Favorite Things....Cheese

Growing up I never dreamed there would be so many cheeses for me to discover when I ventured out on my own. I consider myself fairly adventurous but I completely understand that haven't even touched the surface with how many I've tasted. Until I was about thirty, there were three cheeses in my life, American, Mild Cheddar and Parmesan. Even the Parmesan wasn't the wonderful salty goodness I've come to love, but rather the amazingly shelf stable white powder in a green cylinder.

I still enjoy all of those cheeses and other than the green cylinder, I still keep them all stocked at nearly all times. American is great on sandwiches, cold or warm; Cheddar goes well with any Tex/Mex or Mexican food I make; and Parmesan is still an excellent cheese to toss on the top of a pasta with sauce. But this is about Gourmet, fake or not! So I will give you five of my top eight, knowing that those staples already mentioned are like work clothes, everyone needs them, but on one brags to their friends about them.

It was really tough for me to put these in any kind of order, so they are not in order of preference or utility or cost. They are just the five favorite cheeses I have outside the standards of the American Kitchen. I also include a little description and ideas of how I use them.

1. Asiago - This is a drier white Italian cheese that visually looks like Parmesan, but has a much more pungent taste. This is an excellent cheese to toast onto bread to give your plain Italian bread a face lift. It is also good in any "three cheese" arrangement, for pizzas or pastas.

2. Stilton - This is a softer sweeter white cheese which usually comes with candied fruit bits in it. This is an excellent snacking cheese. Also a wonderful cheese to include on either an appetizer or dessert tray for a party or just you and your bestie.

3. Manchego - This is a firm white cheese that melts really well. I am slowly moving towards using Manchego instead of Cheddar in my Mexican food. First it is more authentic but second it brings a slight punch itself which holds up better to the spices. Also works VERY  well when making Quesadillas.

4. Provolone - This is another firm but not dry white Italian cheese. This is also a very versatile cheese which is great for eating alone, mixed in a three cheese for pizza or sliced on top of a sandwich. Provolone melts well but doesn't stretch like Mozzarella so pizza is easier to eat.

5. Gorgonzola - That's right, BLUE cheese. I personally love the stuff, but I know it freaks lots of people out. I think Gorgonzola is also available without the mold, but that just seems silly. So what do I do with it you ask? To be honest, I don't directly cook with it, although I'm sure there are recipes that call for it. I like it on salads or sprinkled on a steak. The extra pungent flavor wakes up your tongue and reminds you you're alive!

So there you have my five favorite, plus 3 staples. I actually regularly purchase a dozen or so other cheeses and maybe some day in the future I'll directly blog about the wide range of cheeses. Until then, I can't wait to hear what other people have as favorites.

These are a few of my favorite things...

The best part of writing about food is that everyone eats. We may all have differences of opinion on what we like or hate, but we all eat. So what makes eating great? I have always been a fan of the "quality, not quantity" approach to eating and this blog tends to show that. It would not be very healthy to only eat decedent, over the top, food for every meal, even elite athletes have a limit on what they can eat. That being said, writing about moderation is not as fun as writing about the things that make you drool when you think about them.

This is the first blog in a series highlighting my favorites. I'm going to start with drinks. Just as the Dos Equis man says, I don't drink often, but when I do, I drink....

I don't have a specific category of drink that I enjoy, there are a few beers, a few cocktails and some wines. Since beer and wine don't require assembly, they are the easy way to supplement a meal and really don't require much further discussion. Cocktails are far more difficult since they generally require ingredients you don't normally stock and although simple, you usually need some tools.

Tastes change from time to time, mine included. Here are my current top five mixed drinks.

1. Lychee Martini
2. Cucumber Martini
3. Blood Orange Manhattan
4. Lemon drop or Lemon Martini
5. Prickly Pear Martini

I'm guessing you can see a pattern here. I currently am on a Vodka Martini kick. The only exception is the Bourbon based Manhattan. The beauty of the vodka Martini is that is fairly simple to make up your own recipe. Pick a fruit (or even some vegetables, see #2!) and pair it with Vodka and usually something to add a little sweetness unless it is sweet on its own. Voila, you invented your own martini. As a rule of thumb, use a 1 to 1 fruit to vodka ratio. I'll include common recipes for these, but I'd also love to hear what great twists others like.

Lychee Martini
2 oz. Vodka
2 oz. Lychee "juice" (I basically drain the liquid from the can and then finely chop fruit into it, blender would probably be better)
Garnish with a Lychee fruit in the glass

Cucumber Martini

2 oz. Vodka
1/4 oz. Lemon Juice
2 slices Cucumber
3 pieces Mint
1/2 oz. Sugar Syrup
Muddle 1 slice of cucumber and mint and add to the shaker. Can also be made with half Vodka and half Gin or all Gin
Garnish with the other slice of cucumber, can be served in a martini glass or a Collins glass

Blood Orange Manhattan
2 oz Bourbon (Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark)
Heavy dash of Vermouth
Heavy dash of Blood Orange Bitters
(optional, add an oz of O.J., I don't use)
Garnish with a stem on Cherry

Lemon Martini
2 oz Vodka (lemon or citrus flavored work best)
1 oz Limoncello (if you don't have Limoncello, rethink how you stock your bar!)
1 oz Lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup (or use lemonade instead of juice and syrup)
Garnish with either a strip of lemon rind or a lemonhead candy

Prickly Pear Martini
2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Prickly Pear syrup
I've never had a garnish on one of these, I'm guessing a chunk of cactus just doesn't work! :-)

Feeling Saucy

I've made cheese, I've made pasta, I've made meatballs, but without a good sauce they just don't come together well. I have no idea if the Italians categorize their sauces or not, but I do. I think of pasta sauces as falling into three types. The first type is tomato based, the second is cream based and the third is stock/wine based.

I make several sauces and enjoy each of them for what they bring. Some are quick and easy and other takes all day or at least hours to make. Some are healthy and others are; well, not healthy.

