Rancho Gordo Beans

My beans are in transit!  Don't you think that being able to track your package as it crosses the country is one of the best results of the internet age?  My exciting Rancho Gordo beans are in Sparks, Nevada as of this morning, and are scheduled to be delivered Thursday.  I'm super excited!

New World Heirloom Beans from Rancho Gordo

I recently discovered a trend in food that I didn't even know existed:  Heirloom foods.  There are a growing number of, well, growers, that focus on small crops of seeds, vegetables, beans, and other foods that are at risk of going "extinct."  These are foods that may have once been popular and just fell out of favor, or foods that are unique but never had a large following.  In some cases, heirloom foods became 'heirloom' because of the trends and growth in mechanized farming over the last two centuries, and specific types of foods that were cheaper or easier to grow became the norm, while certain varieties stopped being used.  For instance, more and more there are seed growers who specialize in seeds for grains or vegetables that are not commonly found, and now any of us can call them up or find them online and order these unique seeds.

The beautiful Rio Zape bean

One company that specializes in heirloom food is Rancho Gordo, a bean producer based in California.  They not only focus on heirloom beans, but beans specifically from The Americas.  They have traveled around North and South America, especially Mexico, looking for very special and beautiful beans that they then bring back to California to grow into a large enough crop to share with us.

I couldn't resist these colorful and, if just about everybody who says anything about them is to be believed, extra-tasty beans.  They aren't even very expensive.  I ordered several varieties, and am already scheming and planning what I will do with them.  If you are someone who enjoys beans in any way, I suggest heading over to their website.  They have an ever-changing stock of beans for any type of dish you happen to like.  Even if you don't want to buy the beans, their story alone opened my eyes to new things about food.  I haven't been this excited about beans in a long time!  I'm so excited to get my beans delievered!  I will be sure to post an update when I receive them and am able to cook some up.

Happy eating!

Pineapple Smoothie

I was in the mood for something sweet and cool this evening, and decided to try to create a pineapple smoothie with a few things I had in the house.  It turned out delicious.  I am sipping on it now, in fact!  It is creamy and smooth, but not too thick, as I don't like smoothies to be super thick.  It is tangy and sweet, but not overly sweet.  Dan loved it, too, so I thought I would share the recipe with you. 

Laurie's Pineapple Smoothie

Put in blender:
6-8 ice cubes
1/2 can undiluted, still-frozen pineapple juice concentrate
6-7 oz coconut milk, or about 1/2 a can
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup water
1 tsp powdered sugar

Blend at high speed on blender until fully mixed and a little frothy.

This made two very large servings or four smaller ones.  As you can see, this has two "1/2 can" measurements, so it would be easy to make two batches out of the full cans, for four-eight servings.  However, a double amount of the ingredients won't fit in any standard size blender, so it would still have to be divided.

Happy eating!

Cheesemakers Are Us, Part III

Today in my continuing cheesemaking adventure, I failed to make a successful fresh mozzarella.  I was attempting to make the 30-minute mozzarella at the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company website.  This is the same mozzarella that Dan and I saw a member of that company make at the cheesemaking demonstration last fall.  It requires a little citric acid, heating the milk to only 90 degrees, a little rennet, and then just time working and stretching the curds to make it mozzarella.

However, after I added the rennet and let it sit, a curd barely formed.  It should have been firm enough to cut into noticeable cubes, but it wasn't even close to that.  I attempted to salvage it by heating to a little higher temp and adding a bit more rennet, but no go.  The curd just refused to form.  This could mean one of a few things:  I could have too much chlorine in my tap water, or the milk I used might have been heated too high during pateurization, or I might need to heat the milk to a higher temp before adding the rennet, or I may need to use more citric acid.  I will adjust some things, and contact my local water processing plant, and try again another day.

