24x24 Say Cheeeese

Growing up it wasn't really a family gathering unless there was a big cheese plate to start things out. I loved how my mom would pick up all different kinds, flavors, textures, and lay them out so we could all hang around the table, chatting, and chowing cheese.

I fully admit the thought to make my own cheese never crossed my mind, until my good friend Amanda told me about her cheese making adventures, and I knew we had to go try together. Where does one go to learn how to make cheese you might ask? A dairy farm of course! Saturday morning four of us set our sites on Chicory Farms. I was planning on wearing a floor length ball gown, but Amanda advised me that might not be the best idea for a farm tour.

There were baby sheep.

And goats!

We started off by making cows milk ricotta. It's probably the easiest cheese out there to make, seriously you can't really go wrong. You will need 1 gallon whole milk, 1/4 cup vinegar, a large pot, spoon, thermometer, and some cheese cloth.  Seriously that's it.

Heat milk stirring occasionally until temperature reaches 185. Do not let milk boil
Turn off heat and stir in 1/4 cup vinegar (should look like picture above).
Pour into a cheese cloth lined colander.

That's me, so obviously I didn't take the photo, Amanda did

Hang for a few minutes to get more of the whey out.

That's it, your done! Pop it in the refrigerator and it will keep up to a week.

Now for mozzarella! For this you need raw goats milk. You'll need an in at a local farm. You can make this using low pasteurized cows milk, but the directions would be different then below. Don't use high pasteurized goats or cows milk, it wont work because the proteins are too damaged to form a strong curd.

You will need
1 gallon raw goats milk
1 1/2 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup cool water
1/4 tsp liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup cool (unchlorinated) water
1 tsp cheese salt
(large pot, cheese cloth, spoon, thermometer)

Gently heat 1 gallon milk to 55 degrees. Add citric acid solution while stirring.
Heat milk to 85 degrees stirring constantly. Once reached remove from heat and slowly add the rennet solution, stirring with an up and down motion for 30 seconds. Cover pot and allow milk to stand for 10 minutes (or until when you tap it with a spoon it's a custard like consistency).

Now with a thin skewer or a specialty curd cutting knife cut the curd into 1/2 inch squares. Gently stir to keep curb from becoming a mat, Return to heat and bring to 95 degrees. Remove from heat and continue to stir for 2-5 minutes.
Pour into cheese cloth lined colander. (Save the whey if you plan on doing the next part on the stove). Half of us did this and the other half used the microwave, it was SO much easier that way.

Press any additional whey out of curb and place in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute.
Drain off excess whey and knead curd to distribute heat evenly. Return curb to microwave for 35 seconds.
Repeat heating and kneading until the curd is too hot to touch (145) and can be stretched like taffy without breaking. (add this point add in your salt if you want- or you can leave it out). Repeat 35 seconds in microwave and continue to pull until shiny and taffy like consistency.

Still not ready, almost!

Form into balls and place in a plastic bag and into an ice bath for 30 minutes.
Time to eat!

A super big thank you to Foodbuzz 24x24 for sponsoring this post!! 


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24x24 Shrimptastic

Yummmmmm!!! That is all.

(Riesling poached Shrimp with Citrus Slaw)

Ok ok I have more to say than that, but seriously. Wouldn't you be saying that too if you got to make and eat all this:

(Beer battered shrimp with cajun marmalade)

(Shrimp Vol au Vents with Mushrooms)

(Scampi style shrimp & Garlic Fettuccine Alfredo)

(Coconut crusted shrimp with mango-curry chutney)

(Amaretto shrimp) - somehow I missed taking a picture of the crab cake stuffed shrimp, those were GOOD!

Thanks to Foodbuzz, I got to participate in another 24x24. This time with Chef Tom and his mad shrimp identifying and cooking up skills. (sounds pretty impressive eh?)

Here he is showing Beth how to make bloody mary bread sticks (they have tomato paste and celery salt in them- and yes he's using a pasta machine to cut them into shape).

The class was at the NY Wine and Culinary Center, which is all about sustainability, keeping it local, and educating the public about all things delicious. I also learned that they are a not for profit last night, who knew!?

