Cheese!

I'm going to make cheese. It's happening, probably tomorrow, beginning with ricotta. And it will be recorded. I'll probably end up with cheese on my camera lens. Right now, though, I'm just eating cheese.

After my extremely late dinner of a giant scoop of hummus with crackers, I had a hankering for dessert. I opened the freezer and took one look at the old standby ice cream and knew it was no good. In fact, the only sweet thing that was really appealing to me was the porto in the fridge-o, and look, just a few door shelves up - cheese, a perfect match! I used to make cheese plates at A16 when I worked in the pantry. I despised making them. They took forever and threw off my whole rhythm. Once again, making something for myself is a million times more rewarding than making it for some douchy low-tippin' bastard...or even a good customer. Here, along with the largest raspberries ever grown, is organic chevre from the Amaltheia Dairy, P'tit Basque, and Le Gruyere. They are goat, sheep, and cows milk, respectively. The basque is my favorite - I was inappropriately excited when they had whole wheels of it at Costco, but I managed to suppress the urge to squeal. The chevre was best smashed into the raspberries. And the gruyere, well, it was ok. It's never been one of my favorites. 

Today was a particularly good day for my kitchen. My lovely mother subsidized an upgrade to stainless steel from my old, scratched non-stick crap that's been through the dishwasher about 800 times too many. I also acquired les fromages, way too many raspberries and blackberries, peaches (cobblers? fruit tarts?), more garden kale, and a new cookbook, Ad hoc at home, by Thomas Keller. He's the guy from The French Laundry, and this the cookbook from his 'comfort food' restaurant, which translates to the ingredients being less obscure and expensive. I also found my old Escoffier, and borrowed my mom's baking guide/picture book.

I threw in the Arabian cookbook for something blue. Because I'm getting married. To my kitchen.

Leek and Kale Quiche

I'm back! Without school, and without a job, I find myself returning to hiking, knitting, and cooking. I had to change the name. I slipped from occasional cheating to regular cheating to a few weeks on, a few weeks off and now, well, here I sit, eating quiche that is vegetarian only because vegetables sounded like the best filling. I can't wait to make one with pancetta! There are various reasons for my fall from grace, but at this point I'm eating mostly organic foods (it's a must for meats, and as for dairy, I try, but good organic cheese is a bitch to find) and very few processed foods, which I'm really picky about anyway. Also, meat is delicious. I never really forgot this fact, and even in my vegan glory days I would occasionally buy and devour an entire rotisserie chicken.

This morning I finished a beautiful leek and kale quiche. The recipe is mostly from Smitten Kitchen and is itself borrowed and adapted from Julia Child and everyone's favorite, Martha Stewart. The dough recipe was great, even with my substitution of whole wheat pastry flour. I wanted something a little greener in my quiche, so I used the kale I picked last weekend from my sister Kathryn's square foot garden. I adapted the leek and mushroom preps from Smitten Kitchen as follows:

1 bunch kale, spines removes, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 or so tablespoons port wine
1/4 cup water
salt

I put all the ingredients in a saucepot, covered them, and cooked on medium heat, braising the kale, trying to get the liquid to reduce - but green leafies are full of water and as they cook, more water collects in the pot. So then I uncovered it, to allow more evaporation. And then I turned the heat up in my impatience. I got distracted, and what I was doing, I don't even know, but suddenly I smelled burning and like a flash of lightning had the kale out of the pot and into a bowl! Luckily, only a few leaves stuck to the pot were extra crispy, and the rest was fine, except, well, way too salty.

This was the night before. I also made the dough and par-baked the shell the night before, and braised the leeks. That leeks recipe is by far the best leek cooking method ever, and really easy. In the morning I just grated the cheese in my handy food processor (hand grating is for suckas), whipped together my eggs and heavy cream (always go for the cream when you can), nuked the leeks and kale so they wouldn't slow down the whole process, and popped it all in the oven. I had totally forgotten about the kale/salt situation, but I also forgot to add salt to the eggs and cream, and it turned out to be exactly the perfect compliment for proper seasoning. Thanks amnesia!

Quiche would regularly come with a side of greens, but it's breakfast, and I didn't think I could handle salad for breakfast, so instead, I'm having some Turkish figs topped with a bit of home-Greekified yogurt. They always sweeten or defat or or otherwise ruin this perfect food of the gods (except Fage, which has a plain, full fat variety with almost the texture of ricotta, mmmmm), but luckily, its easy peasy to Greekify your own. Just take some delicious, plain, organic, full fat yogurt, wrap it in cheesecloth, plop it in a strainer, and maybe put something on top as a weight - nothing too heavy, I used a carton of raspberries. Discard the liquid that strains out, and voilà, Greek yogurt.

Seriously, where have I been?

