Homemade Ricotta and buttermilk

Being in Bali with very limited resources for many items we, well....stuff that I used to get at the Safeway or Trader Joe's (God I miss Trader Joe's) we've all been accustomed to take for granted.....like ricotta cheese (in many forms: cheap and expensive), or buttermilk for instance has made me, for lack of a better word, 'resourceful'. At least more than I used to be. So, the other day, I was hankering to make southern style fried chicken, the ones you dip in buttermilk and flour twice, fried in a cast iron pan in oil. Challenge no.1, can't buy buttermilk in Bali. So, asked around and got recipe, basically its milk, preferably half/half with vinegar. What if I use apple cider vinegar? mixed with a little bit of citrus juice (lime/lemon.....lime mostly, since lemon cost an arm and two legs here). With vinegar it does become buttermilk, with lime juice it curdles and becomes ricotta....well sort of. So, I googled it, and voila, that's what a typical ricotta cheese is made of. But i experimented and used kaffir lime juice and apple cider vinegar. Go ahead and try it, you may fell you've failed, but after the second try you'll get the hang of it. BTW, if you think you've failed, don't throw it away. For Buttermilk: Full cream/regular milk about 1 quart apple cider vinegar, about 1-2tbsp For Ricotta: Full cream/regular milk about 1 quart 2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar 2 teaspoon of lime/lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon sugar Heat milk up to about 200F (or just before boiling, steaming but no bubbles) then remove from fire. Then add all the other ingredients and stir slowly. Leave in pan and let cool in pan, or just put pan in fridge. After about 20-30 mins, the milk should start to curdle. Strain (if you want) with fine strainer, not colander. Done! Homemade ricotta. The leftovers? If you want to make homemade butter? Use that. Or add it to you yogurt for breakfast, it will taste richer.