halloumi
You will need some cloth for this if you do it like I do, I have used a kitchen towel and now I got a cut up t-shirt. You also need some sort of cheese mold. I use a baking dish, but you can make your own mold from a plastic container with drilled holes.
Ingredients:
6-8 litres of milk
1,5 dl or 3/4 of a cup filmjölk (swedish) or plain yoghurt (more about filmjölk, click here)
rennet
salt without iodine
Heat the milk to 36 deg C or 97 deg F while stirring. Use low heat to avoid burning the milk. Turn off the heat and add filmjölk or yoghurt. Stir it well, put a lid on and let it rest for 30 minutes. I put a towel on top of the lid so that it will keep the temperature better.
Prepare your rennet. Follow the instructions for the amount of milk you use. I use a rennet that requires 1ml/litre so I mix it with about a tablespoon of water in a small glass before adding it to the milk.
Add the rennet to the milk, stir well. Put the lid on and let it rest for an hour.
If you lightly press down a spoon on the edge of the milk/curd you will see if it's done. It will be holding together like jelly.
Cut the curd with a knife, try not to cut it into very small pieces. Remember to losen the curd from the bottom of the pan so that it isn't stuck in larger pieces.
Put it on low heat while stirring and heat the whey up to 42 deg C or 108 deg F. If there's any larger pieces I just push them to the side of the pan and cut them with the skimmer. Take it off the heat and let the curd rest for ten minutes, stir it a couple of times so it doesn't settle to the bottom of the pan.
Pour the curds in a strainer or colander and let it drain for up to ten minutes. Turn the curd a couple of times to get as much whey out as possible. Save the whey in the pan.
Move the curd to the cheese mold you have and press it into the shape you want with your hands.
I do this in a different way than the original recipe. It's supposed to be put under pressure for a couple of hours in the strainer before it's put in a mold. I really don't think the curd will change shape after it has been put under pressure. I just press it down by hand with the cloth I use. If it's a lot of whey coming out of the curd I just drain it and keep pressing it to the shape I want it to be. Then I let it rest in the mold for about ten minutes before I turn it and let it sit for another ten minutes. The cloth will make it easier to press into shape if you fold it over the curd and then press on top.
If you're using a cheese mold with holes it would probably work to put it under pressure in the mold.
Cut the cheese into pieces, any size will do, it's up to you how big you want them.
Heat the whey up to 85 deg C or 185 deg F. Add the cheese to the whey and try to keep it at 85/185 deg for 30 minutes or until the pieces floats. I try to move the pieces in the pan so that they don't get stuck in the bottom. I lift them out and let them cool down a bit on my cutting board.
I sprinkle some salt in the bottom of a plastic container before I lay down the cheese and put some more salt on top. I finish it off with some plastic wrap to keep the cheese from drying. I turn them in the container after about 12 hour.
After 24 hours I give them a quick rinse with water to get some salt off and then I freeze them. That way I just can get one when I need it.
