Makin' The Mozz!!!!...part one

While I have made ricotta cheese at home, I have never attempted mozzarella in my kitchen until now. Benjamin came over to share in this cooking adventure and in preparation I looked up several different recipes on the Internet and in magazine articles. Every one was similar in certain ways but very different also. They all said that this is a difficult cheese to make but I figured that since my ricotta was so good this would be easy. I mean, how difficult can it be to make something in the kitchen????? I found one recipe that said that it was important to sterilize the entire kitchen before making this cheese. Yeah.....like that's going to happen! I also found a recipe that said you could make mozzarella in 30 minutes so that was the one I printed out. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! These things take time and you can't rush a curd.
As Benjamin and I found out, all the warnings about the difficulty of making this type of cheese were right on. You need milk of course, rennet and citric acid. I gathered all of my cheese making utensils and bought fresh milk. We followed all the instructions and heated everything very slowly. We carefully checked the temperature and made sure that everything was correct. We jumped for joy when we saw that curds were beginning to form....... and then........NOTHING!
A gallon of milk produced this tiny amount of curd. In all the instructional pictures I saw, the curds were big and think and had been sliced into little cubes in the pot. Our curds were anemic and not stiff enough to be sliced. Pretty pathetic, huh? They turned to mush when we tried to put them in very hot water to make them into mozzarella cheese. I don't know where we went wrong. I am not sure if we ever achieved a "clean break"as they say. I never saw real whey (the grayish liquid).We felt we had to salvage this in some way so we "recooked" the milk to make ricotta cheese.
I added some buttermilk to the pot, and immediately the curds separated from the whey.
The recooked leftover milk produced this beautiful ricotta. At least all was not lost. By the way, ricotta means "recooked" and comes from the whey that is left over when you make some other kind of cheese.

We are going to try again but this time we will buy curds that are already made. This is Benjamin looking for places that sell curds. He found Todaro Bros. They will sell curds by the pound. When I took the Mozzarella Course at Artisanal Cheese Institute, we started with the curds and went from there. At first I thought it was like cheating, but now I see the wisdom! Stay tuned for Makin' The Mozz, Part Deux.
Bon Appetit!
Clare.

Le Poulet Pour Bernice

This is my version of the chicken I had at Shelley and Rob's house last year. It was wonderful and inspired me to try my own version. It has now become a staple in my kitchen.
I like to serve it with an eggplant casserole. This one is just sliced eggplant over a bed of sliced onions, with a can of whole peeled tomatoes on top. A little olive oil and you are done. It cooks with the chicken and couldn't be easier. Everything is ready at the same time.
A little salad completes the dinner. Now for the recette.......

This is the amount of olive oil I put in the pan to start. Just enough so that the chicken doesn't stick while it bakes.
I pound each piece of chicken in between two layers of plastic wrap. It keeps my counter clean and I don't even have to wash the mallet.
Each pounded piece of chicken gets dipped in egg ( you can use just egg white or a whole beaten egg), and then pressed into seasoned bread crumbs. I prefer boned chicken breasts for this because they are so easy to work with.
Once they are dipped and pressed, I roll them up and place in the pan. If there is any egg or bread crumb mixture left after all the cutlets are breaded, I mix it together to form a paste and spread on the tops of the rolled chicken. This time I only had enough paste to do a few of them.
I add olives, prunes, lemon wedges, lemon zest, rosemary and sage all around the pieces of rolled chicken. I then add a final splash of olive oil on top.
This is a close up of the final splash of oil. I don't think it's possible to use too much olive oil ever but you just need a little more here. I cook this for about an hour at 325-350, covered with foil. The aroma from the rosemary fills the kitchen and is fabulous.
Bon Appetit.
Clare.

