- Just look at this for a moment.
This is gonna be halloumi.
Yeah?
(upbeat music)
Hello everybody.
It's Barry here.
Hope you are well, wherever you are in the world.
Welcome to our kitchen.
Today we're trying out this, a vegan cheese making kit,
one of many available that you guys
have been saying that I try.
As you know, I am not a vegan.
With Phoebe being vegetarian,
we try and have a bit of a vegan thing going on
and I enjoy it.
And apparently with these vegan homemade
cheese making kit things,
you basically make them with nuts.
So let's roll back to last night
and tell you what I was doing.
With my nuts.
Hello, and welcome to night before cam,
where we have some bowls of water and some nuts.
This is some walnuts.
In they go.
And these are some cashews.
Bless you.
Cashews, walnuts, in there to soak.
They're gonna have more than eight hours
to hopefully soften them up.
Look how murky that is.
It's only been in there for like a minute.
Needs eight hours minimum apparently.
We're gonna give it over that.
Same with these.
Ooh, yeah.
So we will see you in the morning.
Yes, and these are those very nuts.
I know I'm a bit star struck.
It's been over 12 hours.
That water is still murky.
We give them a rinse.
Make sure they're dry, so just put them through a sieve.
So we've got some cashews and the walnuts,
which finally, they did go a little bit rusty, the water.
It wasn't really doing much at first.
But apparently it's not just these nuts.
Walnuts, cashews.
You could use almonds, peanuts, anything you want,
to make these vegan cheese versions.
I don't know if they're gonna be perfect,
but I've had vegan cheese before and I actually prefer it.
Let's see what we've got in this kit.
We have got some yeast flakes, okay.
I've used this before, when I did the seitan.
Citric acid.
Whenever we've used citric stuff in the past
when we're making cheese,
it helps to sort of separate the curds
and the whey and all that stuff.
Thermometer, very nice.
Some tapioca starch.
So sort of tapioca floury kind of stuff.
Okay.
A cloth.
Everybody needs a cloth when you're making cheese.
Big old bag of salt.
It feels like this is like the heaviest thing.
Like this cheese is like 99.9% salt.
It's an agar powder, which I think comes from algae.
It's gonna be really good at helping us
particularly make the mozzarella.
That's everything we've got
and we're gonna do three cheeses.
And we're gonna compare them to their actual originals.
So we're gonna do some mozzarella,
with a mozzarella ball comparison.
The taste might not be the same,
but the texture, hopefully.
We're gonna do some halloumi and pan fry it
and then compare that.
Ooh.
That could probably just be all the salt, couldn't it?
And then we're gonna do cream cheese
with the cloth, overnight,
and check it in the morning to see what that's like
compared to other cream cheese,
which I don't generally like that much, on a bagel.
Okay, all this stuff here is what we need
to make homemade halloumi.
That is it.
All basically gonna get whizzed together.
This seems pretty easy.
So the water, the olive oil, the tapioca flour,
the agar, and our non iodine salt.
That, right, believe it or not, once we whizz this up,
is the base for our halloumi.
That is it.
So let's jolly well do it.
(upbeat music)
As you can see, it looks a lot like halloumi now.
We now heat it, okay?
My vegetarian friend has entered the room.
Look, this, right?
- Yeah.
- I think that's kind of how they made
the cheese sauce at the cafe.
Look, that's gonna be halloumi cheese.
- Does smell a bit like nuts.
- It does smell a lot like nuts.
So we're gonna put this down on the hob onto a low heat.
Now the other cheeses all sort of follow
a fairly similar theory to what we're doing here.
The blender, the whizzing up, the heating.
It's just some will have different setting times,
different ingredients and stuff like that.
So we'll get our thermometer.
Oh wow.
I've only sort of started to stir this a little bit
and you can see it starting to clump up a little bit.
So I'm gonna put the camera down,
cause I really wanna make sure I'm stirring it
and not knocking this thermometer everywhere.
But we're get it up to...
Yes.
Yes, friends, look.
That's doing something.
Oh look, there we go.
It's past the 60.
So we take it off the heat.
I've just turned the hob off, there we go.
So we stir this apparently, still over the heat,
for a couple of minutes.
And that still, to me, does not look like halloumi at all.
But we'll keep going.
Ooh, nice little tray.
We're gonna pour it in.
I'm finding this really interesting so far.
I don't know what's happened, but it really, really,
really does smell of cheese all of a sudden.
So it's fairly thin.
I mean, halloumi tends to come in a block,
so it goes as big as you want it.
Although I did see in the supermarket,
they had halloumi slices for burgers.
