Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Cheese, Jam, Broth

I'm sorry that I haven't been updating for the last few weeks! It's been work, and Thanksgiving, and while I've done a lot of cooking, I haven't done a lot of photography or anything like that. If you follow me on Facebook, you know a lot of it-- a friend commented to me the other day that from my FB, it looks like I'd have no time to do anything other than cook and eat!

I've been experimenting a lot more with cheese, for example. Within the last two weeks, I've made two batches of chevre, mozzarella, and am currently halfway through a batch of feta (from this recipe; I'm somewhat concerned that it'll stay more creamy than crumbly). This is in part due to discovering the lovely people at Mountain Feed and Farm Supply, up in Ben Lomond, who carry all the cheesemaking supplies a girl could dream of. I was so, so happy to discover them-- the staff is both very friendly and very knowledgeable. They also carry vacuum-sealers, smokers, juicers; in other words, things that I really kinda want. Like, a lot. Also, jars! Pectin! PH testing strips for canning! I could really go on for hours.

My dad has also been doing this thing where almost every time I go down to my parents' house, he gives me a whole lot of homegrown something. So far, it's been shallots, oranges, and dried tomatoes, all from the yard/garden. The oranges are getting eaten, the dried tomatoes became pesto, and the shallots... oh, the shallots.

Let me start by saying that I haven't always loved onions. When I was growing up, my parents would always remind me of my sister, Miranda, who absolutely hated onions-- and for a long time, I was right there with her. Sometime near the end of college, I started using onions when I cooked, and from there, it's been all downhill.

On the other hand, when your dad gives you two pounds of shallots, sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do. Thankfully, I'd been considering making savory jam, so shallot jam it was! I used this recipe (I more than doubled the cooking time after I added the balsamic vinegar, btw, so that it actually had a jam-texture), and we have decided that it tastes good on just about everything. I still have a bunch of shallots left, though-- anyone want some jam? It does look a bit like the creature from the black lagoon, but it tastes sweet and savory and the same time. I am in love.

(Also: the secret to Kelley's tuna sandwiches is, indeed, pickled red onions. Woo!)

Tonight I'm making vegetable broth in preparation for the Dark Days Challenge, about which I am incredibly excited. I've managed to find local ingredients for just about everything I need to make beef stew, so that'll be the first thing I make. I'm very excited about this challenge; it'll be the first time I've participated in something like this!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Sometimes, it's the journey

That sounds really pretentious.

At least some of the time, though, it's true-- sometimes the cheese doesn't cheese, or you spend five hours making something that will be eaten in... rather less than that, or what have you.

This, for example, is my second batch of goat cheese resolutely not becoming cheese. I did everything right this time! I didn't mess with it! And yet, somehow, after two days of straining through cheesecloth in the fridge, I ended up with cheese spread, not a firmer cheese. This is totally and completely fine. It's going to be delicious (roast garlic, mmm), but it's not what I was necessarily looking for. I guess next time, it's back to the OMG, must add more rennet/citric acid/agh what can I put in this cheese. Because sometimes, the process tells you that it's okay to mess with things, that you were totally right about the curds needing to be bigger and the whey to be clearer.

And then sometimes you spend all afternoon watching something (pretty) closely, and it turns out that it is both a) gorgeous, and b) totally going to be under-appreciated. This, my friends, is my lovely tomato paste, made from the tomatoes I bought last Saturday from Happy Boy Farms. I made yellow tomato sauce this summer (see below!), and while I usually like to add a can of tomato paste to my sauces for texture, and so they're less like soup, it's entirely impossible to find yellow tomato paste. The box from HBF, though, had several pounds of yellow heirloom tomatoes. So on Sunday, with the beef broth simmering on the stove, I made yellow tomato paste, for the sauce I canned this summer.

I don't know if anyone out there has ever made their own tomato paste, but going from about eight cups of raw cut tomatoes to one half-pint of paste is something of an experience. It's a lesson in patience, in having something else to do when you're waiting and stirring and waiting and checking the heat one more time. Because eventually, you're going to have yellow tomato paste for your yellow tomato sauce, and this winter will be good. (And sometimes, there's also a jar of red tomato paste to be made, as well.)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Grocery Shopping and Me

I've always had an interesting relationship with grocery shopping.

For most of my early twenties, I did the majority of my shopping at Safeway (or, when I lived in Ireland, at Tesco's)-- I ate what was cheap, because I was a college student on a budget. I tried to shop at Shopper's Corner once a month, as my "splurge." Essentially, I ate a lot of pasta, a lot of boxed macaroni and cheese, and a lot of rice-with-things-in.

Now that I have a real job! With a real paycheck!, one of the things I like being able to spend money on is food. I shop at New Leaf (which is also where my younger brother works!), I shop at our local farmer's markets (there are about nine million of them), I will goddamn shop at El Salchichero when it opens. I still shop at Shopper's Corner-- they've got the best butcher's corner in town, as far as I know, as they actually process much of their meat on-site, meaning that I can totally special-order some pork fat from them later this year to make more sausages. Occasionally, guiltily, I shop at Whole Foods.

Usually, this combination leads to pretty good meals, with the more-than-occasional stop at my old stand-by of boxed macaroni and cheese. I make spaghetti, stew, tuna-noodle casserole, crepes, and burritos. I make lemony chicken with peas and rice.