In my humble opinion, if you're going to cook at home, you need to have several pasta sauces in your repertoire. Even the best recipe can get old if you go to it too often. I know not everyone believes that and there is something to be said for the tradition involved with having the same meal every Sunday night or something like that. If you're talking about Grandma feeding 20 plus people with a sauce that took all day to reduce down to perfection, it really is hard to argue with that. I'm talking about the day to day consumption with your immediate family. The more variety the better, but good variety, not just something different for the same of something different.

The first sauce to learn is a basic red sauce, or a close relative a basic meat sauce. These are what most Americans would consider the most traditional of Italian pasta sauces. Much like my commentary on meatballs, these recipes tend to be handed down through families and closely guarded by their artists. I have my own take on a red sauce, but don't actually make it very often. I'll include it below.

The next sauce to learn is something you can make "on the fly" or at least in under an hour. Pomodoro is a basic fresh tomato sauce. I'll also include the recipe below for my version of it. I really love a fresh sauce with fresh pasta, they just seem to marry well for me. What I mean by a fresh sauce is simply a sauce that has no components from a can. You can use fresh or dried herbs depending on availability, but fresh herbs make a huge difference in a sauce that does not cook long.

The third sauce to learn would be another staple of the Italian kitchen, bolognese sauce. Bolognese sauce is a long cook meat based sauce that has onion, celery and carrots in it. This is a tomato and cream sauce which also has wine, but in my versions of categories I consider it a tomato based sauce if that veggie or some version of it makes an appearance. I make huge vats of bolognese sauce at a time. This sauce holds up well to portioning off and freezing; which I do with regularity.

After you have these three sauces down it is time to start really exploring sauces that you normally only get in restaurants. Several of them are not at all difficult to make, but because they don't make good leftovers or they're wickedly unhealthy they don't get much play. My recommendation for your top sauces to learn are as follows, roughly in order:

1. Basic Red Sauce (with or without meat)
2. Pomodoro and/or Marinara
3. Bolognese
4. Alfredo (butter and cheese)
5. Carbonara (bacon and egg)
6. Bechamel (great starter for cheese sauces)
7. Pesto
8. Primavera

As promised, I'll include my recipe for the first two and I'll explore the next six with their own blog as I make them again. 

Basic Red Sauce:

Two large tomato sauce cans

1 Tbl Dried Oregano

1 Tbl Dried Basil

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced pushed through the garlic press

1 small onion finely chopped

1/4 cup of olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

(For meat sauce add 1 lb. of either ground beef or Italian sausage)

1. Saute the olive oil and onion in the bottom of a large pot until the onion is translucent
2. If making meat sauce, add the meat at this time and cook through before adding the liquid
3. Add the tomato sauce and bring up to a light boil
4. Stir in the herbs and let simmer for 2 to 8 hours stirring occasionally

The color should become a noticeably darker red during the simmering

Pomodoro sauce:

1 tomato per person, diced

1 leaf of fresh basil per person, finely chopped

1/4 small yellow onion per person, diced (or a shallot, but I mostly use onion)

1/2 clove of garlic per person, finely chopped

1/8 cup of olive oil per person

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil and saute the onion until translucent (about 5 minutes)
2. Add the garlic and continue sauteing for about another minute
3. Add the diced tomato and basil
4. For Pomodoro, allow to saute for a minute or two, just until the tomato is heated through
5. For Marinara allow the sauce to cook for about 10 minutes until the tomato starts to break down but still clearly has chunks
6. Add the wet pasta directly to the sauce and serve once the pasta water has evaporated

Meatballs!

I love making Italian food, it's hard not to love it. I've recently experimented with making fresh pasta and cheese and I've always made several different sauces. Every good Italian cook makes there name within their circle with their meatballs. I'm not claiming to be a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but I really do like my meatball recipe.

Meatball recipes are handed down from generation to generation and very closely guarded. I don't get to cook for friends or family very often, so I've decided there really isn't a need to keep my recipe a secret. I have no children to pass it down to, so I'm going to share it with this group.

The meatball can be added to almost any pasta and sauce combination in Italian cooking that doesn't have seafood in it or a bunch of meat already (although, does extra meat ever hurt?). I really love them with just a basic pasta pomodoro or even with fettuccine alfredo. I'm sure those recipes will appear in other blogs once I figure out what my recipe has in it. I do have a habit of making things from scratch, knowing what the ingredients are, but not the proportions.

In addition to the traditional use of meatballs on pasta, they can be used in a few other ways. The first is to simply eat them as a side with some sauce on them. The other way I like to use them is on sandwiches. The meatballs I make are about the size of a racquetball so I have to cut them in half to fit a sandwich. Simply use a hoagie style bun with some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Meatballs go well with almost any white Italian cheese. You can even slice them and put them on pizza or in a calzone.

Spaghetti Pomodoro, 3 meatballs and some Parm...mmmm

Recipe:

1 lb. Ground Pork
1 lb. Ground Veal
1 lb. Ground Chuck
1 small can of tomato paste
1 to 1 1/2 cups of Italian seasoned bread crumbs*
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of cold water (give or take to control moisture level)
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan (parmigiano reggiano)

*if you don't have seasoned bread crumbs, use regular bread crumbs with about a 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, basil and granulated garlic.

1. Mix all of the ingredients together completely, you'll have to use your hands, so take the bling off.
2. Bake racquetball sized meatballs in a 325 degree oven for 1 hour in a pan with sides (meatballs will give off some oil in the baking process, so don't use a cookie sheet)
3. That's it!

Makes 18 to 24 good sized meatballs.

Top Secret Info: This is also my meatloaf recipe, but add a cup of instant rice to the mix and cover the loaf with a can of tomato sauce cut with a half can of water.

"Adult" Mac and Cheese

Admit it, as a kid, you loved Mac and Cheese. Not just any Mac and Cheese but the 30 cents a box, just add butter and milk Mac and Cheese. I did too...actually I DO too. Just because we grew up doesn't mean we have to abandon what we loved as a kid, however, there is no reason we can't Adult-a-fy it.

