Blue Cheese in the Nilgiris
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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Far from the madding crowd, Tina and Mansoor Khan are creating organic masterpieces in a sustainable way.
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Photo: K. Ananthan
Delicate work: Tina Khan at work.
TINA and Mansoor Khan make cheese. Actually, Tina makes it while Mansoor looks after the peripherals. Camembert, Brie, Roquefort, Stilton, Feta, Ricotta, Blue cheese... And the lot is prepared at home in the Nilgiris.
Gourmet and organic are the operative words here as the Khans are content to create their masterpieces in small quantities and make sure that it does not in any way disturb the ecology.
Move to the Nilgiris
When their whirlwind life at Mumbai (Mansoor has made four feature films and Tina baked professionally) lost its charm, the Khans decided to move lock, stock and barrel to the Nilgiris. They bought 20 acres of land, and Acres Wild was born. Jethro Tull is the inspiration behind the name, and they have great plans.
Eventually, Acres Wild will offer home stay where visitors can enjoy farm life with home grown, organic food on the table and of course, the cheese, that is hogging all the attention.
"Having a sister in a foreign airline meant lots of imported cheese and I loved it. I never dreamt I would be making it myself, but when Mansoor decided he wanted us to live here, I thought I'd give it a shot," says Tina, inviting us to watch her prepare Gouda cheese, a Dutch delicacy.
A well-trodden grassy pathway, with right of way to a brood of chickens, leads to her workstation — a Spartan space with gleaming steel vessels, large ladles, a refrigerator and what grandmas called "meat safe".
Making the cheese
Milk (from their cows; the dung is used for gobar gas) simmers in a double boiler and a thermometer monitors temperature. A culture is added and the milk is allowed to stand. "The right temperature is crucial to cheese, and so is hygiene," explains Tina. The milk has now set into what looks like and is called curd. She gently cuts it into strips and then across. It is the consistency of caramel custard and she allows it to stand some more. The whey separates and pieces of the cheese-in-the-making stand alone. Tina then scalds or washes the curd with hot water.
"Patience is a virtue here," she says, as she painstakingly separates the whey from the solids, one ladle at a time (Her hens love the whey, which bursts with nutrients, Tina tells us). Then the cheese is drained in muslin, and put into moulds and pressed down with weights. Depending on how soft or hard the cheese is, the weights vary. "Taste some of the cheese we have made," invites Mansoor and, with a certain sense of ceremony, opens the doors of the meat safe.
Rows of cheese sit in shades ranging from pretty pink to not-so-pretty greenish-brown. "That is mould," he explains proudly, pointing to a particularly mouldy lump that looks startlingly like Shrek. There is a moment of panic as we watch him scraping the fungus off before offering it to us. But, Tina assures us that, "Mould and cheese go together."
There is a story that somewhere in a cave in France, a forgetful shepherdess left her meal of cheese behind in a cave. Days later when she passed by, she saw it sitting there with blue fuzz growing on it. Being adventurous or perhaps just hungry, she wiped the mould off and took a bite, and, voila! Blue cheese was born.
At the Khans, a smorgasbord of cheese is laid out, with crackers and olives for company. The cheesy smell mingles wonderfully with that of garlic and fresh herbs (also grown in-house).
Tina learnt most of her cheese making from the Internet and from another cheese-loving family at Kodai.
Environment friendly
The Khans are tentative about their marketing plans. A few chefs from Bangalore have shown interest and Mansoor is exploring other avenues. But he and Tina are very clear that they will only make and sell that much that is sustainable and do so in a manner completely organic and environment-friendly. Presently they are experimenting with leaf-packing their product. Feeling like Heidi, we make a meal of homemade mozzarella cheese-topped pizza melting into homemade cheesecake with a topping of homemade fruit preserve and then leave.
To know more see http://www.acres-wild.com/
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