cheese & crackers

 This past weekend spent at home paired with the acquisition of several giant Ziplocs of frozen goat milk from a neighbor meant I was more than set for a few days of cheese making!

I ended up trying three different methods and to find one that truly produced a goat cheese as I, and probably most other people, know it. The first I tried I term the "cheater" method, which was not actual cultured cheese, but used lemon juice to produce curds. This is great when you're in a hurry, but the lemon juice leaves it a little tangy.

The third method that included rennet somehow created curds the consistency of fresh mozzarella, but goat-milk flavored, if you can imagine.

Honestly, I can't even remember what I did for the second method that turned out the best... I've still got two more bags of milk though, so on to more experimenting later!

In addition, I made these wonderful crackers to go along with the cheese: 

Herb & Walnut Crackers

1/2 c walnuts

1/2 c AP flour

1/2 c barley flour

1 tsp rosemary, caraway, fennel

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 T olive oil

1/4 c milk

Preheat the oven to 350.

Chop the walnuts finely and mix in bowl along with the flours, herbs, and salt.

Whisk the egg with the oil and milk and mix in with the dry ingredients to form a ball.

Place the dough ball between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out with a rolling pin. When it's about a 1/4 of an inch thick or less, cut into cracker pieces with a pizza cutter. Don't move the pieces, just cut.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. The edges should start to brown a little. Remove from the oven and completely cool.

home again

It's nice to be back home again to my own room, own comfortable bed, and kitchen where the baking pan fits in the oven and I don't have to lay it in at a diagonal. Tonight the museum studies program had a start-of-the-semester potluck where we got to meet all the new first year graduate students. There's some rule about not trying out new recipes for the first time when you're serving it to others, but I was in the mood for something new and chose to anyway.

Like I said I wanted to do earlier, I did indeed find some Finnish recipes and decided on one that I had especially enjoyed at the museum: karjalanpiirakka. I had to post a description of this food on Aardvark to figure out exactly what it was I was looking for, but thanks to Tilman in Helsinki who responded, I was able to find recipe for these Karelian pies. And here is the result:

They are rye crusts with filling (I used ground lamb for half and rice for the other) and butter/hard boiled egg topping. They were delicious! Actually, I only got to eat one (before the potluck) and when I went to pick up my platter afterwards, they were gone.

Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pastry or pie)

Crust
1 c rye flour (you can find it in the bulk section, or Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 t salt
1/2 c water

2 T melted butter
2 T milk

Filling
1 lb ground lamb
salt
pepper
dill
OR
1 c cooked rice
1/2 c milk
salt

Egg Butter
3 T melted butter
3-4 hard boiled eggs, finely diced
1/2 t ground ginger

To make the filling:
>If you're using meat, brown the meat in a skillet and season with salt, pepper, and dill.
>For rice, heat the rice with the milk and stir at a simmer until it thickens, like rice pudding. Season with salt.

For the crust:
1. Mix flours and salt and then add water and stir to form dough. It should not be sticky, otherwise it will not hold.
2. Roll into a log and cut into about 10 pieces and form balls. Use a rolling pin or your fingers to flatten each ball into about a 6" circle.
3. Preheat oven to 400 F.
4. Fill each piece of crust with about 3 T of filling, spreading it out nearly to the edges. Hold two opposite corners and begin folding in the edges and crimping them, leaving about 1/2" of crust around the top edge and the center exposed. Place pastries on a baking sheet.
5. Mix the 2 T melted butter and 2 T milk  together and use a pastry brush to brush the pastries.
6. Bake at 400 F for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown at edges and the rye crust is crispy.

Egg Butter:
1. Mix together the butter, diced hard-boiled eggs, and ginger until it is a somewhat mashed consistency.
2. Serve as a topping with the pastries.

Sockerkaka med Applen

I was in the mood for baking a cake this afternoon, but I wanted something simple, not too sweet or time-consuming, so I settled on a Swedish apple cake. Here's the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
 2 apples: thinly slice one with skins on, peel and dice the second
Apple or other preserves for glazing

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a baking dish, 9" pie pan, round cake pan, whatever you prefer. I used a ceramic tart pan that was large and so added some extra flour along with some milk.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.
3. Beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and butter in another bowl.
4. Combine dry and wet ingredients and add in the peeled/diced apples.
5. Pour batter into pan and arrange the sliced apples on top in some pretty way.
6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. If you like, you can heat up some preserves, mix with a bit of water, and spread over the top to glaze.

And there you go!

recipe time: cari chay

Here's a great recipe for cari chay, a Vietnamese vegetable & tofu curry. I brought a curry cookbook with me to California, and living so close to what I call the Wal-Mart of Asian grocery stores, it's been easy to find anything I need for the recipes. This recipe doesn't require too much out of the ordinary.

(adapted from Curry Cuisine)
Ingredients
3 T oil                                                            2 stalks of lemongrass
2 garlic cloves, crushed                             salt
1 shallot, thinly sliced                               2 lb of firm tofu, cut into 1" cubes
1.5 T curry powder                                    1 large bamboo shoot, thinly sliced (or 1 can of shoots)
1 T palm sugar (or white)                        2 Asian eggplants, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 liter coconut milk                                   cilantro or basil leaves
juice of 1 lime

1. Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the garlic & shallot for about 5 minutes until golden. Add the curry powder & palm sugar and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute.
2. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, and lemongrass. Add salt to adjust taste. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low.
3. Add the tofu, bamboo shoot, and Asian eggplants. Simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes until the eggplants have softened. Garnish with cilantro or basil.

