To make Serkam / Dartsi cheese, dri (female yak) or chauri milk is fermented into a yoghurt called “dhai”, then churned and used as butter. The buttermilk left from the butter-making process is then boiled and drained. The result is a fresh cheese, somewhat like cottage cheese in appearance.
In Bhutan, the cheese is called “dartsi.”
Aka “Sher”, “Shergum”.
Literature
“SERKAM is a product made from precipitated proteins from buttermilk heated up to boiling point. The separated curd is either freshly used as such or sundried and ground in powder to be stored. Fresh SERKAM has a mild and slightly acid taste. SERKAM in powder is light green coloured… After removing
butter (called NAUNI GHIU in Nepal) the buttermilk (called MAHI) is poured into a large cooking pot and gently warmed over a fire. The milk proteins rapidly precipitate to form a curd. Buttermilk is boiled until protein flakes take a yellow greenish colour. Then, the pot is removed from the fire and curd is strained from the whey. It is squeezed by hand into small spheres of different size and weight (BHUTAN) or in the form of grains (NEPAL). This fresh cheese also called “SHER or SHERGUM” can keep for up to two weeks in colder parts of the country. These soft cheeses are packed in bamboo baskets, after wrapping with banana or tree leaves. However, as in the Alpine regions of NEPAL, the short shelf life of SHER poses a marketing problem, herders have developed methods of further processing the soft cheese into a dried powder cheese with a prolonged shelf life. This product is obtained by pressing SERKAM between the palms of hands, screening it and spreading over a mat to facilitate sundrying. SERKAM is consumed as a staple food by people living in this region. This powder is mixed with flour, butter and sugar to prepare a typical dish called “Satoo”.” — Food and Agriculture Organization. The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries. March 2011. ISBN 92-5-102899-0. p. 70.