Homemade ricotta cheese

This is really fun and easy to make. You have to have a little patience to heat the milk slowly so that it doesn’t burn or scald. After that, it’s a piece of cake (well, it’s a piece of ricotta cheese). I made ricotta once before, quite a while ago – don’t remember. There seem to be two ways to do it (maybe more): either with buttermilk or vinegar. The vinegar measurement is a little arcane – I mean, 1/3 cup plus a teaspoon? Go figure.

The recipe below I found somewhere on the net. It calls for a whole gallon of milk. I reduced it to a quart and did the math on the vinegar. For 1 quart you use 1 ½ tsp white vinegar.

The amount of cheese I ended up with will be perfect for a deconstructed onion soup I plan to make tomorrow morning.

Homemade ricotta cheese
1 gallon whole milk
1/3 cup white vinegar plus 1 teaspoon
salt (a couple of pinches or more accordingly to your taste)

Heat the milk over moderate heat to a temperature of 185 degrees. This will take a good half hour. Of course you will need a thermometer in it to gauge the temp.

At 185 degrees, remove the pan from heat and stir in the vinegar. Stir gently for 1 minute. Cover the pot with a kitchen towel and let it sit at room temp for at least 2 hours (I went 3).

Line a colander with cheesecloth and gently transfer the curds, using a slotted spoon, into the colander. Let it drain overnight in the refrigerator. Squeeze out excess moisture and you are done. The ricotta will be creamy and fun. Use it for anything you like.

Home-ground beef

An excellent post appeared among the blogs I follow. It’s at http://www.melskitchencafe.com. Mel offers numerous and right on the money tips for making the perfect burger.

I’m going to amplify on it with a brief discussion of making burgers starting with whole pieces of beef. Why do that? Simple. I am a bit paranoid about the idea of buying supermarket ground beef, what with all the scares over the years. You can, of course, cook your beef well done, but I like bright pink to almost red in the middle of mine.

The first picture is of a bone-in chuck steak. Bacteria on a whole piece of meat will only be on the outside. Bring a big pot of water to boil. Drop the beef in and blanch for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Remove the bones and cut the meat (including all the fat, but not any gristly sections) into strips. I then use my Mixmaster’s grinding attachment with the fine blade. The gray from the outside will disappear.

So, you don’t have a grinder with your mixer? Use your food processor. Cut the meat into 1” pieces and pulse it in the processor until you get the texture you want.

It is now safe to cook as rare as you like.

Homemade sauerkraut

I’ve just read a fascinating book called “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Ellix Katz. It’s all about fermenting and curing pretty much anything you wish. There is extensive discussion of the (supposed) actual health benefits that derive from preserving foods … enhanced nutitional value, e.g.

In any case, Katz inspired me to make my own sauerkraut. The process is extraordinarily simple. It’s not my habit to “cop” a recipe from someone, but the book might be very hard to find (Denver Public Library has only a single copy), and this is worth sharing.

The container I like to use isn’t large enough for the 5 lbs. of cabbage called for. I made ½ a head of standard green cabbage (about 2.5 lbs). All I did was adjust the salt proportionally. Simple. The quantity my amount of cabbage yielded was about 32 fluid oz.

The flavor and aroma are fairly pungent, more like sour dills than a can of kraut off the shelf. We loved it.

My next Katz-inspired attempt will be Korean kimchee, something I’ve made a couple of times with only moderate success.

Homemade sauerkraut (from “Wild Fermentation” by S. E. Katz)
5 lbs. cabbage
3 tbsp non-iodized salt (4 if using kosher salt)
Ceramic crock or large bowl, plate, and something to weight the cabbage down with (brick, jug of water, etc.
Kitchen towel for covering

Chop cabbage or grate it. Layer it in your crock or bowl sprinkling with salt as you go along. You actually don’t need to use all the salt; it might must take a little longer to ferment. Use your hand to press the cabbage down forcefully (without hurting yourself or breaking your vessel) as you go along.

Top the cabbage with a plate or disk of some kind so that, after the cabbage exudes moisture over the first 24-36 hours, the weighted disk will keep it all submerged.

For that initial period cram the cabbage down every few hours and recover with plate, weight and a kitchen towel (to keep out foreign matter). Let the curing vessel sit in a warmish place while the cabbage ferments. If it doesn’t exude enough liquid to cover itself, add some brine to it (1 tbsp salt per cup of water). If it’s in a cooler place it will still ferment, just more slowly.

