2 Easy Cheese Making Recipes Labneh and Neufchatel

I've made cheese a few dozen times and thought i would share a little about it today.

Labneh

Ingredients 
1 quart yogurt
1tsp salt

You need:
sterile handkerchief
two bowls
whisk
strainer



Stir the yogurt in a bowl until smooth
Add the salt and whisk thoroughly
Place handkerchief in a large strainer
Pour salted yogurt into lined strainer
Tie the 4 ends of the handkerchief and suspend over the sink
or hang in the fridge over a bowl to catch the whey
Leave hanging for 24 hours
Unwrap and roll cheese into ball
Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container

Can be eaten as soon as possible.

Serve Labneh as they do in the Middle East:

1. form into desired shape on a plate ( a slight depression in the middle holds the oil)
2. drown in olive oil
3. sprinkle with pulverized spearmint
4. surround with Greek black olives.

Eat it with toasted pita bread slices, as the Arabs have done for millennia. Coffee compliments it well.
You can also use it like a slightly tart cream cheese.

The second cheese is Neuchatel,
a little harder to make compared to labneh.
This is a low fat/calorie cream cheese. Cream cheese is made out of cream just as the name implies but Neuchatel uses whole milk instead. You can also use 2% or skim milk if you want to but it wont have as much flavor.

1 gallon fresh whole milk (store-bought may be used)
  (Use skimmed milk for low fat but less flavorful cheese)
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk 
   (or 2 ice cubes of frozen buttermilk)  
1/4 tablet Rennet

Add milk to a 5+ quart stainless steel pot
Add butter milk (if using the cubes stir until melted)
Turn heat on to Medium and keep stirring until 65F
Mix the rennet to water as directions indicate
Then add to milk
Stir until well blended
Cover with lid undisturbed overnight at a room temp. of 65-70F
In the morning the milk should be one big mass
Cut into cubes with a long knife
Ladle curd hunks into a Cloth lined Strainer
Pour what is left in the pot into the strainer
Tie 4 corners of the cloth and hang 24 hours in a refrigerator with a bowl underneath
After 24 hours take out of cloth and put into a bowl and mix with 1-2 teaspoons of salt
You can either force it into a mold or just mix into a ball

You can also mix in herbs, garlic, seasoning, pepper or vegetables.
Eat with eggs or try it in cheese cake.

Hope you enjoy
FruitStripeApe