Labneh, the Cheese You Make by Waiting — Epoche A2
Labneh: the cheese you make by waiting Labneh is the thick white cream of Levantine breakfasts. In Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine it sits on the table in a shallow plate under olive oil. The recipe is only this: yogurt, salt, and a night of dripping. You need 1 kg of plain yogurt, full fat 1 teaspoon of salt a clean cotton cloth, a piece of string, a bowl What to do Stir the salt into the yogurt. Pour the yogurt into the middle of the cloth and tie the corners together with the string. Hang the bag over the bowl. A cupboard handle works, or the kitchen tap. Walk away. The watery part of the yogurt - the whey - will drip into the bowl all night. In the morning, open the cloth. The yogurt is now labneh: thick, white, a little sour. About half of the weight has dripped away as water. Nothing goes in except salt, and nothing is cooked. The real ingredient is time. Twelve hours makes soft labneh for spreading. Two days makes it firm enough to roll into small balls, and the balls keep for months in a jar of olive oil. To serve, spread it on a plate, draw a circle in it with the back of a spoon, and fill the circle with olive oil. Eat it with flatbread and mint.