I do enjoy making "real" Mac and Cheese and the recipe is included below, but this blog is about transforming your Mac and Cheese more so than making it. Whether you use a homemade recipe or a box, you can enjoy fancy Mac and Cheese like you find in restaurants.

There are three ways to make Mac and Cheese fancy. The first two are built right into the name, you can change the Macaroni that you use or the cheese. The third way is to add in extra deliciousness OR you could  do any combination of those.

Obviously if you're using a box as your starting point, replacing the pasta or the cheese doesn't make sense so you only have the choice of adding things in. I have a few favorites myself but I suppose the choices are unlimited. The first upgrade to your Kraft Dinner is bacon. Bacon is the wonder meat and a staple in any kitchen that fancies itself fancy. I understand bacon isn't the most healthy choice in the kitchen, but who doesn't love bacon? You're eating Mac and Cheese so you haven't exactly made a healthy choice in the first place, you might as well enjoy it to the maximum.

I eat Mac and Cheese pretty regularly so I have several other suggestions for kicking it up a notch. In addition to adding a protein like bacon, you can add tuna, sausage or grilled chicken. In addition, I have yet to meet a cured or smoked meat that doesn't work so you can try a variety of hams, panchetta or specialty sausages like chorizo or andouille. The key to all of these is to make sure they're completely cooked before you add them, drain away any excess fat or drippings and cut them into fairly small pieces. You want to taste the addition without losing the star of the show.

Another path to go down with additions is seasonings. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out but simply adding a splash or two from the spice rack can really work wonders. I've tried several paths and still have several more that I want to try. If you're using something like chorizo or andouille I don't recommend adding any spices, it is unlikely you'll even taste them. That being said, I've found that a little heat goes a long way with Mac and Cheese. A dash of chili powder or cayenne can add just the right amount of zing to an otherwise rich dish. I usually follow standard thought patterns when it comes to seasoning, but I suppose you could experiment with what you have. I tend to cook within the standard definitions of Italian, Mexican (or Tex-Mex) and Asian. I am by no means claiming these are the only flavors out there, I'm just most comfortable working within those flavor profiles.

As mentioned earlier, there are the two main ingredients that can be altered for a more enjoyable experience. For the pasta, basically use any short pasta, some of my favorites are fusilli and rotini (spirals), rotelle (wagon wheels), farfalle (bow ties) and rachette (little tennis rackets).

Last, but not least, are the cheeses. There is one simple rule to follow with cheese substitutions. The cheese you substitute in must have similar properties to the cheese you're substituting out. The standard cheese for Mac and Cheese is cheddar, ignoring flavor, what are cheddar's properties to consider? First, cheddar is what I would consider a firm cheese. This means using something like brie or parmesan are not good substitutes since brie is much softer and parmesan is much firmer and drier. Parmesan and other hard cheeses are also a bad idea because they have a high amount of salt in their flavor which can really overtake the rest of the dish. Good cheeses to use are Gouda, smoked Mozzarella (not fresh), Fontina, Provolone, Colby/Jack and many others. Obviously, you can make your dish with a combination of these as well.

As with any cooking adventure, part of the adventure is experimenting and sometimes even failing. I've made some questionable choices but so long as you find a treasure once in a while, the journey is worth the effort. I'd love to hear back with which tricks you've tried and whether they met your expectations or not.

Recipe:

1/2 lb. Macaroni (elbows or others)
3 Tbl butter
3 Tbl flour
1 Tbl powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 tsp paprika
1 large egg
12 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
1 tsp salt

For the topping:
3 Tbl butter
1 cup Panko bread crumbs

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and mustard (cook about 5 minutes)
2. Stir in milk and paprika and simmer for about 10 minutes
3. Temper in the egg and roughly 3/4 of the cheese
4. Fold in your pasta and place the ingredients into a casserole dish
5. Melt the other butter, toss in the bread crumbs to toast then top the casserole with them
6. Bake for 30 minutes

Gardening part 2

My initial experience with home gardening went pretty well, so me being me, I had to take well enough and go an extra mile. I started out with 1 flower box with basil and cilantro. I quickly added two more flower boxes with Roma tomatoes and I was off and running. Next I purchased a couple of very large flower boxes and planted cucumbers and bell peppers in one and beefsteak tomato in the other. Lastly I built a fairly large elevated box to try all sorts of things and hopefully keep them away from the rabbits that live everywhere here. I've recently had to add some additional anti-seed thief protection to that and if you look at the pictures below, that's what looks like a chicken coop. I promise, I have not, nor will I raise live chickens.

I've learned some lessons during this experience and although they may not be very helpful to folks who live outside of the desert, they might still be interesting.

Unfortunately cilantro grows up quickly and if you don't use a ton of it in your day to day cooking, growing your own isn't very productive. Only a few weeks from its start, cilantro becomes coriander. However, it seems to be impossible to kill, so there is that. (cilantro = green thumb ego booster!) The basil also did pretty well so long I was conscience of how much sun it was getting, mostly not too much. Living in Arizona creates several challenges with gardening, the greatest of which is the summer heat. Having small planters makes it easy to move pots around the yard to maximize or minimize exposure, as needed, but limit how much you can actually grow.

I've also discovered that some of the indigenous wildlife likes some of the vegetables I'm trying to grow. I've had many days of going to pick tomatoes only to find that the nicest one has a hole in the side of it from some sort of critter. I've also planted a few types of lettuce and carrots and they never made it out of the seed phase. I'm trying them again, only under the wire tent, to see if they'll even grow here.

I've been able to grow radishes and tomatillas so far, but the radish were pretty small and the tomatilla are still growing, so the jury is still out on them. I've added a second batch of radish to the recent upgrade to the garden box and we'll see if I do better. During the initial plantings I was sloppy and almost all of the holes I made had two or three seeds dropped in them. I was much more careful to only put one seed per hole this time.

