Homemade Mozzarella Focus: Home Creamery Event III

I'm going to be out of commission for a few more days, dear readers, due to a short trip to L.A, articles deadlines, a wine list that I'm updating at Brown Sugar Kitchen, and the demands of starting a new blog devoted entirely to cheese (and wine, of course, always about the wine). Did I mention that I really need to wash my car? But I wanted to take a moment to emerge from my office hermit hole to announce the object of the next Home Creamery Event's devotion. It is mozzarella.

I must admit I'm a little scared. Anything involving heating milk more than once and stretching the outcome two or three times is a little dangerous in my accident-prone kitchen. I'm excited for this sexy venture too, but mainly fearful of my runway elbows hitting pots while stretching.

As mozzarella is a feat that requires a little more time than other Home Creamery focuses, we're going to take a little more time to make this one. The entry for this pasta filata style cheese is due in a month from now, on April 20th.

A recipe for buttermilk starts on page 82 in Farrell-Kingsley's book. Online, more recipes and advice for making buttermilk are available at these links here , here , and here . Look around, see which inspires you most. These recipes can be surprisingly different. Anyone know why? I don't....

Warning: Check out your specific recipe before the event. Some require cheese-making products that not everyone already has at home.

Event Rules:
Home Creamery Event Guidelines:
1) Make the dairy product (MOZZARELLA FOR APRIL) of the month at home.
2) Optional: Suggest a wine you think you might enjoy sipping with your milk creation in a raw or transformed state (i.e with buttermilk fried chicken or cardamon-buttermilk pie).
3. Send me one of two following things by the last Wednesday of the month (Feb 25th for the second month):
a) If you have a blog, send me the link to the post where you talk about your Home Creamery experience and I will post some of your findings on my Home Creamery post.
b) If you don't have a blog, email me a photo of your results (vindelatable@gmail.com) by the last Monday of the month and/or a brief 2-4 sentence sum up of your experience and your delectable pairings, which I will feature on my blog post.