Cooking For Engineers

[Jim Cooley]

Recipe for Syrniki below. Sounds delicious!

I want to drain/squeeze the whey out of cottage cheese and wondered if anyone had any tips?

My Lebanese friend says his mom turns a chair upside down and hangs a dishtowel from each corner, then adds yoghurt with a bowl underneath to catch the drips.
She makes Lebni that way. (and if you've never tried Lebni, you're in for a treat. It's delicious! Sometimes you can find it at Indian or ethnic grocery stores)

I think I'll need more pressure to squeeze the whey out of cottage cheese. (I want to use the curd for other stuff, too)


*********************************************


Lemon Syrniki

Serve Russian syrniki with sweet or savory toppings.

*Servings: 12*

Two 7.5 ounce packages farmer's cheese
3 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dredging
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Zest of 2 lemons
Vegetable oil, for frying

Syrniki is a farm-style cheese pancake, sort of a cross between
cheesecake and pancakes. It can be served for breakfast, tea, a light
meal or a snack. We liked ours topped with sour cream and jam, or fresh
fruit and whipped cream, but you could omit the sugar and go completely
savory, topping it with sour cream, chives and chopped ham.

NOTE: You can use ricotta or cottage cheese as a substitute.
The main thing to notice is that depending upon the moisture
content, you may need to add a lot more flour to bring the
dough to a suitable consistency for hand-forming the balls.

In a food processor, pulse the cheese until finely chopped. Transfer to
a medium bowl and stir together with the eggs, flour, sugar, salt,
baking soda and lemon zest. The dough should be soft and somewhat
sticky. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Form the dough into small rounds, the size of a walnut. Flatten into
patties, then lightly dredge in flour. Set aside.

In a large skillet over medium-high, heat about 1/4 inch of oil. Working
in batches, fry the patties for 3 minutes per side, adding additional
oil between batches as needed. Serve immediately.

[Jim Cooley]

Muslin is wrong. If using cottage cheese, large curd, use cheese-cloth (duh!) instead.

Recipe comes out fine as is, though I'd add another 1/4 cup sugar. I thought zest from 2 lemons would be excessive, but it's not.

I think I'd also process or chop the curds a bit next time around. Came out fine w/out any processing.

Also, I think I'd reduce oil to bare minimum and just fry like I do most things in my Griswold cast-iron frying pan.