crepes using whey - a recipe

This is breakfast.  Some days it just all comes together and I can get a great meal on the table in a hurry.  And other days I have to start the night before!!  This is one of those days!!

I made the ricotta cheese early in the evening and then used the drained whey to make the crepes.  I turned the last crepe out at a little after midnight!  I did do plenty of other things during that time, like putting the same child back to bed about 10 times!!

Ingredients
1.5cups whey or buttermilk or milk
4Tb rice bran oil
6 eggs
1.5cups plain flour

Whisk ingredients in large bowl, in order, until smooth.
Set aside for at least one hour.
Grease a crepe pan over med/low heat.
Pour 1/4 cup of mixture in and tip to spread thin.
Cook until set on top.
Flip and cook until golden.
Stack and repeat.

Serve rolled with fresh ricotta and homemade raspberry jam.

I made the stack of crepes the night before and then warmed and rolled them for breakfast. 
It is a much better way of serving crepes to a crowd. 
Whether your are 2, 4, 5, 7 or 30 something, nobody is happy waiting for their first crepe for breakfast!

What is your favorite cooked breakfast?

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ricotta cheese - a recipe

Ok, confession time...  Today I have not done any laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, picked up toys or washed my hair, but I have done other very important stuff.  After I finished work this morning, I prepared mixed seeds for making sprouted seed spelt bread, bottled my latest batch of ginger beer, made a batch of rye bread dough, made yoghurt, cooked a delicious warm potato salad with speck, peas and cauliflower, thrifted additions to my silver spoons collection and drum roll please...... made my own ricotta cheese!! 

You might well be thinking "crazy lady, why do it?" (sometimes I think that too!) but making stuff makes me happy.  And this stuff is interesting for me to learn how to do, nutritious for me and my family and is really satisfying to complete.  And I love sharing what I have learnt with you. 
Plain and simple!!

Back to the cheese.  I made spinach and ricotta lasagne the other week and around about that time I came across several recipes for homemade ricotta.  Like I typically do, I thought "I can do that". 

So here it is.  My homemade ricotta cheese.

Heat ingredients until almost boiling.

Line colander with muslin.

Draw the edges in and hang to drain whey.

The drained curds - creamy, fresh ricotta cheese.

The whey.

Save the whey for cooking. Use it anywhere you would use milk.
Some of mine will become crepes, yum!!


Ingredients
2lt whole milk (I used unhomogenised Ashgrove Farm milk)
1.5cups buttermilk or 3Tb lemon juice
1 tsp salt

Mix all in large saucepan.
Bring to just under the boil on medium heat. 
Watch closely as it gets nearer to boiling and take off heat just as the first bubbles start to break.
Line a colander with a couple of layers of muslin and set this over a big bowl.
Ladle the curds (solids) and whey (liquid) into the fabric.
Draw edges together and let drain for about 20min.


Have you made your own cheese?  How did you go?

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spinach and ricotta lasagne - a recipe

This is the quickest lasagne I have ever made.  No long simmering sauces to be prepared before layering it all up, just pile it all in and bake.  I made this one in about 20min.  We served it with purple carrot spirals, lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad.  It was delicious!!

Ingredients
800g ricotta cheese (try your own homemade ricotta)
5 eggs
salt & pepper
handful of parsley, chopped finely
big bowl spinach leaves, finely chopped
400g sour cream
600ml cream
lasagne pasta sheets (pre-made or do your own)
tomato pasta sauce (again pre-made or do your own)
grated chedder cheese

In a large bowl mix the ricotta, eggs, sour cream, parsley and chopped spinach with salt and pepper.
Spread tomato sauce on the base of the lasagne dish.
Layer the components in this order, so there are three pasta sheet layers; pasta, ricotta, tomato sauce, cream. 
Finish with a sprinkle of grated cheese. 
Bake at 180degC for about an hour, until the pasta is soft. 
Serve with salad.

Using cream in place of the white sauce is a time saving trick I'm liking and the fact that the ricotta layer also doesn't need much in the way of prep is great. 

Note: I made my own ricotta cheese and it is very quick and easy.  Go on, try it!!


Is lasagne on your menu?  What is your favorite lasagne recipe?


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