Cornmeal currant loaf

Part of the excitement of going away for the weekend to Tofino/Uclulet with family is planning what to eat! Of course my mind immediately goes to breakfast/dessert mode. Unfortunately I've already had too many desserts this week (blame my wife for insisting that I must experience the rice krispie square made with melted mars bars in place of marshmallows....), so I am attempting to focus my recipe ADD on breakfast.  I have already made up a batch of chai-ginger scones, but who doesn't appreciate options?

I saw this recipe from JoytheBaker's blog for a honey cranberry cornmeal quick bread which I've been wanting to test because, other than chocolate, cornmeal is my favorite ingredient ever. It leads to so many delectable items like cornbread, grits, cornmeal pancakes, hush puppies, cornmeal coated fried okra, etc.  I modified the recipe - adding 2 tsp lemon zest, swapping currants for cranberries and cutting the honey in half. Baked one large loaf for 60 minutes and it turned out perfectly! The lemon zest provides a great highlight note, and I wouldn't have wanted the bread any sweeter. I think next time I will try leaving out the vanilla extract.

Not related at all, but do you ever have those moments where a word pops into your head and you know how to spell it, love the sound of it, but have no idea what it actually means? Yesterday, that word was "hirsute". Defn: Shaggy, hairy, bristly. Now if I can just figure out how to work it into a conversation...

Paneer and Queso Blanco!

Yesterday I had the most fantastic afternoon beginning my foray into the world of cheese-making with an equally enthusiastic friend. I had taken a cheese-making workshop almost a year ago, but it wasn't very hands-on so I have been meaning to make some solo attempts.

Paneer (or panir) is an Indian cheese used in many delectable dishes, including my favorite brussels sprouts dish EVER that I promise to post about on here at some point. Queso blanco appears to be the Latin American equivalent, with the distinction that according to some cheese-making books queso blanco uses vinegar as the acid to curdle the milk and paneer uses fresh lemon juice.

Regardless, we set off on our adventure with 3 gallons of milk (2 of homo, 1 organic homo). We also ended up testing to styles of making the cheese. Things you must have to do this: a good thick bottomed pot, cheese cloth, a strainer, and something like a pizza pan with holes in the bottom. Other than that, this is one of the easiest things I have attempted in the kitchen.

Version 1: We followed one recipe using 8 c. milk, 1/2 c. water, and 1/4 c. lemon juice. Bring milk and water to a boil. When the milk has foamed up about 3 inches high, immediately remove from heat and pour lemon juice in a swirl pattern so that the juice is evenly distributed. Did not stir. Let sit for 10 min and then pour into cheesecloth in colander. Let sit for 15 min or so and then fold the edges of the cheesecloth over and shape the curds into a rough circle or square shape. Put on a pan with holes (we used a pizza tray), and place a heavy saucepan on top to squeeze more water out of the cheese. Leave for 30 - 60 min (depends how dry you like your cheese).  Result: formed a solid wheel of paneer, very refreshing and mild tasting. Excellent in wedges on fresh naan spread with tamarind chutney. Or sprinkled with lemon zest and drizzled with honey. Or just by itself!

Curds and whey separated

Straining curds in the cheesecloth

Mini-wheel of paneer!

Version 2: Same recipe, different technique. This time we stirred continuously and just when the milk had  come to a boil (almost no foam), we removed from the heat, stirred vigorously to get a little vortex going, poured in the lemon juice and gave it a good couple of stirs after. Not sure if there was much difference, but there seemed to be a little less scalding of milk on the bottom of the pan.

Version 3: Instead of lemon juice, we used apple cider vinegar and scaled it up to a whole gallon at once. We also used a different method of separating the curds from whey: gently ladle curds out using a slotted spoon into the cheesecloth - I think this produced a more cohesive cheese. Both friend and myself liked the taste of the vinegar curdled cheese better. From my class notes, I had a recommendation of half malt vinegar/half apple cider vinegar for best taste, but I had already bought milk so that was as much as I was willing to purchase for this project :)

We then took half the curds and added cumin seeds, lemon salt and black pepper, and lemon salt to the remainder. Good with salt. It seemed that stirring or knead the spices in may mean the curds do not all stick together as well when pressed.

