Forays in Food

Chocolate Cheese!

 

Some friends and I were enjoying fresh made soft cheese and I wondered out loud what chocolate soft cheese would be like...a chorus of "yummmm" quickly followed and I decided I had to try it.  I had in mind to make it with pre-made chocolate milk and hunted around for advice on the Internet.  I couldn't find much information and decided to experiment on my own.  Knowing that minimally processed milk makes the best cheese, I bought a 1/2 gallon of Borges Family Creamery Whole Organic Chocolate Milk from our local Northcoast Co-op. Ingredients on the carton listed a couple thickeners, some sugar, cocoa and milk. Because I didn't want to waste chocolate milk if the experiment bombed, I decided to scale down my standard recipe. It usually calls for 1 gallon of milk, I used 1 quart and reduce the other ingredients by 1/4 as well. I also skipped the salting step at the end.

 
 
Basically I followed the same recipe and technique for soft cultured cheese with one minor adjustment. I had to let the milk ripen a couple hours longer because the curd hadn't formed, and the curd that did finally form was rather soft.

The chocolate flavor was concentrated with a little dark chocolate bitterness. It was also tangy and barely sweet (the whey that drained off was quite sweet). It had a nice smooth mouth feel just like the soft cultured cheese does.  Don't expect it to taste like chocolate cream cheese frosting or chocolate cheesecake filling - it is not that sweet and fatty. It is more like soft cultured cheese with cocoa & a tiny bit of sugar. It tasted great on toasted homemade bread and rosemary corn cakes from the Northcoast Bakery. I bet it would be good on plain bagels, scones, muffins and pancakes too.

 Download Recipe for Soft Chocolate Cheese

A Good First Cheese

 

Fresh Cultured Cheese

If you've never made cheese before, but have been curious to try, I have a recommendation for you - try a culture-ripened fresh cheese. They are soft & spreadable and are adaptable enough to serve plain or adorned with herbs & other flavors. They require minimal gear & ingredients and are pretty straight forward once you understand the basics. One of the basics is to start with very clean tools and work area. Milk is an ideal medium to grow bacteria - some of which make cheese taste great and others of which may not be so agreeable with our taste buds nor our health. By sterilizing tools, using clean towels, and washing hands frequently you can reduce contamination by unwanted bacteria and have consistent cheese making results. This especially becomes important when making aged cheeses where a stray organism could ruin your long awaited cheese. Another basic is choosing appropriate milk.  Avoid ultrapasturized milk - the high heat used in this process damages the protein and thus interferes with the cheese making process.  We live in dairy country (Humboldt County, California) and are fortunate to have access to great quality milk. My favorites for this cheese are Humboldt Creamery Whole Milk and Borges Family Creamery Organic Cream-Top milk. To improve yields, try mixing in diluted liquid calcium chloride to pasteurized milk, you’ll do this just before the rennet step.  The following recipe is one that I use often.  I like it because I can use goat or cow milk and if I choose to make it with cow’s milk, I can make it with skim on up to whole milk.  One of the nutritious by-products of cheesemaking is whey. You can collect the whey and cook or bake with it. I have a friend that uses it to make lemonade. Cats, dogs & chickens like whey too.

Download Recipe for Fresh Cultured Cheese

Here is equipment you will need:

• 6-8 qt non-reactive sauce pan with a lid (minimum size – you can go bigger)
• Thermometer
• Long handled stirring spoon (not wooden)
• Measuring spoons
• Ladle
• 2 cups or 2 bowls that can hold at least 1/4 cup of liquid (for dilutions)
• Clean butter muslin or a tightly woven, non terrycloth towel (about 1-yard length)
• Colander or strainer
• Large bowl -  1 gallon or larger capacity to catch whey 
• A place to hang curds to drain

Recipe for Fresh Cultured Cheese

1 gallon of goat or cow milk

½ tsp. liquid calcium chloride in 2 tablespoons distilled water (optional, but you’ll improve your yield when using pasteurized milk)

1/4 teaspoon direct set mesothermic*mesophilic culture (Flora Danica is exceptionally good – read package directions for dosage recommendations) *Correction - mesothermic should be mesophilic...it was my mistake and I apologize for the confusion.

2 teaspoons weak rennet solution (this must be prepared fresh by dissolving 1/4 rennet tablet in 4 tablespoons cold distilled water or 1 drop liquid rennet in 2 tablespoons cold distilled water; Discard any unused portion because it doesn’t keep.)

