Cheese Experiment #2: Mascarpone

Most people have heard of mascarpone as an ingredient in tiramisu, or have seen it when browsing the fancy cheese section of the store. It generally comes in a 6oz container and costs enough that you'd think twice before purchasing it. What is it really, though?

Basically, mascarpone is like Italian cream cheese, but oh so much more refined. It is creamy, smooth and cool, perfect for desserts or mixing into a special sauce to add richness. Is it easy to make? Yep.

As with the previous experiment, first step was to gather tools.

Next, gather ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup dry milk solids
1 lemon, cut in half

Three ingredients, again! Doable? I think so.

First thing's first. I added the cream and milk solids together and whisked them in the pot.

Then came the waiting. The milk needed to come to 180 degrees (sound familiar?) over low heat. This took quite a while, about an hour. Once it reached temperature, I squeezed in one half of the lemon and switched to a metal spoon to mix, then added in the juice from the second half of the lemon.

This was the resulting curd. Not so much a separation as in the previous cheese, but a serious thickening.

Finally, this had to be covered and placed in the refrigerator to cool overnight. What resulted?

It looks, more or less, like yogurt, but tastes divine! It was so creamy, so rich, with just the barest aroma and flavor of fresh lemon that you might not even notice. I wanted to dig in with my spoon, but refrained. What shall I do with it? I'm not sure, but since this product has an extremely limited shelf life, three days or so, I better figure it out fast!

Have a favorite mascarpone recipe? Share it below. I love to hear ideas. :)

Cheese Experiment #1: Paneer

Here we go, cheese numero uno on my journey into cheese making. I'm stoked!

The first step is to collect all the supplies. For this recipe, I'll need:

Non-reactive pot
Measuring cup
Whisk
Rubber spatula
Thermometer
Cheese Cloth
Strainer
Draining rack
4lb Weight

Next, get all the ingredients. This one is pretty easy.

10 cups 2% milk
5 cups Buttermilk
1/2 tsp Sea Salt

Three ingredient recipe? I think that's doable.

I put the milk in the pot and heated it to 175 or 180 degrees. It took a loooooong because you have to heat the milk slowly.

 Next, I added the buttermilk and the coagulation was fairly instantaneous. I then raised the heat to 195 degrees. Here's what the curd looked like.

After the curd had cooked and set a little, there was a large collection of fairly firm curds in the pot.

Next, the curd is drained in cheesecloth, salted, and pressed.

 

 

Final product:

Not the prettiest paneer ever. I think perhaps the curds were too cool when I pressed them, so they didn't make a block, but holy cow is it delicious!!!

Cheese Making

One of my goals for several years has been to learn to make my favorite food....CHEESE!

There are so many different kinds: fresh, aged, hard, soft, semi-soft, blue, mild, stinky. Each has its own personality, its own character. So far, I love them all!

So, I'll be starting with some simple cheeses in the coming days and hopefully progressing to more complicated and time consuming cheeses as time goes on.

What's your favorite? Comment below and I might just choose to make your favorite as part of my learning process. :)

Eeeek!

Worst blogger ever!!!

So I set up my contest and then forgot to draw for the New York prize!!! Well, I'm afraid it is going to have to wait a little while longer.... I can't find it! I put it some place safe while I've been working on clearing out the second bedroom and reorganizing and now I'm not sure where it went. :(

My apologies to my readers. I'll stop being such a putz and get back on it!

Overload and Institutions

So, I am back in Kansas, and it has taken me a week to get back on track with the restaurant. It's graduation season and that means lots of extra parties and caterings. I want everyone to know that there is much more New York to come, though. Keep reading and new stories will be showing up. :)

In the mean time, let's talk about Mother's Day. I've been a horrible person. This past year, my grandmother went to live in a skilled care facility, basically a nursing home. While the place is great, the rooms are comfortable, staff friendly, and there is no weird odor, I've been hesitant to visit, and in all honesty, Mother's Day was the first time I'd been there to see her. She, being the kind hearted person that she is, didn't hold it against me. Instead, she was simply thrilled that I came to see her at all. I'll be building more visits into my schedule, and perhaps bringing her food once in a while, which brings me to the focus of my post.

I've heard stories....about the food. I understand this is an institutional setting and I understand that a lot of people there are on restricted diets, but for the life of me I cannot understand why, in such an expensive facility, they cannot afford quality food for the residents. When you are living inside all day, with minimal activities to keep you occupied, you look to your meals for excitement. I feel a new mission coming on, a  keen desire to look into how food preparation works in this place. Is the budget that restrictive that they cannot hire skilled individuals in the kitchen to keep my grandmother from eating mush pasta and cardboard pork chops?

Inquiring minds want to know, and find out, I shall.

Papabubble

No, I didn't just make up a word. While wondering through Chinatown, heading toward Little Italy, my friend and I stumbled upon a strange store front.

In the window were all kinds of interesting cactus looking things.

These are made out of.... sugar! Papabubble is a small handmade candy store that originated in Spain and now has several locations around the globe. They had some crazy flavors including salted licorice, mango and chili, and fun candies with various words and shapes in the center, like a burrough mix, an alphabet mix and a math mix.

Here's what their work space looked like:

The beakers contain flavors for the different candies and the tools and counter tops are all shiny stainless steel. Worth a visit and a taste. You can watch them work if you are there when they are making candy. 

Chinatown

I couldn't wait to get to Chinatown. I was so excited to see what it was like, experience China in another country. Now I've been there twice. Once on my birthday, quick walk through, visit to a temple which I posted about earlier, and again on Wednesday. Both times, I as struck  by the fact that it looked and sounded and smelled exactly like China!

It's Chinatown, you say, of course it is like China. No, I mean I might as well have been on the street in Beijing. The banks were Chinese, the newspapers were Chinese, the seafood restaurants had live fish that you selected for your meal. There were roasted ducks in the windows.

And, not to miss out, we went to Nom Wah Tea Parlor, which bills itself as the oldest Dim Sum restaurant in New York City.

If only there were more hours in the day, I would have gone back every day this week. It was delicious, real Chinese awesomeness. There is not much better than having the opportunity to try so many things. The way dim sum works is that you order a number of small plates. Think Chinese tapas. There are only a few of each things on the plate, so you get to work your way through five or six different items, savoring each one as you go.

 

 

Delicious Pork Fried Dumplings

Fried Scallion Pancake with Soy Sauce

Steamed Shrimp and Pea Pod Dumplings

Pork Short Ribs in a salty spicy sauce

Shanghai Soup Dumplings

House Special Steamed Pork Bun

Inside of said bun--pork and onion goodness

After all of this and a pot of jasmine tea, we rolled ourselves out to the street and made our way home.