Organic Queso Blanco

I made organic queso blanco after being inspired by a section on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri on Food Network. They featured a chef and restaurant owner Chuy Valencia.

Chuy Valencia

Chuy's runs an organic, Mexican restaurant in Chicago which I plan on visiting soon called Chilam Balam.

http://www.chilambalamchicago.com/index.html

He is also on Top Chef Texas, which I happened to catch an episode of today.

With Guy Fieri, he made organic queso blanco. When I saw him make it, I thought

"I can do that!" So the next day I was buying cheese making ingredients.

I used organic whole milk and organic, freshly queezed lime juice to make the queso fresco. We were kind of unsure on the whole process but we heated the milk to 185 degrees. We then added the lime and it started to curdle. We left the heat on for about 10 minutes. We then cut the heat and let it sit for an hour. After that, we strained it with a cheese cloth, squeezed all the water we could get out of it, tied it up in the cheese cloth and let it dry for 6 hours.

Straining the cheese

It took longer to figure out what to do than it did to actually make it. Every website gave different instructions so we messed the process up along the way. But this very easy cheese was forgiving and it turned out wonderful. I recently bought an artisan cheese cookbook so that the uncertainty will not happen again since I will be making more cheese.

At the time I made the cheese, I didn't know that I was going to be making a blog, so I do not have an after picture. When I make it again, I will update this. But trust me when I say that it was delicious!