I had just about called the whole thing off, but being the eternal optimist that I am - I decided to continue looking for an English translation of the recipe for twarozek [or twarog], a farmer's cheese that is the main ingredient of Polish-style cheesecake, plus many other delightful dishes that I grew up on. My father's favourite bread topper was twarozek blended with sour cream, chopped radishes, finely sliced spring onions and a little salt and pepper! Delicious!!
I could sort of decipher the Polish recipes, but weights and terminology stumped me... and I couldn't find a simple yet detailed description in English. When I lived in Montreal, I could buy it anywhere, but since moving to Vancouver - and despite the large East European population here - it's almost impossible, if not exhorbitantly expensive to buy when you can find it. And then while I was searching online on Friday night for a recipe for babka piaskowa, I discovered Anula's blog on Polish cooking! To quote Anula,"
It's hard to explain to someone a taste of Polish twarog if they never had it before - slightly acidic but still a little bit sweet, crumbly texture but smooth when you 'smudge' it :)." Talk about a perfect description for a perfect soft cheese! For those of you curious as to what it could be compared to, twarozek is not ricotta - although the texture is similar - and quark cheese is more bitter.
Her recipe was simple to follow, detailed at every step with photos, and I thought, why not!
Well, I did have my doubts at one point, and I think it could actually be that what is considered whole milk here (3.25%) might not have as high a fat content as the milk Anula uses. I ended up adding a little more buttermilk (after researching one or two Polish sites) - but, the result was absolutely spot on and I ended up making a second batch - as I kept sampling the first one!!
So here is my version - which cut a few steps and also adjusted the ratio of milk to buttermilk to suit the North American milk fat content:
Ingredients (use a ratio of 2 milk to 1 buttermilk quantity):
2 litres whole milk (minimum 3.25%)
1 litre buttermilk
this should yield about 8-10oz (1.25 cups) of twarozek
Equipment:
large pot, sieve, muslin or cheesecloth, wooden spoon for stirring, ladle and bowl for draining
Time:
approx 4 hours from beginning to end, and lots of patience!
1. Pour the milk into a large pot and warm up gently on the top of your stove. Don't allow the milk to boil, but it can simmer or "percolate." Make sure you stir regularly to allow the milk to heat up evenly. Once it has reached a temperature of between 45C to 55C, pour in the buttermilk and stir at regular intervals. Allow approximately 3-4 hours and keep stirring regularly. Curds will begin to appear after about 2 hours.
2. After the curds have appeared (they will be small and granular in size) - lower your heat down to the lowest setting and begin straining the curds from the whey. You can do this with just a sieve, but I prefer using a large cheese cloth, as you can drain more liquid from the curds this way.
3. Pour in small amounts as the liquid does build up in the sieve.
4. Once you have filtered all the curds, make sure they drain well. The longer they drain, the drier the twarozek.
5.- The best way to drain the cheese at this point is to form a "ball" with the cheesecloth and hang it to drip. I let my second batch hang for about an hour and it formed a fairly dry soft cheese. If you plan to use the cheese in baking then I recommend you let the cheese drain at least an hour or two. And that's it! The cheese should keep in the fridge for about a week unless, like me, you pig out on it right away!
A special thanks and nod to Anula for helping me rediscover the joys of this wonderful cheese! Smacznego!!
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