Home Creamery: Mascarpone

Mascarpone, the queen of dessert cheeses. At least it is when it’s freshly made. The mascarpone available in most stores is a little rubbery and a bit too citrusy. The real thing has a texture like whipped cream about to turn to butter and an ethereal, ever-so-slightly tart flavor.

To make mascarpone you’ll need tartaric acid. In spite of what you might have read, cream of tartar is not tartaric acid; rather, it’s a derivative of tartaric acid. You cannot subsitute one for the other with any hope of success. In the picture to the right, the powdery cream of tartar is on the left, and the crystaline tartaric acid is on the right.

You’ll also need a double boiler setup of some sort, or you could just use two pans like I did. A thermometer is mandatory. You’ll need to line a stainless steel colander with a double layer of butter muslin to finish the cheese. Set the colander into a bowl to catch the whey.

Heat one quart/liter of half-and-half or cream to 185°F/85°C. Then add ¼ teaspoon/1.25mL tartaric acid and stir until the dairy thickens. It should be thick enough to be reminiscent of cream of wheat or farina, and the spoon or whisk you’re stirring with should leave tracks behind. It takes a good five minutes or so to coagulate, so have some patience.

When the dairy is thickened, pour it into the muslin-lined colander and let it drain for about an hour at room temperature. Carefully spoon the cheese into a container, cover, and refrigerate overnight; in a dessert emergency, you can use it once it’s chilled a couple of hours. It will keep in the refrigerator up to two weeks, not that you’ll have any around that long.

Mascarpone has many uses: cannoli, tiramisu, cheesecake, or it can be served plain. I used it to make the dessert pictured above, which has quartered strawberries in mint simple syrup on the bottom, mascarpone, and Rainier cherries on top. The dollop on top that looks like whipped cream? More mascarpone. Delicious.

Pickled Beets

In the garden, the beets are beginning to look like they’re ready to eat. If I have a large crop, I’ll want to pickle some of them.

There are three steps required for good pickled beets, and all three take some time. First you need to make a good picking vinegar, then the beets need to be roasted, and finally you’ll preserve the beets in the vinegar and wait at least a month.

Pickling Vinegar

1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
1 tablespoon pink peppercorns
1½ teaspoons white peppercorns
2 mace blades
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cups white wine vinegar

Bring to a boil, then cool slightly and pour into a glass container. Store in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks. Strain.

Now that your vinegar is ready, roast the beets. I suggest wrapping them in foil and roasting them slowly to release as much sugar as possible. As soon as the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them. Then slice, dice, quarter, or leave baby beets whole.

Put the beets into one or more sterilized jars, leaving plenty of room for the vinegar to cover them. If you wish, put some of the whole spices from the vinegar recipe into the jars as well. For spicy beets, add chiles to taste. Chipotles work nicely if you want a smoky heat.

Bring the strained vinegar to a boil and carefully pour it into the jars to cover the beets. Seal the jars and store in a cool, dry place for at least a month, or up to two months for best flavor.

If you don’t have time to make pickling vinegar, distribute the spices from the recipe evenly between the jars and add boiling vinegar. The flavors won’t have as much time to develop, but the pickle will still be okay.

Blueberry-Mint Vinaigrette

It was a very hot day for Portland, and I didn’t really want to add to the heat by warming up my kitchen. With fresh blueberries, herbs in the garden, plenty of greens on hand, and a full pantry, I didn’t need any heat.

The key component in this vinaigrette is blueberry syrup. I made some a few weeks ago by putting a 2 pints of blueberries and a cup of sugar into a food processor and pulsing a few times to purée roughly. I put the purée into a saucepan over medium-low heat, tasted and adjusted the sugar, then simmered for about 30 minutes. I poured the simmered pulp into a colander lined with two layers of cheesecloth and let it drain. The remaining pulp went into the composter, while the syrup went into a small glass container in the refrigerator, where it sat until I remembered it.

Making a vinaigrette is quite simple when you know the correct ratio of oil to vinegar, 3:1. If you didn’t know that ratio, or you did but you want more of that kind of handy information, you really must get yourself a copy of Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio. I didn’t follow the 3:1 ratio strictly, because of the lack of acidity in the ingredients I used for this vinaigrette.

Blueberry-Mint Vinaigrette

2 teaspoons fresh blueberry syrup
1 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoons riece wine vinegar (unseasoned)
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 leaves spearmint, minced
salt and pepper to taste

I added fresh blueberries, shredded mint, and diced red pepper to the mixed greens and herbs I had on hand. Simple, refreshing, and with the mint, cooling on a hot day.

Garlic Confit

Garlic confit is magical stuff. I keep some around to use in everything. I even warm up a clove or two and smear it on bread when I want garlic bread. And it’s so easy to make that you should never be without some. Let me show you.

Start by peeling a bunch of garlic–or buy pre-peeled garlic like I do–and trim the ends off each clove. Then put them into a saucepan and cover with oil. The original Thomas Keller recipe I used, and the blog post on it at Bouchon for Two, calls for canola oil. I now use extra virgin olive oil, because I prefer the flavor of olive oil, and the heat isn’t high enough to destroy the oil.

You’ll use low heat, and, if you have it, a diffuser. If you don’t have a diffuser, use a fry pan as a diffuser. You want to heat the oil until you see tiny bubbles rising, but not too many of them. Hold at that heat for about 45 minutes, until the garlic cloves are softened.

Spoon the garlic into a sterile container and then carefully pour in the oil to cover by at least half an inch. Don’t discard any of the oil if you have extra, just use it for cooking.

Strawberry-Ricotta Tartlet

Strawberries may well be my favorite food. Not surprising, really, when you consider that I was born within sight of Mt. Hood at the time of year when Hood strawberries are just right! To celebrate my birthday I thought it would be lovely to have a nice strawberry tart. But I couldn’t decide exactly how it should look, so I made tartlets.

I started by making some Vanilla Shortbread Dough. I used Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract instead of Tahitian, and replaced the vanilla paste with powdered freeze-dried strawberries to give the dough a bit of kick. I followed my own instructions, and didn’t worry when the dough cracked before baking. Remember to chill the tartlet shells before baking. I baked them for about 13 minutes at 350°F/175°C.

While the tartlet shells were baking, I mixed some whole milk ricotta with about a teaspoon of honey,  some puréed strawberries, and a hint of cinnamon. Once the shells were finished baking and cooling, I filled them with the ricotta. If I had had some, I would have used strawberry honey, which is honey from hives in which the bees harvest pollen from strawberry fields.

The strawberries went into a bowl of cold water along with several sprigs of spearmint from the garden. Then it was just a matter of selecting berries that were just right, slicing them, and laying them into the shells, sometimes with mint leaves interspersed. To finish, I melted some strawberry jam and brushed it onto the berries.

As I said, I couldn’t decide exactly how the tart should look, so I made two sizes of tartlets and then decorated each a little differently. One of them featured whole berries.

I also made several smaller tartlets, decorating them as flowers.

Now the only problem I have is that I have to eat them, and I can’t figure out which one to eat first!