Homemade Halloumi
by Kartik Madan (@kartik7179)Halloumi is a fresh salty cheese used a lot in Mediterranean cuisine and has gained popularity amongst different cultures in different variations. But making at home is really simple. Grab a couple of ingredients from your local cheese shop and get to work.
Ingredients
Mise en place
- You will need some full cream milk
- some vegetable rennet
- calcium chloride and salt
- It is also quite beneficial to have a probe thermometer
How to make Homemade Halloumi
Curdling the milk
Heat 5 lts of full cream high quality milk to 42 degrees celsius slowly and stirring continuously.
Add 1.2ml of each of rennet and calcium chloride and stir vigorously for 30 secs
Leave the milk at 42degrees undisturbed for 1 hour
Cutting the curd
Take the milk of the heat. By now it should be set. Using a long knife cut the set milk all the way to the bottom into 2x2cm pieces. Leave undisturbed for 30 mins
Stir the curds to break them down further and leave undisturbed again for 30 mins
Drain the curds in a strainer lined with a cheeseclothand leave hanging overnight. Make sure to save all the whey.
Cook/brine the cheese
Cut the set halloumi into preferred size of portions. I usually go generous with 150gms. Bring the whey to a simmer and gently put the halloumi in the whey. Wait for it to start floating indicating that the cheese is cooked. Take it out of the whey with a strainer and straightaway place it into a 3.5% salt brine. Repeat process until all halloumi is cooked. Leave the cheese to brine overnight minimum
Serve up by pan frying some well drained halloumi with some toast and pat yourself on the back for trying to create something from scratch. You will never use store bought halloumi again
Tips & Tricks
Invest in good cheese making equipment such as muslin cloth, rennet and calcium chloride. They will last for ages and will motivate you to try the process more often. Yes it takes 2 days. Yes it'll take up extra space in your fridge. But it will definitely be worth it and it maybe time consuming but it isnt labour intensive.
Reviews
camilam
Easy to follow instructions and delicious results.
mm2007
noodleninja
Recipe by
Kartik Madan
(@kartik7179)
Professional chef. Living in Australia. Experienced with european, latin and asian cuisine. Currently into fermentation and pickles.