Heal My Life

Totally Cheesy

It occurred to me this morning after falling asleep during Flyboys, which is a good movie but clearly not good enough to keep me awake after a full day of Chicken Hysteria, that my dream of a bucolic country life is fading fast.  After spending the past year reading and rereading and sighing over pictures of gently grazing farm animals over at Farmgirl Fare, I thought "Yes - I'm SO ready for this".

And yes really, I was - am.  Ready I mean.  What I hadn't figured on were all the things that go on OUTSIDE the pretty photos and while the smiling and industrious Farmgirl was off spreading anti-peck tar on her chicken's tails.  No-one in their right mind takes pictures of that stuff.  If fo no other reason than your hands, clothes and hair are covered with the stuff you're trying to get onto the chickens and who has the presence of mind to wipe hands on jeans and snap a few shots; certainly not me.   

Last night after the day in Chicken Hell, while I was over there at Farmgirl, looking at the pretty pictures and mumbling "there's no-place like home" to myself, it occured to me that if my pre-rural life was not like the pretty pictures, why would my rural life be any different?  I mean, when we lived at the tip of Manhattan, in one of the prettiest neighborhoods in the city, it got destroyed by terrorist planes while we watched.  So seriously, what was I thinking? 

I guess I was thinking that if I removed myself from hustle and bustle, serenity would finally prevail and I would instantly become calm and rosy cheeked.  So okay, I have the rosy cheeks but that's menopause and it has nothing to do with the fresh air.  And the calm, well, it's gotta be around here somewhere.  But this morning as I chipped ice from the chicken's water thingies and made a mental note to go to town and get two water thingy heaters today, I realized with a start - that I would never have the Farmgirl's life.  I would have mine. 

And mine looks more like a Tim Robbin's Nightmare on the Farm movie than even the charming travails of the The Egg and I.  And the sooner I accept this fact of my life - that there will probably ALWAYS be running around and bleeding, and frozen water bowls and overheating cars - the happier, or at least less hysterical, I will be.  So... okay, today I buy chicken water heaters and seriously think about insulation for that coop... 

Because I was too tired to do it last night but I really want you to have it, here is the recipe for the Ricotta.  Try halving it if two cups of the stuff is too much for you.  It's amazingly simple and you won't believe you haven't been making it all along - it tastes THAT much better than store bought.  Oh, and I used un-homoginized local organic milk - but any good quality whole milk will do just as well.   

Homemade Fresh Ricotta

I have worked on many variations of this recipe - trying it over and over again trying to get the right combination of taste, consistency, and ease of preparation. I have used readily available enzymes from the grocery store, vegetable enzymes from cheese distributors, fresh lemon juice, citric acid from the drug store, yogurt, and run-of-the mill, inexpensive white distilled vinegar.

This recipe is definitely a winner-a perfect ten. The vinegar in this preparation is what makes the milk form curds. If there is too little vinegar, the curds will not fully form and you will get a smaller yield. If there is too much vinegar, you will get an acidic tasting ricotta. Accordingly, the vinegar should not exceed 5 percent of the volume of moisture.

Ricotta is so easy to make and the taste so special that you will want to make it weekly to have on hand for eating and cooking. You will need to have a cooking thermometer for your first couple of attempts. The Taylor instant read pocket thermometer is my preference. It is reliable, inexpensive, and compact.

Yield: 4 cups
Preparation Time: 45 minutes (it took me less)

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon whole pasteurized milk
• 1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (more if you want a saltier taste and if you are not going to use it for desserts)

Procedure:

1. Rinse the inside of the pot you intend to use with cold water (this helps prevent the milk from scorching). Place 1 gallon milk in large, heavy non-reactive pot on medium heat. Add salt and stir briefly. Allow milk to heat up slowly, stirring occasionally. Soon you will notice steam start to form above the surface and tiny bubbles appearing on the milk. You want it to reach 180-185 degrees, near scalding temperature, just before it comes to a boil. Check the temperature with your thermometer.

2. When it reaches the correct temperature, take the pot off the burner, add the vinegar and stir gently for only one minute. Add salt. You will notice curds forming immediately. Cover with a dry clean dish towel and allow the mixture to sit undisturbed for a couple of hours. You can also begin preparing your ricotta in the morning before going to work and let it sit until you come home.

