Recipe Round-Up: Artisan Vegan Cheese

New book alert! Well no, not a new book to me. I've had Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner for several years, but this is the first time it is appearing on the blog! The idea of making your own cheese is very appealing, however the combination of fear of rejuvalac (I worry I will somehow poison everyone), some recipes involving quite a lot of coconut oil, and also not having idea conditions for air drying cheese have meant that I haven't really made much from this book. My friend Amy has in the past giften me some rejuvalac she has made, so I was able to experiment with a few easy cheeses, as well as trying a few other things. While the first several chapters of this book revolve around different methods and styles of vegan cheesemaking, there is also a small plates, main course, and dessert chapter using recipes from the book.

Basic Cashew Cheese: The first cheese recipe in the book is a very simple cashew cheese, made simply with cashews, salt, and rejuvalac. I gave this a two day culture at room temperature (scary stuff), and then left it for three days in the fridge. It says the flavour becomes deeper and sharper as you leave it, and I think I would definitely leave it longer as it had kind of an odd, meh flavour on its own. It was very soft, so I ended up using it as a creamy dollop on top of some assorted leftovers, and mashed it up with some avocado to go on some bread. However, this recipe is the basis for some other cheeses, which you will see.
Rating: :|





Cashew Chevre: This was much better. You take the basic cashew cheese cultured for a few days, then mix it up with some nooch and more salt before setting. This was much nicer, still soft, but had a lovely cheesy flavour.
Rating: :)



Cashew Chevre with Lemon Zest and Peppercorns: This again starts with the cultured mix of rhte basic cashew chevre, then has lemon and nooch mixed in before being coated with peppercorns. While I do like pepper, turns out whole peppercorns are just a bit too much for me. But the cheese lemony bit was good!
Rating: :| (but :) without the peppercorns)



Sharp Cheddar: This is legit amazing! It is based on cashews and rejuvalac, but with a lot of nutritional yeast, somemiso, and some other things added. I made a half recipe and got two small blocks. I popped one in the freezer for later, and one in the fridge. Sadly after a couple of days my fears came true and I had to ditch the one in the fridge as it had become mouldy! Slimy red stuff all over it. The recipe says it will keep for up to four months in the fridge or freezer, so I guess I did something wrong along the way. So when I defrosted the one in the freezer I used it up fast, and it was delicious! Note, it is still quite a soft cheese.
Rating: :D



Pub Cheddar With Chives: This is similar to the base of the sharp cheddar, but with the addition of beer (I used pale ale) and chopped chives. Some of the recipes use agar and/or carrageenan powder for setting. While I have both, I used agar flakes in this one. This firms up very well (thanks agar), and has a good flavour. You can slice it, put into a grilled cheese, or melt it down to use as a sauce over veggies.
Rating: :)





Meltable Mozzarella: This needs no rejuvalac, hurrah! It uses yoghurt, and while it calls for preferably homemade (there is a recipe in the book) I used Kingland Natural Soy Greek Yoghurt for ease. After blending, you need to culture for up to 24 hours, then you thicken it, and scoop it into a cold brine. That part is pretty fun, as it firms up almost instantly into little balls of mozzarella. I did find that it did taste a bit yoghurty. This photo is of it slice up, before I made a toasted sandwich with it. It melted pretty well!
Rating: :)



Dates Stuffed with Lemon-Scented Chevre This recipe was meant to be made with figs, but I hate figs and figs hate me (fresh figs give me ulcers), so I used dates instead. Much better. This uses either Cashew Chevre or Basic Cashew Cheese, I used the Cashew Chevre as I much preferred that. Mixed up with some lemon juice and zest, stuffed into some dates, topped with walnuts and drizzed with agave. Fancy!
Rating: :)



Pizza Margherita: This used some of the Meltable Mozarella I made. The whole recipe makes two big or six small pizzas, I made a half recipe for one pizza. Miyoko includes a pizza dough recipe, that I halved to just get one base. It is a really easy recipe, and I finally got around to falling in love with the dough hook on my KitchenAide. The dough isn't left out to rise, as soon as it is kneaded it is tightly wrapped and into the fridge for at least two hours (or up to two days if you want to make it ahead of time), and it rises in the oven. My pizza was a bit thicker than intended, as I can never make a pizza base into a 14 inch circle... I really need to get a pizza peel for this! So my bases tend to be about 12 inches. I very much enjoyed this base. It was topped with marinara sauce (I used Leggo's pizza sauce), sliced mozzarella, and slivered basil leaves. I did have to pop it under the grill/broiler in my oven for a couple of minutes at the end to get the cheese to melt. The cheese as mentioned tasted a bit yoghurty, though when I had a piece cold the next day it was excellent.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim is a professional sun seeker, and she knows that the first place the sun hits in the sunroom is on the sofa in there.