"Mr. Elkins of the City, an eminent cheesemonger."

Not often I get to quote my favorite author in such a personal way. Well, any how, I just realized I've been making a Lebanese cheese for years and didn't know it.

I like making yogurt and have done so for several years. At least in three different houses. I also like draining all the whey out and have been pleased to call it yogurt cheese, not knowing any better.

Well, I started to read up on making cheese after Kristi got the urge to make butter. I was looking at butter videos on YouTube and found one about cheese making for beginners and wound up at a site devoted to craft cheese making. The long and the short of it is that the second step to learning to make cheese, after making yogurt, is making Labneh. Labneh is the real name of my yogurt cheese.

So, I've already covered the first two bases and next time I get some milk from Kathy I'm going to try Neufchâtel.
Yep, the cream cheese of choice for the famous Elkins cheesecake.

Oh, does anyone know where the quote I titled this post comes from? You have to get the book right.

Woohoo Yogurt Woohoo

I ramble. I will recap at the end.

So here is me making yogurt. I took ideas from several online crockpot yogurt recipes and something I read in Adele Davis and developed my own recipe.

The first half gallon I made was kind of runny, a lot thinner than I like. I followed this one recipe I found except I put the crock in the oven after acculturation of the heated milk. That is an excepted method of maintaining heat. The yogurt tasted fine but was just too thin for me.

At this point I decided to tweak and combine recipes.  The first recipe called for 2 hours and 45 minutes on low setting. I'm impatient so I decided to try it on high and monitoring the heat.

Wait, I got the horse behind the cart. Ingredients needed are (for this time) a half gallon of whole milk. I have a friend with a cow so I don't have to worry about the amount of pasteurization the milk has suffered. Also, you will need a packet of yogurt culture (available at Purple Mountain for the Romans reading this) or a small thing of plain yogurt from the grocery store. You will also need dry milk. I used a half cup out of the jar I keep around for various recipes. That's it for ingredients. Whisk dry milk into the milk. Side note, you can use any milk from skim to whole. 

Next there is the equipment. For this one you will need a crockpot, a whisk, a small bowl, and a towel. Yes, I said towel. Now we can got back to the time discussion. 

As I said earlier one recipe said 2:45 on low. I wanted to speed things up so I set the crockpot, with milk in it of course, on high and checked temp every 30 minutes. I took the milk out at 180* after 2:15. Using high instead of low saved 30 minutes. Big deal, I was expecting to drop an hour. So, I guess the setting is up to you. The milk will be at 180 after 2:15 on high and 2:45 on low.

Next you take the crock out and put it in room temperature water that comes to just below the handles of the crock. I used the sink. No brainer, don't get water in the heated milk. Now leave the crock in the water for 15 minutes and no longer, don't want the milk to get to cool. Take the crock out and put it back in the base that you left on warm (low if your crockpot doesn't have warm). Scoop out about a cup of heated milk, I just scooped out half a bowl full. Now put the yogurt in and whisk it in well. Return this acculturated milk to the rest of the milk in the pot and whisk in. 

Almost there, wrap the crockpot in the towel. Yes, the whole thing. Then unplug the crockpot and let it sit for 8-9 hours. When you unwrap the crockpot take the crock out and put it in the fridge to stop the culture from working, bout an hour.

All that to say this. Take half a gallon of milk (your choice) and whisk in a half cup of dry milk (not powdered milk). Next put yogurt starter out to get warm, put the milk in the crockpot and turn it on high and wait 2 hours and 15 minutes. Fill your sink with water while waiting. Take the crock out of the base and put it in the water, don't let water over the lip. 12 minutes later remove crock from the water and return to the base (that you left on warm). Now, scoop out about a cup of warm milk and add the starter to this. Whisk till well mixed and return to crockpot and mix well. Wrap with towel and unplug. It should take less than five minutes from returning the crock to the base to wrapping and unplugging. Wait 8-9 hours, or longer if you wish, and then put in fridge for an hour.

You're done,

Eat, Enjoy.

Chicken Recipe I Found

I haven't tried this yet, but it looks pretty good in the pictures. I may add some olives to the mix. We'll just have to see what happens.

Jo's Rustic Italian Chicken

20 red pearl onions (give or take)

½ lb. mushrooms, washed, stemmed, and cut in half

1 whole chicken, cut up (I used a hatchet knife)

coarse salt and pepper

2 T. olive oil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/3 cup dark balsamic vinegar

To skin the pearl onions, place in a pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes, drain and transfer to a bowl of cold water.  Let stand for a minute, cut off the top and squeeze the outer skin off.  Discard the skins.

Preheat the oven to 375º.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  Sprinkle generously with coarse salt and pepper.

