EWES’ MILK AND HAY CURD CHEESE SEASONED WITH BURNT FERN LEAVES. PUMPKIN GLAZED IN A NON-SWEET SYRUP

INGREDIENTS (to serve 4)

Burnt fern leaves:        
500 ml. Water
14 gr. Table salt
20 Fern leaves (Pteridium aquilinum)
Curd cheese:    
1 l. Ewes' milk
30 gr. Hay
15 drops Chemical rennet
1 gr. Table salt
Pumpkin:
450 gr. Elongated orange pumpkin
300 gr. Water
75 gr.   Lactose.
Ewes' milk cream:
100 ml. Raw ewes' milk
5.5 gr. Kuzu   

PREPARATION

Burnt fern leaves
Use just the tips of the female fern. Cut the leaves to about 4-5 cm. long at the young part where they join up with the main stem. Soak in brine for at least 24 hours. Dry on absorbent paper. Place in a very hot pan and cook evenly all over. Set aside in an airtight container covered with silica gel or other drying agent.
Curd cheese
Place the hay in the milk and bring to boiling point. Remove from the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Strain and bring the temperature to 40ºC. Add the rennet and stir for 1 minute, always in the same direction. Leave to stand at room temperature until set. Using a fork or knife, break up the curd into walnut-sized pieces. Leave to stand for 10 minutes. This gives irregular pieces of curd which will release much of the whey they contain. Without removing the whey, place the pan on metal rings on a hot plate (to prevent direct contact) at 280ºC for 15-20 minutes.
Pumpkin
Cut the pumpkin into pebble shapes about 3 cm long and weighing 12-14 gr. each. Place on silicon paper or a baking sheet the same size as the baking pan and sprinkle with lactose using a fine strainer. Bake in the oven at 200-210ºC until caramelized all over. Remove and set aside the caramel in airtight containers with silica gel or other drying agent.
Place the water and caramelized lactose in a pan. Dissolve the caramel, add the pumpkin pebbles and cook for at least 3 hours over a very low heat, checking it does not boil. Strain the cooked pumpkin and place in a dehydrator for 2 hours until a dry layer of sugar forms on the outside, with a juicy inside.
Ewes' milk cream
Carefully dissolve the kuzu in the cold milk and place in a pan. Cook the milk over a very low heat, stirring with a silicon spatula suited to the size of the pan, until a glazed texture forms. Cover the surface with kitchen film and place in a bain-marie at a controlled temperature of 65 º C.

TO SERVE

Take a flat plate and serve two generous spoonfuls of hay-flavored curd cheese. Pour a little ewes' milk cream round one of the edges of the curd cheese and draw over the top. Scatter with pieces of glazed pumpkin. Decorate with the stylized, charred fern leaves.