Kosher or pickling salt to taste

 

 

Process 
 
1.  Sterilize all your equipment - this can be done by boiling in water for 10 minutes or by briefly soaking in a dilute bleach solution (2 teaspoons beach in 1 gallon of water) and air-drying.

2.  Prepare a work station with all the sterilized equipment ready to use. I like to place everything on a clean towel within reaching distance of the stove.

3.  Pour milk into the clean sauce pan and gently warm it to 86°F, using medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

4.  Remove from heat and sprinkle culture on milk. Let culture hydrate for about 5 minutes and stir in.

5.  Add diluted calcium chloride (if using) and stir briefly to combine.

6.  Add 2 teaspoons weak rennet solution and stir gently in an up & down motion for about 1 minute...avoid stirring longer than this because the rennet will not set up properly.

 

7.  Cover and let sit at room temperature undisturbed for 12-16 hours, or until a solid curd forms - this could look like soft custard floating in whey.

 

 

8.  Set a colander or strainer lined with a double layer of butter muslin over a large bowl and gently ladle curd into it. Let whey drain 10-20 minutes then gather ends of muslin together to form a draining bag. Hang bag of cheese over a sink or bowl to drain for 4-6 hours. The longer it drains, the firmer it gets .  Keep in mind that as the cheese stands in the refrigerator it will firm up even more. 
  Hanging from a wooden spoon to drain

  

Hanging from cabinet knob to drain

 

 

9.  In a medium sized bowl, or stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix cheese with salt to taste. (I like about 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt).  Place cheese in a covered storage container and keep refrigerated. It keeps about 10-14 days salted, a few days less if unsalted.

 

 

Yield: 2.25-2.5 lbs cheese (drained 4 hours and using whole milk & calcium chloride)

Mother Culture in Small Batches

 

  My friend Simona introduced me to the idea of making mother or prepared cultures for cheesemaking in small 1-cup batches. Since I'm not making cheese every week, the typical recipe for 1 quart of prepared culture was too much for me.  I was never able to use it up while the culture was still robust and active.  Now I'm making enough prepared culture for about two recipes of hard cheese in a 1-cup (8 oz) jam sized canning jar.  Scaling down the recipe means I can scale down the amount of water I need to heat up by doing everything in a 4 qt sauce pan instead of a 8 qt stock pot. 

Here is how I do it:

Sterilize your equipment by submerging a steamer basket (it insulates jars from touching the bottom of the pan) and boiling 2 jam jars with lids, stainless steel measuring spoons, & a little whisk or fork for 10 minutes.  Have on hand some very clean towels, a jar lifter or tongs, and a thermometer. You’ll need a ½ pint of skim or 1% milk and about ⅛ teaspoon powdered culture (check package for recommended amounts and scale it back accordingly for the amount of milk you're using).  Note: Be sure to use re-culturable cultures - direct set cultures will not perform as well.

After you've sterilized your equipment, you'll need to sterilize your milk.  This is done by boiling it for 30 minutes in a water bath.  To do this, fill one jar with luke warm milk and fill the other with tap water. This  jar of water is going to be your tester, you will open it to test temperatures so that you don't contaminate the milk. Cover jars with lids and tighten until just snug but not super tight. Set jars in sauce pan on top of the steamer basket (I remove the legs of the basket for extra room in the pan) and cover the jars with water. Bring to a boil and boil for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. You can speed this along by s-l-o-w-l-y adding cool water to the sauce pan or a couple ice cubes.  Add a few more ice cubes as the others melt away. If you take the jar with milk out of the water to cool - do the same with the water jar. Make sure the two jars are treated the same way as far as temperature is concerned.

To prevent the contamination of the milk, you will measure the temperature of the water only.  It should be very close if not identical to the temperature of the sterilized milk. Once the temperature drops into range you need for inoculating with your pure freeze-dried culture, you'll open the sterilized milk and add the culture, gently mix it with your sterilized whisk or fork & close it back up. Make sure you are using sterilized measuring spoons to measure the dried culture powder and wash your hands before touching the sterilized equipment. You will ripen the inoculated milk at the temperature specified for the culture and for the specified amount of time. The culture is done when thick like yogurt. Sometimes this transformation from liquid to yogurt seems to take forever and then suddenly the culture thickens in an hour.

