290/984 - Savoury ricotta fritters

 

We had a mini family holiday this week, staying and dining at the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. Determined to try everything the restaurant had to offer, we ordered two omnivore degustations and two vegetarian, and then shared the dishes with one another. The food was spectacular and the matched wine was equally amazing. The highlight of my night was the first dessert (yes there were two!) which was based around the flavours of violet, lavender and honey. 

What inspired this post, however, was the buffet breakfast at the hotel, which included the most amazing house-smoked salmon which I ate on toast with house-made ricotta. The lovely lady who was looking after us asked the chef how the ricotta was made and kindly shared the recipe with me, which of course I had to try!

It really is ridiculously easy and I will never buy another tub of ricotta while I have milk and lemons on hand. All you have to do is to gently warm 2 cups of milk to eighty degrees Celcius and then remove it from the heat and gently stir in 1/3 cup of either lemon juice or vinegar. I added a good pinch of salt to mine too. Leave to stand until curds have formed and then strain through a piece of muslin. The curds end up on top and the beautiful whey is caught in the bowl below. Given that I used beautiful Schulz organic milk in my recipe I was not going to waste a drop! I replaced the water in my bread recipe for whey and then used the rest in scrambled eggs, which turned out to be the creamiest eggs I have ever made. 

But on to the fritters! I left my ricotta a bit wet, which would have been fabulous if I was spreading it on toast, but not so fabulous when trying to roll it into little balls. Needless to say, my fritters ended up a bit flat, but the shape certainly didn't alter the taste. I used organic pecorino as the second cheese in these little fried balls from heaven, and possibly a bit more garlic than the recipe actually called for. I overdid the herb elements too, probably to appease the guilt of eating fried food. I did however only use a small amount of oil in the pan and was pleased to see that the final products were beautifully crispy on the outside and still squishy in the middle.

Inhaled by the boys in no time. No surprises there!

Whey based bread

Scrambled eggs with whey

Beautiful whey