Cheesemaking with the Foodies

By Chere

The Shoalhaven Foodies recently had a cheese making day. All of us had expressed an interest in making our own cheese, so when Frances' sister Rachael offered to share her cheese-making knowledge, we were quick to accept.

Frances stirs the milk.

Kim following Rachael's instructions on cutting the curd

Rachael brought some samples of her own feta, mascarpone and quark cheeses – delicious!

Our efforts produced some excellent feta and quark, which we shared out and took home to savour and make into some dishes of our own.

The feta was truly delicious (both Rachael's feta and the batch we took home). Really creamy and smooth. Not too salty – just right.

What can I say about the mascarpone? Only that it was one of the best I've ever eaten. Also silky and smooth. We made short work of it with fresh strawberries, dates and tamarillos. (The Shoalhaven Foodies never go hungry at our get togethers!). pic

Colleen brought mouth-watering gluten-free rosemary shortbread which we polished off in a flash!



Chere's dishes from the cheeseA sad tale, when I went to make some dishes, I found my oven wasn't working - damn! Obviously that meant nothing oven baked.

I set myself another challenge and decided to only use what I had available at home. I'd brought home some lovely fresh oranges from our cheese-making day (picked from a large tree in the delightful garden). I also had an avocado from Christine's garden (now just ripe) and a large bowl of organic limes and lemons a friend had given me.

Oh yes, and someone had given me a bag of prunes. So, armed with the feta and the quark, I made:

Some delicious avocado mousse by mixing the flesh of the avocado, a dessertspoon of lime juice, a little fresh vegetable stock, a splash of Tabasco sauce, some finely chopped fresh herbs from my herb garden (chives, tarragon and a little basil), about 4 tablespoons of quark, black pepper and some made up agar agar to set it. Into the fridge and …. yum!

I cut the feta into cubes and marinated it overnight with pan roasted cumin seeds, lemon zest and olive oil. Yum too! They went on a platter and my daughter Kimella and I had a very nice little feast.



I made up a mix of red wine and sugar and brought it to the boil, added the juice and zest of an orange and marinated a big cup of prunes in it overnight. (You could add some liqueur to this, but I didn't have any!).
I made a caramel sauce of sugar and water and added some orange zest and finely chopped dates. I poured this over four oranges, (skin and pith removed and cut into slices) and left it overnight too.

The quark went on top of the oranges and dates. The mixture of the caramelised oranges with the quark and the marinated prunes was truly delicious!


Thank you Rachael and thank you Frances for organising the day.