Shanklish is a rich, dense, fudgy, crumbly, salty, spicy ball of air-dried yoghurt cheese, which can be broken apart and crumbled and is delicious served with vegetables, bread, eggs or salads. A cheese of Middle Eastern origin, it is actually quite complex to make using traditional methods. It is very fortunate there are cheesemakers in Australia and in other countries making it for sale in specialty stores.
This cheese, while not shanklish, is a way of preserving, marinating and spicing yoghurt in a similar way. It is a fresher cheese that is not dried out and therefore creamier and spreadable and delicious with warm flatbreads and honey. I really do recommend that you seek out and taste real shanklish, too.
Makes around 600g
Yoghurt cheese
- 1kg (4 cups) yoghurt
- 15g sea salt flakes
- 200ml 40:60 mix of olive oil and grapeseed or other neutral oil – it may need more to cover the balls
SPICE MIX (see notes below)
- 5g cumin seeds
- 10g sesame seeds
- 8g Aleppo pepper
- 15g sumac
- 5g nigella seeds
- 4g dried oregano
EQUIPMENT
- cheesecloth
- colander
- sterilised jar
Whip the yoghurt until smooth, season with the salt and drain in a cheesecloth-lined colander for 48 hours in the refrigerator. Pour and drain off the whey as often as needed, so the yoghurt isn’t sitting in it. (The salt helps season the cheese and draw out more whey, so if you’d like a saltier, firmer cheese, add more salt.)
After 48 hours, you should have a more condensed curd, which is able to be rolled into small balls.
For the spice mix, in a small frying pan over medium heat, toast the cumin seeds by tossing them frequently until fragrant and toasty, then transfer to a bowl to cool. Repeat with the sesame seeds until golden but not brown, then cool.
In a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, coarsely crush the cumin seeds and rub the sesame seeds with your hands to lightly crack them (see notes, below). Place in a bowl with the remaining spice mix ingredients and toss.
You can roll the curd balls by eye, or weigh them if you’d prefer uniformity, and drop them into the spice mix to cover, pressing the mix gently into them. Leave them to dry out and absorb the spices for a couple of hours before dropping them into the oil in a glass jar and sealing with a lid. It’s best to let them marinate for a couple of weeks before using and keep refrigerated.
Use the oil in cooking, marinating or dressing as you use the cheese. Or you could strain it and use it for the next batch of yoghurt cheese.
NOTES
- You can buy pre-made za’atar mix from specialty stores if you’d prefer. Or try different spice mixes or adding colouring and flavouring with saffron or confit garlic.
- It is best to do the toasting and mixing when you are spicing the yoghurt, but if you have made the mix earlier, lightly toast it again to release the aromas and freshen it up.
Quick mozzarella or Luke’s curds
This isn’t a traditional-style mozzarella curd with the citric acid responsible for the stretch. But with the addition of the lactic cream, this is just as addictive.
Makes 500–600g
- 4 litres chilled full-cream (whole) milk (unhomogenised) – it’s best to use the freshest raw or unhomogenised milk possible
- 1 tsp citric acid powder dissolved in 125ml boiled and cooled water
- 1ml rennet diluted in 2 tsp boiled, cooled water – check manufacturer’s label for dosage
- 150-250g cultured cream or loosened crème fraîche (see note)
- sea salt flakes
EQUIPMENT
- 5-litre heavy-based stainless-steel pot
- thermometer
- cheesecloth
- colander or perforated tray
- slotted spoon
- small stainless-steel bowl
Place the chilled milk into a stainless-steel pot and stir in the citric acid solution. The milk must be cold and not agitated too much or it will curdle.
Over a gentle heat or in a water bath, warm to 28°C. Take care not to stir too vigorously, as this may cause the milk mixture to curdle and split. Once the desired temperature is reached, maintain the temperature and gently stir in the rennet solution for 1 minute. Place a lid over the pot and allow to set for 15 minutes, undisturbed.
Check for a clean break and cut into 5cm cubes, being careful not to break up the curd. If it’s not set, wait for 5 minutes before cutting.
Place the pot back over a low heat or heat the bath and warm the curd slowly for 30 minutes, stirring gently every 5 minutes until it reaches 48-50°C. The curds should be quite firm and bouncy and hold their shape.
Once the curds are ready, remove from the heat. Scoop the curds onto a cheesecloth on a tray or colander and leave to drain and knit together for 1 hour. Warm a pot of water up to 70-75°C. Cut the firm curd in two and place in the hot water. You may need to put gloves on for this part. Scoop the curd mass out with a slotted spoon and begin to fold and pull the curds to stretch them a little, folding them on themselves as you go. Place the “mozzarella” back onto the cheesecloth to drain. Rest at room temperature for a couple of hours.
In a stainless-steel bowl, gently whisk the cultured cream to achieve a smooth consistency, then whisk in the salt.
Gently tear and stretch the curds with your fingers and add to the cream, gently combining until you have what resembles rich cottage cheese. Season further if desired and store in the fridge. This is best eaten straight away.
If the creamed curds become too firm, leave them out for an hour and mix with some fresh cream to your desired consistency.
NOTE
- If using crème fraîche, thin it out with fresh cream or milk before adding the cheese curds, otherwise, it will set too firmly in the fridge.
Whole milk ‘ricotta’
Ricotta means “recooked” in Italian. It takes its name from the cooking process of reheating the sweet whey from a rennet-made cheese after it has acidified further, for the proteins left in the whey to form another curd mass. So, while this cheese isn’t really “ricotta” by definition, the name has stuck outside Europe, and the process is similar to a traditional ricotta.
As fresh whey is not readily accessible to most people, this cheese can be made this way quite easily at home and can be used in recipes that call for ricotta, although it does have a shorter shelf life because of a higher fat content.
This version is quite rich and fatty with the cream addition, so if you wanted something a bit lighter remove the cream and use all milk, skim milk or make the traditional whey version.
Makes around 500g
- 1.9 litres of cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk
- 100ml pouring (single/light) cream
- pinch of sea salt flakes
- 45ml vinegar, diluted in 50ml water
EQUIPMENT
- 3 litre heavy-based stainless-steel pot
- thermometer
- ricotta basket or colander/perforated tray for straining cheesecloth
In a stainless-steel pot, heat the milk, cream and salt, stirring, until the mixture reaches 88°C. Constantly stir to avoid catching – if the milk catches on the bottom of the pot it will burn and impart an acrid flavour to your cheese. If it starts to catch, change the pot before continuing.
While stirring vigorously, add the vinegar solution until you see flecks appear, then stir for a further 10 seconds and turn off the heat. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Gently ladle the curds into a ricotta basket or cheesecloth-lined colander or perforated tray and strain for 15 minutes for a soft cheese, 30 minutes for a creamy but firm cheese, and 1 hour for a dry cheese. If the finished cheese is too thick you can thin it with a little of the whey or added milk.
The softer version, served warm and whipped, with fresh bread, good-quality olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar, is a very good way to start a meal.
This is an edited extract from There’s Always Room for Cheese by Colin Wood (Hardie Grant Books, $60)