After 5-7 days start tasting. You have to decide for yourself when it’s “sour” enough. For me it was about 10 days, after which I packed the sauerkraut into jars and refrigerated it.

Pizza

Over the years Peter has perfected homemade pizza making. On occasion he used to make the dough, but that's a hassle, especially when we can get beautiful dough from Sunflower Market here in Denver. They sell both regular and whole wheat dough balls for on $2.99.

We have a couple of favorites ways to top them. Above is a combination of Roma tomatoes, proscuitto, baby arugula and fontina cheese.

We've always had a pizza stone. Start by putting on an oven rack at the lowest position and preheat for an hour at 450 degrees.

We have used parmesan on pizzas. This time we used fontina.

Oh - the pizza stuck a little bit to the peel when it went in the oven. Did not affect the taste at all, but it points up the importance of the "grease" effect of the corn meal.

Pizza
1 pizza dough ball
c. 14 oz. Roma tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
2 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto
2 cups baby arugula
1 cup (more or less) of your favorite cheese, grated

Let the dough come to room temperature.

Liberally sprinkle a pizza paddle with corn meal and roll the dough out fairly thinly into 14" circle. (Doesn't have to be perfect.)

Slice c. 14 oz Roma tomatoes thinly (1/4") and put them on paper towels so that some of the moisture is absorbed and sprinkle them with salt. Let them sit for 1/2 hour.

Brush the top of the pizza with garlic/olive oil. Top it with the Roma rounds. Sprinkle salt and pepper

Bake for 11 minutes. Lay the prosciutto slices on the pizza and top with cheese. Bake 4 more minutes.

Toss the arugula with some olive oil. Scatter the arugula leaves on the pizza. Bake 1 more minute.

Dill Pickles

I thought I wrote about homemade dill pickles earlier this summer. Turns out I didn't. I've made pickles several times, the most recent using a recipe from the book "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. It was far less satisfactory than the recipe I had used before. The pickles were way too salty and had to be soaked in fresh water for several hours before being truly edible.

Our favorite farmer's market, Heinies in Arvada, CO, has had fresh (and drying) dill stalks. I bought some pickling cucumbers and some dill there today. I don't remember where I got my recipe. I've modified it from the original, largely because I have a pickling spice mix. Therefore I don't have to add bits and pieces of aromatics and spices; they are all in the mix.

The number of cucumbers is arbitrary. I happen to have a wonderful multi-sided jar that will accomodate 15. Adjust the ingredients according to how many cucumbers you buy.

Dill pickles
15 pickling cucumbers
3 cups water
2 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup pickling salt or kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tbsp pickling spice (available at specialty markets)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced with seeds
8 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly smashed
1 bunch dill

In a large stockpot bring water to boil. Add cucumbers, immediately remove from the heat and drain in a colander. Rinse with cold water and set aside.

Combine pickling liquid ingredients in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Place cucumbers in a large, non-reactive, container with the remaining spices and vegetables. Pour hot pickling liquid over cucumber mixture and let cool. Tap down solids until liquid rises to top. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Transfer to a sealed conainer and refrigerate for 3 days before serving.

For a free excerpt of my book, “A Year of Food,” in which I opine, report, cook, muse and philosophize about everything that passed my lips for an entire year, write to me at: scrout1944@msn.com.

You screme, I screme for ice creme

Technically this is probably ice milk. It is creamy, though, and extremely easy to make. The New York Times "Dining In" section 10 days ago had an article and recipe for "Ice cream in a bag." The way you freeze it, according to their method, is to put the mix in a freezer bag and bury it in an ice and salt combination. I didn't want to go to the trouble and tried, as an experiment, putting the bag between those frozen bags you get when something is shipped to you.

It didn't work. So I just put my ice cream mix into the freezer and squooshed it every 15 minutes until it was hard. That took a couple of hours. The resulting product was delicious.

I've been contemplating for some time a retro idea of making ice cream that tastes like the creamsicles and fudgesicles I loved so much as a kid. Last night I made my version of ice cream in a bag and got the flavor pretty much right. What surprised me was the amount of frozen orange juice concentrate to get the proper flavor. At breakfast in a diner yesterday I copped a little container of orange marmalade to add to the mix. I'm not sure it did anything.

As for the fudgesicle part, I haven't tried my own recipe below yet. I think it should work. If it don't, I'll correct it tomorrow.

