homemade ricotta cheese

Seems like I tackled the harder one first.

Ricotta cheese is almost ridiculously easy to make.

1. 1 litre of milk from fridge (pasteurization seems to not matter here). I'm this specific coz of the microwave timing.
2. 3/8 teaspoon citric acid (seems that 2 tablespoons distilled vinegar or lemon juice will do as well) dissolved in about 100ml of water.
3. Salt (say 1/2 teaspoon).
4. Mix all ingredients in microwave safe bowl.
5. Heat on high in microwave until you see the milk foam (about 180F) but not boil over. In my microwave (fairly powerful), it took about 8 min 20 secs.
6. Stir the mixture gently and leave it for about 5-10 mins.
7. drain in sieve or colander with paper filters or food safe paper towels. Time to drain depends on texture wanted. With about slightly >1hr, I got the result below - still a bit wet but relatively firm.

Yield is slightly under a cup from 4 cups milk.

Ladle the curds onto a sieve and let it drip - say 1+ hr (or more to get firmer cheese). I put mine in the fridge while waiting.

Immediately after heating to 185F