Bob Albers is a retired electronics engineer who has traveled all around the world, and now lives in Mandeville, Louisiana (24 miles north of New Orleans). We interviewed him in 2016, (click here) and, since then, he has written 15 articles for us so far* (including this one). We’re very grateful to him for his contributions to our community of home cheese makers.
Fromage Caprese
By Bob Albers*
Roll out those lazy hazy crazy days of Summer. If you can open a second browser page as you read this, please do so and copy the following into the URL space – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOV96BCAvZc.
OK, it is now summer time and time to put an end to cabin fever. My next door neighbor just put in a swimming pool and gave a swim party on the 4th of July to inaugurate it. She invited the whole neighborhood and a few friends and relatives. This inspired me to come up with something special.
I first thought of caprese salad, but salad for 40? Caprese is a good idea but why not as a dip? In addition to the caprese dip, I could also make a fresh dill dip (Home Cheese Making, p.308).
For the spreads, how about my own Smoked Tuna Cream Cheese Spread and NESC’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Coeur a la Creme.
I made a double recipe of each. However, in this article I am providing only a single recipe. The spreads have a cream cheese base for a slightly firm texture while the dips use a Fromage Blanc base, made softer by adding back some of the whey.
And now for the titled delight.
Ingredients:
8 oz Fromage Blanc (directions for making below)
6 tablespoons of finely chopped basil
6 tablespoons finely chopped sun dried tomatoes
¼ tsp. non-iodized salt
Directions:
Make Fromage Blanc according to the instructions on the culture package and also found in Home Cheese Making, p.63.
In this picture the curds & whey are ready for separation –
The curd is transferred to the flour sack cloth lined strainer in thin slices in order to facilitate maximum whey removal.
Next, we drain the whey in the open strainer shown here (and we save the whey).
Then, once enough whey has run off, we form a draining bag by gathering the 4 corners of the flour sack towel together and forming a bag. (The bag is being hung over a pot in my laundry room sink.)
At this point, the bag’s contents weigh about 8 pounds. Once the whey has finished draining, the contents have shrunk considerably and weigh 1 lb. 14 oz., as seen here.
Now we can use the Fromage Blanc in our recipe.
While we were draining the curd, we recovered some of the whey to be used in re-hydrating the sun dried tomatoes.
Here they are soaking in the whey for about a half hour while we chop the basil.
Now that the tomatoes are pliable, they can be seeded. (I just didn’t think anyone would enjoy a tomato seed in their spread.)
All ingredients below are combined in a mixing bowl and blended together.
Mix all the ingredients. If the texture is too stiff for a dip, add back some of the whey until it is more dippable. Allow the flavors to meld 48 hours before serving.
And now, as we say in South Louisiana, “Laissez les bons temps rouler” (let the good times roll). Here is the party.
Everyone who tasted the Fromage Caprese said they had never had anything like it before and they loved it.
*About Bob
These are his previous articles, listed in order with the most recent at top:
Bob’s Smoked Tuna with Homemade Cream Cheese
Bob’s Homemade Limoncello
An Easy Way to Flip Camembert
Creole Cream Cheese Recipe #2
Calculating Weights for the Dutch Style Press
Be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)
Time Keeping Spreadsheet for Making Cheese
Kummelkase (Caraway Cheese)
Cream Cheese Experiment
Bob’s Homemade Curd Cutter – Part 2
Bob’s Homemade Horizontal Curd Cutter
Making a Drying Box
About Cooking Curds
Creole Cream Cheese
Irene M Damby says
Bob, Am in Abita Springs. We are building a dairy/creamery up here. Would love to share your interviews and opinions on our FB page Say Goat Cheese? We hope to inspire people to Keep Goats, and Make Cheese. Please let me know how you feel about this.
Bob Albers says
I wholeheartedly support encouraging people to make cheese. I suppose promoting the raising milking animals leads to that, in which case, I give my permission so long as there is no objection from New England Cheese Making Supply. You must however realize that I have used goat milk for making chevre only once.
Bob, thank you once again for sharing your cheese making journey with our world wide family of cheese makers. You inspire and create community wherever you go and to take cheese with you is an act of love and appreciation. Continue to enjoy and keep on sharing.
In Peace, Love and Cheese
Ricki
I’ve always considered these articles & comments as just conversations between friends who have yet to meet
Hey Bob! My wife and I live in Hammond! It is great to find a close neighbor who has the cheese bug like we do! We would love to trade tips and recipes sometime!
My wife is an old Sicilian/Italian spirit that comes out in beautiful ways in the kitchen. I bought her several cheese making kits and supplies last Christmas. The only thing we can’t seem to find is good milk! We just found out a dairy close by may actually sell to locals but I haven’t had a chance to stop by with all the craziness going on. Anyway, great to find a neighbor in the fam and would love to chat more!
I’m excited too to have someone/anyone close to share the wonders of cheese making. I will give April & Jeri permission to release my email address & phone number to you so we can talk.
And Bob! I just read your article on cooking the curds. Thermodynamically, your explanation was spot on to recommend a double boiler setup. Although I am now a retired OBGYN physician after 25 years practicing medicine, I was originally trained and worked as a chemical engineer!
My solution that works well for me is using my sous vide equipment to circulate water in the prep sink with my pot of curds set down in it. This circulates water 10 degrees warmer than cooking temperatures. I have found that this generally takes about 30 minutes to reach curd temperature, but then it holds this curd temperature for any set time. It doesn’t overheat as it’s only 10 degrees warmer, and this assumes the inefficient temperature gradients across the pot at relatively low temperatures. For example, if I want to cook the curds at 108 F, I set it in a prepared sous vide bath at 118 F. As this comes to temperature, I would then lower the sous vide temperature to 113 F. Doing this I could then cook the curd for any given length of time, say 4 hours or so for cheddar, or just keeping Asiago warm for 24 hours, as I recall from that recipe, which I’ll be executing in about two weeks. Using this sink setup with sous vide, I get even heating to the bottom as well as the sides all the way up to curd level.
My only issue is do you already have a sous vide apparatus. If you don’t, cost may be somewhat prohibitive. But then you suggested selling my youngest into slavery! Perhaps this would be worthwhile to some!
At the time I wrote the article about cooking curd, I don’t think a sous vide was a thing yet or if it was, it wasn’t common knowledge as it is now. Recently I saw a video from Gavin Webber using a sous vide. I searched the web & found one on sale at Belk department stores for a bit more than half price. I have since used it in my sink to keep the water at a good temperature. On the other hand, selling your youngest into slavery sounds like a great option. Think of all the money you will save on college tuition.
Bob! Mon cher! Laissez les bins temps rouler actuel!!
I live in SW Virginia in a little town called Fancy Gap. My dear wife had cataract surgery yesterday, and the CRNA asked her if she was from Delcambre, LA because of her last name! Small world! I am originally from Bayous La Batre, AL, but I have relatives who moved to settle in New Iberia and Slidell.
Your Fromage Caprese is enlightening! I haven’t figured out a way to hang cheeses yet, so I haven’t tried fromage blanc yet. But you inspire me yet!
I will be reading several of your past articles with interest. You have certainly become proficient in your writing!
Blessings!
I have seen a hanger device which is nothing but a single piece of stainless steel rod formed into a circular base, then the rod comes up from the base about 12 or so inches & is formed into a hanging hook at the top. I hope this helps more than it confuses. Good luck!