Gjetost

Picture of Ski Queen Gjetost sold in the US

I have been made me a happy camper :)

Oh, before I start, I created a new look to the blog...I actually went in and changed the code..pretty simple to do, but I still get all excited about it. Me...changing code. Haha!

Anyway, back to the food. I've started making my own kefir, so I'm getting into things dairy, and on one of the message groups I belonged to, someone who shall remain anonymous, yet lauded from afar, mentioned that you can make Gjetost from whey AND provided the link for an awesome site that I hadn't been to in years that now possesses said information.
I did not know that you could make Gjetost from whey, and you can do it at home, rather easily! And I love Gjetost, it is the weirdest cheese on the planet. It is brown, soft, salty and sweet, it tastes like caramel cheese or like cajeta cheese.

Ski Queen Gjetost on Toast-hehe

This is the link to how to make Gjetost. It's located on a site called FANKHAUSER'S
CHEESE PAGE which has some other really cool recipes for cheese like blue cheese and marscapone, mozzerella, and feta.

Gjetost Cheese Making Page

Enjoy!

Photos gratefully lifted from the Norwegian Cheese website.

April Showers

So I've been a bad blogger, I realize that. But sometimes life gets in the way of peaceful moments to myself when I can sit and type and revel in foody things. I haven't been completely off my game, it's not like I've stopped cooking. I've made a few nice lasagnas - hubby's fav food and all, and I have a minute to sit and reflect on the art of making lasagna. I used to think that it was an involved process, but really, they're quite simple to throw together. I've picked up a few tricks along the way that I'll share.
First, the noodles. You have slight variations in noodle shape, but nothing drastic. Pick your favorite dried pasta. I've been using whole wheat pasta noodles because I try to watch my fiber intake and keep it at a good level- which can be easier said then done, but I don't find it effects the lasagna negatively. I don't pre-cook my noodles. Now don't get me wrong, I used to, but honestly, now I can't be bothered. It comes out just as nice without the pre-cooking. The trick is to thin down your sauce a bit with extra water, and then let the lasagna set after cooking, and you're good to go.
I like to use italian sausage as my meat of choice. I'm just not a big fan of ground beef, but I do love meatballs. Go figure.
I like to use spinach mixed with caramelized onions and eggplant cooked in olive oil and garlic as nice vegetable additions. I don't even get murmuring from the kids on this- probably because they don't know it's in there. haha
I use ricotta cheese, and if that's not possible I use homemade chenna cheese made from a gallon of milk and a few tablespoons of cider vinegar. It's super easy to make and makes a delicious alternative to ricotta. Please don't even think cottage cheese. No kidding, I once ate a lasagna that was made with cottage cheese and pimento spread (ten points if you know what that is). No, I am not making this up! However, if we're sticking to a sort of traditional version, you'd be better off with the ricotta or chenna.
Sometimes, I like to mix the ricotta with a little salt, beaten egg, parsley, things like that. Sometimes just a little salt. Sometimes a bit of garlic. Sometimes some parmesan or grana padano or chevre.
Ok, the assembly. Put in a generous amount of your watered-down sauce on the bottom of your pan. Put in the dry noodles, don't worry if they don't meet the whole way, they will expand so it's ok to allow for that.
Next is the meat layer. The meat is usually the heaviest component and if you put it up top it will press on your other stuff and squish it out. Now you can leave it just a meat layer, or put some veggies on top of the meat, or some cheese if you want a 2 cheese layer, a little more sauce, it's up to you.
Next, another layer of noodle. Put your ricotta, then sauce.
Top noodle, sauce and then shredded mozzarella.
Cover with foil and bake at 350* for about an hour. Try and tent the foil or it will stick to the cheese and that's a sad thing. After baking, let it set I'd say, at least an hour. The longer you let it set the better, as it will firm up considerably and not be all oozy when you cut into it. I've even made a lasagna a day in advance, reheated it before serving the following day and it was perfect. But whatever you decide, leave enough time for it to set-up properly or you won't be happy with the results.
Enjoy!

Beef Shanks

Meat is a blessing, in my not-so humble opinion, and as such, I take great pains to learn how to utilize every cut. It's part of my personal philosophy on the usage of meat. However, this knowledge comes especially in handy when there's a sale, with meat prices such as they are. I was very pleased the other day to find a sale on beef shanks. The shank is the portion of meat that comes from the legs of the animal. They are round cuts, with a marrow bone, very easy to identify. Being a leg-portion, and therefore well-used muscle, the shanks need a long, moist-cooking process to tenderize and become palatable. When they're done, though, oh heaven! Shank meat is amazingly delicious, rich and flavorful, and the opposite of dry and stringy.

A few tips on preparing shanks. I always wash and dry my meat before use, I think that's especially important for a shanks since there might be bone dust on them.

Beef Shanks, washed and ready for the next step

Then salt and pepper the meat well, and then dredge in flour, shaking off the excess.


Next, give them a really good browning and remove them from the pan.



