Little Miss Heidi...

Tried to stay tidy,

While eating her

CURDS AND WHEY.

I am SUPER excited about an awesome technique I just learned. I can now make my own whey and my own cream cheese (curds)!!!

There are a few ways to do this depending on what dairy product is being used, but I learned to do it through separating the curds and whey from Whole, Organic, Plain Yogurt.

Here's the first picture I took of the process (sidenote: I went out to Tuesday Morning and bought this awesome wire sieve after work)


To get the whey out of the yogurt, you put a thin towel (I found the perfect one today!) and use it to line the wire mesh strainer. The strainer goes over the container that catches the whey. Then, pour the yogurt into the towel. The whey will slowly start to drip into the container below.


This is a picture of the yogurt that has already started to release some of the whey.

You can let this process occur all day, but I only had the afternoon. To finish the process, you tie the ends of the towel across a long spoon and let the towel full of the yogurt hang into a long, wide-mouthed container (a vase is suggested.) Then you put it in the fridge overnight and pour the rest of the whey into the whey jar. The solids left in the towel are used as cream cheese or sour cream; it has the ability to taste like either item depending on the setting. It is SO delicious.



This is what the last step looks like before it goes in the fridge. Do you see that glass jar full of the clear, yellowish liquid? That's the whey! Tomorrow morning I will pour the rest into that jar and then I am planning on reusing the yogurt container to store the cream cheese.

What, you may ask, are the practical uses for whey?

The most important use is Digestion. Taking a straight spoon or two of the whey a day is an excellent way to improve your digestion; it is rich with enzymes.

It is also used to ferment foods and beverages. Sauerkraut and pickles are the next two recipes I want to try and both those recipes call for whey.

So, my friends, as you can see, I am quite excited about this new style of cooking.
I still have so much to learn and I really want to properly introduce you to my new cookbook (which is more like a life-transformer tool) but that will have to wait for another day.

Oh, and I promise I've been thinking about lots of spiritual stuff lately too.

Mainly, Contentment.

But I just had to share my excitement of these cooking ventures with you all.

Deeper posts to come soon :-)


*ps - did you all get the literary nursery rhyme reference at the beginning of this post?

Just checkin'

;-)