That second batch of tomato, green pepper and cucumber are still growing and haven't yielded anything yet, but the plants themselves are pretty hardy. I can't wait to see if they give me anything.

I also tried peas. Tried. They got to all of three inches tall and died. I think they just didn't want anything to do with the heat, so I'll try them again in the fall. Since seeds are pretty cheap, I don't feel bad about trying something new and failing. Worst case scenario, I'm out two bucks or less. A packet of seed actually goes a long way and so long as they're stored in a dry place (not hard to find here in Arizona) they keep for years.


Here is a visual tour of what I've done so far. I promise the next update will include the wonderful food I've made from these.

The beefsteak tomato plants, just starting out

Bell pepper on the left, cucumber on the right

The two large planter boxes early on

The tomato and cucumber after some growth, I moved the trellis around a little to help out 

The cucumbers quickly filled the pot and started to spill over

Here are the lettuce and carrots that made only this far before someone started snacking on it

The radishes in the foreground, the tomatilla in the middle and the peas in the background

A few of the radishes I've harvested. They're fairly small but very spicy.

The cucumbers and bell peppers are looking hardy, but still nothing to eat

The jungle of tomato

The new "cage" in the background, the tomatilla in the middle and a few lettuce that I transplanted from where I added the cage

Up close look at the tomatilla forming

The cage added three things: 5 1/2 inches of soil, animal protection (I hope) and slight reduction in sunlight

Homemade Cheese

I recently took a few cooking classes, not because I don’t know “how” to cook, but because there a few things I have always wanted to try, but was a little afraid to just go out on my own and try. Cheese-making was always something that seemed interested to me and I have seen kits in the grocery store before. I figured a class could not only give me the experience of making cheese the first time in a controlled environment, but also give me a few ideas on what to do with my cheese.


Unlike pasta making class, I didn’t have the best group to work with. One of the other students was kind of pushy and aggressive, so I didn’t do as much hands on work as I would have liked. However, this didn’t totally ruin the experience and I took it in stride. I don’t take notes and I don’t read the book as often as most students, I’ve always been this way, but I truly learn from hearing and seeing what is being done and I still gained that experience. 


The first thing I learned is that the ingredients are not things you keep in a standard kitchen so once again some purchases had to be made. Since the store offered a learner’s kit with all the ingredients you would need it made sense for me to limit my initial investment to this four use kit. In the end, all you have to do buy some cheese cloth and a gallon of milk every time you’d like to make a batch.
I’ve tried making the cheese twice now and went about it slightly different ways, both with good but different results. I’ll include the recipe and directions below, but I do recommend the starter’s kit. It turns out making cheese, although fun as a novelty, is a bit of work. 


The most important thing I learned is that the milk you buy is everything. The entire cheese making process won’t matter if you buy the wrong milk. First off, you’re making cheese, don’t bother with low fat milk, you’re making CHEESE, redundancy intended. Second off, although when it comes to drinking milk, pasteurization and homogenization are sought after; the opposite is true for your cheese making milk. Unless you have a very serious specialty grocery store in your neighborhood, you have to buy pasteurized and homogenized milk…from a cow. “True” Mozzarella, is made from the milk a buffalo; not Bison like in the United States, but the type they have in Europe. This little hurdle is no big deal at all, cow’s milk works fine, in the end the only stipulation is that is not Ultra-pasteurized or Ultra-homogenized. Unfortunately the label doesn’t have to say so, but the easiest way to figure it out is if the expiration date is more than 7 to 10 days from when you’re buying it. Most grocery store chains contract with different dairies in most parts of the country, so if at first you don’t succeed, don’t try sky-diving again, but try making cheese with another brand of milk.

The class taught us how to make two cheeses each with the standard way and an alternative way. The first was ricotta, which we basically relied on heat and acid to curdle it. Literally you heat the milk until it’s about to boil and then you poor in buttermilk (the source of acid) and it forms curds immediately. Either slightly drain the whey (the left over yellowish water) and use as you normally would for things like lasagna or baked ziti, or you can press it with cheese cloth into a more solid cheese, the name of which is escaping me.


Mozzarella is more complicated in that the temperature has to be more controlled. Again I’ll include the recipe and directions at the end. The key to the mozzarella is AFTER you’ve made curds and what you do with them. Once you formed your curds, imagine relatively dry cottage cheese, you heat them further and change the texture all together. At just the right temperature mozzarella is very rubbery and stretchy and this is a key in making it. However, this is also the reason this not a project for children. You have to work the cheese by hand and little hands are far too sensitive to heat, even with gloves on. I used gloves in class and the first time I made it at home, but not the second time. Either way, you have to heat it enough to allow the curds to melt together as you need it like you would dough. 


This is where the second bit of advice I can give comes in. The first time I made the cheese at home, I rung out the whey with cheese cloth and ALL my might. This did a great job of removing the moisture but in the end the mozzarella was much more like the “pizza cheese”  version than the “enjoy in a Caprese salad" version. This second time I didn’t remove as much moisture initially and the cheese is more moist and tender; less rubbery and solid. Don’t confuse my phrasing it rubbery like that’s a bad thing, it is not, it is just the best word I can come up with and a fair description. Anyone who has had pizza where the cheese stretches from the plate to your mouth understands what I mean by rubbery.


In the end, I’m glad I tried this, but once the kit is gone, I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. It was fun, it was entertaining, but it was also above a “5” on the hassle-meter. If you’re very serious about your ingredients or you just want to impress some guests, then totally go for it, but the flavor isn’t substantially better then store made and if you count your labor into the costs of making it, then the store bought “fresh” mozzarella is just fine.

Heating the milk

Separating the curds and whey (Oh little miss muffet)

4 servings of fresh Mozzarella!

