Italian Kalamata Cheese

Cheese Ingredients:
2 cups raw cashews (soaked overnight)
1 cup filtered water
¼ tsp. acidophilus probiotic #4

Directions:
Rinse and drain the cashews until the water runs clear. Place them in a Vitamix with the filtered water. Blend them until creamy smooth. Test the mixture with your fingers and make sure there is no grittiness in the cheese. Add the acidophilus and blend until evenly distributed. Take a stainless steel bowl, a nylon strainer, and some cheesecloth. Fold the cheesecloth in half and lay it in the strainer. Rest the strainer over the stainless bowl so that the excess whey will drip into the bowl. the cheese cloth must overlap the strainer edges by quite a bit since you will be folding it over to cover the cheese. Remove the cheese from the Vitamix and place it in the center of the cheesecloth and strainer. Fold the cheesecloth over the cheese and completely cover it. Place a heavy weight of approximately 2 lbs. on top of the cheese. This will press the water out of the cheese into the stainless steel bowl. Let the cheese sit on the counter for 24 hours. This will cause it to naturally ferment.

Note: While the Cheese is fermenting, prepare the Kelly’s Sun Dried Tomato recipe. It takes 8 hours to complete.

Sautéed Shallot Ingredients:
¼ cup finely diced shallots
2 garlic cloves (garlic press)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. maple syrup
¼ tsp. pink Himalayan salt
1 tbsp. fresh basil powder (from dehydrated leaves)

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix by hand. Place the mixture onto a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 1 ½ hours.

Remaining ingredients for Cheese:
1 cup raw pine nuts
¼ cup chopped basil
Sautéed shallot recipe
1 cup Kelly’s Sun Dried Tomato recipe
1/2 cup dried Kalamata olives (Trader Joe’s)

Directions:
Note: Take ½ cup of pine nuts, ½ cup sun dried tomatoes, and ¼ cup dried olives and chop into small pieces. Make sure there are no pits in the olives. Set aside.

Place the fermented Cheese into a medium sized bowl. Chop the sun dried tomatoes into medium sized pieces. Chop the olives into medium sized pieces Add the pine nuts, basil, sautéed shallot recipe, Kelly’s sun dried tomatoes, and Kalamata olives into the bowl with the cheese. Hand mix.
Take the large rectangular mold from the ATECO rectangular cutter set and the two round molds from the ATECO 4 piece round food molding set. Place these molds on a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet. Spoon in the remaining chopped ingredients into the bottom of the molds. Make sure that the teflex sheet is not visible. Pour the cheese into each mold, filling the molds to the top. Use the press from the round food mold set to make sure that all air bubbles are gone. Take an offset spatula and flatten the top. Place them into the dehydrator at 115 degrees on the middle rack. Dehydrate for 12 hours. Remove the cheese from the dehydrator. Take a thin knife and go all the way around the edges of the mold to loosen the molds. Remove the molds using the press to push gently out of the molds. Continue dehydrating for another 8 hours. Remove the cheese from the dehydrator with a spatula. Take a decorative plate. Gently flip the cheese over onto the plate with your spatula and other hand.Italian Kalamata CheesePlace the fermented Cheese into a medium sized bowl. Chop the sun dried tomatoes into medium sized pieces. Chop the olives into medium sized pieces Add the pine nuts, basil, sautéed shallot recipe, Kelly’s sun dried tomatoes, and Kalamata olives into the bowl with the cheese. Hand mix.
Take the large rectangular mold from the ATECO rectangular cutter set and the two round molds from the ATECO 4 piece round food molding set. Place these molds on a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet. Spoon in the remaining chopped ingredients into the bottom of the molds. Make sure that the teflex sheet is not visible. Pour the cheese into each mold, filling the molds to the top. Use the press from the round food mold set to make sure that all air bubbles are gone. Take an offset spatula and flatten the top. Place them into the dehydrator at 115 degrees on the middle rack. Dehydrate for 12 hours. Remove the cheese from the dehydrator. Take a thin knife and go all the way around the edges of the mold to loosen the molds. Remove the molds using the press to push gently out of the molds. Continue dehydrating for another 8 hours. Remove the cheese from the dehydrator with a spatula. Take a decorative plate. Gently flip the cheese over onto the plate with your spatula and other hand.

Directions:
Take the olives and the sharp paring knife. Hold the olive in your hand from the bottom. Then cut from the top down to within 1/8” from the bottom. Do not cut through the whole thing. Cut approximately 8 petals out of each olive. Then turn the olive upside down and fan the petals out so that you have a flower. Place the flower on top of the cheese. On the round cheeses you will need 2 olives each to cover the top. You will place the fans side by side to cover the whole top all the way around from the center of the cheese. The rectangular cheese will have single olives fanned and placed individually on the top for decoration. Cover the whole top with olive flowers. Place a pine nut in between each olive’s petals. You want the thin end of the nut pointing toward the center of the olive flower. Make sure this is uniformly done for the whole top. Take a whole Kelly’s sun dried tomato. Cut a toothpick in half. Spear the tomato with the pointed end of the toothpick and place the other half into the center of the olive flower on top of the cheese. Repeat the procedure for the other round cheese. Take 2 small pieces of parsley floret and place them on either side of the sun dried tomato. On the rectangular cheese, repeat the procedure used to decorate the round cheese. You will place a sun dried tomato in the center of each olive flower and then garnish each flower with the parsley. Please refer to the photo if needed for decoration.

Will last 3 to 5 days covered in the refrigerator.

Note: Remove the toothpicks before serving.