Some interesting facts I learned during class:

• The most common shrimp you'll find in the US are black tiger shrimp, most of which are farm raised in south east asia. This means they have a more mild flavor due to their pellet food eating as apposed to wild shrimp that get to live it up in the ocean.
  
• Shrimp aren't classified by size, it's by a count range, aka the number of them you get in a lb. 13-15's are larger than 90-100s...oh come on it's not hard math.
  
• There are things called U4's - that means under 4 per pound, talk about serious fatty fatty 2x4s!!
• The texture of shrimp doesn't change with their size.. you might think those little ones are tougher, but nope, you're probably just cooking the crap out of them. Stop that by the way. Shrimp don't take long to cook, only a few minutes per side in a pan, anymore than that and your eating rubber... bleh.
  
• Reason why you can't refreeze things after thawing: The shrimp are commercially IQF (individually quick frozen) which is taking their temp down to freezing in 20 minutes flat, so ice doesn't form the same way as when you do it at home. At home they are freezing slowly and all those little moisture particles are forming into ice shards, tearing apart the insides of your not so tender anymore, shrimp. Re-freezing: don't do it.

Now I know you all want some of those recipes from class right? Here were my top two favorites:

Amaretto Shrimp - I got to make this one!!
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs amaretto (lets face the facts, I used a much larger amount)
1 1/2 Tbs honey
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
pinch cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together and set aside

For the shrimp we used 24 large raw shrimp (peel and deveil, leave tail on)
1 1/2 cups cornstarch seasoned with salt and pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped toasted almonds for garnish

Dredge shrimp and shake off excess cornstarch. Heat a large saute pan over high heat until hot. Add enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Sear shrimp on both sides until shrimp is pink and just begin to curl. Remove from pan and place in bowl, toss with amaretto sauce and chopped nuts.

Coconut shrimp with Mango-Curry Chutney
Chutney (this stuff was AMAZING, the spice kinda knocked my socks off)
1 Tbs red onion finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped mango
1 Tbs fresh lime juice
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp minced jalapeno
1 clove garlic minced
2 Tbs fresh cilantro
2 tsp toasted curry powder

Saute onion in a small amount of oil, add rest of ingredients and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Shrimp
1 lb shrimp peeled and deveined, tail on
salt as needed
2 cups coconut
2 Tbs flour
2 egg whites, lightly whisked

Season shrimp with salt on both sides. In a small bowl combine the coconut and flour. Dip shrimp in egg then dredge in coconut mixture. Fry in hot oil until golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve with chutney.

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24x24 Sea Kraken Cone Crawl

Simply because it's January doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and enjoy a nice cone full of home made ice cream! Cold weather aside, for this months 24x24 sponsored by Foodbuzz, I proposed a cone crawl of sorts tasting all of the wonderful unique flavors Rochester had to offer during the winter months. I planned it out looking up flavors on websites, noting which creameries were closed for the season. It was all ready to go... until I started calling places... and found out that most hadn't updated their websites to say they were closed. *insert wrench into original plans*

Even though a few were still open, I decided to change my plans slightly when I stumbled upon a unique feature of a creamery I already knew and loved. Moonlight Creamery offers tasting parties! Most people go for a full dessert tasting but I asked if it was possible to stick strictly to ice cream. Heidi, the owner, and amazing host, said it wouldn't be a problem and set us up for a fabulous mid afternoon party. (scheduled perfectly around nap times)

The kids were set up with old school ice cream hats to color on, and plenty of ice cream themed coloring book pages. The kids got full run on the shop to pick whatever sundae they wanted... although not one wanted one. Simple scoops of cake batter, chocolate, and strawberry were the winners for this group.

