With the recent warm weather, I was thinking about sorbet. So I went looking for a recipe that wouldn't send me to the store for ingredients. And I found one! Sort of. It's based on Alton Brown's key lime sorbet, but utilizes what I had on hand, which is Meyer lemons and homemade strawberry preserves. I must say, it turned out to be delicious! I really love recipes with only a few ingredients.
Strawberry Lemon Sorbet
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup strawberry preserves
2 Meyer lemons, zested and juiced
4 cups lime flavored club soda or seltzer (I used Hanson's mandarin lime)
Kosher salt
Directions
Combine sugar, preserves and 1 cup of the soda in a medium saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar and preserves are melted. Add citrus juice and zest. Stir in the remaining soda, move to a clean, lidded container and chill thoroughly, 2 to 3 hours.
Turn mixture in ice cream maker per maker's instructions or until mixture reaches the consistency of a firm slush. Return mixture to lidded container and harden in freezer 1 hour before serving.
If sorbet is to be held frozen for longer than 2 hours, move from freezer to refrigerator for about half an hour before serving. If you'd like a more assertive sorbet, double the amount of citrus zest.
...it takes less time to make a pound of mozzarella than to bake a cobbler, but most people find the idea of making cheese at home to be preposterous. If the delivery guy happens to come to the door when I'm cutting and draining curd, I feel like a Wiccan.
- Barbara Kingsolver, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"
Well, I've been thinking about taking the plunge into cheesemaking for quite some time. It's hard to find organic cheese around here...and believe me, I've spent a lot of time looking. We actually do have Cowgirl Creamery's delicious Red Hawk, which has won several regional and national awards. But at $30/lb (!), it's not really an "everyday" kind of cheese.
On the bright side, we do have access to relatively local organic milk by Strauss Family Farms. Their dairy is in west Marin County, north of San Francisco, near Pt. Reyes Station. Strauss whole milk is sold at Whole Foods for $4.19 a half-gallon or $2.59 a quart. So, the other day, when I decided to just go ahead and make cheese, darn it, I bought a quart of this lovely milk (in a glass bottle) and some buttermilk. (Still looking for organic buttermilk). I also needed some cheesecloth and Whole Foods came through on that one, too.
And, you know what? It worked! And you know what else? It's easy! And fun.
According to the cheesemaking experts, Fromage blanc is the easiest cheese to make. And you don't really have to have any special tools. I found out by my after-the-fact-research that if I had stirred in the lemon juice more thoroughly when I first added it, then I would probably have gotten more cheese from the milk. (My whey was a bit cloudy, which I believe indicates that I didn't distribute the acid properly.) And a candy thermometer might have been more accurate than my temperature guessing, which was a complex equation based on bubbling and steam rising.
But, you know, I still got a ball of cheese from this inexpensive exercise. And it was interesting to see it all happen in the pot...curds form in a matter of seconds to minutes. Exciting enough to make me exclaim to my husband, "cheese is happening...cheese is happening!!" (I still don't know why he didn't rush into the kitchen to see this wonder unfold. I found it an order of magnitude more interesting than his motorcycle race...)
To be honest, Fromage blanc in not my favorite cheese variety; we prefer more robust varieties. I really wanted to make organic versions of the cheeses that my husband and I like best...
So, while still riding my "cheese making high", cheese happened, I decided to jump into the deep end and order this cheesemaking kit! Oh yes, in a couple weeks, I'll be making mountains of Farmhouse Cheddar, Gouda, Monterey Jack, Feta, Cottage Cheese, Colby, Parmesan and Ricotta.
Maybe. We'll see. Ok, I'll let you know how it goes...
I'm anticipating my first harvest of lemons from my little Meyer lemon tree. There are probably about 25 lemons and I could pick them anytime now. Making use of the juice is no problem, but what about the peels? Candy them! The picture above was my test on an organic grapefruit. Delicious! The flavor is reminiscent of "orange slice" candy. Did you ever have any of it...maybe as a kid? It was jellybean-like on the inside and coated in sugar on the outside. (Probably full of high fructose corn syrup.) Here's a recipe from Whole Foods...just citrus peels, sugar and water!
It's been cool around here lately, so I've been thinking about warm, savory dishes for dinner. Tonight I made a "Tomato-pesto-cheese Savory Pie". The original recipe was posted on FarmGirl Fare - thanks, Susan.
It's a great way to use up a bunch of homegrown tomatoes and basil. Since I don't have a wheat field or a cow, I had to purchase the other main ingredients ;) I added some soy chorizo to the pie (not in the original recipe) and we liked the spicy kick that it added. My husband thinks that artichoke hearts would also be good in there and I agree. That's one of the beauties of this recipe - it's adaptable to what you have on hand. Another is that you can freeze the leftovers for later. I was surprised by how nice the "crust" came out. It tasted like a moist, cheesy biscuit!
Here is the recipe from Susan.
