Homemade Mozzarella

So here's how it happened.  The first time I made this it worked beautifully.  My curds weren't ever so firm that I could cut them with a knife, like the instructions said, but it worked well. 

The second time I tried to make it with 1% milk and accidentally added 1 c. water for some insane reason.  BAD.  I ended up with boiling milk all over my arms and no cheese.

The third time it worked pretty well.  I experimented with a whole bunch of things and sort of figured things out.

The fourth time I had six other women watching me and I was extremely nervous.  Fortunately, it worked.  And I think I've figured it out.  I really really hope you all try this, because it is SO COOL to see it actually working!  Cheese!  In your kitchen!  In half an hour!!!  It's like the pinnacle of domestic awesomeness. 

Things to know before you start:  

• The milk available in most grocery stores is probably not going to give you a cuttable curd.  It will, however, give you a curd that you can dip out with a slotted spoon (and then pour the rest into a strainer to separate the curds from the whey).
• The longer you let it sit, the firmer your curds.  Some recipes say 3-5 minutes, some say 1-2 hours.  I've found that about 10 minutes is a pretty good compromise.
• Knead for several minutes--I found that it takes at least 3-4 minutes of kneading to get the silky consistency out of the chunky little curdy lumps.

Homemade Mozzarella

Ingredients:  1 gallon whole milk
                   1.5 t. citric acid (available at ethnic grocers [Swad brand] or health-food stores)

                   1/2 tablet Junket Rennet (grocery store near the Jell-O) OR 1/2 t. liquid rennet

Approx. 30 minutes from start to finish

1.  Sprinkle 1 1/2 t. citric acid over 1 gallon whole milk (in a large non-reactive pot); gently heat to 90 degrees F, stirring occasionally.  I do this on medium-high heat.

2.  As the milk is heating, dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 c. cool water.

3.  When the milk reaches 90, add the rennet water and continue to stir occasionally until the milk reaches 105 degrees.

4.  Turn off the heat and let the milk sit 7-10 minutes, or until large curds have separated themselves from the whey. Supposedly if you let it sit 1-2 hours it will really firm up, but it works at the shorter time too.  I really wish I'd taken a picture at this stage, but the curds are probably between dime and quarter-sized and still quite soft.  The real giveaway is that the surrounding liquid is no longer really milky-looking; it's sort of greenish-yellow thin whey. 

5.  Dip curds out of the whey and into a large glass bowl (microwaveable).  I dipped out as much curd as I could, then poured the rest into a strainer.  If you want to make ricotta (with the Junket Rennet tablets instructions), save the whey.

6.  With your hand, press out as much whey from the curd as you can.

7.  Microwave the curds for 1 minute.  Press the whey from the curd again, then knead the hot mozzarella with your hands until it is cool to the touch (at which point it will be harder to knead).

8.  Microwave the curds again for 35 seconds, draining the whey and kneading the curd.  Add about 1 t. salt as you're kneading. 

9.  Microwave again for 35 seconds (3rd time in the microwave, 2nd time for 35 seconds), draining the whey and kneading the curd. 

10.  Stretch the cheese between your hands like taffy.  Continue stretching and folding until it begins to break a bit (or until you think it's done!)--just a couple of minutes.  Shape the cheese into balls--you're done!!

11.  To save for later, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. 

Here's a website that you may find helpful--it has a bunch of pictures of the different stages.  Please note that  I don't follow those instructions exactly, since I've gotten a better curd by continuing to heat the milk to 105 after adding the rennet; the instructions on the other site are better suited to raw milk, I think.  

Stuffed Mushrooms

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. It's tasty, but I also really like the one from Veganomicon (which doesn't use cheese or butter). Anyway.

24 large fresh mushrooms, 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter

1/4 c. sliced green onions (2)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 c. butter

2/3 c. fine dry bread crumbs

1/2 c. shredded cheddar, smoked Gouda, or crumbled blue cheese (2 oz) **note: I've had this with Gouda and feta, both were excellent**

Rinse and drain mushrooms. Remove stems; reserve caps. Chop enough stems to make 1 c.

In a medium saucepan cook the chopped stems, green onions, and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in bread crumbs and cheese. Spoon crumb mixture into mushroom caps. Arrange stuffed mushrooms on baking sheet; bake in a 425-degree oven 8 to 10 minutes or until heated through.