This is the kit I used, sold at Sur La Table, but I've seen others at grocery stores or other kitchen supply chains

Recipes:


Ricotta Cheese
8 cups Whole Milk
2 cups Buttermilk
Fine salt if desired


Heat the milk in a large pan (obviously account for the amount of liquid you’re using plus some margin of error when the milk starts to boil). Stir while heating over Medium high heat just enough to prevent scorching but so much as to slow down the heating. As the milk reaches a gentle boil (bubbles will start to climb quickly, so don’t walk away) pore in the buttermilk and gently stir, but in only one direction to prevent breaking up the curds you just formed. Remove from heat, let sit 5 or 10 minutes, strain with cheese cloth for 15 or so minutes until the consistency is what you want. You can make an alternative form of this cheese by deliberately driving moisture out by twisting the cheese cloth and then placing the curds, in cloth, under something heavy for 30 to 60 minutes. Helpful hint: put a pasta strainer and pan under your cheese cloth when separating the curds and whey. The whey can be refrigerated and used in things like bread recipes for enhanced flavor. I haven't used the whey yet, so I can’t say if works well or not.


Mozzarella Cheese
1 Gallon of Whole milk (buffalo or cow, not ultra-pasteurized)
1 ½ teaspoons of citric acid dissolved in 1 cup of non-chlorinated water
¼ rennet tablet (this is an enzyme, so again no chlorine in the water) in ¼ cup of water
Fine salt to taste


1. Heat the milk on medium low until 85 degrees, and then add the citric acid
2. Heat the milk/acid to 100 degrees and then add the rennet water
3. Continue heating until 105 degrees and then remove from heat
4. Drain the curds from the whey into a cheesecloth lined strainer
5. Form balls of curd by hand the size you want and add any salt you want at this point
6. Heat curd balls in the microwave (or in boiling water, but do you really want to stick your hands in that situation!) for 1 minute.
7. Knead the curds and they should start to stick into one blog of cheese and take on a slightly more shiny appearance. If the cheese starts to rip, give it 20 more seconds in the microwave
8. If you want Buratta cheese, wrap the warm cheese around some raw curd mixed with cream


Caprese Salad
I never measure anything out when making Caprese Salad, so every ingredient is “to taste”  and you can experiment with the presentation as well.
Tomato
Mozzarella or Buratta cheese
Basil
Balsamic vinegar (the older the better)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cooking Classes

Cooking classes

I turned 40 this year and as a gift my wife signed me up for some cooking classes at the local Sur la table store. Unlike standard cooking classes these are individual stand alone classes on how to make a particular item. Since I worked in restaurants during college and I otherwise enjoy cooking, I didn’t need introductory classes. If you already know how to hold a knife and have done some cooking on your own I think you’re the target audience, although they do offer classes on knife skills and basics.

I have 3 classes to attend so I signed up for: Fresh Pasta and sauces, Making Cheese and Grilling Seafood. I was going to attend all three and then blog about the experience, but after the first one I changed my mind. Earlier this week, I attended the fresh pasta class and had a wonderful time. They offer classes nearly every night of the week and on the weekends there are day classes and night classes.

I make pasta dishes pretty frequently and have always wanted to try to make fresh pasta so signing up for this class was a no-brainer. Everything you make in class is written up in a packet you receive before the class starts so you don’t have to worry about jotting down recipes or even the steps you take. You can spend the entire time picking up the helpful hints from the staff and chatting with the other students.

The class was sold out which meant that we had sixteen students and when we worked on our own we were at four tables of four. Although we had nametags I forgot to get the names of the ladies that I worked with. I know one of them was Carol, because her husband was also named Ed and so that stuck in my head. I’m not good with ages, but if I had to guess, they were retired and took the class as something to do as a group. They, like me, liked cooking but had never made fresh pasta and were looking for something new to learn.

The general flow of the class would have us all stand around the central station and watch the instructor do something. We would then split into our groups and divide the prep work up amongst us and then execute whichever step we had just learned. When the step allowed for it, we would each do the work. For instance, when we mixed the pasta dough, we all did one egg worth of pasta and the instructors collected it up for later. However, when we prepared our sauces, one person would dice the shallot and another would work the sauté pan, and our group would then have some sauce to donate to the class total. Since all three of the sauces we made required some reducing, the instructor staff took care of that part after we initially made it.

The final portion of the class we again broke into groups and each group made a different cut of pasta. We were told to go to whichever station was cutting the pasta we wanted to learn, but everyone just went back to their original groups. The class offered four different ways to roll out and cut the pasta and I probably should have joined the group that was using a stand mixer attachment since that is what I own, but instead I felt loyal to the group I had been with for the previous hour and a half and made the fettuccini with the hand crank pasta machine. T his was actually very fun and my group accused me of being a ringer, so I must have been doing it correctly. I think the real secret was just that I was young enough still to coordinate the cranking of the handle and the holding of the pasta ribbon. In the end we all helped each other to make our little piles of noodles and turned them in to the instructor.

Based on the class I have serious interest in buying several of the devices we tried and I suspect that is partially why they offer the classes. We had a break at the half way point and I know that nearly everyone in the class purchases something at that point. I wanted to see how the real hardware stuff worked before I committed to buying anything, but I think I’m hooked now. I want the pasta roller attachment for the stand mixer and another device that I don’t know the name of. Picture a wood box that is maybe 18x12x3 inches in dimensions and has a few dozen guitar strings running parallel to the long axis. You place dough on it and then roller it through the strings so they cut it. With modern tools this is probably just a show piece, but it was pretty cool and it did work really well. The instructor claimed that the spaghetti it made would have a slightly different texture than the spaghetti from the machines, but I didn’t have a chance to see the two side by side. In the end, I’ve seen Iron-chef Morimoto use of those, so I’m sold!   J

The class was two hours long and other than the break we took, it really flew by. I didn’t even remember to take pictures for most of the class, so the only one I’m including is the shot from the finale of the class….TASTING!

When I try what I learned on my own, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures each step of the way. Fresh pasta is delicious, pretty easy to make and fun. Enjoy.

Local Sur la Table cooking class calendar

I scream, you scream....