The adults were in for a marathon of eating, but first a little education. Heidi told us all about how they make the ice cream, using as many local ingredients as possible. They use cream from cows that are rbst-free, and are from upstate NY. Things like the coffee and espresso used in their flavors come from Joe Bean, another favorite place of mine here in Rochester. The other interesting thing to note is their ice cream is considered premium premium, that means it contains 14% milk fat (yeah low fat eating John wasn't so excited when he heard that part, but lets face the facts, he loved every minute of it!) She also told us about the % of air that goes into their ice cream and how that effects the texture and creaminess of it. Some companies pump in more air so they can get more bang for their buck, as much as 50% of it is air. At Moonlight, only 20% is air, making for a super creamy decadent treat. You can tell Heidi loves what she does and truthfully cares about the quality of ingredients, and the impact things will have on the environment. (All cups, spoons, and even drink cups are made to be 100% biodegradable.)

The 13 adults were in for 3 flights of ice cream. We were taught to sample them like you do wine, noting the appearance, aroma, texture, inclusions, and finish. We were even given sheets to fill out as we experienced each flavor. Not being told what the flavors were, we had to use our senses to figure it out! I found out mine weren't very good at picking up on some of the more subtle flavors... but I was spot on with others! One participant was able to guess the exact brand of booze used in one variety... nice work :)

Flight one... ummm yeah, sorry too busy experiencing the ice cream that I forgot to take a shot! HA! We had three flavors, Butterbeer (any Harry Potter fans out there?), Smore, and Chocolate Almond. Of these three, smore was my favorite. (see that spoon below... it's made from potato! don't worry it doesn't melt and taste like potato in your ice cream)

Flight two brought four flavors, Pumpkin gingersnap (DELICIOUS), Mango raspberry, Brown sugar oatmeal (one of my favorites), and bananas foster (wasn't digging this one, but others loved it)

Flight three contained John's favorite, Espresso heath bar, the other two were Baileys, and another unique flavor, and namesake and inspiration for this 24x24 proposal, Sea Kraken! (salted caramel with nuts)

At this point you're probably thinking, wow I'd sure be full... well it's not time to stop yet. It was time to wake up with an affogato, AKA a small scoop of Madagascar vanilla ice cream drowned in a shot of espresso... simply put TO DIE FOR. My favorite thing from the whole day. What an experience, the warm strong taste of the espresso bathing over the cool calming vanilla. LOVE.

What's that? You're full? Sorry, we're not done yet. To end the night everyone got to pick out a sundae with whatever flavors and toppings they wanted. True, this is a little out of line with my normal everything in moderation mantra... but sometimes, you just have to let loose and enjoy a special treat :)

What flavor would you have liked the best? Have you ever had an affogato? Would you try one?

Thanks again Foodbuzz for making this possible and sponsoring this event!!

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24x24 intro to sushi making

Happy New Year!!! What did you all do?? John and I got to celebrate 24x24 Foodbuzz style and went to the NY wine and culinary center to take an intro to sushi class! We are serious sushi lovers so the thought of being able to make the stuff at home got us very excited. I was a little worried our rolls were going to look more like a science experiment then they would edible art... but I must say I was surprised how well we did!

The first thing we learned was how to properly cook the rice. You have to make sure to rinse it until the water runs clear (rinse about 3 times). Put the rice in a pan and distribute evenly. Now we add the water (unmeasured!) basically stick your finger in so it lightly touches the top of the rice, and fill the pot with water until the water is up to your first knuckle. Turn your heat on high and once it starts boiling turn it to medium and simmer until you can't see any more water above the rice line. Now turn off the heat and cover with tinfoil, let sit for 10 minutes. While it's sitting mix together 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar, 1 Tbs kosher salt, and 3 Tbs sugar. Now the fun part, drizzle the vinegar mixture in and fluff around using chopsticks (don't mash the rice), then spread it out onto a cookie sheet and start fanning it like made to cool it down!

FAN FASTER!!!! Yes I was actually jokingly yelling this at John as he fanned... the other students gave us some funny looks... HA!

I asked the teacher if he was sure this was a real step and not just trying to fool us all into looking ridiculous :)

OK now that you have your rice it's time to make some rolls! We each were given a sushi mat and fully covered them in saran wrap. Take a sheet of nori (it's seaweed) and place it shinny side up. Keep a bowl of water to dip your fingers in to the side. Dip your fingers and take a handful of rice and place in the center of the nori, gently spread out to cover the full sheet side to side, leaving 1/2 inch at the top and 1/4 inch at the bottom (if you are doing an inside out roll, rice on the outside, leave 1/4 inch at both the top and bottom). Try not to handle the rice too much and smash it, you want them to stay individual pieces of rice, not a bunch of moosh.

