How did you lovely people spend your weekends? Whilst winter started with a bang in Sydney, we still had beautiful sunshine. Although I saw it from the inside only. Saturday I blame domestic duties and school. Sunday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, was supposed to be 20 degrees and my thought was that, in amongst schoolwork and cooking, I could enjoy a well deserved vino on the balcony. But no. And why? Well, quite frankly it was the spider’s fault. A huntsman to be precise. Why did it have to be on the ceiling of my balcony, just over the table? Why did it not move, ALL DAY, except to stretch its arachnid legs out as the day warmed up? Could I kill it? No. It was after all in its own domain. Completely different story if it was inside mind you. And as I write this, I have absolutely no idea where it’s hiding as it’s no longer there…I will now always wonder when I go out there a. is it about to jump on me or b. did it have babies?? Not sure I’ll go out there again.

Spider issues aside, I did manage to cook up a storm. And fit in school work, because you know, priorities. But my cooking goals for today were to make chicken and mushroom pies from the Healthy Food Guide magazine (minus the garlic, it doesn’t agree with me all that well), and attempt mozzarella cheese, using junket instead of rennet, for the first time ever. Ricotta I make on a regular basis, and I make haloumi, also with junket, on a fairly regular basis. So I thought why not try mozzarella, so I can add it to my home made napolitana sauce? Not to mention, how good is mozzarella?!

So I scoured Pinterest, and Google. Most recipes called for rennet, which I don’t have and didn’t want to wait for whereas my old friend junket is available in supermarkets. I did however find this recipe for mozzarella – American mozzarella to be precise – but it fit the bill, requiring only milk (and any type at that), citric acid, and junket.

The process itself is quite simple; heat up the milk, add the dissolved citric acid, then the dissolved junket, and leave to sit for two hours. In which I time I made and ate my pie, though not quite as healthy as I made it into a full blown pie rather than a pie in a ramekin, oh so good! Then cut the curds, heat it again, keep it at that temp but stir every 5 minutes for 35 minutes, and then drain through cheesecloth in a colander for 15 minutes (I kept the whey, thinking I’d get ricotta from the whey). Then in single cup measures, microwave the cheese for 45 seconds, knead a bit (I ended up using a spoon, burnt hands much??), and pop back in the microwave for 20 seconds before kneading, stretching, shaping into a ball and dropping into cold water. I got 4 balls. That didn’t quite resemble the mozzarella I know and love. They kinda looked like, well, brains! White brains, but still, they looked like brains. And felt a little tough. But I continued, and made up 1/3 cup of salt dissolved in 1 litre of water, to store the mozzarella. And the ricotta from the whey? Failed. Still not sure why. Though differing ways to make it from different blogs didn’t help. I did try though, and there’s always next time.

Onto dinnertime, and cue my excitement. My napolitana is my favourite dish of all time. If I was asked what would be the last dish I’d want, ever? It would be this. I’ve been making it for years and years. It all started when the Italian shop in Wheelers Hill closed down, and Mum and I tried to find a recipe to match (um hello, why didn’t you ask your lifelong Italian neighbours?? Silly). The recipe we found that was the closest has since evolved in my many years of cooking, and I’m proud to call it my own. The base sauce makes around 17 cups per batch and is so economical. I eat it weekly (ok, in all honesty, sometimes more but I’m trying too be good and reduce my carbs at night), with different variations – napolitana with tuna and avocado (the usual), or chicken and mushroom, even feta and spinach. But my most recent discovery was mozzarella. Probably the real reason I wanted to make mozzarella from scratch really! Although I want to try my hand at making everything from scratch. Don’t you?

The final result? It was mozzaloumi, perhaps haloumella (ah no, this sounds like a bacteria). So, we’ll go with mozzaloumi. It squeaked. Just like haloumi. But was still a little bit like mozzarella. Would I call it a success? Absolutely. It tasted great in my napolitana pasta. And I have no doubt it would be amazing on pizza. So now pizza needs to make it onto my menu this week, somehow. Will I make it again? Yes, for sure. I love my mozzaloumi. But it’s not mozzarella, so now I’ll have to get some rennet, and try again to make mozzarella.

Family and friends, please know that mozzaloumi features in your future! And perhaps one day, in your supermarket 😉

Oh, and did I get to enjoy a vino?  I did indeed, a beautiful cool climate Chardonnay from Coldstream called The Stag.  I recommend it.

Have a great week 🙂

Buon appetito! xx