Creamsicle ice cream in a bag
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 portion stolen orange marmalade from Breakfast King
6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
1 tbsp Splenda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk everything together in a bowl and then pour it into a one-gallon freezer bag. Lay the bag flat in the freezer. Every 15-20 minutes take it out and squeeze everything so that it freezes evenly.

Fudgesicle sauce
2 fudgesicles
1/4 cup heavy cream

Melt the fudgesicles in a saucepan and reduce the liquid by half over medium low heat, just a very slow simmer. Add the cream and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Assembly
I am making mini, one bite, creamsicle/fudgesicles. Pour just enough sauce to coat the bottoms of the cups of an ice tray. Place the tray in the freezer and freeze the sauce solid.

Fill the cups with ice cream to just below the top. The point is to leave enough room for another chocolate sauce layer. Using a measuring cup with a pouring lip, top off the ice cream with sauce.

Insert a popsicle stick into the ice cream of each cup. Freeze everything again. To unmold the pops, place the ice tray in some warm water just until they pop free. Store the pops in individual sandwich bags in the freezer. That is if you don't immediately eat them all.

I Challenge You

I think I promised early on to post only when I have something special to share. Today I don’t. So I lied.

Instead, I’m going to share some thoughts. You can have your own epiphany in the kitchen. You don’t need to be a skilled cook to do so, either. Anyone reading this certainly has a cookbook or two on hand. Take a break from whatever you expect to be doing when you finish reading this. Go get one of those cookbooks…any one, it doesn’t matter which or what cuisine. Start reading the index in the back.

As soon as you see a recipe that sounds good to you (that is, you’d like to eat some of whatever it is right now), go to it. Make a list of any ingredients it calls for that you don’t have on hand. Before you go to the store to get them, think for a moment. Does the recipe call for lemon zest? Consider trying orange or lime instead. Does it call for bread crumbs and what you have is those Italian flavored ones? Throw them out and put Panko bread crumbs on your list. The “herbed” bread crumbs will hijack your recipe from the gitgo.

Maybe the recipe suggests fresh basil or thyme or oregano, your choice. Consider using two of them, or even all three in modest amounts. Are you supposed to use eggs? Consider using what I call “fake” eggs, the ones that come in the milk-sized cartons. They work perfectly well for most applications and spare you the angst of eating something with CHOLESTEROL in it. Besides, a few eggs a week is again considered part of a healthy diet.

Remember another thing: are you cooking for yourself or just two? Most recipes in cookbooks are for four or more. Do a little simple math and make what will get eaten, especially if you are one of those people who stick your leftovers in the fridge and ignore them for weeks at a time. You know who you are.

Do you get the drill here? You will make your life much more interesting by doing this exercise.

Here’s another way you could go about it. Think about your protein for today. There are a lot of possibilities: steak, lamb, myriad kinds of fish, shrimp, pork chops, chicken. You notice I’m not including the meats that require long cooking such as roasts. If you’re going to do this more or less on the spur of the moment, don’t scare yourself off before you even get started.

Was steak your choice? Does your supermarket have a sale bin for items that are about to pass there “best if used by” date? Check it out. I got a nice piece of sirloin this morning for 30% off. Even it had been a day or two past the date (which it wasn’t), that’s not a problem with a steak. For gosh sakes, fancy steak houses age the stuff for days or weeks.

Do not, I repeat, do not buy ground meat. The possibility of contamination is far greater than it is with an intact hunk of meat. You want a burger? Buy a piece of chuck steak and cut it into 1” cubes. Stick it in the food processor and pulse it until it breaks up into burger texture. If you’re really concerned about safety, drop that steak into a pot of boiling water for just 30 seconds before you cut it into cubes. E coli can only exist on the outside of a hunk of meat. Now you can make a burger as rare as you want at no risk.

You can make your coming repast easy by being expedient. Buy a head of your favorite kind of lettuce and one additional item, a carrot, a stalk of celery, a bunch of radishes, some or all of the above. Lettuce and one or two additions will make a perfectly satisfying salad. Dressing? Go ahead, buy a bottle. Make this dinner fun.

Add a starch to your list, or don’t. It’s fun and easy to cook some orzo pasta and dress it with butter (ok, or margarine), some salt and pepper and maybe a little parmesan or romano cheese. DO NOT, I repeat (in a more gentle tone of voice), do not buy one of those green cylinders of parmesan cheese. That stuff really sucks. Far better is to get a tub of pre-shredded cheese if you don’t feel like going for a wedge of the real stuff.