So instead, I decided to make ricotta.  I actually learned what ricotta is a few months ago.  It was created as a way to use up the leftover whey from the cheesemaking process.  The whey is heated to almost boiling so as to get every last bit of curd out of the whey.  The tiny curds are then carefully ladled into a cheesecloth-lined strainer and left to drain out any remaining whey.  These curds can't form together to make any regular cheese, so the curds are kept loose, and a little salt is added.  Voila - ricotta! 

Or so I thought.  After unsuccessfully attempting to salvage some curds from my milk in a strainer, I poured the whole mess back into the pot, with the whey left over from yesterday and about a pint of new milk to jump-start the process, and began the long process of heating it up to nearly 200F.  In the meantime, I sanitized a suddenly-needed ladle.  The temperature alone, and whatever acids are leftover in the cheese leftovers, are supposed to be enough to form the ricotta curd.  However, heating alone, which took forever by the way, STILL didn't produce any curds.  Frustrated, I added more rennet to the pot.  Nothing.  Then, giving up, I settled on my paneer-making technique, and tossed in some lime juice. 

Bag 'o' curds

I had to let the pot sit for a while, but I finally got some curds.  They were very tiny and delicate and not really scoop-able, so instead of ladling the curds into the cheeseloth, I dumped the whole pot in, drained it for a while, rinsed it to rid the curds of any citrusy taste (since I want ricotta and not paneer), and then hung the curds in the cheesecloth to drip out as much whey as I could get out of there.  I also mixed in a little salt.  The result is a very creamy, tiny-curd ricotta that I think will actually work alright.

My suspicion is that there is too much chlorine in our tap water, which ends up in the milk because it is used to dilute the citric acid and the rennet.  I will have to make a call and find out.  In the meantime, I will make some sort of cheesy Italian something-or-other with my ricotta.  The adventure continues...

Paneer Curry With Potatoes and Peas

I made my own Paneer cheese today (see Cheesemakers Are Us Part II, below), and decided to make a curry out of some of it for dinner tonite. 

Frying the Paneer

My cheese had already been cut into small cubes and had been refridgerated for a few hours, so it was nice and firm.  I dredged it in flour and fried it in a little very hot vegetable oil.  I wasn't sure how this would work, having never made cheese before and therefore not knowing if the consistency turned out right, but the frying working great.  The cheese had indeed been pressed enough that it held its shape during frying.

Yum!

I made a simple curry out of onions, potatoes, and peas in a vindaloo-based sauce.  I added the cubes of Paneer to the curry at the very end just to get them warmed back up, and served the curry with white rice and a simple salad for something fresh.  Dan walked in the house from work and swooned from the smell - I like to toast my own seeds for seasoning when I make curries, and that and the vindaloo base I use fill the house with nutty, spicy fragrance.  Despite the curry sauce I know Dan already loves, I was a little nervous about how the Paneer would be received, but I needn't have worried; it was a big hit.  The taste was mild and just a little tangy, and it held its shape throughout dinner, but was still creamy on the inside.  Dan loved it, and I was proud of myself for successfully making a usable Paneer.

Happy eating!

Cheesemakers Are Us, Part II

I officially made my first cheese today.

Boiling everything in sight, and lime
juice and starter culture ready to go

For a newbie, the process is actually pretty complex, even for the simple cheese I made today. I was taking my time and going very slow, because I wanted to make sure I did it just right. It also took a lot of time to make sure I cleaned and sanitized everything perfectly. A website I read suggested that new cheesemakers should sanitize anything that comes near your cheese, until you are more experienced and know what shortcuts can be taken. So, I boiled the crap out of everything I was going to be using.

As I began to warm up milk to use to cultivate the cheese starter I have, I realized my new thermometer I bought just for this purpose was already broken! The glass tube holding the liquid inside was snapped at the bottom. No wonder the temp appeared to stay at 110. So, I had to sortof wing it for the culture. Out of one packet of starter, you can make several frozen cubes of starter, if you let it work in the milk for several hours and then divide it into ice cube trays. That was my first job for the day. Ready-to-use starter cubes: check.