Sometimes, though, things go wrong, and occasionally, this combination of markets leads to interesting purchases... such as this weekend, when I returned from the Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz farmer's markets with five pounds of beef bones and a pound of stew meat from TLC Ranch (which, I was very sad to learn, is closing! I've really loved their meat over the last few years, and will miss them quite a lot), some cippolini onions and a flat of just over-ripe heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms, and some pesto focaccia from Beckman's Bakery. Nothing, you will notice, that makes a complete meal without some work (although tomato-based beef stew with cippolini onions would taste really good!), which led to last night's dinner (Burger King) and tonight's (housemate's very tasty japanese curry).

Tomorrow, though, there will be lasagna (from the Moosewood cookbook, but with the addition of some ground beef, because NOM) made with some of the tomatoes. Later this winter, I'll be able to cook beef stew with the broth I made yesterday from the bones (and some locally-sourced carrots, onions, and leeks), and spaghetti with the orangey tomato paste I made yesterday. In between, there will be knitting, a craft fair, and Thanksgiving break (oh, how I long!)

It's been a long day.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Thursday Night Risotto

Thursday nights are interesting to me. For the last few years, Thursdays have been the night that I eat with my parents-- they live about ten miles away-- either at my house or theirs. Cooking on a Thursday night means that I'm usually doing something special, because when I cook for my parents, I tend to go all-out.

Now, my brother works late on Thursdays, so we're considering switching our family meals to Sundays so that we can all make it. But cooking on Thursdays still feels like it should be something special to me. Tonight, at around 7:00, I realised that I hadn't yet eaten dinner, and decided that I wanted to eat risotto, because it's easy and filling and I had everything I needed at the house. Because it's a Thursday, I also decided to put a little extra effort into it-- really, only a little-- this is pretty darn close to my usual risotto. So!

Thursday Night Risotto

3 tsp. olive oil
1/2 of a small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. fresh-ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 tbsp. dry sherry
1 c. arborio rice
~3 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese

Optional, but tasty:
1/2 tsp. truffle oil
1/3 c. chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
(Don't be limited! This is a great thing to use to empty out your pantry-- see what looks interesting and works with chicken/rice/cheese)

A note on measurements: When I am cooking for myself, and it's a recipe I'm familiar with, I generally don't measure, um, anything. So when I say "~3 c. chicken broth," what I mean is that I defrosted two plastic baggies of homemade chicken broth that I had in the freezer, and I think it was around three cups. If that seems like too much or too little to you, by all means, change it!

In a a small/medium saucepan, sautee the onion, garlic, oregano, and pepper in the olive oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add the rice, stirring constantly. When the rice grains are mostly translucent, with a dot of white in the center, add the sherry. Stir until the sherry has been absorbed by the rice.

Next, add the chicken broth about a cup at a time, stirring in between additions until all the broth has been absorbed by the rice-- if you add all the broth at once, it won't work nearly as well, and if you don't wait until the broth has been absorbed, you will end up with a mushy, gooey mess. If you're adding the mushrooms and truffle oil, add them after the second cup of chicken broth.

Once the rice is cooked to your liking, turn off the heat. If you're using a gas stove, you can leave the pan on the burner; if you're using an electric stove, move the pan off the heat. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top of the risotto, and then fold it in slowly, until the cheese is melted in. Adjust saltiness until it's to your liking-- if you're using commercial chicken broth, it's likely not to need salt, as the parmesan is also quite salty.

This recipe will serve two people who are decently hungry, or more people as a side dish. Enjoy!

(Also, second attempt at goat cheese is turning out weird. More on that later.)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Things and also Gardening

This year, for the second time ever, I tried to do that whole gardening thing. What did I learn? Well, mostly I learned that up here, tomatoes do best if you leave them alone entirely. While I was paying attention to them this summer (watering! worrying about the really hot days!), I managed to produce a grand total of two tomatoes over the course of about three months. After I harvested my two tiny tomatoes, I left the plant in the ground and didn't touch it. As of my last check, there are now three new tomatoes on my sad and lonely tomato plant. AGH. Eventually, this gardening thing will make sense.

In other food news, I am making goat cheese again tonight! I am futzing with it a whole lot less this time, so I hope that it turns out well. I left half of the last batch (the garlic-herb half, to be specific) at work when I went to science camp last week, and, thankfully, it was all gone when I returned. The other half (the lavender-and-honey half) was put out before dinner on Saturday night, and absolutely demolished-- I was somewhat gratified that my goat cheese went at the same rate as the cheese that is my favorite in the whole world.

And speaking of Saturday's dinner...

Okay, so. I have this... thing for Thomas Keller. I read the entirety of French Laundry at Home last winter, and purchased the Ad Hoc cookbook last January-- I've been cooking my way through it, and I blame/credit it with at least some of my current cooking thing. My housemate Brianna gave me the French Laundry cookbook for my birthday, and I've been rather intimidated by it ever since. There's so much food! And it all looks so good! Surely I can't cook that!

Well, okay, apparently I can. For my usual Saturday night crew (the folks from the yarn store), I made Citrus-Marinated Salmon with a Confit of Navel Oranges, Beluga Caviar, and Pea Shoot Coulis. Um, but without the caviar, because no. It was abso-frickin'-lutely delicious. My guests had seconds. And, best of all (at least to me), I am no longer nearly as intimidated.

When I started this post, I swear it had a point aside from talking about gardening-- the other point of this point was to tell everyone that I signed up for the 4th Annual Dark Days Challenge-- it's a bit easier here than it is in many other places, but it should still be fun and somewhat challenging.