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mozzarella

I'm pleased to find cheese making is, thus far, pretty simple. I can make a killer ricotta and an even better chevre consistently. I haven't really had any failures. (Likely due to the fact that ricotta and chevre are wonderfully simple recipes.) This batch, my first mozzarella, wasn't perfect. It is the first cheese I've made that uses rennet.

I used Ricki Carroll's 30 Minute Mozzarella (except I used the one from her book). I halved the recipe (because really I didn't need a *pound* of mozzarella). I used fancy hippy organic not-ultra-pasteurized 2% milk. In hindsight, I think I will use whole milk next time.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to half the amount of rennet. (The rennet tablets I used were scored in quarters, not eighths - duh.) I didn't *think* this would be a problem, and it wasn't for the most part. The finished product was as tasty as anything I'd buy in a store. Where it *was* noticeable was when I cooked it (on a pizza). It didn't 'goo' at all and browned in a strange way. The pizza, sadly, was not tasty.

Another thing I didn't account for were the heating times. You're supposed to heat it in the pot, curdle it, separate the curds, then heat it a few more times in the microwave & knead it. I think the 2nd & 3rd heat times were *way* too long for the small amount I was making. I think it's supposed to heat more gradually than it did. Instead I ended up with goo that stuck to my gloves and was too hot to fold. Eventually it cooled enough to fold and it was fine.

The last thing that went askew was that the recipe said to add the salt after the 2nd heating. When I did this, I ended up with an unbecoming unevenness.

So essentially, it made for a great string cheese but not anything you'd want to heat up.

A few minutes after the rennet was added:

After the second microwave heating (I wore gloves because it was too hot to handle):

Next up: sour cream!

Posted

Seattle, WA

Forever Alone/$5 Challenge: Curried Couscous with Broccoli and Feta

Well, it's the end of the week. I've done a lot of cooking, washed a lot of pans.

Today's recipe was delicious. Curried Couscous with Broccoli and Feta.

Because I haven't been shopping in a week and some of the ingredients have wilted, I had to change things up a bit. But the recipe is super-flexible.

My carrot was non-salvageable, I had red wine vinegar instead of white, and the feta was long gone. Parmesan made an excellent substitute. I can't stand raisins so I just omitted those. I used hot yellow curry from Savory Spice Shop. Good move.

I think next time I will try this with quinoa because that shit is like a miracle. Ridiculously good for you and totally sustainable.

The recipe called for one 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans but, dammit, that just too much garbanzo. I used half a can, leaving me with the only real leftover from this recipe.

All in all, a great recipe. Only dirtied one pot, healthy, easy, and tasty.

The main thing I learned this week was that it is crazy for a single person to try to cook a different meal every day. I had rotting food and lost interest in my leftovers at day 3. I have a new plan for next week, though. Plan 2-3 meals with a variety of snacks. The meals need to keep well, which can be a challenge. I still believe it is possible to eat healthily and cheaply for one. Stay tuned.

Posted

Forever Alone/$5 challenge - Day 3: Pasta with spinach, garbanzo beans, and feta

Pasta salad makes excellent leftovers, and who doesn't like feta!?

Cavatappi with spinach, garbanzo beans, and feta

Results: I couldn't find cavatappi in my grocery store. Fortunately I had some amazing Lemon Parsley Mafaldine that I picked up at the Pike Street Market. Whoa man, I guarantee it was WAY better. For this recipe I strongly recommend using a high quality pasta. My only gripe was that I didn't have lemon juice because I didn't buy anything on the "already in the pantry" section of the shopping list. Who keeps "fresh lemon juice" around? I mean, sometimes, but not always. The lemon pasta more than made up for it though.

I have leftover dried pasta, 1/4 cup of feta, and a bunch of spinach. The spinach will probably rot.

Music to my ears: "combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix".

Super easy and highly delicious recipe that keeps very well in the fridge.

Down side: I still have two burritos plus a giant bowl of pasta to eat.

(download)

Posted

Forever Alone/$5 Challenge - Day 2: Black Bean Burrito Bake

The alliteration alone brought a tear of joy to my eye.

Black Bean Burrito Bake

Results: Very very yummy. However, not the most economical recipe. Made four servings, however the amount of food required to purchase vs. how much I can eat before stuff goes bad gives me pause. The leftover ingredients I have are: 6 tortillas, most of a bag of shredded cheese, most of a jar of salsa, almost an entire can of chipotle chilis, and enough burrito mix to make another two burritos. Sure, I could make quesidillas. I suppose if I didn't just buy a week's worth of groceries to feed a morman family I wouldn't have this problem. The all-inclusive-one-trip-only shopping list was too tempting. Need to re-think this plan. But now we're getting into time spent meal planning vs. time it takes the local bar to serve me a grilled cheese sandwich.

The other issue I encountered was this recipe was a bit messy. Now don't get me wrong. I love my Cuisinart and all. But using it for mid-week meals makes me less inclined to cook something like this. This meal produced the following dirty dishes: Cuisinart +lid +blade, mixing bowl, baking dish. On the up side, I just covered the baking dish with foil and tossed it in the fridge.

(download)

Posted

Forever Alone Cooking Challenge

I heard about the Slow Food USA $5 challenge last week. Seemed like a good idea. Who couldn't stand to eat healthier and cheaper?

This challenge poses some logistical questions for a single girl, though. It's certainly less economical to cook for one and it's difficult to measure 3/16th of something if you're transposing a recipe that serves a family of four. I'm not the biggest fan of leftovers, either. I have texture issues.

But whatever. Challenge Accepted.

I found this cool thing: 1 List 5 meals (vegetarian list). Awesome.

Shopping completed: $64.34 /5 = $12.86 per meal (most meals make multiple servings, though)

Day one: Veggie Fried Rice
results: The rice came out softer than I was hoping. Probably because I couldn't resist peeking at it. Made 4 servings. I ate one for dinner, one for lunch the next day, and gave two away. It was tastier than it looked. I only cooked two cups of rice, instead of the entire bag, as the recipe calls for. I don't even own a pan big enough to cook that much food. I ended up not using about half the peas so I tossed them in the freezer. Overall, I'm a fan of any recipe that only involves dirtying one pan.