Next add in your guts (2/3 of the way down, make sure you have all ingredients equally distributed)! We made all different kinds of rolls. Veggie rolls with avocado and cucumber, ones with crab sticks and spicy mayo, I made one with salmon, avocado and honey YUM! John even tempura fried some shrimp and made a super delicious roll with them! Yes you read that right, the man who doesn't eat fried things actually tempura fried his own shrimp!! Go husband!

Now to get rolling, bring the side closest to you up and curl it around your guts, apply equal pressure across the length of the roll with your left hand as you pull the bamboo sheet away from you with your right hand.

Continue pulling away and pressing down until the roll is fully out of the bamboo sheet and on the table.

Now to slice, the most important thing is that you have a super sharp knife... otherwise... whomp whomp. Total smooshed not so pretty badness. Also make sure you slice your roll evenly so the pieces are all the same size.

How super easy was that?? I think the hardest part was cutting them without smooshing the insides out. What combos would you do? One of my favorites at a local sushi place is a tempura shrimp, crab stick, spicy mayo, spinach, tomato, and BACON!! Yeah it's a biggie, but it's delicious!!

Full disclosure, Foodbuzz paid to make our event possible. Thanks Foodbuzz!

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24x24 Pan to Plate Sauces

Highlights from the class

• I got to light brandy on fire, and I didn't even burn off my eyebrows (or John's)!



• I pissed off the chef-instructor by asking him what I could use instead of the copious amounts of salt he put on everything, you'll learn below this is a major step. (don't worry I didn't really phrase it that way.. but I DID piss him off, whoops)



• I pissed off the chef even more when I asked him what I could use instead of the copious amount of butter he was putting on everything (are you seeing a trend here)



• We got to eat a delicious three course meal (that was still healthy- ha take that instructor!) cooked by yours truly and the husband!

Chef Instructor showing us how to set fire to things

Ok lets take a few steps back. This month I got to participate in Foodbuzz's monthly 24x24 project! My idea was for John and I to head to a cooking class at the NY wine and culinary center to learn how to properly saute and make amazing pan to plate restaurant style sauces.


John with his professional plating skills


Here's what we learned:
The biggest rookie mistake is not heating your pan before you add the oil, this is a HUGE mistake many many people make. The deal has to do with the metal pores opening up when it heats, if you put the oil in first those pores don't get coated as well. So if you take anything away from this, heat your pan, then add the oil.

Course 1: shrimp & scallops with spinach garlic, roasted red peppers, in a lemon and white wine sauce.


If your pan is too deep your items wont brown (since it wont get hot enough). If your pan is too small things wil be crowded and not brown, and not create a fond (translates to foundation, this is the base of your sauces). If you pan is too large your fond will burn.

Cooking Course 2: Pork!

You should cook to order, this means cooking a little at a time, you can't cook for 6 people at once. Products should be dry when they go in the pan, otherwise they wont brown.

Course 2: pork cutlet with fingerling potatoes, onions, in a brandy apple cider sauce

Now step by step how to properly saute:
Step 1: portion protein to be sauteed, heat proper size pan, generously cover protein in salt (seriously) when pan is hot add oil, brown protein on both sides, add more butter, and drizzle butter over protein, remove from pan. Pour off extra grease but not the fond.
Step 2: Saute garnish (aka veggies: garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach...) add more butter...
Step 3: Deglaze pan: AKA set alcohol on fire. Remove pan from flame, add wine/spirits, place back on flame, it will catch on fire and burn out. This removes all the fond from the pan bottom. Let this cook awhile and reduce.
Step 4: Finishers, add something to rehydrate the sauce, apple cider vinegar, chicken stock, juice, Then finish off with butter, mustard, herbs, cream...
Serve at once

Now you probably want to know what John and I used instead of all that salt and butter huh? Well for starters we seasoned with spices instead of a copious amount of salt. We used things like black pepper, paprika, cayenne, and a little salt but not a ton. Then we used a little bit of oil to keep our pan lubricated. When things started getting sticky and burning we added a little bit of water. Oil was needed but truthfully there was no reason to keep pouring it on and on.

