Homemade Halloumi

During our Covid-19 lockdown I decided to try making cheese. Ricotta was the first cheese I tried. Google homemade ricotta recipes, it's super easy to make. This halloumi required a little more time and attention but was well worth it. I got the ingredients in a cheesemaking kit from u-main.ca. You can order a kit through them or find all the ingredients you'll need online (from Amazon of course!)

Ingredients:

4 L milk

1/4 cup unchlorinated water at room temperature

1/2 tsp calcium chloride

1/4 g vegetarian rennet at room temperature

1 1/2 tsps cheese salt, or to taste

You'll also need:

thermometer

cheesecloth

cheese mold (see note below about homemade molds)

These are the directions I got with the kit:

Dilute the rennet in 1/4 cup water and set aside.

Pour the milk into a large pot. Using a thermometer, heat the milk on medium to 30°C, stirring slowly, then turn off heat.

Pour the calcium chloride in, stir 5 times. Pour the rennet mixture in, stir 5 times then let sit.

Make sure the temperature keeps at 30°C, cover the pot and let sit for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes stick tip of knife into curd and lift to see if the liquid underneath is yellowish-greenish. If it's still whiteish let sit another 30 minutes.

Now cut the silky block to the bottom of the pot, cutting 1 cm squares, then cut those squares into triangles. Let sit 5 minutes.

Heat the curd slowly over 30-40 minutes, increasing temperature by 1° - 2°C every 5 minutes until it reaches 38°C. While heating slowly mix from top to bottom as curds become smaller.

At 38°C turn off heat, cover and let sit 30 minutes, stirring gently every 10 minutes.

After 30 minutes, line a colander with cheesecloth using clothespins to hold it to the colander and place over a large bowl. Spoon the curd into the colander.

Once the curd has drained, divide it into three parts and place each part in a mold.

NOTE:

This mold came with the kit but I have read that you could use a tin can with top and bottom removed, sitting on a sushi mat to drain.

Use an unopened tin can in a ziplock bag as a weight on top of the cheese to help with the draining process. Let sit 1 hour.

At about 40 minutes start heating the whey in the pot to reach 85°C then turn off the heat. Carefully unmold the cheese (this is so cool eh?!) and submerge in the hot whey using a large spoon. They will sink but after 15-30 minutes, once cooked, they will float.

Remove to a colander to drain another 5-10 minutes.  (Reserve the whey for breadmaking)

Slice or crush the halloumi and sprinkle cheese salt on each piece. You may get creative here adding red pepper flakes, mint, black pepper or oregano.

Eat as is or brush with olive oil and grill.

I used a mixture of 2 tbsps olive oil and 1 tbsp lemon juice marinating the halloumi in this for 30 minutes before pan frying.

Store halloumi in the fridge for 1 week, or if submerged in brine, 2 weeks.

Halloumi making was a little time consuming, but during lockdown all we had was time!!