Hello!! We are back in action with more interesting things to show you because we have procured a camera. I finally bit the bullet and bought a new android phone…one of those blocky looking things with a camera (of course) and many things that do not concern me like the Android and the numerous applications. Gnome is messing around with it in his Gnomish way and actually having a lot of fun with the gadget!
Anyway, we have been making cheese out of coconut milk. Coconut milk, along with the cream, can be hand-squeezed out of grated coconut.
This liquid eventually separates into the thick, white cream at the top and the coconut milk at the bottom. We sell off our coconut cream to the local market as Belizeans like to cook their rice and beans in this. For the Toledo readers, you can buy this from Green Supaul’s in Punta Gorda.
We kept the coconut milk until we had acquired a volume of about 2 gallons (8 litres) which was roughly equivalent to about 100 coconuts in total. The coconut milk is high in protein (similar to milk) and so we decided to try to make “cheese” out of it.
First of all, we placed the coconut milk in a stainless steel pot and boiled the milk until it produced curds which floated up to the surface. This takes about 30 minutes and you have to keep on stirring to prevent the curds from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
We allowed this to cool down for about two hours and then drained the curds into a cotton towel on a sieve (you can use cheese cloth…we just didn’t have any).
This was left to drain overnight and the liquid part, the whey, was collected in a basin under the dripping curds. At this point, it looks and tastes very similar to ricotta cheese and you can eat it at this point if you prefer. We gave the whey to our animals to drink.
The next morning, we wrapped the drained curd in a towel and placed it between two clean blocks of wood and applied a weight on it (5 gallon carboy containing wine). After 24 hours, we removed the weight.
To make this into feta-style cheese, we removed the coconut cheese from the cloth and placed it in a clean glass container. Next, we added about 1 cup of salt to dry salt it.
This was done this morning and we will leave it to salt for three days. After that, we will cut the cheese into cubes and store them in brine. We will let you know what it tastes like…so far so good.
