About this recipe
I find that most commercially produced marinated feta cheese relatively taste the same as the next one. I much prefer to marinate the feta cheese with my own flavours and create something new. Often I’ll do flavour combinations like Alpine Pepper or Lemon Myrtle with Macadamia nut oil. Another one of my favourites is using a Mintbush marinade and vegetable oil. The ideas are endless.
Ingredients
500g (2 cups) feta cheese
10g (2 teaspoons) lemon myrtle
10g (2 teaspoons) alpine pepper
15ml (3 teaspoons) paperbark smoke oil
750ml (3 cups) vegetable oil
Cooking instruction
Remove the feta cheese from the pack and cut into 1.5cm cubes. Transfer the feta cubes into a colander, remove then cover with warm water. Leave to soak for 20 minutes to reduce the salt in the feta then drain and leave to drip for 5 minutes. Transfer the cubes to an appropriate jar, adding the herbs as the pieces are layered in. Once in the jar finish with a generous sprinkle of herbs.
In a saucepan, heat up around 750ml vegetable oil until swirl patterns start to form in the oil. The temperature should just be warm; around 45°C then pour enough warm oil to cover the cheese. Lastly, add the paperbark smoke oil and the lid before allowing to stand at room temperature for a couple of hours to cool. Then place into refrigerator for storage.
The marinated feta cheese will keep in the fridge for up to six months and the feta can be used as antipasto, in salads, melted with any dish as an accompaniment or used as a stuffing in butterfly pork loin which gets tied up with string and pan fried. The oil can be used in hollandaise, mayonnaise or salad dressings, as a drizzle over eggs, meats, marinated vegetables and stir-fries.