Well, there were some exams and then spring break and now there's some more exams. Which I am actually studying for as I type. But anyway, I made the peanut butter blondies from the Moskowitz cookie book, with part almond butter. Finally finished the giant Costco jar of almond butter and now I never want any more ever again. EVER! The blondies were delicious, but other than the edges, they weren't really cooked, more just melted. If I made them again I think I'd shape them into cookies or put them in mini cupcake molds for a more baked product.

I know this is a cooking blog, but I finished a sweater today!

Stupid exams, taking my time away from important things. Like watching endless hours of House and making cupcakes. Anyways, three new recipes and one new sweater. We'll start with the salad:

Caesar Salad from The Veganomicon 9/10

I always thought caesar salad was just something I'd have to live without, however sad and lonely it made me feel. It is not true. I am the person who buys a bin of lettuce and lets 85% of it rot, but this dressing got me through all three romaine hearts. This is the kind of dish you take to potlucks and after everyone's been raving about it, break the news that it's vegan. The garlic croutons are good enough to eat on their own, or stale, or after dropping in cat litter.

Massaman curry, from The Asian Vegan Kitchen 7/10
I've never made my own curry paste from scratch before, or even bought and used pre-made curry paste. I've always left it to Thai restaurants. This curry didn't quite live up to my favorite, but I must admit, I couldn't find Thai chiles and had to use serranos, and didn't add any extra spice what with the lovely cold I've had the last few days. But it's still pretty darn good. I think next time I'll add more veggies, maybe some red pepper or broccoli.

Hot Fudge Sauce 6/10
When I said I was going to make hot fudge sauce my Catholic roommate started giggling like a horny 14 year old boy. I've always heard hot lunch or hot carl, but you never know with these Floridians. Anyway, I used a recipe from veg-web, even though you never can be sure with these recipes. I used rice milk because it was all that I had (I think soy would be better, it's thicker), and semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of unsweetened baker's chocolate. I cut back a little on the sugar as a result. I had to reduce the mixture for several minutes, and I wish I'd followed my gut and done it before adding the chips instead of after, but everything turned out in the end. It's not quite the same texture as the Mrs. Richardson's we used to eat, but then again, no corn syrup or sweetened condensed milk. I think next time I'll use either soy milk or a recipe for sweetened condensed milk replacer.

Sweater!!!
I know this is supposed to just be about cooking, but I finally finished the sweater I've been knitting since October! And it's awesome. I'll get some pictures up soon.

OMFG I just had an orgasm in my mouth!

Because cooking is more fun than horse anatomy, and because baking cookies doesn't require chopping, and because giving yourself a stomachache by eating too many cookies before noon is a serious accomplishment, I just made Peanut Almond Butter Chocolate Pillows, which are like peanut butter cups, except the chocolate on the outside is in cookie form. And I used almond butter because what else am I going to use a Costco jar of almond butter for?

Mine don't look quite like the ones in the book (Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar), but that's probably just because the relative humidity inside my house is somewhere around 5%, and I didn't up the liquid content at all.

This gets a 10, but it also kind of invalidates all other high scores, because really it should get an 11.

Break's over

There was so much food left over from the potluck last Saturday, I didn't cook anything else until today. I finally couldn't take anymore bean and rice dip and got back to eating some slightly more fresh food.

"Enraged Penne" 8/10
from Mediterranean Vegan Diet
Substituted rice pasta spirals for the penne, but otherwise followed the recipe. This was really good, although I might add more pepperoncinis next time. I don't even like pepperoncinis, except in this.

Sweet Potato with Piloncillo Syrup and Chile de Arbol 8/10, but the syrup itself gets a 10
This recipe is from Pati's Mexican Table
I think yams would have been better, but the mix of sweet, spicy, and citrus is off the charts. And, I may never buy brown sugar again. Piloncillo, aka panela, has this amazing texture, like butter.


Cucumber Chayote Slaw 5/10
I didn't use fresh pineapple, but I don't think that's the problem. I doubt it's the chipotle paste being frozen for 4 months. I think it's that instead of vinegar or lemon juice, the dressing has pineapple juice in it. Without any acid and very little spice, the slaw doesn't taste bad, it's just boring. I'm going to add some lemon juice and chile flakes.

Feijoada with yucca cakes and braised collard greens

This is from The Artful Vegan, a cookbook from the Millenium.

Feijoada is a black bean stew that originated in Portugal, but is common in former Portuguese colonies, especially Brazil. This stew was the weakest part of the dish. It was tasty, but too spicy for what should be a mild dish. I used 3 red peppers and 2 poblanos; one poblano would have been better. The yucca cakes were very popular, as you would imagine a deep fried starch patty would be. It's kind of a glorified tater tot, but in a good way. The braised collard greens were also excellent, and really easy to make.

I give it 7/10