Brousse!! Brousse!! And Meatloaf!!

The baked minisquashes with butter, salt, pepper and herbs still needed something. I'm trying to get some raw milk goat brousse done in time for dinner - pop that in and broil it, maybe smear the squashes with roasted garlic first.

Update:  We have cheese.

Brousse is a French farmhouse cheese. The goat or sheep milk is brought to a boil, taken off the heat, then curdled with ½ cup white vinegar that had been stirred into ¾ cup water. Everything sterile, of course. The vinegar is stirred in, and the curds are separated by pouring the whey through a cheesecloth lined colander then gently spooned into a mold.  Traditional molds are little horn-shaped things; then, later, finger-shaped ones. I noticed looking for molds that what was offered were strainer baskets like you find with fresh ricotta. I made a small batch - 1 quart of raw goat milk for 4 ounces of cheese.  My mold was a plastic cup (think Dixie) with many little holes punched in it.  I put it an a champagne flute for the liquid to drain into, covered it with a baggie, then went on errands. It takes about six hours to drain. At that point, if your house is like mine, your daughter will reach for something behind the cheese, knocking the whole mini cheese factory to the floor - broussing it. Luckily, the cheese ended up nice and clean in the baggie.  

Serve the cheese the same day made, making sure to remove any shards of glass. Raw goat or sheep milk gives it a complex flavor you wouldn't get if made with cow's milk, those I have nothing against the cow milk cheeses made similarly, like Panir.  Panir is nice and firm, a little tofu-like. Brousse is crumbly.  Herbs, salt, whatever, can be easily kneaded in.  I added salt and freshly ground pepper, dehydrated onion and garlic, and a mixture of herbs.  The cheese melted deliciously into the tine pumpkin-like squashes.  I just tried a couple - about 2 ounces per.  

Brousse can be used in omelets or sprinkled on salads, among other uses - such as putting into minisquashes and broiling.  I'll mix garlic and herbs into the cheese first.  

The CW menu tonight: Miniquash with herbed brousse; Ranch beef meatloaf; salad of lettuce, beet greens, turnip greens, stellaria, and sweet radishes, tossed with homemade French dressing.  

The meatloaf was simple.  The ground beef from the ranch has a strong, beefy flavor - I just wanted to bring that out.  I sauteed a diced onion until golden and added a bottle of dark artisan beer.  I reduced that down to a third cup.  I combined that, 2 lbs. of our beef, ½ lb. ground chicken (even with great meat, an all-beef meatloaf doesn't get the right texture and flavor), 1½ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. freshly ground yellow and brown mustard seeds, 1 slice homemade sandwich bread, crumbled in the food processor with ¼ cup parsley, 1 of our eggs, and 1 white.  I cooked to at 375 to an internal temp of 160.  After half an hour, I tossed in the minisquash, sitting in a pan with about a third of an inch of water.  Broil the cheese to brown, if it didn't brown enough.  Record recipes in blog.  Eat.