I have another lot in a brine made of vinegar, water and salt. I bought Maille red wine vinegar for the occasion. It is a French vinegar that has been aged in oak barrels.

It is too early to tell if they are any good yet.

The first batch I poked with a knife is still bitter to taste.

There are so many methods available in books and internet. It is hard to know which one to use. Assessing how long olives should be kept in brine is also tricky. I do not want my olives to taste bitter but leaving them for too long may result in getting rid of all the natural flavours.

What to do, what to do?

Hopefully, they’ll turn out nice – maybe not all of them but I should, statistically end up with at least one decent batch to nibble on. I will use the not so good ones in meat dishes. I am mouthwatering thinking about the yummy chicken tajines, veal marengo and duck casseroles. Heaven!