This week, Roy noticed that we had rather a lot of Greek Style Yogurt in the refridgerator. For some reason, we had purchased more than we needed, and Roy, being of a 'waste not, want not' type of mentality, decided it would be a good idea to make something with the yogurt. The question was, what? Roy had read about a type of cheese which was made from yogurt, and being a great fan of cheese, thought this would be interesting to try. So, we looked up a recipe and made Labna. It was a great success, so tasty that Roy wanted to share the recipe with you. So this week Roy Creates Labna.
You Will Need:
- 2 cups of natural or Greek Style yogurt
- 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
- A strainer
- A couple of unused 'chux cloths' or a cheese cloth/muslin
- A bowl
Optional for if you want to marinate your labna:
- Olive oil to cover
- Fresh herbs (Roy used thyme and basil)
- Chilli flakes
- Garlic
- Peppercorns
Method:
- Line the strainer with the clean, unused chux cloth. You want to have a double layer of the cloth so that you keep all of the yummy cheese in the cloth.
- Sit the strainer over a bowl
- Mix together the yogurt and salt, then pour into the cloth lined strainer
- Put the strainer (and the bowl it is suspended over) in the fridge for at least 24 hours (Roy left his 36 hours) and let the liquid drain from the yogurt. The liquid is the whey and what you will be left with is the curd.
- Lift the cheese you are left with out of the strainer (still in its cloth) and put a plate over the top of it. Flip the plate upside down and pull away the cloth.
- Roll teaspoons of the curd into balls. Roy actually used two teaspoons to shape his labna, as you can see in the picture above.
- You can serve the labna as is, with fresh tomato, gherkins, cured meats (salami etc), or with dukkah. Alternately:
- Put a layer of the labna balls into the bottom of a large jar. Sprinkle some herbs, chilli, garlic and peppercorns over the cheese and then pour oil over to cover. Repeat this until the jar is full and the labna is covered with oil. Leave overnight to marinate and enjoy!