Like you just peel them off in the vegan aisle.
It's pretty cool.
I have no idea what this is gonna taste like,
but it does...
It's gone from smelling like a really bland batter
with a real nutty vibe, to actually really, really cheesy.
And the reason I've done this first
is it goes in the fridge for 90 minutes to firm
before we can pan fry it and cut it up like halloumi.
So we'll move on to mozzarella now.
Okay, so whilst that's chilling,
we have the option of soft mozzarella.
And if you look at that photo, it really, really put me off,
and the ingredients were way more minimal.
It looks more like halloumi shoved on a pizza,
which of course is okay.
It just didn't for me, like do it.
But with a firm mozzarella, this one,
like a caprese style, I wanna taste the ingredients
but I don't wanna shove it on a pizza.
I just wanna see what the taste is like.
And it seemed like there's a lot more ingredients,
a bit more to it, and ultimately,
it's gonna be about that texture,
trying to nail it versus a standard mozzarella.
So let's get going.
Blender ahoy.
Fairly similar ingredients for the mozzarella,
but rather than the water, we are using cashew milk,
and basically soaking those cashews.
We were halfway there to making our own cashew milk anyway,
but let's give it a try.
Tastes like a cave.
It's just got a slightly mouth drying aftertaste.
But yeah, I'd drink that.
In fact, I just did.
So in go the soaked cashews, and then its best friend,
the cashew milk.
It's like alright mate, how's it going?
Not seen you for awhile.
The salt, the tapioca flour, the tangy citric acid.
Boom.
And the agar.
Again, I know we're finding this crazy,
this is gonna be mozzarella.
So you can see how loose that is.
Whizzy whizzy whizzy, just like before, til smooth.
(upbeat music)
And you guessed it, now we heat this again to 60 degrees.
It's thickening up already.
The only other thing we've gotta do,
this is a bowl of ice...
Ice water now.
We're gonna shape it.
And as soon as we've shaped it into
the mozzarella ball shapes,
it plunges straight in here, I guess to kind of hold it.
Yeah so we just stir it for a couple of minutes,
and you can see, look, it's got a little bit more
stringiness to it.
So there is a sort of mozzarella vibe there.
Yeah, see, that's quite a...
Ow.
Ooh.
(blowing)
Ow, hang on.
Okay, it's been a few more minutes.
I'm gonna try and scoop some up
and I'm gonna use my hand to kinda try and shape it.
Because if they're wet, like this...
I've got another bowl here.
If they're wet, I can slightly round it
without it sticking to me.
Okay, it's not that round.
But then I'll plunge it into that ice water.
Oh.
It's huge on the camera.
But that is making it hold its shape, almost instantly.
I mean, it looks a little bit more like cauliflower,
but I'm happy with this.
This is working.
I got five big old lumps of mozzarella,
which has gotta sit in that...
Oh my gosh, did I get some on my arm?
Sit in that water for about 20 minutes and that's it.
We can keep it cold then or eat it straight away.
I'll wait for the girls to come back
so we can do a comparison.
The texture was awesome.
One of my taste testers has arrived.
How much did you pay for that?
How much was that?
- One pound.
- One pound?
Got one of them for the tumble dryer, mate.
So our third and final cheese is gonna be cream cheese.
We have to leave that overnight.
So we'll do a taste test of that in the morning.
Mascarpone is very similar apparently with this.
The only addition is the only ingredient
that I didn't use yet in the kit,
which is these yeast flakes.
My second favourite flake after corn flakes.
No, actually not.
Wow.
Yeah, that is yeast.
That's basically dried Marmite.
That is potent.
We only need a couple of flakes of that.
So we've got walnuts this time, a little bit different.
You could use cashews again.
Bless you.
But we didn't wanna do that.
Just thought mix the nuts up, innit?
Let's go crazy.
Citric acid and the salt, and other than a bit of water,
that, for the cream cheese, is it.
So yeah, just like before,
whizzy whizzy whizzy one more time.
It's kind of like what's happening,
but there's no over the hob with the pan.
(upbeat music)
We're gonna have to shake this a bit.
They are more...
They are the more butch nut.
It looks completely lump free and we're back to that batter.
But this is gonna get drained with a cheesecloth.
We are after a smooth, creamy consistency.
And, to be fair, that doesn't look a lot like it.
Just gonna lay the table for you, madam.
So the chopping board here, just to stop any seepage
from the cheese cloth that's going on here.
As we place the contents down,
we've gotta hang it overnight, right?
So I've just come up with this idea.
I've got two bamboo skewers.
