Watermelon Pickles

Quick! While watermelons are in abundance! MAKE THESE PICKLES! I would never, ever steer you wrong. As I've said elsewhere, these things are DIVINE. And as always, if I can do this, ANYONE can do this. Here's the recipe.

WATERMELON PICKLES

3 lbs. watermelon rind, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
5c Sugar
2c Apple Cider Vinegar
1c Water
2T Whole Cloves
1 ½ T Whole Allspice
2T Stick Cinnamon (I wasn't sure how to translate that, but I used 6 sticks)
1 Lemon sliced

Let cubes soak overnight in large pot in salted water to cover. Drain. Cover with fresh cold water. Bring to boil and cook over low heat until tender. Drain. Combine rest of the ingredients and stir over medium heat until tender. Boil 5 minutes. Add watermelon-rind cubes; simmer until transparent-About 15 minutes. Remove spices and pack pickles into jars and process in a water-bath canner for 15 minutes.

And here are my notes, gathered from asking around and examining other recipes:

Peel the smooth, shiny outer skin from the rind, using a potato/carrot peeler. You don't have to take off any more than the outermost skin.

For the overnight soaking, use 1/4 cup pickling salt for each quart of water needed to completely cover rind chunks. For the rind from one large watermelon (the weight of which I have NO idea), this came out to about 2 quarts of water and 1/2 cup of pickling salt.

I rinsed the cubes twice, then covered them in fresh water and brought them to a slow boil. I cooked them until they were tender but not yet translucent.

I went ahead and pre-cooked the pickling mixture just enough to get all the sugar dissolved and get the ingredients to start melding together well.

After combining everything, I'm pretty sure I let it cook for a bit longer than 15 minutes. I let the melond-rind chunks get fairly translucent, but not soft or soggy.

I would add that YES, you DO need a jar funnel. Don't be like me and think you don't. You do. You also need one of those jar-lifters, while you're at it. Now get pickling!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

There is also an Alton Brown recipe for these that looks promising, but I haven't yet tested it. But this one, this one is easy, fast, and VERY authentic with the inclusion of a boiling in water and baking soda prior to baking. I encourage you to try this, if you don't already make pretzels. If I can do it...well, you know the rest.

SOFT PRETZELS

For pretzel dough:

1 packet active dry yeast
1 C. warm (NOT HOT) water
2-3/4 C. flour
1 T. sugar or equivalent in honey
1/2 t. salt (slightly more if using kosher salt)
2 T. olive oil (you could also use softened butter)

For boiling:

4 C. water
2 T. baking soda

For topping pretzels prior to baking:

2 T. kosher salt OR herbs of choice OR cinnamon sugar OR finely grated cheeses OR anything your imagination dictates

Directions:

Add yeast and sugar or honey to warm water; let sit 5 minutes to allow yeast to get foamy.

Combine 1-1/2 cups flour, salt and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast mixture and stir, or mix with stand-mixer, until well-combined. Add remaining 1-1/4 cups flour. Knead dough 3 minutes by hand, or half that time using a stand mixer with dough-hook attachment; form dough into a ball, lightly oil dough, turning to coat, cover, and rise for 1 hour. Dough should double in size. (I like to use my trusty old microwave trick here: boil a cup of water in the microwave, then push the cup of hot water into the corner and place your covered bowl with the dough in it inside the microwave and shut the door. DON'T TURN ON THE MICROWAVE.)

Punch down dough and divide it into 12 equally-sized pieces, and roll each piece into a ball (dust hands with flour to prevent sticking). Place balls on a cookie sheet or lightly floured surface. Cover lightly and rise for 15 minutes or so. Don't crowd them together on a plate like I did--it's not a disaster when they stick together, but it is a pain.

Roll each ball into a 16-inch length (make a snake!) and form into a pretzel shape. Or, divide each ball in half and roll each half into a 3-inch stick, about 3/4-inch wide. Let rest a few minutes so they can "fluff up" a bit.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 475°F. Grease, or spray with cooking spray, a large cookie sheet. In a non-aluminum pot, bring remaining 4 cups water to a boil with baking soda. Add pretzels to the boiling water in batches (do not crowd) and boil 1 minute each, turning once.

