Thursday, April 12, 2012

Mozzarella

Have you heard the news about the growth hormones in GMO processed milk byproduct cheese? It's not a pretty thing. Going on 6 months (give or take) We have weened our family off of cheese for "at home" meals. At restaurants, we might get a pizza or a cheeseburger, but we have not bought cheese at the store and brought it into our home for quite awhile *take that!* but how long can one go with out cheese on burritos? spaghetti? salad? stuffed bread? broccoli?!? Well, we did it and I have to say it felt great! and I cant complain about my waistline either. (Did i mention we stopped buying potato chips and never drink cokes?) So anyway, Last week I decided to give it a go at making my own. (cheese that it) and it came out delicious! want to try?

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 gallon milk
  • 2 1/2 tsp citric acid
  • 20 drops rennet diluted in 1/4 cup filtered chlorine free water
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • more water :)
Now that your stocked and ready, let's go!

Before you actually begin the cheese making process, if your milk and cream has separated, skim it off and place in a small jar, for another use, home made butter! (you gotta be kidding me right?) Trust me it is worth it if you have the cream...

  1. Place milk in a non reactive (stainless steel) pot ( a big one!) sprinkle the top with citric acid and stir. Heat slowly to 90 degrees.
  2. remove from heat, add diluted rennet, stir, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.
  3. Using a slotted spoon and mesh colander, remove the curd (save the whey!!) and strain as much as you can from the curd.
  4. meanwhile, heat some salt water to 135. place your curd into water and melt it. remove from water and begin "stretching" the cheese. you may have to do this a few times but the result is a stretchy, shiny, taffy like, mozzarella log. The look you are going for is stretchy, shiny, and doesn't break. If yours is not like this don't worry, it will more than likely still be delicious, just not mozzarella, but a different kind of cheese.
  5. shape into a ball and place in lightly salted ice water for a minute or two. This helps to retain it's shape.

Fin!! you did it!

 Boo and points off for really lame non photograph blog on cheese making! If you will, please accept my sincerest apologies and cut me some slack! will update soooooooonish!

Garlic Lemon Roasted Chicken

This is the best chicken I have ever made. nuff said...

you will need:

  • a chicken (surprise!)
  • olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • pepper
  • a lemon
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • Fresh herbs (I recommend rosemary, thyme, and sage, but hey its your chicken!)
 This is also a great way to cook a a moist turkey! try it.



Preheat oven to 475. Cover the outside of your clean and dry chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some dry herbs if you wish. This is going to be your moisture saving crisp out side. No matter how hard you try, you cannot "add" moisture to a chicken. So you need to keep the moisture it has inside. Someone once said "a tsunami of pepper on your chicken" is best. really get it covered.


slice a lemon (peel rind and all) and peel your garlic


Place these inside the chicken whole. I was out (boo for me) of fresh herbs, but stuff the fresh sprigs of herbs you have in with the lemon and garlic. This will create steam and the flavor will transfer to the chicken.

Now, place breast side up and cook for 20 minutes. This gets it crispy and creates a moisture barrier). Reduce heat to 350 and put timer for 40 minutes. Check the temperature inside the breast without touching the bone. You are going for 150 degrees. *gasp!* I know I know, not done yet!
remove from oven and let finish cooking until it reaches a safe 165. 
enjoy!


Homemade Butter

Butter is absolutely a ridiculous luxury when it is homemade. I cannot stress how much you will want to do this.

If you are able to get milk that will still separate itself from it's own cream, your going to be so happy you read this post. Skim off this cream, place into small jar, close it up, shake it up, spread it on, enjoy!

Tips:
  • If you have bought a large amount of cream, I would suggest doing this in a food processor.
  • wait to the cream to be room temperature, it butterfies faster.
  • turn this into a family togetherness session (not to mention an arm workout!) pass the jar around and take turns shaking!
  • get your moves on! turn on some tunes and shake that butter!
  • don't try making a lot at once with this method, it will take........ time.......
  • don't fill up the jar completely. 2/3rds full will work good.
  • rinse with cold water after it turns to butter, shape into ball, and place in fridge.
  • it's very light, almost like whipped butter, but if it's not light enough, whipe it and add honey for a delicious sweet spread!
  • enjoy!