Happy New Year from Fancy Fork! I hope all of you had a fabulous time ringing in the new year with friends, family and a bottle of champagne!
In this post I’m bringing you a very easy New Year’s resolution that you can keep – making your own fresh mozzarella and never buying store bought again! Your wallet and taste buds will thank you, I promise.
A few weeks ago, my father (who’s a chef!) taught me how to make homemade mozzarella. It’s so easy and yields so much mozzarella that you’ll never want to buy the store-bought variety again. Plus, you’ll have bragging rights saying a dish you made called for mozzarella and that you added your very own made from scratch.
You’ll hear, “Oh my God! You made this mozzarella yourself? Wasn’t it HARD?” No, dear friends, it’s not. But you don’t have to tell your friends that. 🙂
To make fresh mozzarella, go to the cheese counter at your local market and ask for “mozzarella curd.” Base how much curd you order on this: 1 pound of curd = roughly 1 pound of fresh mozzarella.
Chop up the curd, place it in a bowl and heat up a large pot of very salted water (it should taste like the ocean!) until it’s almost boiled. Pour half of the water into the bowl of chopped up curd. Mix it around until it begins to get stringy. Then pour in the remaining half of water and fold the mozzarella until it’s smooth of any lumps.
The next step is tricky: pinching off balls of the fresh mozzarella without burning your hands to oblivion. I ended up running my hands under cold water before plunging them into the hot water to ball up the mozzarella. It hurt a little bit and my hands were as red as a lobster, so I recommend gloves!
Once the mozzarella balls are formed, drop them in an ice bath and enjoy immediately or within a week! Keep the mozzarella in a water bath, changing the water daily, for up to a week in the fridge. Ready, set…. start planning your antipasto and pizza nights now!
- 1 pound mozzarella curd (ask for this at your grocery store’s cheese counter)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 5 or 6 cups of water (enough to fill a large pot)
- Ice bath
- Chop the mozzarella into chunks – place in a large bowl.
- Heat a large pot of water over high heat – add the salt, stir – heat until ALMOST boiling.
- Pour half of the hot water oven the mozzarella curd. Stir with a wooden spoon until it starts becoming stringy. Drain a quarter of the water.
- Pour the remaining hot water over the mozzarella. Fold the mozzarella and stretch until smooth. Drain the water.
- Pinch the ball of mozzarella into rounded halves. Place the two pieces in an ice bath.
- Store in a bowl of water for up to 1 week, changing the water daily.
- Yields 1 pound mozzarella (note for making more: 1 pound of mozzarella curd = roughly 1 pound of mozzarella)
Love it! My fovourite soft cheese.
Mine too, Arthur! And it’s so easy to make at home.