Gravlax

We've been meaning to try this and finally got around to it.  Didn't turn out to be too much cheaper than store bought gravlax, but it was super easy and fun to do on our own.  We used the Minimalist recipe from Mark Bittman.

Basically you start with a slice of salmon- ours was about a pound.  You coat it in sugar (2 cups), salt (1 cup), and dill, and leave it wrapped and weighted down in the refrigerator for 36 hours.  Rinse, slice, and that's it- it comes out bright orange and cured!

Mint ice cream

Summertime, more time for projects!  We made a batch of ice cream with fresh mint from the garden.  Inspired us to keep this going- lavender is next, maybe rhubarb, rosemary, bourbon...?  I followed this basic recipe, used milk and 1/2 and 1/2 instead of cream.  It came out a bit fluffy though, so cream is probably the way to go:

1 1/4 cup half and half
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
dash of salt

Heat the half and half until hot but not boiling, add the mint and steep (about 1-2 cups of chopped leaves).  Steep for 30 minutes, strain, reheat.

Mix egg yolks and sugar, gradually mix in heated half-and-half.  Return this all to heat and warm until bubbles appear (still don't boil).  Transfer this to another bowl, add cream, vanilla, salt and chill overnight.  Process in an ice cream maker.

Smoked Meats Part 1: Kielbasa

Someone recently left a smoker in our community garden, so our meat projects have taken a new turn.  It takes a couple hours, but is a pretty easy set up, and everything has turned out great.

The trial run was kielbasa, Polish smoked sausage.  We've done sausages before, but this was our first try at an emulsified sausage (extra mixing and crushed ice to make a smoother textured sausage).  It was much trickier to stuff, but turned out great.  Recipe (again) from Ruhlman/Polcyn's Charcuterie.

Not very pretty when they're uncooked.

The smoking takes a couple hours.  The basic set up is in layers: hot charcoal, wet wood chips, water, and the sausage on top like a regular barbecue.  The internal temperature stays below 200F so the meat cooks slowly and takes in the smoke.

The finished product!

The sauerkraut is store bought, but we'll try that again soon.

Pickling Spice

You can buy pickling spice from the store, but making it is easy if you have all the spices.  It's good to have around and is an ingredient in other projects such as corned beef and pastrami (and pickles).

From Ruhlman/Polcyn's Charcuterie:

2 tablespoons each peppercorns, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, hot red pepper flakes, allspice berries

1 tablespoon ground mace

2 cinnamon sticks, crushed

24 bay leaves, crushed

2 tablespoons whole cloves

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Toast the peppercorns, mustard seeds, and coriander and crack lightly.  Combine with other spices and store in a jar.

Christmas Tamales

This year we got to participate in my mom's new tradition of the annual tamale party.  Tamales are fairly easy, but require enough steps and set up that they're usually made for holidays or parties when there are lots of people around to help and eat.

The basic parts of a tamale are the corn husk wrapper, the masa dough and the filling (we usually do a turkey and a black bean).


Ingredients:
Corn husks
Ancho chilies
Garlic, cumin, oregano
Turkey (or other meat)
Masa flour
Shortening
Vegetable stock
Salt


Step 1: Soaking the corn husks

You can buy packages of corn husks in most grocery stores now- they come dried and need to be soaked in hot tap water for at least 5 hours before they can be used.

Step 2: The filling


























Soak one package of dried ancho chilies in boiling water until soft (about 1/2 hour).  Pull out stem and seeds, keeping only skins and some liquid.  Blend with garlic, cumin, oregano and mix with turkey meat.  Cook on low until liquid boils down.


Step 3: The Masa dough

 

The dough is typically made with lard.  To be healthier and vegetarian friendly, we usually make it with Crisco.  We found that one batch makes about 35 small tamales. I think we ended up with four batches...

First beat 2/3 cup shortening in a mixer for about 30 seconds.  In a separate bowl, combine 4 cups  masa flour and 2 teaspoons salt.  Take 3 cups of broth (we use vegetable), and gradually add to the shortening, alternating with the masa mixture, until well combined.  Finally, melt 1/3 cup shortening and beat into the dough.  The result should be soft, like cookie dough. 

 

Cider

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 6: Waxing

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 5: Pressing

Break-up the curd. Walnut sized chunks.

Into the cheesecloth lined press.

Set up the pressure spring.

Press out that whey.

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 4: A Tablespoon of Bonus Ricotta

You save that whey?

Good, you get a tablespoon of ricotta for free!

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 3: Separating Curds from Whey

Warming the curd slowly in a sink of hot water

Curd has shrunk, look at all that whey.

Poured through a colander lined with cheesecloth. Save that whey. 

Tie it up, and hang.

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 2: Ripening & Cutting the Curd

Farmhouse cheddar is our first hard cheese. It takes a month to age, so it ought to be ready for Thanksgiving!

We used Ricki Carroll's recipe (ours is a half batch), she seems to be the the most used by home cheese makers (and also runs cheesemaking.com, the site we ordered wax from).

First and most important: buy the right milk. Ultra-Pasteurized can only make ricotta, and its not always clearly marked (we tried whole foods milk last week and ended up with a mess). Luckily, C-Town, of all places sells local milk, for $1 more per gallon then regular, and it's worked for us twice. Be careful. 

Begin by warming the milk to 90 degrees, add the 1/2 packet/tab mesophilic starter and let ripen for 45 minutes. We bought our starter at the Brooklyn Kitchen, down the block, you might have to order it. The good news is that you can keep it alive and really only need to order it once if you are diligent, we are planning to buy a new one for each batch (there are enough things growing in our apartment already).