What I like to do next is have ready a rough chopped mirepoix, that is, carrots, celery and onion. Alot of times, I like to make my shanks in a sort of osso bucco style, however I don't feel required to stick to any one recipe, and I can used the finished meat in a variety of ways, however back to the action.

Rough-cut Mirepoix:carrots, celery and onion ready for the pan

After I remove the meat from the pan I brown the veggies. I like to get a really good caramelization on the veggies, and then add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste and get that cooking.

Ready for the tomato paste

Then deglaze the pan with red wine, add the beef shanks back to the pan and bring up to about half-way up the shanks with water or beef stock, and bring up to a simmer. Put a lid on it and pop it into the over at 350* for and 1.5-2 hours, even longer, depending on how tough the beef was to begin with. Flip the meat over every 30-45 minutes so you can see how it's coming along, and so each side gets equal gravy opportunity.

This is pretty much a standard osso bucco recipe, with the exception that veal is the meat most often used for that dish. Served with a gremolata, you'd be on your way to osso bucco heaven.

Beef shanks, however, can be eaten in a few different ways. Serve with potatoes, rice, noodles or bread, or use as a base for other recipes like beef stew or chili, or make into an interesting stroganoff. The veggies can be left whole or pureed with the gravy. No matter what you decide to do with it, it will be delicious. Sorry I don't have a picture of the finished product, but we ate it. hehe

And don't forget the marrow for all you marrow lovers- you know who you are.

Happy Leap Day!

I just have to wish everyone a Happy Leap Day! It only happens once every four years you know. I've always found this day interesting, a testament to bad mathematics and keeping with traditions...even if said traditions are not as efficient as they could be. But hey, if we as a society placed great emphasis on efficiency over tradition, we'd all being using the metric system, driving hovercraft that run on gravity and speaking Esperanto. No worries on that, so fear not, all you inch-and-pound-loving masses out there!
No recipe today, sorry kids, just a snarky commentary on Leap Year. Be good!

Candied Orange Peel

This book really has useful information

My oh My! This has been a crazy month, I tell you. Maybe you've noticed my conspicuous absence, and maybe you haven't, but I've missed me! lol Even today I don't have alot of time to chat, so I decided to post a vintage recipe for candy. I love my old cookbooks, filled with food from a bygone era. Food definitely has fashions, and recipes go in and out of style. Also, frugality is a fashion that comes in and out of style as well, depending on the economics of the times. I personally respect recipes that are frugal, and come up with clever uses to make the most from our food. All food is life and I feel that I owe the life I consume, and I have a responsibility to, at the very least, make the best use of it we can and not waste. So that's why I appreciate recipes like I'm going to share for Candied Orange Peel. Yes, as in peel, that you normally throw out, being made into something tasty! That's my kind of frugal.

This cookbook, part of a set, belonged to my Grandmother, and my Mother thought she remembered that they were obtained via coupons that were given out at grocery stores for purchasing food back in the day. Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, the director of Culinary Arts Institute, (unfortunately, I couldn't find out any other information about said lady and said institute apart from other cookbooks) my book was printed in 1954, but there was a copyright for 1941 & 1949. It really has a wealth of useful information, such as tables of sugar temperatures, syrup tests, how to blanch nuts, clarify syrup, make fondant and marzipan, spin sugar and dip chocolates. I think that candymaking is sort of a fickle, and laborious process and that's probably why it's mostly bought today, rather than homemade. However, with the increase of questionable ingredients in our food supply, it might be kinda nice to know exactly what's in the candy we eat. So worth making at home kids!

Candied Orange Peel

4 large navel oranges
sugar
cold water

Peel oranges and cut the rinds into pieces of uniform size, about 1 inch long, by 1/4 inch wide. Place in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring almost to the boiling point, but do not boil. Pour off the scalding water and repeat this process two more times. Add to the peel its own weight in granulated sugar, cover with cold water, and boil until no sirup shows in the saucepan when it is tipped. Spread on a buttered platter, and roll in sugar when partially cooled.

Lemon peel may be candied in the same way.

The peel of oranges, lemons or grapefruit may be candied in larger pieces as halves or quarters if a longer cooking time in the sirup is allowed. Dry thoroughly before packing in airtight containers.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hershey's Chocolate Town Cookies "They're Different!"

This is the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies in the Universe, Multiverse, or any Verse you can come up with. I don't like soggy, cakey chocolate chip cookies, and these cookies are the the cure for that. Delicate and crisp, mmm pure chocolate chip cookie delight. This old bit of paper has been the recipe that my Mom and my Gram have used for my whole life- I know you can't tell by it's wonderful, pristine state of preservation. Anyway, I'm not sure how old this recipe is, and I'm not telling you how old I am, so...go make some cookies. They're good, but use butter. Shortening is nothing but a blob of goo assaulting your recipe with it's fatty taste!-lessness!!!