Curds draining

Next I wanted to try to make some paneer, which is the Indian cheese you find in many Indian dishes. It is a fresh cheese which does not use a starter culture; it just needs milk and an acid, usually lemon juice, to separate the curds and whey. Then it is either pressed to form a firm cheese, or left "loose" if it will be used as a filling, for instance in the stuffed bread called Paratha.

Squeezing out the whey

I don't have any lemons in the house right now, so I used lime juice instead. I understand vinegar could also be used, or citric acid, which came in my cheesemaking kit. I wanted the tanginess of the citrus, so I went for the lime juice. For 4 cups of milk (I used 2% mixed with a little bit of cream, as advised by a cheesemaking site), it took 6 teaspoons of lime juice to get a good curdle. After letting it rest for about a half hour, I drained and pressed the curds in cheesecloth over a strainer. I reserved the whey, because I hear it is healthy and you can do things like cook rice in it and such. We'll see if I find a good use for it.

Pressing the cheese

I tried to squeeze as much whey out as I could, because I want to end up with a pretty firm cheese. 4 cups of milk doesn't make many curds, especially after really pressing out all the whey! I divided what I ended up with into two sections. One, I just salted lightly. To the other I added salt, pepper, and a mixture of dried herbs. They both then got wrapped tightly in cheesecloth and pressed under weight so I get a firm final product. I haven't tasted them yet. They are now moved into the fridge, and when Dan gets home from work tonite I am going to make some sort of curry out of them.

When I get a non-broken thermometer I will be able to attempt more complex cheeses with my cultured starter and my homemade cheese press (for which I bought the components today and will build this evening). The adventure continues...

Cheesemakers Are Us

Last fall, Daniel and I went to a cheese festival that was held by one of our local cheese shops, Fromage To Yours. (I know, how precious can that name be, right?) One of the things we did there was attend a brief cheesemaking presentation. After watching the instructor make fresh mozzarella in front of our very eyes, from milk to cheese, we got very excited about the idea of making our own homemade cheese. He made it sound and look so simple!

We bought a cheesemaking kit that day which contained some basics for cheesemaking: cheese cloth, rennet, and a few other things. I intended to try my hand at cheesemaking sooner than this, but with everything going on, I just never got to it. I pulled out the kit today and decided to give it a shot. I figured I should test the rennet to make sure it was still potent, since it's been a while. Luckily it hadn't even been opened yet. I tested it by warming a little milk and adding a little rennet diluted in water. In a few minutes it started to form a curd, so it appears it still has potency.

I could dive in this very second and make some simple fresh mozzarella with what I already have, but I think I want to do a few different things with my first batch of curds, to see what the different processes do. So, I will have to do a little shopping before I really get started. I want to get the items to make a little homemade cheese press so I can make some pressed, more aged cheeses, and I also need a candy thermometer, which is an absolute must for cheesemaking, I have learned. In the meantime, I sanitized the pot and lid I am going to use, so it's all ready to go.

I will start working full-force on my cheese tomorrow, and I will keep you all updated on the progress. Wish me luck!

Epicurious

A fellow food lover and friend (love you, Annabanana!) has led me over to the Epicurious website, where I now have a profile and everything. My name there is my standard online profile name, Lairdriin. I have even put up a more detailed recipe for my Lasagna Rolls, so you can check it out, and review it and everything!

Look me up at Epicurious, and we'll share more food love!

Happy eating!

Lasagna Rolls

I have been making lasagna rolls for a very long time. Italian is one of my favorite genres of food to make, even if it is Americanized Italian, partially because of the cheesy, tomatoey goodness, and partially because it is an easy style of cooking to make vegetarian, and still appetizing and filling, even to non-vegetarians. One way I have made Italian a little easier is by making lasagna rolls instead of regular layered lasagna. It's not quite the same, but you still get the layers of ricotta, sauce, and pasta with much less effort. Any way you like lasagna, you can make it as a lasagna roll instead, and it is an easier, quicker method. That's great for those days you don't have all afternoon to cook, or when it's too darn hot out to have the oven on all day, like these crazy Coloradan summers!

