Making Cream Cheese at home.

Making cream cheese at home

We love cheese cakes, but cream cheese is not available in the super markets and when available on the rare occasions they are expensive (Rs 150/= per 180 gram packet) and you need several packets for each cake. Hence I make cream cheese from scratch for making our beloved cheese cakes.

Ingredients:

      Cream                             1 Litre (I use Amul packet cream)
      Full cream milk                500 ml
      Citric acid crystals           20-25 grams

Equipments

      Digital thermometer with metal probe
      Muslin cloth
      Colander  
      Hand blender

Yield             ~750 grams

Process

Dissolve 15 grams of crystalline citric acid in a quarter cup of warm water and keep aside. Dissolve the remaining citric acid in a separate bowl and keep in reserve. 

Mix the cream and milk together and slowly heat the mixture while stirring to mix well ensuring everything is heated evenly and preventing any part of it from boiling. Target temperature is 85 degrees centigrade. I use thick stainless steel vessel over an induction cooker. Alternatively use a double boiler if necessary. While using an induction cooker, use a setting of 700-900 watts initially and reduce to 300-400 watts on reaching the target temperature. 

Once the milk-cream mixture is heated to 85 Centigrade, pour in half of the dissolved 15 grams of Citric acid and mix well. Once mixed well, add the remaining half and continue mixing. Usually this much of citric acid is sufficient but use the remaining reserved citric acid if the milk does not split. (Note that the milk will be split into fine particles. Continue stirring until the process is complete.
Allow the mixture to cool partially. Meanwhile, line the colander with a double layer of muslin cloth and then pour the mixture into the colander and let it drain until all the whey drains out and the dripping stops.
Transfer the freshly made cheese into a mixing bowl and blend well until it becomes creamy. The cheese is good enough to be used in making cheese cakes.

 

Images

Cream cheese after beating

Heating milk cream mixture

Cream cheese before blending

Freshly baked cheesecake

Cheesecake with blueberry topping

What is post modern cuisine.

Post modernism in Cuisine 

What is modernism? It is a phase in evolution of an art form where it critically re-evaluates its fundamentals and reinvents its very essence. Art, architecture passed through this essential phase in the early 20th century giving us modern art and modernist architecture exemplified by the likes of Le' Corbusier. The way chefs and commoners prepared food remained unchanged for centuries until pioneers like Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal began to challenge our senses and sensibilities by reinventing food and creating the movement that was initially called molecular gastronomy. This movement which re-examines the very idea of food on the basis of modern nutrition and organic chemistry should ideally have been called Modernist cuisine all along. It required the path breaking book Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold to bring the name into popular lexicon. 

Post modernism is the response to modernism. It takes the destruction of the decadent old order by the torch of modernism to clear dead wood so that new growth and creativity can flourish, even reinventing the old, but with the solid foundations of science and nutrition. 

It is remarkable that most of traditional cuisine is based on beliefs which predate modern science. They have more in common with the notions of traditional healing rather than scientific principles or nutrition or even food safety. Spotlight of science and critical scientific interrogation will help us reinvent our traditional cuisine in more robust health without sacrificing taste. 

You may not find any revolutionary new recipe in this blog. But old recipes have been deconstructed and remade either for convenience or consistency or modern tastes.