Hot Dates!
By: Veggi Fare
Published: Friday, January 7, 2011 - 4:36am

Ingredients




750 milliliters goat milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon salt to taste- dried italian herbs
5 pieces fresh dates, pitted and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon honey
a pinch of salt
a pinch of rock salt
1 pinch a generous of red chilli flakes
basil leaves to garnish
balsamico vinegar (optional)

Preparation

1 Heat the goat milk in a pan and when it comes to a boil, add the lemon juice and cook, stirring continuously until the milk curdles. (it took around 10 minutes to curdle so don't lose patience) 2 Strain the whey through a muslin cloth/fine sieve and let some tap water run over the cheese, which will help in washing off the lemon extract. 3 Squeeze the muslin cloth to remove excess moisture and if using a sieve, then press the cheese with a spoon to squeeze out excess water. 4 Put the cheese in a bowl, add the salt, pepper powder, dried herbs and mix well 5 Add the honey, salt, rock salt, chilli flakes and dates in a pan and cook until the dates are slightly brown. (I kept the dates slightly hard, if you want them tender, first cook the dates a bit and then add the honey) 6 Put the cheese in a small bowl and press it gently and then turn the bowl upside down onto a serving dish and top it up with caramelised dates and garnish with basil leaves and serve.

About


I had made this dish some time ago and forgot to post. Yesterday, when I was going through the drafts, I found this recipe of mine and thought, "Better late than never" and here I am with a very simple to make and elegant looking dish. You will love this immensely if you like goat cheese.
I read somewhere that drinking goat milk is really good for health and I went and bought a bottle of goat milk. With great enthusiasm, I had a sip, and that was it. I knew, I would not be able to finish it off... throwing it away was out of question so I thought to make fresh cheese and this recipe was born. 
I love fresh dates, because they aren't too sweet and also healthy :-) Combining fresh goat cheese with dates was a great idea and both my hubby and I loved this dish. Hope you like it too. 
We tried one with balsamico vinegar and one without and both tasted good.