I’ve always been a casual fan of ice cream and remember it well from my childhood. We’d spend what seemed like hours churning a homemade ice cream maker at my grandma’s house. You’d have to pack it with ice and then salt down the ice to get it to absorb heat quicker. We’d take turns churning since at eight or ten or whatever age we were, you really had to put some effort into it and completely failed to understand that it doesn’t make ice cream faster if you turn it faster. I blame the ice cream maker for my poor Atari performances, but that’s another story for another day.

As an adult I’ve mostly just eaten frozen yogurt from a certain manufacturer of Cherry Garcia or iced milk from the Queen of Dairy. I didn’t eat ice cream very often and I suppose technically speaking, I still don’t. However, when I moved to the desert I started exploring ways to cool off. First, we bought a house with a pool, something I didn’t want and now can’t image NOT having it available in the summer. Second, I bought an ice cream maker. Ice cream is not exactly listed in the favorable parts of the food pyramid, so I’m careful about how often I make it.

I’ve messed around with several recipes and for quite some time I was convinced that my favorite was vanilla with chunks of cherries and chocolate bars….you know, not at all ripping off that frozen yogurt and ice cream maker mentioned above. Heck, I don’t sell it so it is not a copyright thing, I totally ripped them off and it is good…..no great. I’ve experimented with some other stuff and have made strawberry a few times. In the past, I wanted the ice cream to ready as soon as possible and would cut some corners. The last two times I’ve made it, I didn’t. It turns out, you CAN’T rush perfection.

In my opinion, the perfect ice cream is smooth, doesn’t melt too quickly and has great flavor; in no particular order. I found out the hard way that the only way to make strawberry ice cream smooth is to take your time. If you just throw all the ingredients together and go, you get ice crystals in your fruit chunks. The second secret: remember it is ice cream, not ice milk and no matter what substitutions you make, it is fattening. The only way to combat the calories in good ice cream is moderation and exercise. J I believe in making REAL ice cream and just not eating it as often. A good treat is enjoyed more, not more often.

I’ll include the recipe for my new favorite ice cream (although I think it is technically frozen custard because it has egg yolks), basic strawberry, that has nothing basic about it.

1 cup heavy (whipping) cream

½ cup of ½ and ½ (recipe says “or milk”, but don’t do the milk)

3 egg yolks

¼ cup of sugar for strawberries

½ cup of sugar for egg yolks

1.25 lbs of fresh strawberries, cut fairly small, large chunks can get pretty crunchy

Small squeeze from a lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

Combine the strawberries, ¼ cup of sugar and lemon juice in a bowl about an hour beforehand

In a double boiler or a make shift one (a glass bowl on top of a sauce pan is what I do) heat the cream and half and half until steaming. Even though you’re using a double boiler, it is worth stirring frequently.

In a separate bowl, while the cream is heating, whisk together the egg yolk and sugar. Once the cream is warm, temper the cream into the yolk mixture and then mix everything together once the yolk mixture is up to temperature.

Continue to cook the custard on low for another 5 to 10 minutes. It should only slightly thicken, you don’t want thick custard.

Once you’re done cooking the custard, remove from heat and add the strawberries in. You can either cool it with an ice bath or take your chances with the refrigerator.  I’ve done both, haven’t seen a difference.

Once the mixture is no longer warm to the touch, so room temp or cooler, you can load it into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions from there.

This recipe makes 1 Quart of very rich ice cream, so don’t take too big of a scoop and savor J

Ed's Fish Tacos

Ed’s Fish Tacos

I’ve always been a fan of fish tacos but had never made them at home before. I’ve had many versions in the past but decided I wanted make my own, not copy someone else’s.

Like any taco, you have to decide on what you want for several components. You have the meat, the tortilla, the sauce, the greens, cheese and the veggies. For the meat I went with Ahi Tuna prepared ceviche style. I seem to always go back and forth with flour vs corn tortilla but went corn for this recipe. For the sauce, I completely made something up and it turned out nice. I used Crème Fraiche with roasted Anaheim chili, cilantro and roasted garlic powder. For the greens I went with simple cabbage, sliced very thin. I went very simple with the veggies and only used avocado. Last but not least, I always think of fish tacos as a west coast or Mexican dish, so I decided I wanted a Mexican cheese and went with Manchego (shredded); it is a semi soft cheese white cheese which is similar to a cross of mozzarella and cheddar.

Anytime I decide to cook something new, I rarely just make one thing, I like to cook a theme more than an item. Today was no different, so I made a side of black beans and of course had a Mexican beer.

This was one of my most successful attempts at cooking without a recipe and I will definitely make these again. I have written down, as best I can, the recipes.

Fish:

½ lb of raw Ahi Tuna cut into half inch cubes (Sushi grade)

Juice of 3 large limes

¼ raw red onion cut into pieces that you’ll be able to fish out (or to taste)

Prepare this at least 30 minutes in advance to let the lime “cook” the fish. The fish will slowly change color from the intense acid of the limes. Consider the lime and onion to be a marinade and discard it before putting the fish on the tacos.

Sauce:

Small tub (about 1 cup) of Crème Fraiche

Handful of fresh cilantro (about a ¼ cup chopped)

1 whole roasted, peeled and seeded Anaheim pepper (chili pepper)

Roasted Garlic to taste

Tablespoon of honey

Blend everything but the crème in a blender until no chunks remain, add the crème and finish mixing, don’t mix too long. You could probably mix the green stuff with the dairy by hand outside the blender as well.

To make the tacos, simply assemble all the ingredients listed above in the amounts you like. The fish recipe would feed two so multiple as needed. I have a lot of leftover sauce, so no need to multiply that.

The black bean recipe is pretty simple also:

1 can of black beans, undrained

¼ to ½ of a jalapeno pepper (to taste)

2 slices of cooked bacon chopped into small bits

Mix the ingredients and heat in a small saucepan

ENJOY

Making simple look good

It turns out that risotto is actually fairly simple to make. I found a recipe at the grocery store and although I didn't follow it, I used it as a road map to what I wanted to do. My wife and I love Italian food but I'm tired of the typical pasta with sauce. I wanted a fancy dinner for my birthday but she wasn't up to going out this week so I decided to make a five star meal myself.

