Today I want to talk about a very simple recipe for the preparation of this well-known and popular fermented milk product, and you will not need to make any special efforts to implement it. Frozen kefir cottage cheese at home is very easy to prepare. For this method is truly for those who do not want to bother with cooking for a long time or who, for any reason, simply do not have time for this.
Cottage cheese recipe from frozen kefir. Ingredients
Rather, there is only one ingredient - kefir itself. It is best that its fat content is as high as possible: in our case, it will be 3.2 percent. From the means at hand, we will directly need to prepare a delicious home-made dish: a refrigerator freezer, a standard colander, a large piece of gauze, a pan (at least three-liter). The amount of the main ingredient purchased will depend on the amount of cottage cheese that you are going to get at the output (approximately one to two to three, depending on the fat content of the product). We took 3 liters of kefir. And one more thing: the storefront is quite suitable, but it must certainly be locally produced, “lively”, with a short shelf life. Then there is confidence that everything will turn out as it should.
Step-by-step instruction
- So, we will begin to cook cottage cheese from frozen kefir at home. First of all, we put our kefir in the freezer for the night (the ideal time is 12 hours: then the sour-milk drink has time to freeze properly) and calmly go to rest.
- In the morning (you can even in the evening) we prepare some, but not too small, pan and colander (sieve). Gauze, folded in three to four layers, put in a colander.
- Gently cut the packaging of our kefir and put the frozen contents on the prepared marlose, which lies in a colander.
- Kefir will begin to melt rather slowly, but it should not be heated artificially. Serum will flow down, and on the cheesecloth, the finished cottage cheese will gradually remain. From frozen yogurt at home, you can say, the cream is tender and delicious. Especially for kids! It is best to leave the product "reach" for the night (but not in the refrigerator, but simply in the kitchen on the table, covering it with canvas or marlechka.
Let's see what happened in the morning?
So, there were 3 packs of the main and only ingredient. They thawed, serum glass into the pan. And on the gauze there was actually the curd from frozen kefir. At home, you got a real dessert. Put it in another clean container. The curd is obtained from about half to a third of the amount of kefir that you decide to use. We turn the gauze and squeeze out the remains of the curd cream. You can wash it and use it next time.
By-product
By the way, in addition to cottage cheese, one more “by-product” is obtained, but the same tasty and healthy product is whey. We merge it from the pan (it also turns out about one and a half liters, maybe a little more). You can use it to prepare delicious pancakes or salt lightly - and okroshka. You can already drink it, they say, it is very beneficial for the health of the body. And the cottage cheese, without any effort, turned out to be very tender, and there are no lumps there. Using it, you can add sour cream or sugar, but homemade cottage cheese from frozen kefir is already very tasty. Children of preschool age eat it especially well.
Frozen kefir cottage cheese: benefits
Entire scientific papers and popular articles in the media have been written about the benefits of this dairy product. So we will not repeat what is told there. I would like to note only that the recipe we are considering (how to make cottage cheese from frozen kefir) contains information that it is very important to take raw materials with a minimum shelf life, and not what can be stored for a month. And it is better to let it be kefir of local production (usually it should be consumed within a week, since it is "live"). And so, this product has the same benefit as an ordinary curd. And by the way, it does not pass, as you noticed, hot heat treatment. Only cold - freezing. But scientists argue that with its further defrosting, the structure of water molecules changes, of which kefir also consists (the so-called melt water effect occurs, which does not last too long). So our cottage cheese is best to immediately eat or feed the baby. But you can keep it in the refrigerator for some time (the shelf life is about the same as that of kefir from which it was made). Well, all sorts of other goodies, such as calcium, are also present in it, as in ordinary cottage cheese. And also, if you dry it (leaving a lump in gauze) and put it under the press, you get an excellent mass for sandwiches: it is convenient to spread such a product.
Bonus: a few more ways to cook cottage cheese at home
- Classic and traditional for many option. Pour a liter of milk into the pan. We fill in the same grams of 100 sour cream (fat content - 15-20%). We leave the pan, covered with a lid, warm for the night. In the morning at the exit - yogurt. Further, in another clean pan of a slightly larger volume than the first, pour water, boil. And we put yogurt in a container in a water bath. After a while, the cottage cheese begins to separate from the walls. Then we put gauze in a colander, slowly pour the mixture there. The serum is separated - the curd remains.
- Milk + lemon. Pour a liter of milk into the pan. We put on the stove, heat, but do not boil. Then we take juice from one lemon and put it into hot milk. It curls up. Next, repeat the manipulations with a colander and gauze.
- From kefir. Pour one liter of kefir into the container. Heat on low heat, but do not let it boil! In this case, the whey will separate from the curd mass. Then repeat the procedure with marlechka and colander. By the way, remember that whey is also a thing useful in the household. Therefore, we do not pour it, but collect it. Useful for okroshka or for what other purposes. In principle, you can cook a delicious homemade curd in any of the above ways. But the most “lazy” one and one that does not require extra gestures from the hostesses is still a recipe for cottage cheese from frozen kefir!