Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Everyone has an inner Garfield, and it's sad that mine is stymied by the scarcity and cost of ricotta here in Korea.  Half a pint (250 g) of ricotta goes for a little over 10,000 won.  It also tastes like a bland rubbery paste.

Homemade ricotta tastes decadent, slightly sweet and creamy.  It's also super easy to make.  Any other cheese I've messed up can be turned into ricotta cheese (mozzarella, yogurt that didn't set, etc.).  All my dairy failures find consolation in ricotta form because it's that easy to make.  Ricotta cheese literally translates to cooked milk.  That's all it is with a bit of acid to curdle it.

Cottage Cheese in Korea

Cottage cheese is nearly impossible to find in Korea.  I've found it once at Haddon Supermarket in Oksu-dong for 15,000 won for a quart (32 fluid ounces) of cottage cheese that disappeared in a day.  I've gone back to Haddon several times since then, and they haven't been stocking it.

Thankfully, cottage cheese is ridiculously easy to make.  You just need white vinegar, milk, cream and salt.  I've found that making cottage cheese isn't cheaper than finding it haphazardly - even at four times the price of what it would cost in the states ($4).  That's because milk and cream are expensive, and 1 gallon of milk only yields two cups of cottage cheese.  Also, white vinegar isn't sold in most supermarkets.  I found white vinegar at the Foreign Mart in Itaewon for about 5,000 won for a quart (32 fl. oz.), but you can get a massive 1.32 gallon jug of the same white vinegar at Costco for 7,500 won.  I also saw it at E-mart the other day.