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.