For The Crust: 2 cups all-purpose flour (I use Heartland Mill organic) 4 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it's fresh!) ** 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup (1 stick/ 4 ounces) cold butter 1 cup (about 2-1/2 ounces) finely grated pecorino romano (or other hard cheese, such as parmesan) 3/4 cup milk
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the butter using a pastry blender, fork, or your fingers until the largest pieces are pea-size. Stir in the pecorino romano. Pour in the milk and use a fork to gently form a soft dough. Do not overmix. Divide the dough in two pieces, making one slightly larger than the other.
On a generously floured surface, use a rolling pin to gently roll out the larger piece of dough into a circle about 12 inches across, rolling from the center outward. Sprinkle dough with flour if sticky. Gently fold the dough in half and transfer into a 9-inch pie pan. If the dough tears, simply press it back together with your fingers. Roll out the remaining piece of dough into a slightly smaller circle and set aside (or wait until you have the filling in the pan and then roll it out).
Assembling The Pie: 1 cup pesto, divided 2-1/2 pounds of the best plum tomatoes you can find, sliced lengthwise into 4 or 5 slices each (I used San Marzanos & Golden Romas to add extra color as well as more flavor) 8 ounces mozzarella, grated or thinly sliced (I used a fresh log which can't be grated) 1/2 cup (about 1-1/4 ounces) finely grated pecorino romano (or other hard cheese such as parmesan)
Using a spoon, spread 1/2 cup of pesto over the bottom layer of dough in the pie pan. Layer about half of the tomatoes over the pesto. Cover the tomatoes with about 2/3 of the mozzarella. Layer on the rest of the tomatoes (you may not need them all to fill the pan). Carefully spread the remaining 1/2 cup of pesto over the tomatoes. Cover with the remaining mozzarella and the pecorino romano.
Roll out the second piece of dough if you haven't already, and carefully place it over the pie. Fold the edge of the bottom piece over the top piece and press together to seal. Use your fingers to make a crimped design around the edge. If any dough falls apart, simply press it back together with your fingers. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. The handmade look has much more charm.
Cut four slits in the top of the pie for steam to escape. Bake at 375 degrees F in the center of the oven until the crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Cover the edge with foil if it starts to brown too quickly.
Let cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving. Crust edges may be sampled much sooner. (As with nearly any fruit pie, if you cut into it while it is still warm, some juice will seep out. If you plan to store any leftover pie right in the pan, simply drain off the juice so the bottom crust doesn't become soggy.) Or cool pie completely, cover, and refrigerate.
You can also freeze this pie. I wrapped a hunk in foil then put it in a zipper freezer bag and tossed it into the freezer. I defrosted the whole piece overnight in the refrigerator, then cut it in half and reheated the slices in my beloved toaster convection oven for 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees, each on a fresh piece of foil and covered lightly with the foil so the tops wouldn't brown too quickly. The bottom crust was a bit soggy, but I'm pretty sure that was because I let the pie sit in the fridge three days before deciding to freeze it. Otherwise it looked and tasted as if it had just come out of the oven the first time. Hint: If you plan to freeze the entire pie and don't want to freeze it in the pan, use a disposable pie pan or line your pan with a piece of heavy duty foil so you can simply lift the whole cooled pie out of the pan.
(From farmgirl fare blog)
I didn't need the foil on the crust and 40 minutes was the perfect amount of cooking time. Susan gives a more detailed discussion of the recipe on her blog post.
I don't know about you, but the zucchini are overwhelming me! I've been picking ~1 per day for 3 weeks. My harvest calculator says that's equal to over $41 worth of organic zucchini. I've given some away to cul-de-sac neighbors and anyone who visits our house cannot leave without taking one. It's a house rule :) I've come up with an easy way to preserve the zucchini that only takes a few minutes and won't take up freezer or fridge space - pickled. Actually, I must admit, the idea was my husband's...but I made it happen. Nice teamwork against the zucchini.
Here's the recipe
Pickled Zucchini a few small zucchini pint jars with lids and rings 2 c. distilled white vinegar 2 c. water 1/4 c. Kosher salt garlic red pepper flakes (optional)
Dice garlic and put 1 clove in each jar. Slice the zucchini into 'coins' and fill each jar (leave 1/2" headspace). Add dash of red pepper flakes. Heat water, vinegar, and salt to boiling. Pour in jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Seal jars. Wait at least 10 days for flavors to develop. Enjoy!
(NOTE: You can make this recipe with any container, if you don't have canning jars. If you use something else, then the pickles will need to stay in the refrigerator and won't keep as long. But, the pickles will still be good for several weeks.)
These pickled zucchini taste a lot like pickled cucumbers, in fact this is the same recipe for pickled cucumbers. So you can substitute, if cucumbers are trying to take over your house! I like this recipe because the zucchini remain crisp. Soggy zucchini kind of bothers me. Hope you like it!
Ingredients
