Russian Farmer's Cheese (Tvorog)

My fondness for Russian food started about 15 years ago when my co-worker Oleg took me out to lunch at a nearby Russian restaurant. Like an old fashion gentleman of 70 (but he was only 27) he ordered our meals without consulting me--strange but quaint. I didn't mind since afterall the cuisine was from his home country not mine. Oleg told me stories of his childhood in Russia and the story of how he migrated to America by himself at the age of 17. That's one of the things I love about food, it brings us stories from all over the world and conjures up old memories while making new ones. We enjoyed a surprisingly delicious bowl of borscht -my first. Onto some piroshki served with a side of creamy mushrooms. It was all very fabulous.  My virgin Eastern European tastebuds were well pleased! Since that time my other co-worker Donna; who is a bit of a foodie even back before there was such a term, brought these lovely soft Russian pancakes called Sirinki to the office and wouldn't you know it, that awesome mushroom sauce too! 

I had begged Oleg for a very long time to get that mushroom sauce recipe from his mom. He did, but it wasn't quite the same. I went to bookstores and thumbed through Russian cookbooks and scoured online for recipes for years. It took alot of trial and error and borrowing from this recipe and that one, but I did finally settle on a concoction that I'm happy with. Let's start with the homemade farmer's cheese (Tvorog). I've tried various methods and recipes over the years and I like Yelena's from Yelenasweets.com the most. This is her mother's recipe and I always like hand me downs. It's very much like making ricotta but the method is a bit different. I like mine to be alittle more flavorful so I borrowed from the Italians and put in a dash of salt and a bit of lemon. Beware that this method takes at least 16 hours and up to 18. I start mine on a Friday or Saturday night and finish up the next afternoon.

Ingredients (adapted from yelenasweets.com) 

1 gallon of whole milk

1 cup of buttermilk

dash of salt

1 tsp. of lemon juice

cheesecloth 

Directions:

First figure out if you want to make a whole batch or half.  I went for the half batch this time and decreased my ingredients accordingly. Keep in mind it breaks down quite a bit during processing.

In a large pot pour in the milk and heat on medium heat. Miss Yelena writes to heat up until lukewarm and not hot. 

Add in the buttermilk, salt and lemon juice and stir.

Once it's lukewarm, turn off the heat and put a lid on the pot.

16 hours later, check to see if the mixture is a bit like separated yogurt. If not, let it sit for up to another hour.

Now heat your stove up to medium low and once again heat the milk mixture back up to lukewarm and stir every 20 minutes for 2 hours.  The mixture will curdle and bits will rise to the top.

Prepare your cheesecloth by folding it into 4 layers, large enough to cover a pasta strainer. Place strainer and cheesecloth in sink.

Pour the mixture into the strainer. Let it sit for a few hours. For dry farmer's cheese I let mine sit for 3 hours. But if you're going to use this for a creamed dessert or cheese spread recipe let it sit for about 2.

Squeeze out excess water. A gentle squeeze for creamy and a tight squeeze for dry cheese. Note how much this process broke down the milk? My little over 1/2 gallon turned into about 2 cups of cheese.

Your lovely cheese is ready to use. Or store in the fridge in a ziplock or airtight container for up to a week.