Scoop pretzels out with a slotted spoon, allowing excess water to drip through. Place pretzels on cookie sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt or other desired toppings. Bake 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Makes 12 large pretzels or 24 sticks.

These yummy snacks are DEFINITELY best eaten right out of the oven, BUT, if you want to make a larger batch and store some, LEAVE OFF THE SALT or other toppings before baking. Bake them plain, and allow to cool COMPLETELY. Once the pretzels are TOTALLY cooled, place them into the freezer on an uncovered cookie sheet for flash-freezing. Once they're frozen solid (an hour or so--do NOT forget and leave them there overnight), place them into freezer bags for storage.

When it's time to prepare one for a snack, take it out of the freezer, and place onto a paper towel. Have your desired topping, salt, cinnamon sugar, whatever, ready to use, and working QUICKLY, one pretzel at a time, dip your finger into some water and brush the water over the tops of the frozen pretzels. Before the water can dry (seriously, work fast), sprinkle on the toppings. Then heat in the microwave in short bursts until pretzels are warm and soft. They'll be almost as good as when they were fresh from the oven.

My friend Erin informed me that her grandmother always brushed her pretzels with melted butter, and I have to admit that sounds divine. With the frozen ones, you could probably use the butter instead of water to make your toppings stick, too. That would be especially yummy with the sweet versions, and none too shabby with salt or other savory variations, either!

So now you have the straight dope: Go forth and pretzel! YUMMMMM.

Easy Cheesey

You want Mozzarella Fresca. You want to make it yourself. Seriously, you do. You cannot imagine how easy and quick it is. First, just go and get this kit, since it comes with everything you need, plus recipes. It includes enough stuff to make 30 pounds of cheese. Here, watch this.

You get some milk. Your only real limitation is that it can't be "ULTRA" pasteurized. I was kind of astonished at how that limits your selection at the grocery store. If you have a cow or a goat, more power to you. Anyway, you dissolve some citric acid (included in your mozzarella kit) into a bit of distilled water, then stir that into the milk, and start gently heating it to 86 degrees F. (There is a dairy thermometer included in the kit.) The milk will curdle. This is good.

At the desired temperature, you dissolve a teensy bit of vegetable rennet into a bit of distilled water, then add that while gently stirring the milk, which has been removed from the heat. You only stir a few seconds, then just leave it alone for 5-8 minutes. When you come back, the curds should have separated from the whey. Recite "Little Miss Muffett," and then slice the curds into cubes. Optimally, they'll be fairly solid, like silken tofu, floating in clear yellow whey, so that you can ladle them out gently with a large slotted spoon, into a glass bowl.

If they're not holding together so well (these weren't), never fear. Just pour the whole mess into a giant bowl, through a large piece of butter muslin (included in the kit), and strain the whey out. What's left behind in the muslin will be your cheese curds.

In a glass bowl, zap the curds in the microwave for about a minute. (There is a microwave-free method that uses the heated whey; it's explained in the instructions that come with the kit.) Take them out and knead them like bread dough. You know, if bread dough was the consistency of ricotta. As you do this, more whey will be released from the curds, which will become firmer. Pour it off, and re-nuke the curds for about 30 seconds. Knead them again, being careful because they'll be getting hot. If you've ever made taffy, you'll be right at home. On the second or third heating, your curds will be getting melty and shiny, at least in the bowl. Knead them, and give them the stretch test.

If the cheese breaks instead of stretching, it's not quite done. Heat it again and knead some more. Start tasting the cheese, too. This is a good time to add a teaspoon or two of cheese salt (if you like--included in the kit), or any herbs or other flavor additives you might desire. Your cheese should be just about too hot to handle, and it should be getting very shiny and very stretchy!

