Modern cheese makers endlessly experimenting with the preparation of their main product. Vegetables, herbs, sour berries, and, of course, all kinds of spices are added to the milk treat. A very interesting variant of the treat is cheese with fenugreek.

What is fenugreek

Fenugreek seed belongs to the legume family. The plant has a very bright, specific smell. This feature is explained by the high content of coumarin in the composition.

Plant seeds are actively used in traditional medicine and cooking. For example, they bake bread and various unleavened cakes with them, prepare confectionery, meat dishes, savory foods, and, of course, cheese.

In cooking, only plant seeds are used, carefully ground to a powder state. They are part of many integral seasonings. For example, curry.

Description of types of cheese with fenugreek

Today, gourmets immediately know several types of cheeses with the addition of the discussed fragrant seeds.

Among them:

  • "Cinzano". A product with an unusual piquant taste. Most often served as an appetizer for alcoholic beverages with a variety of spicy and sweet sauces.
  • "Casket". This is a semi-hard cheese. It has a pronounced bitter aftertaste. Often chosen by gourmets as an original snack to the foam.
  • Grunwald. Hard cheese. The product has a delicate and soft honey note.
  • Green cheese. Prepared from blue fenugreek. Dried grass is placed in skim milk. Cheese ripens for about six months.It turns out a product with a pleasant taste, a specific smell of fenugreek and an unusual green color.
  • Cottage cheese. Semi-solid product made from goat milk. Has a distinct nutty flavor. Served with sweet / semi-sweet wines.
  • "Armel". Product with a bright aroma and sour taste. When sampling from this yellow cheese, a light taste of walnut is felt.

These are the most popular varieties, but there are other, less well-known varieties.

The taste of the product

It is difficult to say unequivocally what taste and smell gives fenugreek to dishes. It all depends on the treat in which it is added, as well as on the amount of spice.

In general, we can say that the seeds of the plant under discussion give the dishes a sweetish and slightly nutty flavor. It is somewhat reminiscent of maple syrup. If you play with the amount of spice, you can also get a mushroom flavor.

If you try to bite raw seeds, you will clearly feel their bitterness. But it is partially eliminated by proper heat treatment.

The aroma of fenugreek is both sharp and sweet. If you use it in a small kitchen, it is unlikely to get rid of the smell until the next day.

Useful properties of fenugreek cheese

Before introducing a new product into your menu, it is worthwhile to carefully study all the useful properties of cheese with fenugreek. First of all, any of its types listed above has a beneficial effect on the central nervous system.

For example, it increases stress resistance, calms, prevents the development of neurosis, and in addition:

  • helps to cope with regular migraines;
  • stabilizes blood sugar;
  • used to prevent anemia;
  • strengthens the immune system;
  • normalizes the functioning of the digestive tract;
  • removes various impurities from the body;
  • cleanses the skin from "acne";
  • struggling with constipation;
  • fills a person with activity and energy.

Folk healers call fenugreek a cure for "a hundred diseases."

It is useful for both men and women. With regular use of spices, you can improve the functioning of all systems and organs, stop the development of chronic ailments.

Home cooking technology

Unique cheese can be prepared even at home, on your own. Special recipes will help in this cookery.

Curd cheese with fenugreek seeds

According to this recipe, it will be possible to get cheese with a less dense texture than that of a store, and an interesting spicy-nutty flavor.

Ingredients:

  • medium-fat cottage cheese - 1 kg;
  • purified cow's milk - 1 liter;
  • eggs - 4 pcs.;
  • butter fat - 110-120 g;
  • vinegar slaked soda - 1 pinch;
  • salt - 2 large spoons;
  • fenugreek - 2 tsp

Cooking:

  1. Mix dairy products except butter.
  2. Warm up over low heat. Do not bring the mass to a boil.
  3. When the milk is curdled, put the mixture on cheesecloth. After about an hour, excess whey drains.
  4. The rest should be sent to the pan with a thick bottom, along with all the other products declared in the recipe.
  5. Mix. Melt the mass until it looks like melted cheese.
  6. Pour homogeneous thick mixture into a plastic form.
  7. Allow to cool for 14 hours.

Ready cheese with fenugreek seeds is delicious served with crispbread and croutons.

With walnuts

Walnuts for the recipe should be taken carefully peeled, without the slightest pieces of shell.

Ingredients:

  • milk - 1 liter (3.2%);
  • kefir - 1 liter (of the same fat content);
  • peeled nuts - 60 g;
  • fenugreek seeds - 1.5 tsp;
  • salt to taste.

Cooking:

  1. Mix dairy products in a common heat-resistant bowl. Well suited for this pan with a thick bottom and walls. You can also take the duckweed.
  2. Warm kefir with milk over low heat until the protein is completely separated from the whey.
  3. Cover the container. Let her stand for 8-9 minutes.
  4. Drain the serum through the smallest sieve.
  5. Dense salt to your liking.
  6. Add peeled walnuts to the curd mass. They must first be chopped with medium slices.To make the taste of future cheese even more interesting, it is worth pre-frying the nuts for a minute in a dry skillet.
  7. Pour fenugreek into the mass (dry).
  8. Mix everything and put in a basket suspended over a sink, covered with several layers of clean gauze. Cover with the hanging edges of the material. Press down with a jar of water or any other variant of oppression.
  9. Allow the mass to cool completely.
  10. Rearrange the entire structure in the cold for the whole night (9-14 hours).
  11. The longer the cheese is infused, the denser its consistency will be. This parameter also depends on the severity of the oppression.

Before serving, cut the cheese with walnuts and fenugreek into thin slices.

Cheese "Robiola" with fenugreek

If desired, at home, you can even cook a variant of the discussed Robiola cheese.

Ingredients:

  • fat milk - 5 l;
  • sour cream - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • rennet - 0.05 g;
  • water - 1 l .;
  • fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp;
  • salt - 3 large spoons.

Cooking:

  1. Dilute the enzyme in 40 ml of cold water. Stand for half an hour.
  2. Preheat milk to 33-34 degrees. Add sour cream. Leave for the same amount of time.
  3. Mix two masses. Leave for another hour. When a dense clot appears, cut it into small cubes (each approximately 1 in 1 cm). Leave the product for a quarter of an hour.
  4. Gently mix the slices for 8-9 minutes so that they seem to “round off”.
  5. Squeeze and drain the whey as much as possible. Add fenugreek. Mix everything.
  6. Put the product in a basket covered with clean gauze.
  7. After half an hour, replace the cloth and turn the cheese over.
  8. After another 1.5 hours, remove the gauze from the basket with the product.
  9. Soak the cheese for 8-9 hours at room temperature, and the same amount in cool.
  10. Dissolve salt in the remaining water. Place cheese in brine for 2 hours. During this time, turn the product over once.

Dry the cheese and let it mature for 8-9 days.

A self-made product turns out to be much tastier, healthier and more natural than in a store. Fenugreek cheese can also be eaten by children. But for future mother products with such a spice are categorically contraindicated.

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