3. When the ricotta has rested for 2 hours or more, take a piece of cheesecloth, dampen it and place it inside a colander. With a slotted spoon, ladle out the ricotta into the prepared colander. Place the colander with ricotta inside of a larger pan so it can drain freely. Let it drain for two hours or so depending on how creamy or dry you want your cheese to be.

4. Lift the cheesecloth up by the four corners and twist gently. If the liquid runs clear, squeeze a little more. If the liquid runs milky, there is no more need to squeeze. Place in a tight sealed container. Refrigerate. It will keep for up to 7 days. Ricotta does not freeze well.

Notes:

I would advise against the use of low fat or part skim milk in making the ricotta. The flavor comes from the cream in the whole milk. For desserts, add 1 pint heavy whipping cream along with the milk. I use this variation when I am making ricotta for a dessert filling such as cannoli, cassata, or cream puffs. It is richer, creamier, and a bit more decadent.                   

Easter Coconut Egg Custards

Happy Easter!  I'm off having Easter breakfast and dinner with the family tomorrow, so I'm posting this tonight for you. Since eggs on Easter is a tradition, I thought I'd offer up a delicious eggy dessert, quick enough to make with items on hand if you happen to have coconut.  These absolutely yummy custards were a snap to make.  A and I ate them hot out of the oven during dinner.  Actually, we ate two apiece between the main course and the salads.  Dessert in-between?

Pastéis de Coco (Portuguese Coconut-Custard Tarts)

Makes 10 Custards

Adapted from David Leite's recipe on Leites Culinaria.  (I reduced the sugar, added vanilla and substituted 1/2 & 1/2 for the milk).  His Aunt Exaltina has made these delicacies for as long as he can remember. But are they decadent custards, eggy macaroons, or a bit of both? For 35 years, no one's been able to decide. Grab a spoon and judge for yourself. 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup 1/2 and half, light cream or milk
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Adjust the rack to middle position. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with 10 paper cupcake liners, or use individual ovenproof cups or souffle dishes.
2. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/4 cup of the milk. Set aside.
3. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade shred the coconut flakes for 30 seconds.
4. In a large mixing bowl, stir the eggs and sugar together with a wooden spoon. One by one, add the cornstarch mixture, remaining milk, coconut, melted butter and lemon extract, stirring well after each addition.
5. Ladle the custard into the paper cups, filling to 1/4 inch from the top. (NOTE: Make sure to stir frequently to keep the coconut well distributed.)
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the coconut is nicely toasted. Cool completely in the tin before serving.

Sante Fe Rugelach

This is what I made on Tuesday.  I was lucky enough to get the kitchen to myself for an hour, which is a requirement for any really fiddly desserts.  I can't scatter flour, nuts and chocolate all over the room if I have an audience, and I can't accomplish the Buddha without making a mess.  I had made the dough the day before, when I was NOT alone and it had been happily chilling. 

I hadn't decided what the filling was going to be until I went upstairs to assemble and bake.  Then it hit me.  Anthony and I had been looking at Truchas properties online that morning and I had New Mexico on the brain.  I also happen to be reading The Essence Of Chocolate and always have some Scharffenberger in the pantry.  Hey, Mexican, Aztec... chocolate, cinnamon, pinon nuts and WHEEEEE - CHIPOTLE!   

Santa Fe Rugelach

I made these rugelach while thinking about Santa Fe and our impending relocation there.  They are not very sweet as I don't do sugar dominant desserts. The chocolate dominates, then you get the sweetness of the pinon nuts and finally, the kick of the chipotle.  We were so happy with these, half the first tray never made it onto the plate.

Makes 32 - 36

Dough

8 T butter (4 oz) at room temperature
4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup flour
½ t salt
2 t sugar
1 beaten egg for wash

Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy
Add dry ingredients slowly and combine well
Scrape dough onto plastic wrap, form into a flat rectangular brick and chill 2 hours or overnight

Filling

1 cup pinon nuts, whirled in food processor with about a tablespoon of sugar until coarsely chopped
¾ cup grated chocolate, grate on largest holes of grater into a bowl for least mess (I used Scharffen Bergen bittersweet)
1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
1 t cinnamon
1/8 - ¼ teaspoon chipotle pepper powder, or to taste.  Chipotle is a fully ripened and smoked Jalapeno pepper.  You can also use Ancho Powder, which is a dried Poblano pepper and has a milder, richer but still smoky flavor. You can leave it out – but you’ll be missing something – the smoky chipotle flavor and the fact that they bite you back is just fabulous.

