Helene's Ricotta from her blog

[Wonder]

Thanks Helene, would love to come to Canada for a cooking lesson. to be honest I've never even eaten Ricotta and was just trying it to see what it was like. I ended up draining the mixture and have ended up with what may be ricotta but it just tastes like milk??? I've got a huge week at work this week and not feeling well so I'm sure it will actually end up in the bin 

[CreamPuff63]

I know what you mean Wonder. It makes a lot and can be quite daunting, and like me if you made it more for an experiment and not having anything in mind to make. I ended up making the Lemon Ricotta cake from QFITM - which was huge as well, and the sort of cake perfect for a large gathering as a little bit is enough. Next time I make some ricotta will halve it and have a recipe in mind first as we don't eat a lot of it (but probably should).

[Wonder]

CP after making it and only having a little taste I was actually thinking that it would actually be quite high in fat and probably not that good for you although I believe everything in moderation so happy to eat a little but not sure what I'll actually do with it now it's sitting there.

[judydawn]

I made this recipe recently for ricotta & spinach gnocchi - it didn't make enough for the full recipe but if you look for a recipe requiring 250g of it you should be right.  I would never make it unless I had a recipe in mind though.  Hope you are feeling better soon Wonder.

[ThermomixBlogger]

Wonder, you are right -- there is not much flavor to the ricotta itself. In that way it's a bit like tofu, except that it does have the properties of dairy. I have used it crumbled on pizza, over roasted potatoes, in gnocchi as July suggests, added to scrambled eggs, as a filling in omelets along with mushroom and/or spinach and/or tomato, blended with cream cheese and/or mayo to make dips, and more. Recently I was making a Greek salad and had no feta so just crumbled a bit of ricotta on top. Since we 'eat with our eyes' nobody really noticed or minded... not even me! You could also add a spoonful of crumbled ricotta to the top of tomato soup, or cream of broccoli soup as a pretty garnish that melts a little and adds a layer of mouthfeel to the recipe. Or, toss some in with CADA if you are wishing for yogurt and don't have any. I find it to be an extremely versatile ingredient.

Sorry to hear you are not well. Maybe reading about comfort food recipe on this forum will help 

...h.

[faffa_70]

Feeling pretty cuffed with my efforts

Like Wonder mine didn't seem to be very separated so I put it back on soft speed for about another 20 seconds and it was perfect

[cookie1]

Clever girl. I love it.

[meganjane]

Just reading my cheese book and Helene's recipe is a mix of quark & ricotta. There are two ways of making ricotta.

Ricotta actually means 're-cooked'. The whey left from cheese making, where rennet has been used, is cooked at low temperature (60C). Then whole milk is added some salt and this is heated to 95C. Once at temperature,a small amount of vinegar mixed with water is added until the curds form. These are skimmed off and drained.

The other method, producing what is known as true ricotta, uses only whole milk.

The recipe in my book calls for 10 litres of whole milk - goat, sheep or cow's milk and a 1/2 cup vinegar. This yields 2kg of ricotta.

Quark, or quarg can be made with skim or whole milk. It can also be made with UHT milk which produces a finer texture and better flavour.
As quoted from the book, "By adding 200ml of cream to 2L whole milk you can make a cream cheese...... The cream cheese version drains slower than when using whole milk..

The method for this particular quark uses a starter rather than vinegar. It's left to do it's own thing overnight rather like yoghurt and drained the next day. I remember making it and it was delicious! We just used UHT milk and UHT cream.

Helen's recipe is much easier! I'm going to try it with UHT milk and cream as I don't always have a lot of milk or cream on hand.

[teagg]

Quark is used extensively in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria etc. now much more common in the uk. Yet to make much impact here in Aus however. It's very versatile.
Apparently easy to make - friends of ours make it.
The starter culture is the same set of bugs (for want of a better term) as in cultured buttermilk.  Just culture it at an even 20-22C. I don't have an adjustable thermostat on my yogurt maker and so haven't yet had a go.
It might be worth looking at the rezeptwelt.de (German language recipecommunity website) to see if there are any TMX recipes for quark.

HTH.
Gillian

[meganjane]

I have some of the starter. I got it from cheeselinks. It's a Type A starter.

[Shazzy]

Hi Just helped my my DS13 make ricotta cheese as he wanted to make baked ricotta (which was delicious by the way ) . We now have a huge amount of Whey to use. I noticed that it is good to use in bread rather than water but was wondering if anyone had used it in smoothies or had any other uses that they have discovered for it.  Wondering also if it could be frozen as I wont have the time to make bread til the weekend or do you think it would last til then? thanks

[Rogizoja]

I use whey in the same way as I use buttermilk left over from making butter : making smoothies, replaces water in bread making, great for making scones and rusks, as the liquid content in soup, replaces water when making rice in the basket or just use it as a fertilizer in the garden 

[fundj&e]

Shazzy it can be frozen

have you seen this list http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=9778.60