Hummus (my mom's recipe)

1 can chickpeas, partially drained

1 T. tahini (sesame seed paste)

3 T. lemon juice

1 T. olive oil

1/2 t. salt

2-3 cloves smashed garlic (I use a couple more)

Blend up ingredients in food processor (I use my immersion blender). Drizzle with olive oil, if you like, and dust with paprika.

**If you're a local, the best source for tahini is the Asian market (called "Asia") on Yeager catty-corner from the BP. The tahini is downstairs on the wall opposite all the vegetables. It's a tasty variety and quite inexpensive.

Spanakopita (spinach and feta phyllo triangles)

These are my very favorite appetizers in the world. My family ravenously consumes mounds of these at our annual New Year's Eve appetizer extravaganza. In fact, when I was looking for the recipe, I found it not in the appetizer section of our family cookbook, but in the main dishes section. Hmm...

In any case, this is a super yummy appetizer that takes a bit of work, but is quite impressive and aesthetically pleasing. You'll need the following ingredients:

3 pkgs 10-oz frozen chopped spinach
¼ cup olive oil
4 eggs, beaten
¼ cup bread crumbs
½ lb feta cheese, crumbled
½ lb cottage cheese (we substitute another 1/2 feta)
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped (use 2/3 less if using dried)
1 tsp dried dill weed
1 med. onion, chopped fine
1 cup butter, melted
½ lb phyllo pastry (one box)

I did have pictures of the intermediate steps, but they somehow disappeared, along with all our Christmas pictures and those sort of things. I'm extremely upset at my camera over this. Anyway.

Step 1: Choppin'

Thaw (microwave is fine), drain, and squeeze dry the spinach. If it's too chunky, chop it up so it will mix nicely.

Chop your onion finely. You want it to sort of meld into the rest of the flavors.

Step 2: Cookin'

Saute the onion in olive oil. When it's nicely yellowed and translucent, add the spinach and cook until the moisture is gone (be careful not to burn it!) Remove from heat.

Step 3: Mixin'

Beat the eggs, then add them to the spinach and onion. At this point, you'll need a fairly large bowl to make sure everything gets well mixed. (I'm not sure how many quarts the ideal bowl is--I just use one of the ones that's big enough to bathe a newborn baby. How's that for a standard of measurement?) Add cheeses, parsley, dill, and bread crumbs.

Step 4: Trianglin'

Here comes the exciting part. This is easiest to do if you have either a) a friend or b) a wet towel. Depending on the friend, they might be equivalent. Heh heh. In any case, you need to work quickly enough so that the phyllo dough doesn't dry out, hence the friend. If you're doing it by yourself, then place a damp towel over the dough to prevent drying.

Before you unroll the dough, brush a 9x13 pan with melted butter. Don't skimp.



Phyllo dough is tricky. Be VERY careful when you unroll it. It will probably be sticky.



You may have to use a sharp knife (very gently) or your fingernails to separate the sheets of dough from the plastic wrapper. Don't worry, after the initial separation it's easy.

Oh yeah! I actually recruited three friends (well, relatives: my mom, Elise, and Mary Beth) for this, because phyllo dough scares me sometimes. Okay, that's not true. The real story is that my sisters and I had this idea to make a cooking show out of it. We made up a dorky theme song that we sang and we followed each other around with a camera demonstrating chopping, dicing, choux-making (for the cream puffs), etc. We thought it was really cool. Actually, my sisters got kind of mad at me because we set everything up in tiny little ingredients bowls of pre-diced ingredients and then I forgot and dumped everything in and cooked it up while my sister was putting new batteries in the camera. Oops.

Back to the recipe. Look at that sneer on my face. I'm totally whipping the phyllo dough into shape.

Gently lift up one sheet of phyllo dough and place it on the buttered pan. Don't be put off by the fact that the dough may or may not resemble a tattered shroud.

Once you've plopped it on the buttered pan, liberally butter the dough. Basically, you want to butter it until it's translucent. Yum.

Repeat the process with another sheet of dough--lift, layer, and butter. Now that you have two sheets of butter-coated dough, it's time for my favorite part.