In the end the instructor wasn't at all helpful in teaching any alterations from his norm. When I asked him about not using so much salt he got defensive and said they didn't stock salt substitutes in their kitchen and questions what was wrong with us that we didn't want to eat salt... "ummm we just like to keep a lower sodium diet since it's in so many things already, and I don't use salt subs either... I just use less salt..." then he asked me "well what would you use then if you don't use salt!?" "umm spices?? but I was moreso interested in what you would suggest?" Yeah he wasn't a fan of me by any means.... good thing I didn't tell him I had a blog and would be posting the whole experience! :) (also the reason why there are no shots with his face!)

Course3: Chicken with green beans, garlic, and onions, in a white wine and spicy mustard sauce.

Drama or not, we had a blast and would go back for another class! One of the other chefs who wasn't teaching but was there to help out was super nice and friendly. I might need to look up what classes he's teaching :)

Have you ever taken a cooking class with a professional 4 star restaurant chef? Do you think you'd ask your questions like me (and keep asking even after your first got you in trouble) or would you pipe down and keep your trap shut?

Thank you Foodbuzz for sponsoring us and making this meal possible!

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Foodbuzz 24x24 Sugar on Snow

Even though it's spring we got a little more of winter this week blanketing everything in a few inches of fresh snow. It made for the perfect backdrop for a maple syrup weekend. We started the day heading to Trout Brook Sugarhouse, to watch maple syrup be made and learn about what makes grades of syrup different, and most importantly taste every last one of them!

Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to boil down and make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup? Makes you understand why the good stuff is so expensive doesn't it :) That process is what is happening in the picture above. Think about it... 39 gallons of water needs to evaporate out of the sap to make just one gallon of the sweet stuff. (that's a lot of steam! and it smelled amazing if you were wondering)

(from left to right: Grade A light amber, Grade A medium amber, Grade A dark amber)

My favorite was grade A medium amber. Do you know what yours is? Did you know the maple flavor gets more intense the darker the syrup is?

The grades are based on the color which is dependent on the time of season the sap is harvested and the temperature outside. The later in the season (and warmer the outside temps are) the darker the syrup, until eventually it is so dark it is considered Grade B (super intense maple flavor), this is classified as a cooking grade and goes well in marinades, baking, and even in beer making!

Care for a little sugar on snow? (traditionally maple syrup on fresh snow... but today we had it on vanilla ice cream, YUM!)

Next was a ride down to Canandaigua Lake to the NY Wine and Culinary Center to take a class on baking with maple syrup. The class was taught by Chef Andrew Chambers and was a sweet treat, literally.

Jeanne and I were assigned to make Maple Walnut Baklava. Here's the recipe... and a picture of what you get when you follow the recipe.

Maple Walnut Baklava (made by another set of our awesome classmates!)

Somehow I didn't get a picture of what we made... (ours also had nuts on top... whoops guess you aren't suppose to do that) You see Jeanne is also a recipe tweaker like me. So instead of using 1 cup of butter (seriously...) we used 1/4 cup. And instead of slathering butter in between ever sheet of phyllo we did butter every 2, and alternated that with maple syrup every 2! We just stole some of they syrup from the sauce you make later... shhh don't tell.

4 out of 5 people we asked liked our slimmed down version better than the full on butter version! Go us! And we didn't hate on the one who liked the butter version better, to each their own :)

Other things the other groups made:

Maple Nut Brittle Muffins

Maple Pecan Tart

Somehow I also missed out on a picture of the chocolate covered maple bavarian... it was DELICIOUS!!! And really beautiful... and we just dug right in and didn't take a picture... sorry :D

This post is brought to you by 24x24 sponsored by Foodbuzz! Thanks so much Foodbuzz for sending us on this maple adventure!

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