Toss together ground nuts, grated chocolate, cinnamon and chipotle, set aside or chill if the kitchen is hot.

Note: This is too much filling for two rolls, by about a third.  You can adjust my recipe or wrap the rest up and refridgerate it for another use.  It would be great on vanilla ice cream!

Assemble

Notes: I use a marble rolling pin that I keep in the refrigerator for all tender dough.  The weight of the pin makes fast work of rolling out and the chilling helps keep the dough cool and manageable – a nice attribute when working with cream cheese dough!

I also use plastic wrap for rolling out practically everything.  While not esthetically pleasing, or environmentally responsible, it does make short work of soft and tacky doughs, which means I’m willing to bake with them more often.  My family thanks me for this. 
 
Beat the egg well and set aside with a pastry brush at hand.
Cut the brick of dough in half.  Refrigerate one half.  Tear a sheet of plastic wrap at least 17 inches long.  Working quickly, center the chilled dough on the wrap, sprinkle top with flour and roll out to a rectangle 6½ x 16.
Place a second sheet of plastic wrap on top of the rolled dough.  Flip the wrap/dough/wrap sandwich over so that the floured side faced down.
Carefully peel the top sheet of plastic wrap off and discard.  If small tears appear, seal them with your finger.

Arrange dough so that a long edge it towards your body.
Brush evenly with egg, reserving the remainder to brush the assembled rolls.   
Sprinkle filling evenly across dough, starting at the long edge closest to you, leaving a 1” strip uncovered on one long edge (sealing edge)

Lift the wrap under long edge closest to you and use it to roll the dough away from your body, as snugly as you can, upon itself and the filling. Continue to use the wrap to ease the roll over until it rolls onto the sealing edge.  Gently ease the roll back towards you from the other edge, using the wrap to roll it, and press the sealing edge along the entire seam with your fingers.  Leave the log in the wrap and roll it over so that the sealed edge is in the bottom. 

Gently transfer it to a cookie sheet and chill for at least an hour.

Repeat with the second half of the dough, making two logs.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 350 while logs are chilling.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and grease the paper.   

Remove logs from refrigerator and wash with reserved egg. 
Sprinkle logs with sugar.
Using a very sharp knife, slice into 1” pieces and place on prepared cookie sheets, seam side down.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until deep golden brown.
Rotate cookie sheets once, top to bottom and back to front, after eight - ten minutes
Cool 15 minutes on sheets before attempting to remove cookies.

Eat

Sip coffee.
Bite cookie.
Sigh.

April 3, 2007

Hazlenut Shortbread Cookies

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a healthy and bright 2007, and that you bake a lot, or knit a lot or read a lot or do whatever makes you happy - A LOT! 

And what did I do last night?  I made COOKIES!  I've been thinking hazelnut cookies for a month, and after having supremely disappointing hazelnut sandwich cookies at $24 a lb. from Dean and Deluca - I had to have a go at it myself.  And if I do say so myself - mine are not just better - they're awesome. 

Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

This is an fabulously easy recipe: I adapted it from a Southern Living recipe I made while at Anthony's aunt's house on the Chesapeake this past Thanksgiving.  Not too sweet - the dough is easier to roll and transfer than shortbread recipes with a higher butter/flour ratio - no chilling necessary. The cookies are firm and delicately flavored. 

This dough is endlessly adaptable.  Make it plain; use brown sugar in place of the confectioners sugar; add 1/4 t. lemon extract, lemon rind and poppy seeds in place of the hazelnuts;  add cocoa powder for chocolate shortbread, you're only limited by your imagination!

