Moving Day

I’m migrating this blog to a new host, so expect delays. I hope it’ll be fixed within 24 hours on Monday the 24th by Wednesday the 26th. Maybe it’ll be longer, I don’t know. If you end up at a site with the same name that says it’s a test site, you’re at the right place, but I just haven’t managed to import all my posts yet.

WordPress has been great as a free host, but now it’s time to do things I can’t on a free host. Thanks for your patience!

Home Creamery: Chèvre

Chèvre is a cheese that commands a premium in the marketplace. I always assumed that there was a real art to making good chèvre. Turns out that it’s embarrassingly easy!

To make this cheese you need a gallon of goat milk, a packet of chèvre culture, a colander, some butter muslin, a thermometer, and a stainless steel pan with lid. I purchased my culture through New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

So here’s the big secret. Heat the milk to 86°, sprinkle the culture onto the milk and stir it in, then cover. Keep the covered pan in a warm place for 12 hours while the bacteria do their magic. Then carefully lift the curds into a colander lined with butter muslin. You can leave it in the colander or hang it, your choice. Let it drain for 12 hours. Yield is about 2 pounds. If you’ve made yogurt, you have all the skills needed for chèvre.

You could choose to mold it into logs, or into boules, or not at all. I molded it by packing a ramekin full, then turning the cheese out into a container to marinate. I let the cheese marinate in extra virgin olive oil with some fresh herbs until ready to serve.

The recipes you’ll find usually call for pasteurized goat milk, and that’s the legal thing to do. I, however, am a scofflaw and used raw goat milk. It made a truly delightful chèvre.

Cherry Liqueur

Here in the Pacific Northwest we have an abundance of cherries, particularly Rainier and Bing cherries. When I saw Rainier cherries for $1.49 per pound, I knew it was time to try making a liqueur.

I started with two pounds of Rainier cherries, unpitted, and added 1½ cups of sugar and a fifth of grain alcohol. I let it sit outside in the sun for four weeks.

After four weeks, I strained the liquor and discarded the Rainiers. Then I added two pounds of pitted Bing cherries, 1 cup sugar, one cinnamon stick about 3″ long, and two vanilla pods. I let that mixture sit for two weeks in the sun.

Then I strained the liquor again and added two pounds pitted Bings, two cinnamon sticks, 8 whole cloves, and 750ml French brandy. After one more week, I gave it a taste.

I think it’s done, but I’m letting half of the liqueur continue to steep. It certainly isn’t the best liqueur I’ve ever tasted, but it was fun to make, and it will make an excellent flavoring for desserts. Maybe I’ll just call it cherry extract.

Pan-Roasted Carrots

Intrigued by the title, I was browsing through Think Like a Chef byTom Colicchio the other day and came across his recipe for pan-roasted carrots. The sheer simplicity of this dish inspired me to do my own version.

Chef Colicchio calls for 16 peeled and trimmed carrots, salt and pepper, 4 sprigs of rosemary, 1 tablespoon of butter, and 4 teaspoons of honey. Sounds delicious, but I want a little less sweetness, so I use balsamic vinegar, and less of it. I also object to peeling the carrots, because I don’t want to lose all the flavor and nutrients in the peel. I also skipped the pepper, but freshly ground white pepper would be a nice addition.

Start with nice carrots, by which I mean carrots that are of about the same size, are straight, and hopefully are fresh from a garden. Wash them, and optionally peel them. Make sure to dry the carrots to avoid splattering.

Preheat a large fry or sauté pan over medium heat with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. When the pan is ready, add the carrots. Every so often over the next twenty minutes or so, turn the carrots so that the whole carrot is roasted.

When the carrots look like they’re done, add a spear or two of fresh rosemary. Continue cooking and turning the carrots for another five minutes or so. Then add a tablespoon of butter and drizzle them with balsamic vinegar.

As the butter melts, turn the carrots to coat all the way around with butter and balsamic. Much of the butter will remain in the pan, and the rosemary is really only there to perfume the carrots. The balsamic darkens the caramelization and adds its own sweetness. Remove the carrots from the pan to a serving dish and sprinkle liberally with Fleur de Sel.

These things are so good I eat them as a snack!

Tuscan Steak

Is it really Tuscan? No, but it has flavors I think of when I think of Tuscany: lemon, rosemary, olive oil.

This is a simple preparation. Rub olive oil into the steak, then sprinkle on some freshly ground pepper (I used a blend of tellicherry black, malabar white, and pink peppercorns), sea salt, rosemary (fresh from the garden, of course), and lemon zest. Be sure to season both sides. Let rest for 30 minutes or so, then grill.

After the steak has grilled to your desired degree of doneness, let it rest for five minutes or so. I used that time to step out to the garden, select a couple of tomatoes, rinse them off, and slice them. I finished the steak by drizzling some Villa Manodori balsamic vinegar on it.

The tomatoes were dressed with a bit of Villa Manodori extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and then dusted with a hint of Fleur de Sel. I added a bit of Black Jack Cheese from Scott “Dominic” Catino to round out an excellent meal.