Homemade Ricotta Cheese

         Ricotta cheese is available in India, at least in the big cities, but somehow I didn't like the texture of it. Ricotta ( meaning recooked ) is actually made from the whey left from making cheese. But when we make it at home, the method is almost similar to how we make Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese. The texture of homemade Ricotta was creamy and it tasted very good. We can have it in sandwiches, use it in baking or in pasta dishes, I used my batch of ricotta to make ravioli and some cookies, will be posting them soon..

Need To Have

• Milk - 4 cups
• Fresh Cream - 1/2 cup
• Lemon Juice - 3 tablespoons

Method

          Take the milk and fresh cream and bring it to a boil. Switch off the stove, then add the lemon juice and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. The whey and milk solids would have separated.

          Now strain it through a muslin cloth, don't squeeze, just leave it in the cloth for about an hour, for the whey to completely drip off. Then remove and use it or refrigerate it.

Note
I didn't use whole milk, depending on the thickness of the milk, you might need more or less lemon juice, the key is for the whey to separate.
Also depending on how thick the cloth that we use for straining, the time taken can vary, but you can also decide on how dry you want the cheese, the cloth that I used was a little thick, and I like the cheese to be creamy, not very dry.
It can be stored in the fridge for a week.