Place a roasting pan over two burners on your stovetop and heat on medium high.  Add the olive oil and coat the bottom of the pan until almost smoking.  Place the chicken, skin side down, in the pan and cook for 2 to 2 ½ minutes.  Turn and cook for another minute.  Throw the onions and mushrooms into the pan.  Sprinkle with the oregano.  Pour the balsamic vinegar over the top and place in the oven, uncovered for 30-40 minutes.  (I took mine out at 35.)  Place the pan back on the burners and heat on high for several minutes as you reduce the balsamic at the bottom until it resembles a dark glaze.  Transfer the chicken, onions, and mushrooms to a serving platter and pour the remaining vinegar sauce over.

I started roasting the potatoes in the oven about 15 minutes before the chicken, and took them out at the same time.  (Peel some potatoes, quarter them, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, place them – one layer – on a cooking sheet or glass dish in a 375º oven for 45 minutes to an hour.)

Rolling Cajun

I had the shrimp poboy today it was great. Their remoulade and lemon aioli made the sandwich. I'm just waiting for them to run out of bread so they'll make their pecan pie fried pies again. I didn't get to try them last time. 

If you're in the Rome area or passing through check 'em out on FB or at their sitewww.crawdaddys.info. The FB page always let's you know what's cooking and where it's cooking.

Time Warp

How apropos! My last post 2 years ago was about Dad's Pimento Cheese. Here's a picture of the self-same stuff that I just made.

Summer Sandwiches: the Pimento Papers

I haven’t posted in a while. The kitchen and I have been strangers except to whip together chicken nuggets or lettuce and tomatoes. So, I decided to write about my Dad’s version of Pimento Cheese. This is a simple recipe that lasts as long as you want it to (this rarely means longer than a day or two in our house.) Kristi loves this Pimento Cheese and P-man always comes back for more.

First ingredients will be the cream cheese. I put that one first because it needs to sit and warm up a bit before you throw it in to the processor. All you need is one 8 ounce package. Then you’ll need an 8 ounce package of sharp cheddar (I prefer the already shredded bags) and an 8 ounce package of seriously sharp cheddar (aka extra sharp). After that you will need a little garlic powder in the palm of your hand (a teaspoon?) and 7 ounces of pimentos. To finish it off you will need a cup or so of mayonesa [sic]. You will find that either with the mayonnaise or in the aisle with the Hispanic food.

After you get all of the goodies together you will need to get your food processor out and do the hard work. If you were unable to find pre-shredded cheddar you will need to have the grating blade out and shred it up. Don’t worry about the little pills and left over pieces, they will be taken care of when you put everything together. Now, with the shredding done put in the chopping/mixing blade. Get the cream cheese and put it in with the cheddar and pulse it around a little. Plop a scoop of mayonesa in the mixer and pulse again. Add the garlic powder and a half of the pimentos (and all of the juice). Dad reserves half the pimentos so there will be chunks of pimento in the end product. Run the mixer and get the texture you want (add a little more mayonesa if the spread needs to loosen up). Now throw in the rest of the pimentos and give it a good pulse to mix ‘em up good and you are done.

Get a good spoonful to tide you over until you can get the sandwich made. Now use the Pimento Cheese however you wish; on a sandwich, with celery, in a spoon.

Tour of the Basque Country

I made a paella of my own dreaming up in honor of the Tour of the Basque Country (a bicycle race) that was held last week. I started with my beans and rice process... well as I think about it the whole thing is my beans and rice just tweaked a little.

I start with some olive oil in the bottom of the pan. I cut up whatever meat I feel like using; this time it was chicken and anduille. I sautee the meat while I cut up an onion. Again that would be your choice. I used a yellow onion, but have used white or red. I like to use huge onions just so there is lots of it with a minimum of effort. When the onion is chopped up add it and the rice (however much you are using) and sautee that with the meat for 2-3 minutes. Now open up two cans of beans...

Digression: The type of beans is entirely up to you and yours. I have used all kidney, all pinto, all black and will probably use several others in the future. I rarely buy beans for this dish and I almost always use cans (lazy). This time I bought a can of chili beans and a can of black. I did this for spicyness and color.

...I used one can of chili beans and one of black. I drained the black and did not drain the chili (get all the flavor you can). Before you put the beans in add stock or water, whichever you prefer and remember to put twice as much liquid or stock than rice. Liquid to rice ratio should be 2:1. After you add the liquid put the beans in and stir.

Now the easiest part. Bring to a boil for about a minute then turn it down to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Oh, I forgot the best part. When I put the rice in I liberally coat everything with hot sauce, sautee and then add the liquid and beans. The cooking reduces the spicy heat and leaves just the flavor.

Once the rice is where you like it throw it in a bowl and eat it.