Monday, September 06, 2010
Little dabs of garden produce
Then I checked the zucchini plant; blossom end rot has been a problem, so the only zucchinis available were three or four inches long; cute little things that they were, I picked them. I was thinking if I got enough stuff, I could stir-fry veggies for supper.
I found a bell pepper I had missed. OK, that still didn't seem like enough for a decent stir-fry for two people. Maybe I should pick an eggplant?
I've never stir-fried eggplant, but it's OK on the grill. Surely a little soy sauce wouldn't hurt it.
Alrighty then; if I add a store-bought onion, this might work. I certainly hope so. One thing in the garden of which I have an abundance is okra, but no way am I going to add okra to a stir-fry. I'm pretty sure bad things would happen.
I have experimented with cottage-cheese-making a lot this week; the first batch I tried, using only buttermilk as a starter, was my favorite, and Cliff liked it. The second batch, using rennet, was a total fail, or so I thought. I dumped it into the cheesecloth in the colander, saw no curds had held their shape, and considered it a total waste. Then Cliff suggested a motorcycle ride; I set the colander atop a pan because it was draining, and forgot about it.
Back home that evening, I started to toss it; but when I picked it up out of the colander, it seemed like something a person might spread on a cracker. Or something. I got a knife and tasted it.
Not bad. It's similar to what some people call farmer's cheese, I think.
I had some a while ago on a piece of celery, and I've decided that if it were salted a little, and perhaps flavored with some onion or garlic powder, it might be really good.
My dog likes it, too; I know this because I dropped a couple of pieces of it on the floor.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Win some, lose some (Marcia, HELP)
It should have been good; the milk was all "set" like it should be this morning. I think I just got in too big a hurry; I should have kept it heating longer.
Marcia commented on another post that she was making cottage cheese using rennet. I have questions for you, Marcia.
Do you use a thermometer to make sure the milk is the right temperature?
Do you place the pan in hot water? How does your method differ from the recipe in THIS POST, the one on which you commented?
I already can see that the recipe that comes in the rennet package is different than the one I posted here; I should have followed that one, because I had great success with it. The only reason I wanted to try using rennet is that I wanted a larger curd.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Cottage cheese: Success!
Using an online recipe as a guide, I changed a couple of things. Rather than wait for the milk to curdle on its own, I added some buttermilk to hurry the process along. After twenty-four hours, it was nicely curdled. The recipe suggested that I should pasteurize the milk first; I did not do that. A different recipe suggested adding rennet, as did one of my readers. I will try that next time, if I can find rennet at the store.
The most drastic change from my old way of making cottage cheese was that I used a big enamel canner, put water in it, and set the container with the clabbered milk inside it, so it worked like a double boiler. Using a cooking thermometer, I followed the rules on temperatures. It wasn't nearly as "hit-and-miss" as my old method.
Here is the stainless steel pan sitting inside the canner. Curds and whey are all in there, heating up.
Here are the drained curds.
This is my kitchen after making low-fat brownies and healthy bran muffins for Cliff, followed by the cottage cheese-making.
I saved the whey because it tasted good, and whey is good for you. With my old method of making cottage cheese, the whey was not so good. The pigs and chickens liked it, though.
I added salt and pepper and rich Jersey cream, and took a couple of bites of the best home-made cottage cheese I've ever tasted.
Monday, August 30, 2010
The land of milk...
I could pour it down the sink, but I want to make some butter, since I have to milk anyhow. So I'm skimming off the cream. As I was about to pour the skimmed excess milk down the drain, I remembered how I used to make cottage cheese and decided to try it again.
Now, the way my mom and grandma taught me was just to heat the clabbered milk very slowly over a low burner until curds formed. Recipes I've found on the Internet is a little different and a lot more complicated:
Pasteurizing and Setting the Milk
Cutting the Curd
Heating the Curd
Draining the Whey
Working, Seasoning, and Creaming the Cheese
Decisions, decisions.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Home-made cottage cheese
One of my faithful readers left this comment recently: "Have you found the blog homesick Texan on blogspot? Her most recent entry is for homemade cheese with raw milk. It looks so easy! I want to make it but don't know where to get a gallon of milk! Will you find it and make it?"
Indeed I do read that blog; in fact, I link to it; you probably discovered her here on my blog. For those who are interested in the entry about the cheese, click HERE.
Now in my growing-up years, we didn't use lime juice or vinegar to curdle the cheese. My mom, and my grandma, just set the milk on the counter, kept it covered, and waited for it to curdle all by itself. And that's how I did it after I grew up and had my own cow. For those of you who are horrified at the thought of actually drinking raw milk obtained from a family cow, as we do here, I imagine you are now gagging at the thought of consuming curdled, four-day-old, raw milk. I'm sixty-five years old, and I survived it!
I recall my late father-in-law saying, "I love clabber." Yeah, that's curdled milk he was talking about. Now even I wouldn't go so far as to eat clabbered milk as is. Not that I'd be scared to, but it just doesn't sound good.
Actually, what the Homesick Texan calls cheese was "cottage cheese" to us. We drained it by putting it in cheesecloth and hanging it on the clothesline, left it crumbly, added cream to it, and that was that. The whey was given to the pigs or chickens.
I've heard the Kansas City Russian talk about making something similar back in Russia. Meesha, if you ever want to make that for old times' sake, let me know and I'll have a gallon or two of raw milk waiting for you next time you pass by. Lindie, that goes for you too, if you want to try making this cheese. Just don't both of you come on the same day; I only milk two or three times a week, and I'm sharing with her calf, you know.
I do hope I haven't ruined anybody's breakfast with this entry.