Who doesn’t like cheese? I mean, I am sure there are people who don’t like cheese but I am definitely not one of them. I can eat cheese all day every day. This spreadable cheese curd recipe is adapted from Refika Birgul’s addictive Youtube channel where I spend hours watching her cook amazing recipes. She is so fun to watch and makes me want to join her Youtube crew for all the food and laughter. Her channel and recipes are in Turkish so I adapted and translated this homemade spreadable cheese recipe for all of you to enjoy. In Turkish we call this cheese spreadable lor cheese but I believe the closest English translation is spreadable cheese curds.

Turkish cheese is either a well kept secret or a lost opportunity in marketing amazing local products. When you think of cheese, Turkey probably doesn’t come to mind as a cheese mecca. Everyone thinks France, Italy, Spain, even United States! But Turkey has so many amazing kinds of cheese like Ezine, Kars gravyer, comlek, kashkaval, feta, tulum, Van… I can keep going. Sadly, most of these cheeses are not widely known or distributed around the world. However, they are nationally celebrated by all Turkish people and they frequent breakfast spreads all over the country.

When I first moved to New York my craving for Turkish cheese was at an all time high. After some sad experiences with tiny and expensive slices of packaged feta cheese found at various supermarkets I was about to give up. I was disheartened by the sliced, shredded and crumbled cheese options (and to this day I still don’t buy them). New York must have heard my hopeless cheese prayers because within a year I discover Kalustyan’s and East Village Cheese (which I heard is now closed). I think I almost cried when I found Ezine cheese at Kalustyan’s. I remember bringing it home and making Cesar taste it while explaining the significance of this moment in my life. He knew my obsession with Ezine such that he called all the major cheese stores in New York and asked if they sell Ezine cheese and had to explain what it is to confused shop owners. I knew then that he was a keeper!

But on days where New York, Ft. Lauderdale and Seattle (aka all the places I lived in the US) failed me in finding Turkish cheese, this recipe could have saved me, if only I tried it sooner. My mom has been telling me to make this cheese at home for years but I always assumed it would be very time consuming and difficult. I was wrong! We are so conditioned to purchase most products at the supermarket that we forget how easy it is to make them at home from scratch. In this spirit, I plan on posting more recipes of making kitchen staples and pantry items from scratch. Hope you enjoy this cheese! Let me know in the comments below what your favorite cheese is.

Tips:

* Before boiling the milk, rinse the inside of the pot you are going to use. Don’t dry the pot. The water helps avoid forming a burnt layer of milk at the bottom of the pot. Trust me, burnt milk is hard to clean, so you don’t want to skip this.

* If you want, you can also use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. For the curds to form, you need acid so any of these would work.

* You can ignore the steps after Step 3 if you don’t want to make your cheese spreadable and leave it as crumbled curds. These crumbles make amazing salad toppings, pastry fillings and omelettes. Just let them sit in the strainer for another 30 minutes to 1 hour and your crumbled cheese curds are ready. Keep them refrigerated.   

* The original recipe uses basil instead of mint and also adds unsalted pistachios. You can adjust the recipe by adding your favorite herbs, spices and nuts to this cheese.

Yields: 8-10 servings Time: 45 minutes (active) + 8 hours (inactive)

Recipe from: Refika’s Kitchen (Refika’nin Mutfagi)

Ingredients

8 1/2 cups milk (whole milk or 2%)

1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (Aleppo or Marash pepper)

1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

Preparation

1. Bring milk to a boil in a large pot*. Milk overflows very easily so keep a close eye on it. You can rest a spoon on the pot to keep it from boiling over.

2. Once boiling reduce the heat to low and add in the lemon juice*. Start stirring the milk continuously. You are going to start seeing curds forming in the milk.

3. Stir until curds have formed and the liquid in the pot becomes translucent and greenish. At this point, you can transfer the curds to a strainer positioned on a bowl.

4. To make the cheese spreadable we don’t want to strain and cool the curds too much. Let them sit for 5 minutes and transfer all the curds to a food processor.

5. Add in salt, olive oil and butter to the food processor. Blend for 2-3 minutes until the curds become silky and creamy.

6. Transfer the creamy cheese into a bowl. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. I like to let it cool before I add the mint so that the heat doesn’t turn them black.

7. Add in the mint, red pepper flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Stir until everything is well incorporated.

8. Pour the cheese on a wax paper and roll it to give it a thick cylindrical shape. Twist both sides of the wax paper like candy wrapping.

9. Store in the fridge overnight. The cheese is ready to slice and spread in the morning. I like to serve it on a toasted slice of bread and top it with fresh tomatoes or cucumber and a drizzle of olive oil.