Don’t want a starch? Maybe for you the salad and steak or burger are enough. So be it. However, if you want to add a vegetable to the menu, do not (I kept my voice down this time) buy canned veggies, with a couple of exceptions. A side of white or black beans with just some lemon juice and olive oil and salt and pepper can be fun. Buy a can. Do not buy: canned corn, peas, asparagus, or green beans. Canned beets are more than ok. I even like canned potatoes. They have a flavor all their own, but one I enjoy.

Instead of the canned foods section, you’ll do much better with any vegetable in the freezer section (although not as good as fresh veggies). Do not buy frozen green beans, carrots, asparagus, or corn. Peas are just fine, as is frozen corn, black-eyed peas, artichokes, and a few others I’m just not remembering at the moment.

So are you saying now that I promised to make this easy and I’m going on and on and complicating everything. Bullshit. I’m just giving you a method, a plan of attack, a raison d’etre culinarily speaking. Not for tomorrow (although that would be fine if you need more planning time or your main squeeze is taking you out tonight), but for today – right now.

Make a list. Need I say it again? Make a list! I guarantee that if you don’t you will forget something.

Get your ass out the door to your favorite market and buy those things you decided you want and need.

When you get home, slavishly follow that recipe you found. If you have “Joy of Cooking” you’ll find that the steps are very clearly laid out. Just follow them.

I hope you get to share this meal with someone. It’s good for your health to be with friends or loved ones (or friends who are loved ones) across the dinner table. Enjoy yourself.

Oh yeah, on the way home from the supermarket stop at a reputable liquor store. Tell the people there what you’re going to cook and whether you want red or white wine (either one can be drunk with anything). If what you want is beer, get your favorite kind.

Ok, that’s it. My work is done here.

Homemade corned beef - an encore performance

A person might wonder why go to the trouble of making corned beef when you can just go out and buy it. The first two reasons that come to (my) mind are that it’s cheaper and it tastes better. It takes very little effort, although it does take some patience. The first time I made it I left it to “cook” in the flavored brine for 5 days. Remembering that our nearby market, Rocky Mountain Meats and Poultry, soaked theirs for 3 weeks when they made a big batch of it in anticipation of St. Patrick’s day, I let my latest hunk of brisket go for 7 days.

As I write this, it is now simmering on the stove, and will continue to do so for a total of at least 2 hours – maybe 3.

In an earlier posting I gave a URL for an excellent recipe for corned beef. I’ll repeat it here in case you’re ready to give it a try.

www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/homemade_corned_beef.html

I probably mentioned I am also making pickled herring. I sampled it yesterday and found it to be way too salty. It is currently in a water bath. This afternoon I will drain it and replace the water with some sherry wine vinegar and some white wine.

I won’t take any more of your time just now. (As if anyone is actually reading this shit.) We have everything we need for our meals today. Ergo – no cooking til at least tomorrow. Ciao.

Corned beef

Not much to contribute today. I did two small things.

1) I poached a pound of salmon in a court bouillon of my own making. I used homemade chicken stock, white wine, black peppercorns, and a no-salt seasoning that someone gave us recently. All it takes is to bring the stuff to a boil and let it simmer a few minutes. Then you add the salmon and let it simmer slowly. It took 5 minutes for the smaller sides of the salmon filet, and about 10 minutes for the thicker portions.

2) I began an experiment using "curing" mixes I have. I've made homemade ham and homemade "smoked" turkey legs with them. I put the quotes around smoked because the way I got the legs to have a smoky flavor was to add a bit of liquid smoke when they went into the oven after 4 days of soaking in the cure.

Anyhow, I got the idea to make corned beef out of something other than brisket: flatiron steak. I gather that meat processors have only in recent years found a way to mechanically separate the flatiron steak from the part of the cow that is where "chuck" comes from. Of the four common cuts (flank, hangar, flatiron and brisket), the flatiron is the most tender. So...I followed a recipe I found on-line and have the steak curing for the next 5 days. I see no reason why it shouldn't turn out quite well. I'll let you know.

Peter made a salmon and new potato salad which will be lunch today. Tonight we will have a very special thing I recently learned how to make: gravlax (cured salmon). I promised only to share the innovative things I do. My gravlax is made from a recipe in "Joy of Cooking," in case you're interested in trying it. It is extremely easy and extremely worthwhile if you are someone who like lox as much as I do.