There's an abundance of tomatoes out there in farmer land – and there's no better way to eat them than paired with fresh basil and gooey mozzarella. Almost all cheeses, including mozzarella, contain rennet – an enzyme that helps coagulate the milk into cheese. Traditionally, rennet comes from the lining of the fourth stomach of a butchered young calf which, last I heard, makes it decidedly unkosher…and also not vegetarian come to think of it, though I don't see a huge push in the vegetarian community to give up aged cheddar. So what do you do when you're a cheese snob who loves artesian cheeses (I could seriously live on the stuff), but you're dining at your boyfriend's kosher apartment? This week, I'm making my own. I recently bought a cheese making kit from "Ricki the Cheese Queen," founder of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. She offers a recipe for "30-minute mozzarella" and a kit that comes stocked with citric acid, cheesecloth, cheese salt, and…kosher/vegetarian rennet (you can request that Ricki send you a copy of the OU certification).
Making my own cheese is fast (I'd even be okay with 45 minute moz), and satisfies my foodie urges, my boyfriend's eating habit's, and my dorky DIY impulses. Behold the power of (vegetarian, kosher) cheese