If you are inoculating with a mesophilic culture (Flora Danica is mesophilic) you are looking for a milk temperature of 68-72° F and you'll ripen it (or hold it at 68-72°F) for 12-16 hours.  If it is thermophilic (like yogurt) you want to inoculate at about 110°F. Ripen the inoculated milk for about 6-8 hours at this temperature. Once the culture is ready, you can use it or store it. It will stay in the refrigerator for 2 weeks unused or about 3-4 days after opening and using some.

For longer term storage, 4-6 weeks, the culture can be frozen in a sterilized ice cube tray.  I like to use the silicone trays.  The blue tray pictured on the right creates 1-oz sized cubes. Once cubes are frozen, store in a fresh zip-lock or other very clean container.  Be sure to label with the date and type of culture...it is really disappointing to grab the wrong culture or an old culture and ruin a batch of cheese. You don't need to defrost the cubes before using in your cheese recipes, just drop them in and stir. Once the cubes are melted then start timing according to your recipe directions.

Download Recipe for Mother Culture in Small Batches

Nettle Time

 
Nettles are up! So pull on some decent garden gloves, grab some pruners and bring a basket because it is time to harvest wild nettles...yup...stinging nettles.  With careful handling (actually lack of handling) and dry steaming you could be enjoying a mild and very nutritious green that grows in abundance along the North Coast of California. I have the luck to pass a couple nice patches of nettles along my regular dog walking route.  It grows abundant on the sides of roads or other shady disturbed areas like mountain bike trails or edges of parking lots. 

 
The process of cooking nettles renders the formic acid delivery system (a.k.a. tiny spiky hairs) inert. Rinse them and then steam them with only the water they hold on their leaves – no need to add extra water to the pot.  Keep turning them as they wilt (using long tongs if you have 'em), throw in some salt, and continue to steam until they look like cooked spinach.  They are quite nice alone or in egg-based dishes like scramble, frittata, or my favorite, quiche. 

 

How to make Cultured Butter & Buttermilk

As an avid baker of cakes, cookies & bread I go through a lot of butter.  Here in Humboldt County, California we are fortunate to have access to good butter, but I'm annoyed at all the packaging.  None of it is recyclable. So, I think I found a better way and one that fits my DIY sensibilities.  I'm making my own butter - and since I like to tinker with cultured things, why not go swanky and make it cultured. Here is how I do it:

2 quarts heavy cream or manufacturing cream (avoid using products with added thickeners; if using raw cream, pasteurize it at 145°F for 30 minutes).

3.3 ozs (100 ml) prepared Meso II, Aroma B or Flora Danica culture (I used Hoegger's Chevre). Any other mesothermic culture will work - flavor will change based on culture used.

Warm cream to 57-61°F and stir in prepared culture; let ripen for 20 hours at 57-61°F, then refrigerate another 4-6 hours. Let warm up to 50-54°F before processing in food processor.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Soup has new meaning to me now that I have homemade chicken stock.  I've always felt slightly disappointed when I had to resort to the paste, powder, or canned stuff to make soup...but no more!

Ingredients for Thai Soup

 

 

 

Last week I made a Thai Coconut Chicken soup that turned out very tasty. Luckily, it is hard to go wrong with coconut milk, fresh cilantro, homemade stock as well as a few items from the local Asian market.

 

 

 

 

 

minced lemongrass

 

The first time I prepared fresh lemongrass I was surprised at how little you actually use.  It is just the bottom, mostly white part, stripped of leaves.  You have to mince it or pound it into a paste because it is quite tough. The leaves make good tea when steeped in hot water.

I've also discovered that a microplane grater works well for shredding ginger - I sometimes grate it with the peel on when I'm in a hurry.  I haven't noticed a flavor difference.

Enjoy the soup - the recipe follows!

 

 

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 to 2 stalks lemongrass, outer sheath removed, bottom 3 inches trimmed and minced (3 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (a microplane-type shredder works great for this)

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 to 3 teaspoons Thai red curry paste

6 cups chicken stock

3 tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk

1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 12 ounces), cut into 1 by ¼-inch strips

1 (15-ounce) can straw mushrooms, drained and rinsed

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Salt

½ cup loosely packed whole fresh cilantro leaves

3 scallions, greens only, sliced thin on an angle (optional)

 

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.