I boil just enough lasagna noodles as I will need, and maybe just one or two extra just in case they tear during cooking or while I'm assembling the rolls. The pasta should boil just less than it takes to be completely done, as they will cook just a little more in the oven. While the pasta is boiling, I'll make my ricotta mixture. The ricotta mixture is nothing special; it's pretty standard. It is the same mixture I use for stuffed shells, regular lasagna, etc. Just like any good ricotta mixture, I use one to three eggs, depending on the amount of rolls I'm making. I will also add a good handful or two of mozzarella, and some parmesan or asiago. Of course I season the mixture, with a little salt, garlic, and usually basil. I will also often add a few spoonfuls of thawed and strained frozen spinach.

At this time, I will also be making tomato sauce. I usually use canned tomato sauce that I season lightly. For something like this I don't like a bunch of chunks in my sauce, but putting veggies or sausage or whatever in the sauce would be fine; I just happen to like it simple when I put it over the rolls. I just season the sauce with salt, pepper, a little crushed red pepper, basil, marjoram, and oregano. Not a lot of seasoning; the cheese doesn't need a ton of extra flavor competing with it. The sweetness of a simple tomato sauce, I think, is perfect for this type of dish.

At any rate, when the noodles are not quite cooked, I drain them and rinse them a little with cold water to stop the cooking, then fill them. I simply lay out a noodle on a plate, spoon some ricotta filling over most of the noodle, then roll it up, and set it in a dish. It can be set on end or on it's side, it doesn't matter. I roll them all up, spoon sauce over the whole thing, lots more mozzarella on top, and bake until bubbly and hot. Delicious!

I made a dish of lasagna rolls a couple of days ago, and I made a ton, so I have had the joy of having leftover lasagna rolls that take even less effort than normal to get to the cheesy goodness... only a little time in the microwave. Can't beat that!

Happy eating!

Point Reyes Cheese Review

This evening our good friends Phil and Jenn joined us for our (usually) weekly game night.  We usually have dinner and then play either Dungeons & Dragons or a board game.  Tonite we played a few hours of Runebound, after a (if I say so myself) delicious dinner of veggie reubens and apple-carrot salad, and then later a (if I say so myself) extra-tasty tray of cheeses, breads, and nuts.

Our cheese tray consisted of Saganaki, a flambeed cheese made from a greek sheep's milk cheese named Kasseri; Mimolette, a buttery, aged cow's milk cheese somewhat similar to cheddar; and Cabrales, which is perhaps the strongest blue cheese in the world.  Cabrales is Dan's favorite blue.  It is delicious with a little honey and some toasted almonds.

We also bought a creamy blue cheese named Point Reyes which neither Dan nor I had ever had before.  The woman at the cheese counter in Whole Foods, after seeing us drooling over the Cabrales (and telling us how excited she was that somebody actually knew about and enjoyed Cabrales, and then correctly assuming we were "cheese people"), suggested the Point Reyes after I said I thought a second blue, but sweeter and creamier, would round out our cheese tray. 

Point Reyes Original Blue is a farmstead cheese (meaning it is made at the farm that the milk comes from) named for the area in California, where the dairy is located.  It is a cow's milk blue which is aged about 6 months, very creamy, and though it is sweet (especially compared to the Cabrales), it is also quite pungent, more so than, for instance, Cambozola.  We had it at room temperature and it was quite soft, creamy and spreadable.  I thought it was delicious on the crusty sourdough bread we had. I also thought it was very pretty.  It is a nice bright white color with bright cobalt blue mold (they use penicillium roquefort) running in lines through the middle of the wheel. 