1 Cup + 3 tablespoons unsalted softened butter
2/3 Cup confectioners sugar
3 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon salt (if using salted butter - omit this salt)
3/4 Cup whole hazelnuts, toasted, skins rubbed off, and ground finely*

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Blend all ingredients together with a hand mixer until dough comes together into a ball. 
3. Roll out to 1/4", cut with cookie cutters, gathering and re-rolling scraps.
4. Transfer to baking sheets and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until just lightly browned at edges.  Some people like their shortbread with no brown edges, and you could lower the baking temp to 325, and go 15-20 minutes to achieve this, but I like mine browned.
5. Remove to rack and cool.
6. dip one side into melted chocolate and allow to harden on rack, if you wish.  I was too tired to do this last night, and the cookies won't last long enough for me to get around to it today.
7. Invite someone over for a cup of coffee and munch in the new year!

* Don't skip this step - untoasted nuts don't have anywhere near the flavor of toasted nuts.  Toast hazelnuts in a shallow pan in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or just until they are fragrant and lightly browned (don't over bake, or they'll be bitter and burnt tasting).  pour the hot nuts onto a clean, dry dishtowel and rub the skins off.  Don't worry if you don't get them perfectly clean.  Cool slightly and chop or grind them finely.  You can also use pecans, walnuts or pine nuts in place of the hazelnuts. - but I had a craving.

    

Day One vs Aggression Oatmeal Cookies

You have to love a recipe that starts out with: Day One.  Please note, I am NOT afraid of multi-day cooking marathons.  I have prepared many things, including mascrapone, various pickled vegetables, sourdough bread, Wife Saver Brunch and other oddities that require more than one day to come to fruition.  And more than plenty of those that take the better part of a whole day and dirty every pot, pan and bowl in the house. 

I'll admit to a penchant for making the sorts of things that most people buy from a store.  We make out own aquavit, peanut brittle and seitan (wheat gluten that looks and kind of tastes like meat).  We have put lobster shells through our Green Machine juicer (we do not have a duck press - yet) to make lobster juice for lobster flambe.  We have starter for sourdough bread.  We smoke our own fish and have gotten up at 4 AM to go to the Fulton fish market to buy that fish (when we lived in Manhattan, we smoked the fish on our balcony).  But still, I am non-plussed by a recipe that states in no uncertain terms; this will take DAYS out of your life.  I hope you REALLY like food, because this here recipe’s a doozy.  On your mark - get set – GO!  Day One.

The recipe in question is for rye bread.  Not just any rye bread, but the thick, dense, chewy kind only available fresh in Europe.  Oh, you can buy it here under the label Mestemacher, and it’s okay, but it’s been on the shelf for who knows how long and is just not the same as fresh.  So my sweet A., seeking the next impossible thing to recreate, decided to make his own “rye bread”.  He grew up in Europe and has the patience for these sorts of culinary adventures.  He also really likes to dirty pots and bowls and it’s not really fun unless EVERY spice we own (and we own a lot of spices) is out on the counter.  He found a recipe on Zarah Maria’s blog – Food and Thoughts and tomorrow it’ll be on your mark…

I on the other hand, am at heart, the one pot wonder.  I LOVE recipes that take one bowl, one pot one spoon, you know, like that.  Yes, I do all of the above, but what I really enjoy, what floats my culinary boat, is simplicity – a oneness with the kitchen so to speak.  So in self-defense, while he’s creating havoc, I am going to create some simplicity (and release some tension to boot) and make my second favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, which I found on www.allrecipes.com. In one bowl of course

Aggression Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 5 dozen and you feel GREAT afterwards!

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup flour

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in a good sized bowl

2. Mash, knead, beat, squeeze until there are no lumps of butter
3. Form into small balls, not as big as a walnut
4. Put on ungreased cookie sheet
5. Butter the bottom of a small glass and dip in sugar
6. Flatten each ball of dough, dipping glass into sugar each time
7. Bake at 350, 10 - 12 minutes

8. Let cool on wire rack

9. Eat

*Note  - you can add all sorts of spices to this recipe but that flies in the face of the whole simplicity thing.

**2nd Note - kids love making these cookies, so if you're not getting out your aggression because of them - it's a great family activity

Chocolate Cupcakes - Vegan, sort of...