Now being the Fake Gourmand means that I've learned where to take shortcuts and where not to. For risotto there really wasn't any need to cheat or take shortcuts. The only ingredient that wasn't "fresh" was the mushrooms, since those are very seasonal you have to settle for either hothouse cultivated or dried. Since they're not the featured ingredient I had no problem with the dried. Using dried mushrooms is much like using dried herbs, so long as they're new they have more flavor than fresh (ounce for ounce).

Seeing a caprese salad on my table is no shock to anyone, but if you don't want a pile of lettuce as your salad it is a pretty simple way to spruce up a meal. Caprese salad can contain other ingredients but it is basically tomato, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, olive oil and really good balsamic vinegar. I've seen garlic, red onion, black pepper, salt and other ingredients added but I'm a fan of the minimalist approach and if you have really good ingredients, it is all you need. Since mozzarella comes in roughly a dozen different sizes and shapes, don't settle for the big lump, experiment a little and have fun. You can also substitute other cheeses, but don't stray too far from the texture of mozzarella or it can get weird fast.

The second element of my meal is the bread. I bake bread on a fairly regular basis, but if you don't plan ahead you can't exactly bake a loaf of bread on the fly. However, you can take grocery store or bakery bread and add your own spin to it. This go round I found a nice Italian round loaf and cut it into approximately half inch slices, that's 1.25 centimeters for my metric friends! :-) I brush the slices with melted butter, a fair amount, but not so much as to make it greasy.  I then sprinkle a little granulated roasted garlic on there and follow that up with some form of dry Italian cheese, in this case Parmesan. Set the oven to something pretty high, I went 450 today but I'm not super consistent and it doesn't seem to matter too much. Bake until they become toast and the cheese on top has browned, but the bread hasn't burned yet. I don't time it, I like to eyeball cook when I can, but it was about 10 minutes.

Last but certainly not least was the Chicken and mushroom risotto. The key to good risotto is simply patience and proper ingredients. Again I don't time it, but I would say the risotto took about 30 to 40 minutes. Before you get started on the actual cooking, start about 6 cups of chicken stock warming in a sauce pan, you don't want to add it cold and also add about a half cup of the warm stock to your mushrooms if you have dried.  I start by sauteing about 3/4 of a pound of chicken breast, once its cooked through I set aside. In the same pan I then saute a shallot with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Once the shallot has become soft, add two cups of Arborio rice (available at most grocery stores if you look hard enough) and let it toast a little, but stir it the whole time, it will burn quickly if you leave it alone or if you leave the heat too high. Make sure your pan isn't too hot and turn it to your lowest setting. Add your mushrooms at this point and unless you had a ton of stock with the mushrooms you'll want to add about a half cup of white wine at this point, wine has alcohol and can flash, so pay attention or risk loosing your eyebrows. Once the rice stops smelling like strong alcohol, start adding the warm stock one big ladle at a time. I don't stir the whole time, but I also don't let it go very long without a stir. While the rice is cooking I large dice the chicken I sauteed earlier and add it just before it is done to make sure it hasn't cooled too much. Last but not least, mix in some parmigiano regiano cheese (however you spell it) to taste to finish it off, the recipe called for a cup, but I didn't use that much. Remember that dense dry white cheeses have a salt content, so don't over do it.

Serve with a nice Pinot Grigio or other white wine and enjoy!

Birthday Dinner (you can tell I set the table, I ALWAYS forget napkins!)

Caprese salad with the battle of the tomatoes, the two rows on top were grown in my garden, the bottom row is the steroid enhanced grocery store variety. (no actual steroids used)

Chicken and mushroom risotto, it dried up a little but was still good.

Crustini, sort of.

Comfort Food

Comfort Food So I had a stressful day at work today, no yelling or screaming or anything drastic, just the stress of a couple of important projects going on and it was one of those days where NOTHING goes as planned, no one answers their phone and time sensitive stuff isn’t finished yet. When I get home, I almost always do one of two things. I go running or I eat dinner. Running has proven stress release properties but today I got to thinking about the concept of comfort food. By no means do I advise using food as a crutch in your life, BUT I do think when used safely, comfort food might be just the thing to try once in a while.

I've never really thought much about what my comfort foods would be. If you watch as much food network as I do, there seems to comfort standards out there. Fried Chicken, Mac and Cheese or anything with bacon come to mind. I like all of that stuff, but it doesn’t have the same connection to me as it might to others. So, what are my comfort foods?

 For me, the food has to have a connection to something that good, pure or happy in your life. I don’t recall my mother making fried chicken very much, although we did enjoy some chicken from the colonel on occasion, but not enough for me to draw comfort from it as an adult. When it comes to childhood food, believe it or not I find great comfort in a soup and sandwich on a cold or gray day. As an adult, I use tomato soup and a grilled cheese, but as a kid it might have been a PB&J and a bowl of chicken noodle. I recall really loving New England clam chowder and vegetarian vegetable soup as well. I think a kid liking clam chowder is odd, but if you’ve met me, then or now, you’d understand. Since moving to Arizona, I don’t eat soup often, but luckily soup in a can lasts a very long time, so I always have some available.

Another food I draw comfort in is from my time in Okinawa. I have no idea of its origin, but while in Japan, I ate pseudo Mexican food prepared by Pilipino women. My global adventure of food was simply called “Taco, Rice and Cheese”, and it was in fact those three ingredients. A bed of rice with a particularly greasy scoop of taco meat on it, then absolutely buried in some yellow cheese I’ve never quite duplicated. As a civilian, tonight included, I’ve made a version of Taco, Rice and Cheese that is slightly less un-nutritious, but has done the job for me. I’d include a recipe, but it is beyond simple. I use a Taco seasoning mix and follow the directions the only change is that I use a leaner ground beef than I’m sure they used in Okinawa. I’m also positive I’m buying cow here, but that’s a story for another day. I think the 93/7 is the leanest stuff you can get here and it works just fine. I use a single boil in the bag worth of rice and I use a mild cheddar cheese and I grate it myself, the pre-grated stuff doesn’t melt the same and I’m not sure why, maybe it’s fake?