I think one would do it.
I just taped them together to give it a bit of strength,
and they've got square edges.
They're not rounded.
So they potentially will not...
Oh my gosh, that's a good start.
They shouldn't roll off the bowl,
but I don't know if there's enough height there.
All being well, and getting all this out as much as I can,
this is gonna be on a bagel in the morning, as cream cheese.
So if we just lift it all up, gather it together.
Okay.
You can see now, the cheese cloth really doing its job.
There's a bit of moisture there anyway.
It really does feel quite dry though.
I don't think there's much there.
Yes there is.
Oh my gosh, there is a little bit in there.
We have moisture.
Okay.
Look.
All right, I mean, I've pretty much bodged that.
I need to tighten it up.
But you get the theory.
I just wanted to show you that.
We're gonna leave this hanging overnight,
but there has been some drippage.
We'll see this in the morning.
So we're gonna pan fry a couple of pieces
of standard halloumi.
Nice little texture, super firm, it's been in the fridge.
But then so has this.
Here is...
Oh wow, that is...
That's softer.
Oh yeah.
So what I thought I'd do is, you know,
we've already put olive oil in it.
I was like, oh, should I put that on when I'm frying?
But the other one's got mint.
So let's just put two mint on there.
I'm gonna do both sides.
Oh my gosh, it's sticking.
No!
You can't get anywhere more authentic than that.
And just in case it carries on sticking,
I've got some baking parchment here,
so let's just slice it.
Ooh, super soft.
Oh my gosh.
And there is our like, vegan halloumi pieces.
Yeah, you can go down on there.
So we're now ready to pan fry both this
and the standard halloumi and see what the girls think.
I'm not gonna go too crazy.
Probably just two pieces actually.
That is so firm.
And this isn't.
But, we don't care, we just want it to work.
Wow, that's a surprise.
This one is going straight away.
Whereas this is not really making any noise.
It's sort of doing like there's little bubbles.
I think stuff is happening.
I can tell that isn't doing anything,
so I'm just gonna get this halloumi out.
It's done both sides.
And I can focus on this.
Ooh, it does feel a bit firmer.
Ooh, colour.
Nice.
Okay.
Look, vegan halloumi.
- Wow.
It actually looks like it.
- They do look fairly similar.
I think the charring just really helps it.
As it warmed up, it really did soften again,
but I think as it stands now and cools,
the middle bit will firm up.
It almost went sort of like gooey again.
And the same with the halloumi,
when you cook it, it does soften up.
Even now, putting it down that has gone up much firmer,
but you've driven that flavour, that char, onto the surface.
So let's see what the girls think.
Right, vegan halloumi, standard halloumi.
Try the standard halloumi.
You might like it.
Mm.
Squeaky.
Salty.
You like it?
- You can taste the salt.
- Better than the normal halloumi.
- That's the real halloumi, mate.
(laughing)
- What do you think Pheebs?
- I thought you made it.
- Yummy.
- Now, vegan halloumi.
Let's just take from this row here.
So see if we get the taste, the texture,
the squeak, anything, okay?
- Tastes of mashed potato.
- It does.
- It is nice.
But the texture isn't right.
- It doesn't really taste like halloumi.
- Mm.
- Tastes like mashed potato.
- I think that needs to be cool.
Cause it's still slightly...
Only just slightly warm from the pan.
I think I need to chill it again
to match the texture of that.
The flavour is fantastic with the smokiness in there as well.
It is nowhere near as salty,
which isn't necessarily that bad,
but you could just ram loads more salt in.
- I'm on my second one.
- All right mate, just scoff away.
I know what we'll do.
We'll chill the rest, and then in the morning
when we do the cream cheese taste test,
we'll just see if that compares as well.
I am gonna chill it again, cause if you look at that,
that is proper wet in there.
And when we chilled it, it was firm.
You know, it really wants to be more,
like Chloe said, mashed potato.
Okay, I think the stage is set there.
I've just done a little bit off camera.
We'll get Mrs. B in in just a moment,
but I wanna show you, this is the mozzarella, like this.
Coming straight out of the water.
And if you think about it, when you buy a mozzarella ball,
it is still in a little bit of fluid,
that I think that does kind of help it.
I've done mozzarella before on the channel,
homemade, that was really fun.
And you do kind of get the texture.
For this though, the moment it starts to go dry,
it does go a little bit more crumbly.
So I would keep it in some sort of fluid,
just like the mozzarella's packed anyway.
I have no idea what this is gonna taste like,
but it smells all right.
Oh, little bit of balsamic vinegar on your caprese.