I would like to post something about how fabulous my knitting life is, but sadly, I'm still knitting away at baby and kid socks these days.  I am, however, drooling over the blue ruffly cardigan on the front of the Adrienne Vittadini Spring Summer 2005 book.  This sweater epitomizes what I am not today, but would sure as heck like to be: dressed in a spotless white cotton lawn and lace dress, reclining in a row boat, with a parasol, and this dreamy blue sweater, while someone else rows.  Sparkling water, not to much conversation, lazy in the sun.  I am instead, typing this post, while dreaming about all the other things I'm supposed to be doing, dressed in jeans, a comfortable old fleece ad my demented clown Lorna's Laces socks.  Sigh.

Well anyway, so I'm not the knitting queen today, but I do have something wonderful to share - the best darn chocolate cupcakes ever.  No joke, every time I make these cupcakes I barely live through the stampede of folks wanting the recipe.  I've taken to bringing copies of it with me whenever I make them.  Well except for the last time.  A. thought it would be fun to bake them in ice cream cones, you know, the wafer ones with the flat bottoms, and decorate them to look like real ice cream cones - like our moms used to make for us when we needed to take cupcakes to school. 

Unfortunately, the gathering was a relatively childless, rather literary crowd who just didn't get it.  I guess none of them had ever had the ice-cream cone cupcake experience as children or parents.  So co one ate our Delicious and (in my opinion) adorable creations until I stationed myself in front of the tray and explained the joke (and the contents therein) to anyone who even remotely glanced at the tray.  I ate three just to make myself feel better.  Note to self - find out who's going before deciding what to bring. 

Technically, the cupcake recipe is Vegan, since there is no dairy, and you can keep them that way by sprinkling the tops with a bit of confectioners sugar, but I shoot the works and slather them with butter frosting.  What can I say, a chocolate cupcake without a rich buttery vanilla frosting is not really a cupcake. 

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder* (heaping)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil (not olive)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350. place paper cups into muffin pan
2. whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Add oil, vanilla, vinegar, water and salt.  Mix until smooth.
3. Divide into 12 cups and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until done.  Remove from oven and cool on rack.

Butter Frosting

6 tablespoons salted butter at room temperature
3 cups of confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk, heated to lukewarm

1. Cream butter till light. Gradually add sugar and mix at medium speed until smooth, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
2. Beat in vanilla and milk until smooth, lick beaters.
3. With small spatula, frost cupcakes, make coffee, sigh in sheer delight

*NOTE: the hands down best cocoa powder ever, double Dutch dark cocoa, is to be had from: www.bakerscatalog.com . It totally rocks the flavor of these cupcakes and anything else you use it for.  And to really push it over the edge, they also have REAL chocolate sprinkles from Guittard, not chocolate flavored wax bits, but REAL chocolate.  Yum. 

Best Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

In case I haven't told you - I love dessert.  So much so, that for a couple of years I was an experimental baker for the Well-Bred Loaf.  And I decorated cakes for a living.  Anything to be close to my real first love - sugar.  So, in my endless quest to figure out how to get more sugar into my life (yes, I do know how bad it is for me, that's part of the fun), I bake.  Alot. 

Baking, in addition to providing a steady stream of dessert, soothes me.  There is something hypnotic about measuring, sifting. stiring, mixing, whipping, pouring, scooping greasing, baking, cooling... that drives all other thought from my mind. I am focused on the task.  Not thinking, not fretting.  And as if that weren't enough, I get a treat at the end!  It's a lot like knitting but there's sugar.

So, as I munch on the last peanut butter cookie, it occured to me that I should share this fabulous recipe with you.  It's my absolute favorite.  It's the peanut butter cookie I used to get in grade school in the early 60's.  As a cookie,  it's crisp and salty sweet and full of rich peanut butter flavor.  So without further delay:

Best Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

1/4 cup salted butter
1/4 cup shortening (not butter flavored)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use skippy)
1/2 cup (scant) sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Cream butter, shortening, sugars. 
2. Add peanut butter and egg, mix well
3. Mix in dry ingredients
4. Shape into 1" balls (I use a small cookie scoop for this) and flatten in a criss cross pattern with fork dipped in sugar
5. Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 10 - 12 minutes (watch them carefully - they burn quickly). Cool briefly on cookie sheet before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk or a cup of coffee.  Yum.