2. Add the lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, 30 to 60 seconds.

3. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.

4. Add ½ cup chicken stock to the pot and stir to dissolve the curry paste.

5. Add remaining stock, fish sauce, and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat.

6. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and simmer to blend flavors, about 20 minutes.

7. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken, mushrooms, and lime juice. Bring back to a simmer and cook until the stock is hot and the chicken is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

8. Taste for seasoning and add salt if desired.

9. Serve immediately, garnishing each bowl with cilantro and scallions.

 

 

 

 

Making Chicken Stock

Pot full'a feet

While volunteering for a local pasture-raised chicken rancher/farmer/wild-chick, I was introduced to the idea of chicken feet as food.  Sarah (the wild-chick) told me that people use to make stock with chicken feet.  She didn't have a recipe, but I figured I'd get a bag full of feet and consult Google.  One of the first hits was a foodie blog with a recipe. 

It is pretty easy to do if you can get over the initial gross factor (I'm the 4 year old kid who picked the eyes out of the fish my Dad caught...I'm drawn to this). It isn't rocket science and I've made it a bit different each time.  All variations make great soup! It does take a good chunk of time though - count on 6 hours.

The Recipe and Method

For 2 lbs of chicken feet you'll need a couple celery ribs, an onion, a bay leaf, about 10 peppercorns.  You could also add some thyme sprigs, parsley stems and a couple carrots if you'd like. You'll need a big soup pot, a sharp knife, a colandar, a Fleco #2 hand pruner (optional - but really nice) and cheese cloth.

Finished chicken stock

1. This first part is to clean-up the feet and get them ready for stock making. Rinse the feet and place in a pot large enough to hold the feet.  Add enough water to cover.  Heat uncovered until boiling and simmer for about 5 minutes. Skim the foam that forms on the surface and occasionally push feet at the surface to the bottom (making sure all the feet get blanched). Drain the water (don't save the liquid) and dump feet into a colander to drain more and cool. When feet are cool enough to handle, cut the tips of the toes off, right at the first joint...seriously.  This is where the hand pruners become very useful, but a knife works well too.  Next, cut off any dark calluses on the foot pad (sharp hand pruners do this well too).  Rinse again. At this point you can refrigerate the feet until you're ready to continue.

2. Place feet into a clean pot, cover with water, bring to a boil.  Immediately turn down heat to a simmer, and simmer s-l-o-w-l-y for 3 hours. Keep skimming the foam and occasionally stirring the feet so that they all cook.

Chicken foot treat

3. Cut celery, onions (peeled) and carrots (if using) into big chunks (each one into about 3-4 pieces).  Add to pot and continue simmering for another hour.

4. Add herbs and spices and simmer everything together for the last hour. In total, the feet will simmer for 5 hours.

5. Drain the stock through a colander lined with cheesecloth (saving the liquid this time!). Cool the liquid quickly (I fill a gallon sized Zip-Loc with ice and swirl it around), then refrigerate.  When stock is cold, it will be jelly-like.  I scrape the thin layer of fat and 'skin' off the surface. Next, I'll re-melt the stock (heat slowly, not for long, until just melted) and pour it into quart sized containers to freeze. Simple, but time consuming.

Don't throw those feet away after making stock - they make great dog treats!

Balsamic Chicken and Polenta

 

 

BalsamicChicken4

I did some recipe testing this week and loved this one so much that I decided to offer for the May 1st dinner.  It is called Balsamic Chicken.  Mostly it is a braise - meaning that the chicken cooks in a flavorful broth of tomatoes, onions, red wine, and a few other herbs, spices and pastes. Toward the end one adds a bunch of chard and cooks it until it wilted.  Polenta was a great side and I'll make up a fresh batch for Thursday's dinner too.  Are you hungry yet?