This is definitely a cheese I would recommend for those blue cheese lovers out there who want a creamy, spreadable blue for a cheese tray.  I will certainly have Point Reyes again sometime.

Sherried Mushroom Soup

I love making my mushroom soup as much as I like eating it.  It is truly just as enjoyable to make, despite a lot of boring prep time, because the soup as it is cooking fills the kitchen with a smell that is just as delectable as the taste of the finished product.

I use a combination of mushrooms.  I will usually make quite a large batch of the soup if I'm going to go through the bother of making it, so I will start with something like 4 to 6 cups of button mushrooms.  I also like to add some cremini, for color and flavor, and I will use maybe a quarter of the amount of button.  I usually use a third type of mushroom to add depth of flavor.  Shiitakes work really well, as even though they are expensive, just a few of them really add a nice nuttiness to the soup.  One or two portabellas also work, obviously adding a bit of a different flavor than the shiitake.  Either will work.

I am a stickler for washing the mushrooms, so I actually take the time to wash each individual one.  (Hence the "boring prep time" comment.)  This is actually the most difficult portion of making this soup.  Since I am making a liquidy product out of them, I actually run them under water to clean them instead of delicately wiping them with a damp paper towel, as you should normally do with mushrooms that you don't want to soak up all that water.  But it's for soup, so who cares?  Slice or chop the mushrooms (slice if you want to leave some pieces in the finished soup, they look nicer than chunks), and also chop about a half cup of white or yellow onion, and 3 or 4 garlic cloves.  These three veggies, a little salt and pepper, and one stick of butter go into a large pot on medium-low heat, covered, for at least 30 minutes.  This is the part where the kitchen fills with buttery, mushroomy smell, and it's really worth it to make the soup just for that.  I also love to eat mushrooms just like this: leave them whole instead, otherwise the exact same instructions, and you have lovely buttery, garlicy mushrooms as a side dish or just to eat as is.  Yummo!

Anyhoo, after the mushrooms cook down for at least a half hour, and anywhere up to an hour and a half depending on the size of the mushroom pieces and how many there are, you will see that the mushrooms have created a ton of lovely juice.  Simply scoop out everything in the pot and puree it in a blender in small batches until it is smooth.  You may need to add water to the blender batches to help it along; go ahead and do this, as you are going to be adding water to the soup either way when you are done blending.  If you want mushroom pieces in your finished soup, leave a scoop of them out of the blender, obviously.  Everything then goes back in the pot, and add a few cups of water and a bouillion cube.  Salt and pepper to taste, and you can also add a little thyme, or parsley if you like.  After everything is seasoned the way you like, you add about a quarter or a half cup of sherry.  Basic cooking sherry works fine.  Then, stir in a cup or two of cream.  That's it!  Compare this to any canned cream of mushroom soup.... it's not even close.  This is one of those recipes that makes my husband roll his eyes and say, "Oh my gosh, that's good."   It really, really is. 

Happy eating!

The Best Thing I Ever Ate...

...between bread.

I watch the Food Network channel and their new sister channel, The Cooking Channel, a LOT.  A lot a lot.  I have The Cooking Channel on right now, actually.  I tend to turn the tv on and just leave it on in the background as I'm going about my day.  Ok, I actually spend a lot of time actually sitting and watching, too. 

The point being, there is a nifty show on Food Network called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."  I love this show.  It's not a cooking show; instead it is various Food Network personalities talking about great food they have eaten and the restaurants where the food is.  Each episode is a theme, such as '...with fruit' or '...grilled.'  I saw one the other day entitled "The Best Thing I Ever Ate... Between Bread."  I told Dan that I think the best think I ever ate between bread are my veggie reubens.  Maybe it sounds odd to pick my own food, but it really makes sense.  I mean, I do make them exactly how I like them.  Why wouldn't the way I make something be my favorite?  If it weren't my favorite, I really am being silly, now aren't I?

