Citrus and Cheese

Most of my family knows I have a weird thing with citrus.  I love citrus flavors - all of them.  Oranges, blood oranges, limes, even grapefruits (especially the grapefruit jelly fruit slices), really, anything citrus.  I even ate a Bergamot orange last night.  It was amazingly fragrant and tart!  But, as much as I love citrus, they have to be in the correct form.  Huh?

Let me explain.  I can't stand foods that are citrus flavored when they aren't supposed to be.  Lemon chicken?  Out.  Orange beef?  Nope.  I don't even like lemon juice on fish.  To me it's just wrong.  I'm not sure why I feel this way, why I taste things this way, but there it is.

Today I dared the Whole Foods and came away with blood oranges, Meyer lemons, and some grapefruit.  I have it in my head that I'm going to make a bunch of jellies and curds with them.  Pure citrus.  First I made Blood Orange Jelly.

2 cups blood orange juice

2 cups sugar

1 pouch liquid pectin

This yielded 3 cups and a little bit, and I'm hoping it will gel up soon.  The little bit in the fridge is still runny but it might take weeks to set up.  We shall see.  I plan to make Meyer lemon curd and try to make grapefruit curd over the next few days.

Last night my husband, a friend and I went to a cheese tasting class at a very dangerous store, even more dangerous than the Whole Foods!  Formaggio Kitchen is in Cambridge, MA, and they import some amazing cheeses, charcuterie, and specialty goods (this is where I purchased the Bergamot orange).  We tried 8 different cheeses, paired with wines and beers and honey and fruit and even cacao nibs.  (The cacao nibs go amazingly with blue cheeses!!!)  Anyway, afterward, my husband asked, why doesn't your cheese come out like the fresh goat cheese?

Good question.  It must have to do with using chymosin as opposed to lemon juice or vinegar to separate the curds and whey.  So today I made some goat cheese.  I bought a quart of goat milk from Whole Foods and followed the instructions here.  Obviously since I only had a quart of milk I used only a tablespoon of lemon juice.  The cheese is currently hanging over a bucket, draining the whey.  Hopefully tomorrow I can put it in a container with a little salt and let it sit for a few days.  It's still pretty runny.  What will really test this theory is if I use cow's milk with the lemon juice and see if it comes out more like chevre than queijo fresco.  We'll see.