It will also be tasting DELICIOUS. If you can get from this point to actually using the cheese in a recipe, you're showing remarkable restraint, because you're going to want to just eat it ON THE SPOT, while it's warm. No lie. My daughter tried repeatedly to convince me that "we could just eat this cheese for dinner, just like this, with nothing else, RIGHT NOW before Daddy gets home." This is a great thing to make with kids, but be sure to give them rubber gloves, since they don't have "Mom skin" on their hands.

When the cheese is shiny, smooth, and stretchable, start forming it into smallish round balls and plop the balls into a bowl of ice-water, for rapid cooling. Go ahead and make a joke about putting your balls on ice. You've earned it.

That's it! You have just made Mozzarella Fresca, and it took no more than 30 minutes, most of which were spent doing nothing but waiting. Aren't you pleased with yourself? But WAIT. That's not all. Remember all that whey you poured off the cheese? There's, like, 3/4 of a gallon of that stuff. Save it--it's liquid gold. To feel like a total superwoman (or man), go ahead and use a cup of it RIGHT NOW to make an easy, no-muss pizza dough. I'll print the recipe for that tomorrow. Tell the truth--will you not feel like something else entirely, when you serve a pizza and say that you made everything from the crust to the sauce to the CHEESE? Seriously. You are awesome. Respect.

Spoon-Tastic!

This is an easy fresh corn spoonbread that is a great dish to make with kids--it's pretty much all about measuring and stirring and pouring, which are MY kid's favorite things to do in the kitchen. The recipe is from Southern Living, and is credited to Beth Trueblood of Lanesville, Indiana.

Fresh Corn Spoonbread

Ingredients:

1 cup white cornmeal mix
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar (or equivalent in honey)
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh corn kernels (about 5 to 6 ears)
2 cups plain yogurt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix together dry ingredients, set aside.

Stir together corn and all remaining ingredients.

Add corn mixture to dry mixture, stirring just until blended and moist throughout. Pour batter into a 2-quart baking dish that's been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, until golden brown and set in the center. I may have tented some foil over the top for the last 20 minutes or so...I really can't recall. Just eyeball it, and don't let the top and edges dry out during baking.

Enjoy! It's some yummy stuff.

Slow-Cooked Venison With Cheesey Polenta

We have a freezer full of venison from the deer Alex got last November, and I was not much looking forward to consuming any of it, my past experience with venison being less than wonderful. But all day long today, the crock-pot was bubbling away, filling the house with delicious aromas, so I couldn't help but give it a try. Also? MY husband made polenta. CHEESY polenta. Which worked with this roast so well, I couldn't believe it. Here's how he did it.

The first key, I think, was the cut of meat--what I ate was a small filet of tenderloin. Imagine the leanest filet mignon you've ever seen. Alex also prepared some other cut, which I did not like nearly as well, though he thought it was pretty good (bear in mind, he also likes foie gras), in the same manner. He started by marinating the steaks and the roast overnight in dark beer. The next morning, he layered carrots and onions in the bottom of the Crock-Pot. Then he salted and peppered the meat, and seared each cut in olive oil on a hot skillet 'til browned on each side. The roast and steaks went into the Crock-Pot over the chopped vegetables.

Over the top of the meat, he poured equal parts red cooking wine and beef broth, to which diced tomatoes and minced garlic were added. This cooked for a little over 5 hours on the high setting of the Crock-Pot.

When the meat was done cooking, he whipped up a batch of fresh polenta (which we should totally do more often, because a serving of polenta has about 70 calories, NO fat, and 1 gram of fiber), and doctored it up with just a little parm/reggiano cheese. Our roast and veggies were served on a bed of the cheesy polenta, with sauce from the roast spooned over the top.

IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. I highly recommend this for those of you who've had negative venison experiences. There was zero gamey flavor, and if I say that, you can believe me. Again, I preferred the filet, but the other cuts weren't so bad, either. Just not DELICIOUS, like what I had. Yum. I may let him go hunting again next year, after all.