This article originally appeared in Smile Politely here.  I’d urge you to click through and read it there since they’ll get some ad revenue or something.  I understand if you just want to get to it, though, so enjoy.

(more…)

Can you identify what I’m showing in this picture?  Click for a larger version of the picture.  Post in the comments.  If you can’t guess, I’ll put up some hints later, but I bet some of you will know right away.  I’ll be putting up more pictures later on this week.

It’s Saturday.  I haven’t posted in a long time.  I have so many photos and ideas to share, but so many other things stealing my time.  In an attempt to appease you, here’s a photo of a bowl of delicious yellow cherry tomatoes from one of the new (her second week) producers at the Urbana Market at the Square (north end, row 3).  The woman at the booth told me she’s from Monticello, and now in retirement is farming a piece of land with her son.  She had a good selection of tomatoes available, and we picked up a selection.  One variety was green and striped.  It was firm-fleshed and had citrusy notes to it.  She also brought a dark red heirloom variety that delivered deep, delicious tomato flavor.  Finally, we picked up a basket of these yellow cherry tomatoes.  They were perfectly ripe and had the sweetness and acidity that only locally-grown tomatoes can fully deliver. Go support your local farmer and get something delicious.

UPDATE: I talked with her again today, 9/5 (while buying some beautiful tomatoes), and found she is doing business as “Ellen’s Melons” (and tomatoes and roots, and other stuff… I forget everything she mentioned).

I reviewed a local restaurant and wrote up this article which appeared in Smile Politely, a local online magazine.  I urge you to click through to read my article there, titled Mas Amigos dishes Mexican done right.  If you really don’t want to… you could read it here.

(more…)

Ricotta can be made in a lot of ways, but the most traditional way to make it is by recooking the whey left over from cheesemaking.  This is where the name ricotta comes from; it means “recooked”.  I made mozzarella cheese from a recipe from Cooking With Tien.  The mozzarella turned out pretty well, though I need a little practice in the heating and stretching and forming part of it.  If you love fresh mozzarella cheese, you owe it to yourself to make a batch.  In the long run, it’s cheaper than buying it in the store, plus it’s fun.

I found a simple recipe for ricotta online, entitled Ricotta Making Illustrated.  It’s a great reference for new ricotta makers, but it’s not terribly necessary.  Ricotta is probably the easiest cheese product to make, since there’s really only 4 steps

1. Make some cheese and save the whey.  I made mozzerella.
2. Let it sit overnight to ferment a little and acidify slightly.
3. Bring it almost to a boil, then let it cool down.
4. Drain off the newly-formed curds.

It really is that simple.  If you really want to complicate things you can follow the extra-detailed 8 step process at the above link.  Since the first cheese I made was mozzarella, the recipe only called for me bringing the milk to 90 degrees, which isn’t enough to denature or cook all the protein (mostly casein) in the milk.  Some of it was left dissolved in the whey (along with the riboflavin, which gives it the greenish-yellowish tint).  Bringing the whey up near a boil denatures those remaining bits of protein, which glob up into the tiny curds you get in ricotta.

Here’s my illustrated ricotta making process:

This is the whey left over from mozzarella.  You see a few curds left over that I didn’t scoop out.

This is what the why looks like when you’ve heated it almost to a boil.  You can see a big raft of cheese on the top of the whey.

This is what happens when it reaches a boil and breaks apart the curds.  You’re not supposed to do this.  You should only go to 95 degrees C (in case you don’t remember, boiling is 100).

This is a fine-mesh sieve lined with a couple layers of cheesecloth, ready for the ricotta.  Drain and squeeze a little, and you get the finished product, below.

From a gallon of milk, I got a good amount of mozzarella (didn’t measure, I’d guess somewhere between 1-1.5 pounds) and 4 ounces of ricotta.  It may not sound like much, but from one gallon of milk I got what could easily cost me more than $10 in a store.  It’s fun, requires little investment, and you learn a little about how cheese can be made in your own kitchen.