If I know I’m going to have a stressful day in advance I try to have a donut for breakfast, but it is really hard to predict having a stressful day. For the record, the best donut for this purpose is the Boston cream donut. Depending on where you buy them, Bavarian cream and Boston cream CAN be the same thing, but sometimes they are not. I want the one with custard in the middle, not whipped cream. If I’m going for comfort, no shortcuts please. Of course, said donut must be consumed with coffee or hot chocolate, depending on when in my life it was. I guess this one is linked to my childhood and my time working at the Lakewood Civic Auditorium. At some point the manager and I declared Boston Cream the official donut of the Auditorium and would make the road crews bring donuts if they wanted us to play nice. I think my last comfort food is something that I do indulge in on a regular basis.

Almost every Sunday Jen and I have a nice sit down brunch. Whether it is pancakes, French toast or waffles, they’re just dripping with comfort. It doesn’t hurt to include a side of bacon or hash browns, but the vessel for my maple syrup is the key to the comfort. I’m not sure where I developed my love for anything dripping with butter and maple syrup, but as an adult it has developed into one of those things that married couples call “their” things. Brunch is our thing…and oh so comfortable. So what’s your comfort food?

My "Garden"

I've always felt you could only 100% claim something was "homemade" if you helped grow the ingredients. Since I have lived in cities my entire life it is unrealistic to think that I could grow my own food. Plus, farming is hard work and I have a job already. That being said, last year I decided to try some things. I looked over the seeds available in the "Mega-Hardware store" and quickly decided that Basil, Cilantro and Roma Tomato would be my first experiments.

The blazing hot summers in Arizona present a real challenge so I figured I would start my garden in the fall and grow through the winter. On paper this seemed like a great idea. However, I live at a little bit of elevation on the outskirts of town and every few years we get a freeze up here. Last winter we got three. I lost my first batch of basil and tomato to the freeze last year, but I did learn some lessons. Lesson number 1, the plants don't like the cold either (duh!). Lesson number 2, you can't kill cilantro if you try. I have a friend or two that would happy to call cilantro a weed and not an herb, and this lesson made it harder to argue that point :-) After a few weeks I learned a third lesson, you can't just let cilantro grow indefinitely, it becomes coriander (and hideously ugly) after awhile. So now I have a container filled with coriander/cilantro seeds that maybe some day I'll use to grow more cilantro or grind to use as coriander. (Anyone have a good recipe with coriander in it? I don't)

However, this story isn't about cilantro. I did use some of it in Guacamole and Green Salsa within that two or three week sweet spot in it's growth period. What I really want to talk about is the Basil and Tomato. As I stated earlier, I had lost those "crops" to the harsh winter (okay, it hit 29, but that's harsh here!). Last spring the flower boxes I had been using started to spring little green signs of life. At first I assumed that the tree they sat under had it's way with them, but I was pleasantly wrong. (That's right, I'm admitting I was wrong, don't get used to it!)

I now have two full flower pots of Roma Tomatoes and a sense that in combination with that basil I will be eating caprese salad often in the not too distance future. I picked my first tomato from this seasons crops and although there are no others very close to being ready I was excited. The last time I tried this I did get 1 tomato, yep ONE. I think I have several dozen growing right now and I believe the little bit of winter we get here in Arizona has mostly passed, so I'm fairly optimistic that this little adventure will pan out. I'm sure I'll be blogging about all the amazing recipes I've found for my herbs and vegetables in the future, but for now anyways, I'm simply crossing "farm" off of my bucket list. I'm sure my mother will get a kick out my claiming that three flower boxes of plants is "farming" but hey, they're organic and locally grown, they up-sell that in the grocery store! :-)

Starting the year off right, with a winner recipe

This Year's first adventure, homemade granola

On a recent piece on NPR I heard about a book called "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter". The general premise of the book is that a woman decided to home make all of the stuff she buys to see if she could make it better or cheaper, but relatively easily. (She being the author Jennifer Reese) I immediately purchased the book myself since I'm always looking for a kitchen adventure, although I admit, I won't be hanging any prosciutto in my kitchen to cure any time soon.

I've been looking for a good solution to my breakfast dilemma, that dilemma being, I don't like to eat breakfast. I love to run, but jetting out the door on an empty stomach only to run eight miles is a bad idea to say the least. I'm also really freaking hungry by the time lunch rolls around at work. As I flipped through the pages, Granola struck me right away. I figured I had two things I could do here. First, granola, as is, I find pretty yummy and I recall hearing it has plenty of caloric punch for it's size. Second, I could combine the granola with some of the leftover dried fruit I have from this season's fruitcake and make a sort of trail mix.

I did quite a bit of regular cooking yesterday, chicken Parmesan and corned beef (for two different reasons, not for the same meal!) so I was really hoping that granola wasn't too difficult. Honestly, your kids could make this. Of course only my mother reads my blog, so her kid DID make this, but you get the point. You just mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon, spread on a cookie sheet and bake. No rotating the tray or stirring during the baking, just plain old waiting.

Warning: one unfortunate side effect is that I can't stop eating the stuff and you're house will smell like the breathe of a gingerbread man, it's quite divine. IF any is left for me to make trail mix with I'll probably write about that in my running blog, in the mean while, this stuff is great just like this. Recipe to follow:

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup almonds (I used blanched and slivered)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup wheat germ (sold in the cereal isle if you can't find it)

1/3 cup maple syrup (REAL, not maple flavored sugar water)

3/4 cup sweetened coconut shreds

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup (half a stick) of melted butter

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I forgot to add this and don't miss it)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F

Mix everything by hand, I think a mixer would wig out

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

let cool and then break it up and enjoy