Curry In A Hurry

It all started with my conversation partner introducing me to a friend, who had just made some Indian food, and brought samples for everyone to taste. He told me it was something his mother used to make and was called "Bonda". They looked like little balls of dough that were filled with potatoes and vegetables and spices. They were battered and then fried. I'm not sure exactly how they were made, but they were delicious. He promised to send me the recette. He told me I would need Gram Flour ( something I had never heard of before) and exactly where to go to get some. Gram flour is also known as chicpea flour, or besan flour or chana flour in case you were wondering. Off I went to 28Th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Welcome to the world of Indian Food. There were two stores on this block. The first one I explored was Sinha Trading Co., at 121 Lexington Ave. The sign in their window says, "We stock everything you can think of", and they do!!
There were shelves and shelves of spices. Some looked familiar and some I had never seen before.
Rows and rows of beans, lentils, and rices.
All kinds of nuts and finally, several different kinds of flours. I had my choice of Gram Flours.
These desserts were in the cases in the front of the store.
More desserts.
Then the cutest restaurant around the corner. Yes, it is called, "CURRY IN A HURRY". Too bad it was early in the day and they weren't open yet.
The next store I visited was, Kalustyan's at 123 Lexington Avenue. They also had wonderful desserts inside though I am not sure they were all Indian.
And more desserts.
They sold all kinds of dried fruits.
They sold spices in jars.........so many spices.
Spices in little plastic bags....so many bags.
My favorite packages were the sugar coated fennel seeds. They looked so bright and sweet.
But my find of the day was citric acid. What is that you ask???????? I have been looking for citric acid for months now. You use it when making mozzarella cheese and though I don't know if it is used in Indian cooking, I will certainly use it this weekend. It's time to make mozzarella cheese!
Bon Appetit!
clare.

Where Am I?

This is the picture I took from the airplane. Yes, I pulled out my camera to take this picture just like a real tourist. How else could I get such a lovely picture of the wing?? It's a good thing I was alone and couldn't embarrass Andy. I had the entire row to myself this time and was able to stretch out for the flight.
This was the inside of the hotel. Where is my room? I forgot the room number.
Everything looked the same. Too many floors. Too many rooms.
This was the view from my window.
My in room coffee machine. As usual the coffee was terrible. Even the coffee in the lobby coffee shop was terrible. At least I remembered to bring my own tea and Splenda.
I took a picture of the inside of the room, but just deleted it by mistake. No loss. They all look the same anyway.

Why do all these hotels have to be the same?

I saw the airport, hotel and the mart. The only part that makes it fun are the people I meet and work with. Even though it's for work I like that part.

My next trip will be to a different city in February. If I take the same pictures I am sure you will not be able to tell the difference. Airport, hotel, mart, airport, hotel, mart............

Bon Appetit.
clare

Ahhhhh Brioche!!

I am making brioche today. I own one giant brioche pan (I don't remember where it came from and I don't think I have ever used it) but not one with little fluted sections for mini brioche, so I am going to try a popover pan and see what happens. I have a big one from Judy and one with 12 sections from Benjamin, and today I will use both. I do wish there was one pan that could be used for everything, and I guess you could do that, but sometimes it's fun to have just the right kind of pan for something specific. Space is always an issue so I will find a way to use what I have. I wouldn't know where to put one more pan.


I put all the 18 balls of dough into the sections in the pans, and then made the tiny top pieces out of this dough.


This is how they looked in the pan before they rose for the last time.


A closeup of one section.

It only took about 15 minutes in the oven and presto........morning brioche on the plate with a little butter and orange marmalade. Warm. Delicious. Just the right slightly sweet taste from the last brush on the top with egg white and a touch a sugar. The tops were shiny and still soft. Don't you want to take a bite?


After two minutes, this is what is left!


Inspiration came from lunch with Darla at Cafe D'Alsace. Their tiny bread basket was fabulous especially with a nice steaming cup of cafe au lait. Thanks, Darla!

Bon Appetit!!
Clare.

A Snowy Day

Don't you just love freshly baked bread with a steaming bowl of thick soup on a snowy day?
It was so cold and nasty out that I knew I would stay in the kitchen all day. I love making soup because it doesn't have to be watched once everything is in the pot. I don't have a real recette for soup. I just add all the vegetables I can find (this time- onions, courgettes, carrots, chou-fleur, split peas, dill, parsley,celery and low fat chicken broth and water). I simmer it until everything is nice and soft. Oh...this time I added a little Canadian Bacon because Andy loves it.
Here it is .....
While it was cooking, I made two small whole wheat baguettes. In one of them I added some beautiful thick green pitted olives hoping that with each slice I could get a good piece of an olive along with the crusty bread. This is how they looked after they were baked in the oven.
And this is how it looked after being sliced. This was exactly what I was looking for. It was delicious. Of course you have to love olives as much as I do, but look at that beautiful green olive right in the middle of the slice. Perfect!!!!
Yesterday I baked an olive oil olive bread. I used Kalamata olives and green olives (all pitted of course). This is all that is left even though it was a bit too salty for me. I will adjust the salt next time.
There is nothing like baking bread on a snowy day. I really love the entire process but most of all I love the smell of bread baking in the oven. Ummmmmm.
Bon Appetit.
Clare.