Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Mmm... cheeeeesy. Decided to try making some cheese. Although un-pasturized milk is ideal for cheese, it is technically illegal to sell it in Colorado unless you are a part of a milk share during which case you actually "own" a share of the cow. Instead, I found some milk that was pasteurized at a low temperature which seemed to work fine. This was my first time making cheese so I definitely took longer than the "30 minutes" that the recipe suggested. I also realized that some sort of hand protection (probably thick gloves of some sort) is quite necessary as your hands are submerged in very hot water (70C). Gloves would have definitely prevented much pain in my hands. The recipe that I used (featured in the cheese kit that I used) produced about six golf-tennis ball size balls.

Final product.

The low-temperature pasteurized whole milk that I used.

Separating the curds and whey.

Finished cheese with (out of season) basil, EV olive oil, and a balsamic reduction.

Caprese Salad

This is salad in its simplest form. Caprese salad is quite easy to make. It is also a summer salad - don't even try making it anytime but the summer (unless you live somewhere very warm) because the tomatoes will not be great out of season, and great tomatoes are essential for a good caprese salad. Good mozzarella helps too. A balsamic reduction raises this caprese salad to the next level. 

Caprese Salad:

2 large, ripe tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick

10 slices fresh mozzarella (about one mozzarella ball)

20 leaves fresh basil

1/4 cup balsamic reduction (see below)

freshly ground black pepper

kosher salt

To make this salad, simply assemble thinly sliced ripe tomatoes (about 1/4 inch thick), fresh mozzarella slices of about the same size, and several basil leaves. To make each stack, begin with a tomato slice. Place several basil leaves on top of tomato slice, followed by a slice of mozzarella. Then drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil and a liberal amount of balsamic reduction (see below) on top. Add some extra smaller basil leaves to the top as well. Season with freshly ground pepper and kosher salt (this depends on the salt content of your mozzarella. I barely added any salt this time because the mozzarella I used was very salty to begin with). Enjoy!

Balsamic Reduction:

3/4 cup good balsamic vinegar

Simply bring the vinegar to a slight simmer in a saucepan for 10-20 minutes allowing the liquid to reduce to a syrupy consistency. Any extra can be stored in the refrigerator.