Serve with baguette or rice. (The Vietnamese actually eat many of their meals, and especially curries, with a French-style baguette, as a carry-over from the French colonial period in the mid-1800s to mid-1900s. For a long time I couldn't figure out why the Asian grocery, which is mostly run by Vietnamese, was selling bread from a local French bakery!)

du fromage, but not of the French variety

Alright, it's time to learn to make cheese! This is an Imeruli cheese, from the Republic of Georgia, but a simple farmer's cheese and probably the easiest to make as far as cheese goes.

Some things you will need:
• Milk – 1 gallon, whole
• Buttermilk - 1/4 cup (or ½ cup plain yogurt)
• Rennet: 1/4 tablet rennet (e.g. Junket brand, though it's not specifically for cheese, it's usually the most easily available (at Whole Foods)) or 10 drops of liquid rennet (cheesemaking.com)
• Salt: non-iodized sea salt


• A food thermometer (that measures at least 60 to 100 F)
• Large wooden spoon
• Stainless steel pot with lid-- MUST be stainless steel! Sterilize it by boiling little bit of water for about 15 minutes and then draining it.
• Strainer
• Cheese cloth, also sterilized

This cheese process takes place over two days, so plan accordingly! It's quite easy to take 15 minutes before you go to sleep to start, and then it's ready to go in the morning.

Day 1

1. Warm the milk to 68oF in the sterilized pot and put aside.

2. Blend in buttermilk. Cover with the sterilized lid and let sit at room temperature overnight (or 8-10 hours).  

Day 2

3.Warm milk up to 86oF (constantly mix with the spoon).  

4.Dissolve ¼ tablet of rennet (or 10 drops of liquid rennet) in ¼ cup (120 ml) cold water. Add dissolved rennet to warmed milk and mix with the spoon. Remove from heat.

5. Cover the pot and set aside and DO NOT DISTURB! After about 40 minutes to an hour, take a look and test the milk for completed action of rennet ("clean break").  To test for “clean break” put your index finger into the milk and lift the top layer of the milk up (which should be like a Jell-O). The mixture should be firm and should have a crack when the finger is lifted. If it’s not ready, allow more time without stirring or disturbing the pot. 

6. When it’s ready, cut the curd with a long knife into half inch cubes (cut straight down to bottom repeatedly parallel to the previously cut side. Then rotate the pot 90 degrees, cut as before. Repeat this once again.
7. Place pot over a very low fire, stir curd with cleaned bare hand by reaching down to bottom, gently lifting and stirring. Cut larger curds as they appear. Do not mash or squeeze.  

8. Continue stirring for 15 minutes until the curds are about 95oF warm. Heating higher will make for a harder cheese. You can also add some salt in at this point if you like. Remove from the stove.  They should look like your typical curds and whey after all the stirring:

9. Place curds in a cheese cloth and over a strainer. Squeeze the mixture together to remove almost all the liquid and give a desired shape.  

10. Leave the cheese over a strainer for a few hours (or even overnight) to ensure that excess liquid is removed. I've been pretty creative with this part, constructing my own cheese press out of a plastic food container with poked holes and placing a can of food on top for weight. It's not necessary and you can certainly simply use cheesecloth only and form a ball, but it's fun to experiment!

11. Sprinkle some salt on the cheese from both sides and store in a container with a lid. Leave the salt to achieve desired flavor but once ready, wash the cheese with cold water and remove the salt.

early St Lucia's Day

So I'm still going through Ikea withdrawal, especially after getting an email about their "Swedish Holiday Smorgasbord". Because of that, I decided to make Lussekater, or Saint Lucia buns! I always remember St. Lucia's from reading American Girl books when I was little. St. Lucia's Day is a Swedish holiday celebrated on December 13th. It was around before Lucia was even a saint (as in, before Christianity), and was traditionally the day of the winter solstice (I suppose before they realized it actually wasn't?). In the book I read when I was little, the Swedish-American was Kirsten, and she wore a wreath with candles on her head and gave her parents breakfast on the morning of St Lucia's Day, which happened to include St. Lucia buns, all because she was the oldest daughter. Plus she had two looped braids hanging from the side of her head, which were awesome. See?

And here they are:

They are AMAZING! And you should try them, so here is the recipe, from the cookbook "The Swedish Table".

Lussekater
16 rolls

1 T sugar
1/4 c warm water
1 pkg. dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 c butter
3/4 c milk
1 t saffron
3 c all purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten with 1 T water
raisins

In a bowl, combine 1 T sugar, warm water, and yeast. Let sit 10 minutes or until yeast begins to bubble.

In a saucepan, combine butter, milk, and saffron. Heat until warm and the butter is melted, but do not boil. Let sit until temperature falls below 110 degrees F.  Add milk mixture to yeast in the bowl. Add flour and 1/2 c sugar and stir until combined and the dough is smooth and workable. If necessary, add more flour, up to 3 T.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled (or buttered) bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Divide into 16 pieces. Roll into 1" X 6" lengths. Coil ends in opposite directions, forming tightly curved S-shapes. Let rise for 1 more hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush buns with egg yolk and place raisins in center of curls (two for each bun). Bake 10-15 minutes, but don't let the raisins burn!

Evidently they freeze well too. I kind of feel like making a whole bunch and sharing them with everyone, because they are that good!