Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Paneer and more wine

On my 2013 to-do list was to learn how to make cheese. I kept putting it off this summer as the garden was pressing and then I had a bit of burn out this fall after processing the harvest. But, with the new year at hand, I decided to try making paneer last night. 


Paneer looks to be the easiest of the cheeses to make: mix very warm milk and lemon juice and voila--cheese forms!


A quick drain separates the curds and whey.


Some more draining, pressing and I ended up with 25 cubic includes of paneer from 4 litres of 2% milk. Tastes just like store bought but took less time to make than go buy. I'll be cubing and freezing half this morning. the rest I will chill until I make some veggie-friend butter "chicken" in the crockpot on  Friday. I've reserved some whey to try and make a lemon-whey pie today.


In the basement, we have another batch of wine (Malbec) on the go. We're almost through last year's wine and I'd like to have something to supplement the cider. This kit came with skins (fancy, fancy) so it should have a more complex flavour than last year's entry-level Pinot Noir kit.


Although the snow is deep, Jess and I have started mulling the spring planting. More onions and garlic and beets top the list. We're still eating primarily vegetables from the garden but I wonder if we can grow enough root vegetables to get throughout he whole winter next year. also we need to make more crab apple jelly.