Cut the dough layers into five or six (depending on how big you want your little triangles) long strips (make the cuts running vertically where the top/bottom are the short sides of the cookie sheet).

Now plop about a tablespoon and a half (or more) of filling down on each little strip at the top.

Fold the dough in a sort of triangle over the filling. Fold it up exactly as if you were folding a flag.

See this picture here? This shows the right and wrong way to do it. The top example is a FLAG. The bottom example is a TRIANGLE. TRIANGLE BAD. FLAG GOOD.

Mary Beth had a little trouble grasping this concept. Fortunately, Elise was there to straighten her out and make fun of her lack of flag-folding skills. What a good pal.

When you get to the end, fold up the corners of your flag. Not a triangle, remember?

When you get a whole cookie sheet full of these little beauties, pop them in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Oh yum.

Then you might want to go for a good long run, and come back hungry, cause we're making chicken wontons next.

EASIER NO-FOLD METHOD: Layer 7-10 layers of phyllo in pan, brushing each layer with butter. Spread spinach mix over phyllo and add another 7-10 layers of phyllo, butter each layer. Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Quiche a la Julia Child

In matters of eggs and custard-y things, I defer to Julia Child. I don't even try to mess around.

Ok, that's not true.

I defer to Julia Child on egg-to-milk proportions. But I do mess around with everything else.

For instance, I don't think Julia Child would ever tell you to use a storebought crust, but seriously, if I have to make the crust, I'd rather just not make quiche. I tried making it without the crust, but Neil revolted. And I don't like making crusts because it adds a good 40 minutes to prep time, and why do that, I say, when crusts are on sale at the grocery store for $1.50 a pair?

So buy a crust.

And these too:

3 "large" eggs

Cream (says Julia)/Milk (says I)

Meat (crispy bacon, sliced ham, turkey, etc.)

Salt

Pepper

Onions

Cheese (Swiss is sort of the accepted quiche cheese because of its propensity to not make everything really wet, but Neil likes the taste of Cheddar better)

Parsley, oregano, basil, chives

Other things in the fridge that need to be eaten (last time I grated in some carrots)

**If you want spinach quiche, blend in 1 c. cooked spinach into the custard.

Ok, so I just realized that the Julia Child version only calls for eggs, cream, bacon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, so this really isn't quiche according to Julia Child, it's messed-up-Julia-based-quiche. But I still think it's good.

Here's what's important when making quiche:

"Any quiche can be made with either heavy or light cream or with milk. The proportions are always 1 egg in a measuring cup plus milk or cream to the 1/2 cup level; 2 eggs and milk or cream to the 1-cup level; 3 eggs and milk or cream to the 1 1/2 cup level; and so forth."

--Julia Child

I prefer to use milk because a) cream is expensive and b) cream is fattening. I'm sure it tastes delicious, however, but I'll go on in my skim-milk ignorance, so please don't tell me if you use cream and it's just out of this world.

Ok, the actual makings:

Step 1:

Preheat oven to 450.

Step 2:

Arrange pie crust in dish, put in either pie weights or dried beans/rice to prevent crust from puffing up (a Julia trick), and bake for 10-15 minutes. The crust should be set but still soft. now turn your oven down to 375.

Step 3:

Grate your cheese, slice your onions, and cut up your meat things. Put in however much you feel like putting in. I usually put in half to three-quarters of an onion, a couple of ounces of chopped meat, and enough grated cheese so that it covers the onion and meat but doesn't obscure them completely from sight. I think the Julia rule is 2 T. (which doesn't seem like much. I definitely do more). Dump all your cut-up things into the bottom of the shell.

Step 4:

Mix up your custard. I usually go for the 3 eggs variant and then end up adding another egg and another slog of milk. It depends on how big your pie dish is and how much "good stuff" you already put in. I then add about a teaspoon each of parsley, basil, chives, and oregano, with about a half teaspoon of salt and a couple grinds of pepper.

Step 5:

Pour the custard over the yummy things already in the pie crust.

Step 6:

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes. The quiche is done when it's puffed up and brown (it should not jiggle wildly when you take it out of the oven. That is egg soup and it's nasty, so put it back in the oven until it turns into quiche.)

We like to eat our quiche warm or cold as either breakfast or lunch, depending on how early I got up that day to make it. Yum.