The menu for May 1, 2008:

*Balsamic Chicken or Tofu* - Slightly sweet and tangy sauce with chard, onions and tomatoes.  Choose from either organic chicken or locally produced tofu

*Polenta* - Organic polenta cooked with a bit of milk & Parmesan cheese until creamy

*Pan au Levain* - from Brio Breadworks

*Seasonal Salad* -  organic greens, fresh-made dressing

*New York-Style Crumb Cake* - have you ever had the Entenmann’s crumb cake in the white box??? Well- this isn’t it.  This is way better – a buttery yellow cake with a soft, cinnamon-crumb topping

 

 

 

Swedish Limpa Rye and Limoncello

Swedish Limpa Rye & Lemons

Bread

Friday was a day well spent in the kitchen.  I decided to try a new recipe out of my latest baking book, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads.  I was very excited to try out his whole grain Swedish Limpa Rye.  I had tasted my first limpa rye about 20 years ago and have never forgotten how wonderful it was.  Limpa rye is a light rye (less than 30% rye) flavored with anise and fennel seeds, cardamom, orange peel and molasses.  I was able to use my sourdough starter and grind some fresh rye for this batch.  The dough was quite tender and I had pretty good success kneading the dough using the French technique of stretching and folding (it really is more like slamming and folding because you grab one end of the dough with two hands, swinging it above your shoulder like your holding an axe, slam it to the counter top so that it stretches into a long piece and then fold it over onto itself. My teacher said that when he was learning this technique and practicing at home he knocked out a couple tiles from his counter top!)  The bread was quite easy to shape and it smelled heavenly as it baked...I couldn't wait to cut into it.  We tried thin slices with a smoked tofu spread, hummus, and Cypress Grove's Purple Haze Chevre.  The bread was heartier than what I remembered, probably because it was whole grain while what I tasted 20 years ago was white bread. I liked the goat cheese best, Jack liked the smoked Tofu.  Two days later I'm still enjoying it toasted with Fig-Ginger jam.

 

Limoncello

A friend traded me a big box of fresh lemons for a credit towards dinner.  I had been wishing for a windfall of lemons after reading my friend anthrogrrl blog about making limoncello.  I found the the recipe that she tried on another Vox blog (limoncello post) and started peeling lemons. It is pretty simple - just lemon peels, vodka and simple syrup.  I bought one of those big bottles of vodka from Costco and used up most of it for this first batch.  I only made it through part of the top layer of lemons in my box so I guess I'm heading back to Costco for more vodka. I'm going to let my mixture infuse for at least a month before I try it out.  I'll keep ya'll posted.

 

Oatmeal Cookies

I also made a double batch of thin & cripsy oatmeal cookies.  The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated.  I love the variation with coarse salt on top...sweet & salty, thin & crispy oatmeal cookies!

Grilled Chops & Tofu

Grilled Tofu

Thursday's dinner was grilled!  My friend Pete offered to staff the grill for me and did a fantastic job. He also saved me a couple hours of work by grilling all the tofu and the pork chops while I finished up everything else.  I had the brined & spice rubbed chops and marinaded tofu ready for him when he arrived.  One of the tricks for getting great tasting tofu is to press out the water.  I do this by placing a brick of extra firm tofu between two plates and then weighing it down with a couple pounds of whatever is closest at hand.  Often it is a bunch of bananas or a bag of beans.  After 10 minutes you will have a small pool of water to pour off.  I'll pour off water once or twice before I'm ready to marinade.  I slice the tofu brick into 10 or 12 slices and place them in a container with a tight fitting lid.  I use a rubbermaid tub that is big enough to hold all my slices in one layer and I pour the marinade over them. My favorite marinade for grilling tofu is the following recipe: 

 

Vanessa's* Grilled Tofu Marinade

2 Tablespoons peanut oil (canola oil works fine too)

2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I use tamari)

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

2 Tablespoons brown sugar (light, dark, golden...all work)

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Mix to combine and pour over tofu slices and let sit for at least 30 minutes. Turn the tofu at least once to get marinade on both sides.  This makes enough marinade for about 1 pound of pressed tofu. 

*Vanessa was a housemate's friend who just whipped this up one day and it has been a favorite ever since!

 

grilled chop plate 2

Most folks wanted pork chops this week.  I purchased these thick-cut Beeler pork chops from the Arcata Co-op. They were brined for about 1 hour in a sugar, salt and water solution, dried, then rubbed with a spice mixture of fresh ground fennel, cumin, coriander, cloves, yellow mustard as well as already ground cinnamon, cardamom and a bit of brown sugar.  I also made rice pilaf, roasted beets, and braised chard. 

 

 

Mango galette

Dessert was a mango galette...I spread some almond cream on a tart dough and topped it with mangoes tossed with a bit of sugar.  I baked them for about 30 minutes until they were bubbly and golden brown.  I can't wait for plums, peaches, figs, apples & pears!