Making Your Own Cheese – Labne

This is the such an easy recipe to make and as usual I put my twist on it by adding additional ingredients and spices. Since my dinner party was Middle Eastern themed, I added some  Ras el Hanout spice and a tiny amount of garlic. YUMMO!

So here you go

• 3 cups (750g) of fully fat Greek yoghurt. (I used Jalna and was pleased with the result)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Ras el Hanout spice
• 1 clove of garlic mashed finely or 1/2 tsp of garlic paste
• Muslin cloth (you can substitute and use a J-cloth but wash it first)

Instructions

• Line a large bowl with x 2 layers of the muslin cloth.
• Now, use a lot of muslin as you will need to tie it up and wrap around a wooden spoon as it drains so don’t cut the pieces too short.
• Mix the salt, the garlic and the Ras el Hanout in with the yogurt and stir well.
• Tip the yoghurt mixture into the bowl over the muslin. Fold the corners to cover and tie around a wooden spoon.
• You will need a deep bowl to balance the wooden spoon over.
• The cloth can’t touch the bottom of the bowl as the liquid (whey) needs to drain away from the yoghurt.
• Refrigerate  and allow to drain for at least 12 hours or overnight.
• Drizzle with olive oil and serve with olives and warm flatbread.
• You can also use labne as a sweet toppings for cakes.
• Add in x 2 Tablespoons of honey to the yoghurt instead of garlic, salt and spices.

To make labne balls, as I did in my menu, drain the yoghurt for 48 hours. The result will be firmer cheese which you can roll into balls (use olive oil on your palms to help with the rolling.) You can also finely chop some herbs like dill and parsley and rolls the balls in the herbs (don’t mix the herbs) to present on your plate.

So, give it a go – its so easy and yummy to make. Would love some feedback, so let me know how you go. 🙂