Warming the milk and letting it ripen.

After the milk has ripened, add 1/4 teaspoon of the rennet (already diluted in cold un-chlorinated water), stir for a minute, then let sit for 45 more minutes. Lots of waiting.

Next, cut the curd into small cubes. This is cool, the trick is to cut at a 45 degrees angle, in both directions, then rotate the curd (so you are cutting perpendicularly to the last cuts) and repeat. If you did it right you'll end up with small cubes all balancing one one point, it's a fun geometry project.

Cutting the curd, it's completely solid like jello.

Farmhouse Cheddar Part 1: New Tool

Cheap Cheese Press - purchased from eBay

New Contributor - My Dad

Meet Bill Keegan

Pumpkin Mofongo

Pumpkin Mofongo

The book SuperFoods (Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, Harper, 2005) identifies pumpkin as one of the “fourteen foods that will change your life.” Having abandoned white potatoes and white rice because they contribute to weight gain and lack essential nutrients, we started looking for alternative side dishes. When we looked for pumpkin recipes we found that most were for some sort of desert (pie, cookies, etc.). We had success in adding half a can of pumpkin to spicy spaghetti sauce, but lacked a more stand-alone use. One of my favorite foods, after working in the Caribbean for more than 30 years, is the traditional Spanish Caribbean dish called “mofongo.” Mofongo is essentially fried and mashed green plantains. Because pumpkin has a similar texture and sweetness to plantains, and because this is pumpkin season, we decided to create pumpkin mofongo. This also produced the ingredients for a tasty and nutritious desert. Here is our recipe:

Ingredients:

· 1 medium (organic) pumpkin

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 4 cups water

· 4 garlic cloves

· 1 tablespoon olive oil

· Bacon bits or pieces (prepared bacon, available in various brands, is easiest)

Directions:

1. Peel the pumpkin and slice it in half. Remove the seeds and stringy interior and save.

2. Cut the pumpkin into eights. [At this point any remaining “strings” can easily be scraped away with a sharp knife.] Cut these eights into one-inch cubes. Soak the pumpkin cubes in the salt and water for about 15 minutes, and drain well.

3. While the pumpkin is soaking, crush the garlic cloves in a wooden mortar (called a “pilon” in Puerto Rico), sprinkle with salt, and then add a tbsp of olive oil after you have started crushing (the oil makes the garlic slippery and more difficult to crush). [You can crush the garlic in a press, but scrape the remainder from the inside of the press.] Transfer the crushed garlic and oil to a small bowl.

4. Fry the pumpkin cubes in oil until they are golden brown. [You can use a deep fryer if you have one, which takes about 3 minutes.] Drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

5. Crush a portion of the fried pumpkin in the mortar. Add about a teaspoon of the garlic and oil, and a teaspoon of bacon bits (optional), and continue crushing. We use a one-cup mortar that will accommodate about 1/8^th of the pumpkin at a time. [Note: you could use a potato masher, but you want to be gentle. The goal is to preserve the texture created by frying the pumpkin, and not the consistency of mashed potatoes.]

6. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and shape into mounds. After you have mashed all the pumpkin and formed it into mounds, keep it warm in the oven (300 degrees) until ready to serve. You can also pour a little chicken or vegetable broth on the mounds to keep them moist, but this is only necessary if they will be sitting in the oven for a while.

I have included lots of pointers, but the recipe is no more difficult than garlic mashed potatoes (and takes about the same amount of time).

Pumpkin Seed Desert

Pumpkin seeds are a very nutritious snack. In fact, Native American groups grew pumpkin and a variety of other gourds for their seeds, and not the flesh. I got the spice ingredients from a web page, but you can substitute spices according to your taste (this one is a bit sweet).

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Separate the seeds from the fibers and rinse. Spray a baking sheet with a cooking spray, and place the seeds in a single layer on the baking sheet. Spray the seeds with cooking spray and salt to taste. Bake the seeds in the preheated oven until lightly brown (about 20 to 25 minutes).

3. While the seeds are baking, mix 3 tbs brown sugar, ¼ tsp cumin, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground ginger, and ¼ tsp cayenne pepper in a bowl.

4. Heat 1 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs brown sugar in a skillet over medium heat. When the sugar has melted add the toasted pumpkin seeds and cook until they are coated. Add the carmelized seeds to the spice mixture and toss to coat. Cool and eat!

Granola 2

Proportions here were much better.  I used about 4 cups oats, 2 cups nuts, 1 cup wheat germ, 1 cup shredded coconut PLUS about 3/4 cup oil, 3/4 cup coconut water, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup.  Mix and bake at about 325 in 10 minute intervals (mixing after each) until crunchy (about 40 min-hour)

Beet Pickle

Sugar & Vinegar pickles with garden & farmers market beets.  I'm most excited for the Mennonite beet pickled eggs that I can make after we finish most of the beets! 

Red Snapper

Snapper from the neighborhood fishmonger. This is here mostly because I thought this was a funny photo.

Garlic, Olive Oil, Butter...

Yog 2

Bulgarian Yogourt Starter. Our last batch was a little runny, so decided to try real starter. It's supposed to be thick and tangy.

After heating the milk, it must be cooled before adding starter.  That's our dinner in the back,  EE is making corn chowder!

ACTION SHOT: preparing the starter, it's mixed so that is get distributed evenly in the pot.

Thicker and a little tangier then we were expecting... Might need to mix in some jam to sweeten it.