Whenever I say 'veggie reubens,' I tend to get quizzical looks and questions. How do you make a veggie reuben, people wonder.  And, it must suck, I know they are thinking.  They're wrong.  My veggie reubens are awesome!  I have converted every single person who has ever tried them, including some true-blue meat lovers.  It may not have meat on it, but it is still a damn good sandwich.

There are few ingredients for my veggie reubens.  First of all, I do not make them out of what you may think are traditional reuben ingredients.  I use dark pumpernickel rye, instead of regular rye or marble rye.  I also don't use russian or thousand island dressing as the sauce.  I use instead a seasoned mayo that I make myself.  It's simple, but very tasty, and absoluteley key.  Then, you just need lots of good, sliced, natural swiss cheese, and a good jarred sauerkraut.  I am sortof picky about sauerkraut; I don't know, maybe it's because of my German heritage.  But there are lots of bad jarred sauerkrauts out there.  There are, luckily, a few very good ones.  The only thing about the sauerkraut is to make sure that it is pressed in a strainer - a wire mesh strainer works well - so that it isn't too wet.  Dripping sauerkraut can make the sandwich very soggy, and you don't want that.  You want it crispy and crunchy!

The mayo goes on both sides of the bread, as does the cheese.  Between the cheese slices goes a healthy dose of sauerkraut.  Then just grill it until it is nice and crisp on both sides, and the cheese is melty.  Everybody seems to have a different method for grilling sandwiches.  I don't butter the actual bread.  I always, always, instead, put a big dollop of butter directly into the hot pan.  When it's time to flip, I remove the sandwich, add a new dollop of butter, THEN put the new side down in the pan.  I swear by this method, and think that it makes a better grilled cheese/reuben/whatever you are grilling.  This is just my two cents.   I think if you have the rest of the reuben right, you can probably grill it however the heck you want, and it would still be tasty.

As a variation, I can also grill onion slivers in oil and some seasonings and add those onto the reuben with the sauerkraut.  This is also tasty!

Even if you are a meat eater, or even if you normally think you don't like sauerkraut, try this way of making veggie reubens.  It's sortof like the best grilled cheese you ever ate.  And, it's The Best Thing I Ever Ate Between Bread.  Happy eating!

Return To My Blog, and August-Oktoberfest

It has been a rough several months, people, and I can't lie, I haven't been doing much cooking.  I have been very ill, and have had more than a few hospital stays.  I've eaten more hospital food and fast food than homemade food in the last 6 months, out of necessity, and also out of exhaustion.  Even standing in the kitchen for one hour to cook can wipe me out for the rest of the day.  Sometimes, I don't even have the energy to do the hour in the kitchen in the first place. 

But, that does make the moments when I am able to eat good, homemade food a real treat.  Also, I have learned some great tricks for cutting down on prep time, or making the food prep less physically intensive.  (Food prep might not seem like physical work, but when you are a sickie like me, things become excercise that never seemed like it before!)  Daniel has been a big help, too... I can sit and direct him to cut and peel and shred, and that helps me to be able to cook without getting nearly as wiped out.  He's been a big help!  Nearly every time I enter the kitchen, Dan comes with and asks what he can do.  It's actually been a great way for us to hang out together, and he has been learning a lot about cooking.

Today is a great example of that.  Dan peeled and grated several potatoes for me a little while ago, and I am going to make them into potato pancakes.  See, for lunch, I had made my veggie reubens.  Since I have so much sauerkraut left over from the reubens, I thought tonite would be a good night to try the new Smart Deli brand veggie smoked sausage we found the other day while grocery shopping.  I have a lot of potatoes, so I called my sis to get our mom's recipe for potato pancakes, and voila!... It's a big ol' German Oktoberfest meal:  smoked sausage, potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream, and lots of sauerkraut. 

I'm so glad I am back in the kitchen after so many months away.  Now, I am off to Deutschland!