So this is standard mozzarella first of all.
I love it.
- Mm-hmm.
- So, let's try this, okay.
Oh, it's slimy, innit?
- That's got more flavour than that.
- It really does have the flavour.
Yeah.
- It's like a cheesy nutty flavour.
- It is cheesy, isn't it?
- It's cheesy.
- It tastes more cheese than that.
- Yeah.
That's weird.
- But there's a slimy, almost brittle...
You don't get that delicate smoothness
of standard mozzarella.
- I prefer that though.
- Do you?
- Yeah.
- Wow.
I don't.
So let's pretend we're at a posh restaurant, okay.
- Okay.
- We're gonna try the standard caprese.
So just a little bit of a cracker,
mozzarella, basil, tomato, balsamic.
The crunch of the cracker,
the delicate soft crispness of the tomato.
That was crispness, not Christmas.
The cloud of mozzarella, the blanket of basil,
and the tang of balsamic.
But can we veganize it?
- I like that.
- That actually works.
- That's really nice.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- On its own, it is a completely different thing,
but it's that kind of thing,
if you're gonna eat it straight,
yeah, you might struggle.
But combined...
You get it?
You like it? - I like it.
Wow.
So that's not it, folks.
The video is done for today.
Join us tomorrow as a bonus scene in the video,
as we find out what will happen
in the cream cheese adventures,
when we have a bagel in the morning,
and we'll see what that halloumi is like overnight chilled,
if we get a squeak on it.
Really wanna see that squeak, don't we?
- Mm.
- So thank you so much for watching, folks.
If you have enjoyed this video,
if you've seen any cool other kits you want me to try out,
do let me know down below and I will see you very soon.
Ciao for now.
♪ Check your level player ♪
♪ No matter what your style ♪
♪ The kitchens for me ♪
♪ Sideburns moustache goatee ♪
♪ Maybe all three ♪
- Morning.
It is Sunday.
This has had an overnight hang.
Good morning, darling.
- Good morning.
- It's Sunday.
This is our cream cheese.
Like how dry that is, it's like clay.
- Urgh, that looks disgusting.
- I know it looks disgusting, but I think,
I hope, actually, it might pleasantly surprise us.
Now, Mrs. B, do you like cream cheese?
- Yes.
- You do.
Oh.
That's quite spreadable, to be fair.
- Oh it doesn't smell too bad, actually.
- It looks like pate.
Interesting.
- Mm.
Yummy.
- It's all right.
I mean it's okay.
- Okay.
- I can eat it, yeah.
- I'm interested to know what this is gonna be like.
- Remember this was made with walnuts
and it had some yeast flakes in it,
so we might get something.
- It's weird.
- It almost tastes more like-
- I can't taste anything.
- No.
It, to me, tastes like a semi mild pate.
- Mm.
Nutty.
It does the job.
You've got that texture.
- I think that's it.
I think we need to think it's like
a completely different thing.
It certainly is not replacing cream cheese
as a like for light taste.
But as a texture, maybe.
Maybe it's a teeny bit too dry.
A little bit of moisture in there
and dangling it for 16 hours was completely unnecessary.
But it kind of works.
I can't taste the yeast in it.
Well, I thought it was okay.
- Me too.
- Now there's one thing overnight
we decided to also leave the halloumi in the fridge,
which you didn't try yesterday did you?
- No, I didn't.
- And I was kind of hoping for a bit more squeak,
a bit more firmness because the centre was...
I think Chloe or Phoebe said this,
it was like mashed potato.
They absolutely nailed it.
It was.
Now, it is firmer.
We've still got that charred edge.
Very nice.
- It is mashed potato.
It's like Smash. - It is mashed potato.
- It is.
But it's flavorful.
- It's very nice.
- The charring, it's like toasted mashed potato.
So this, I don't know how I can...
I mean a lot of you guys wanted me to do this kit.
There are other ones, as I said earlier,
if you wanna see me try them out.
I don't really know.
I mean, as a like for like taste,
it hasn't really been bang on.
It's been fun.
- They don't taste the same.
I think they all taste very different.
- Yeah.
- But in a good way.
- Yeah, I think it's something that none of them
really taste horrendously bad.
And as an alternative replacement,
you could definitely do it.
I mean, the halloumi is very hard to replace,
but I think there are some actual store-bought product,
ready-made vegan halloumi products anyway.
So I'd probably go down that route.
But play around with it.
Get something like this and see what you think.
And, I just don't think I'll be eating
any of this anytime soon.
It is basically a mashed potato credit card.
See ya.