Hershey's Chocolate Town Cookies

Cream...1/2 cup shortening (Butter, butter, butter!!!!)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla, ...until light and fluffy

Fold.......1 egg well beaten and beat entire mixture

Sift.........1 cup and 2 level tablespoons sifted flour, 1/2 teaspoon soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt

Add........Sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture and stir in 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1 package Hershey's Semi-Sweet Dainties and mix thoroughly.

Drop.......By small spoonfuls on greased baking sheet.

Bake.......In moderate oven 375* F, about 10 minutes.

Yield.......50 cookies.

Yogurt and a How-To

Left to Right: Greek-style cow's milk yogurt, Sheep's milk yogurt, Goat's milk yogurt

I have a love for cultured foods, and by cultured I mean fermented, probiotic, or otherwise microorganism enhanced and wonderfully metamorphosed food. Researching cultured foods of the world has become a passion of mine, and I've been working on collecting information for a cookbook on the topic. But enough of that! Today I want to talk yogurt.

Yogurt is probably one of the easiest things in the world to make. There seems to be a lot of mysticism surrounding the process, and lots of gadgets you could buy to make it "foolproof". I think it's relatively foolproof without the gadgets, to be honest, and I'll tell you how I do it. But first, I bought a few interesting types of yogurt to contrast and compare my findings. The yogurt was made from sheep and goat milk. I couldn't resist. I wanted to see what the taste and texture differences were between the two, especially since I've never tasted sheep milk before. I also tried a cow's milk greek-style yogurt as well, so three different types of milk were represented.

The sheep milk yogurt was made by the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company located in Old Chatham, NY, which is less than 125 mi from my location in southern Westchester, so I appreciated the almost-local nature of it. I also really liked that it is made from plain sheep milk and cultures, and that's it, no stabilizers or additives. Texture was nice and smooth. That said, I was very wow'd by the "lamby" taste to the milk. Having never eaten a sheep dairy product before, that lamby taste is something I've only ever associated with lamb meat, so it threw my taste buds into a bit of a connundrum. I can't say that I liked it, but to be fair, I think I'll have to try it again now that I know to expect the lamby taste .

The goat milk yogurt was made by Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery located in Sebastopol, CA. It says on the carton that it was the first goat milk dairy in the US to be designated Humane Raised and Handled, which is very much appreciated. This yogurt does have tapioca and pectin in it, which I wasn't particularly happy to see, but to be fair, I have never made yogurt from fresh goat milk, so I'm not sure if it perhaps sets up very runny and needs a bit of a firming agent. Anyhow, the texture was smooth, and firmer than the sheep yogurt. I really liked the taste. It was tangy and delicious. It wasn't unusual to me as I eat and enjoy fresh goat cheese quite frequently and the taste is along those lines.

The Greek-style yogurt that I tried is the Trader Joe's brand. I very much appreciate that their dairy products are rBST free, and that there were no added ingredients, except for nonfat milk. I really liked the texture, it was creamy and thick, and would work as a delicious sour-cream substitute. Adding nonfat milk powder is a trick you can use to thicken yogurt without adding non-dairy thickeners, which brings me to the how-to portion of todays entry.

How to Make Yogurt

1 qt. milk
Plain yogurt of your favorite brand containing live cultures
dry milk powder, optional

The most important thing in making yogurt is to have clean utensils. This will include your hands. Bring the milk to a boil in a pot that has a lid, and then remove from the heat.

Let the milk cool until you can stick your finger in the milk and count to 10 before it's too hot to stand.

Whisk in 2-3 T. of your plain yogurt into the milk. If you want thicker yogurt, whisk in 1/4-1/2 cup or dry milk powder.

Put the lid on the pot and put in a warm place for about 5 hours. What I use for a warm place is my oven that I turn on the lowest it will go for a minute or two, and then turn off. If your oven isn't gas with a pilot light, wrapping the pot in a towel to keep it cozy might be an idea, or just wrapped in a towel on your counter if your kitchen is very warm . Keep in mind the whole idea is the same as rising bread...warm let's the little cultures grow and turn your milk into yogurt, hot kills them, and cold makes them inactive. Use your best judgement, and if you look after 5 hours and it's still milk, don't go crazy, just re-use the milk and try again.

Remove to a container with a lid for storage in the fridge.

Don't forget to leave a little bit in the container to use for your next batch!

Some variations to think about:

Add lemon zest, juice and a bit of sweetener to the milk, and then add your culture, proceed as above, and voila! lemon yogurt. You can make vanilla and chocolate yogurt in this fashion as well.

A delicious Indian variation is to use condensed milk, which you can boil down yourself if you so choose, and jaggery, which is unrefined sugar. Dissolve it in the hot milk, let it cool to the appropriate 10 second temperature, and then add the culture and proceed as normal.

After the yogurt is done, stir in some of the fruit jam of your choice for flavored fruit yogurt like you could buy in the store.

Like to make homemade butter? Fresh buttermilk makes really tasty yogurt.

I love to eat yogurt plain with some honey drizzled on it. Heavenly!