Our favorite cheeses (though we haven't tasted them), when scooping the curd out, we layered the curds with fresh lemon zest and salt! It also looks beautiful. We then went a little wild at the end and used raspberry wine vinegar as the curdling agent for the last batch, producing a delicately pink tinted cheese, nicknamed "the princess cheese".

Lemon zest and lemon salt cheese

Things we learned - if you poke the edge of your curds gently before spooning them out of the pan, and the whey still appears milky, add a bit more vinegar and let sit again. You can get more curds out of it! You want the whey to be a yellowish, slightly opaque liquid. Price-wise, I think if you don't buy organic milk, it will be cheaper (and more fun) to make your own paneer than buying it. You can double the recipe and do a gallon at a time but it takes much longer to bring the milk to a boil.

Next time: cheese with bacteria and rennet!

Beer

 It's been awhile since I've sat down with a beer (mostly since it's been raining and cold, and I only drink beer about once a moth), but I have been trying to force myself out of my comfort zone of Granville Island Winter Ale and Honey Lager. This has been a seriers of trial and error, with mostly error, in randomly selecting other local breweries to try. But this was a good week; I picked up two new beers and loved them both!

 Exhibit A: Whister Brewing Company's Black Tusk Ale. Reminded me of the GI Winter Ale but not quite as heavy. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about ranking beer or describing flavours, only that I do not like wheat beers and strong hoppy flavours in general).

Exhibit B: I also picked up Fernie Brewing Co's Sap Sucker Maple Porter. The idea of a maple syrup flavor in beer sounded delicious! And it was. Not sweet at all, but a robust, dark beer. I only wish it came in the single beer size serving since I am woefully inadequate at being able to consume more than 1.5 beers in a sitting. Make sure you have a spare cork on hand to keep it fizzy overnight for day 2, or company to help, if you are of the small beer stomach like myself. Sadly, both of these beers appear to be fall/winter beers, so I may need to stock up in order to keep drinking them through the summer!

At Home with Vij

We had a friend over for supper last night to celebrate her impending PhD defense. We have been on an Indian food kick of late, particularly recipes from Vij's, a much noted Indian restaurant in Vancouver. Okay okay I confess, my wife has been the one on an Indian food kick, doing most of the cooking, but it's my turn. I burnt the spices last time, but this time was a complete success! The meal: naan, mung beans in coconut curry (based on the recipe in Vij's at Home), sauteed rapini and spinach with cashews (Elegant & Inspired Vij's Indian Cuisine), and gingered tapioca pudding with fresh mango.

The mung beans in coconut curry were my favorite of the whole meal. To cook this recipe, you either need a wide soup pot or a giant skillet (~12" diameter and 4" deep), unless you're cutting it in half.

Mung Beans in Coconut Curry

Prep & Cooking Time 1.5 hrs

1 c. mung beans (other lentils like green lentils or brown lentils would work, just beware of overcooking them)

1.5 - 2 c. chopped carrots (about 1/2 sized pieces)

1/4 c. cooking oil

1 Tbs cumin seeds

9 large cloves chopped garlic

2 c. roughly pureed tomatoes

2 Tbs chopped ginger

2 Tbs ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

5 c. water

1- 14 oz can coconut milk

1/2 c. chopped cilantro

1. Wash and drain mung beans and set aside.

2. Heat oil on medium-high for a minute and add cumin seeds. Stir them occasionally until nicely browned.

3. Add garlic and saute for 3-4 min before stirring in tomatoes, ginger, corainder, turmeric, salt and cayenne. Saute and stir for about 5 minutes, until the oil glistens on the top.

4. Add water and mung beans, bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Cover and cook for ~ 30 min, stirring occasionally. Add carrots about 10-15 min after covering the pot.

5. Once the beans are cooked (taste them to check), stir in the coconut milk and bring the curry to a boil again. Let simmer until there is as much liquid as you want left. I simmered at least 20 minutes to reduce it from a soup down to mostly beans/veggies and some liquid.

6. Sprinkle cilantro over the top and serve.

Gingered Tapioca* with Fresh Mango

Serves 4-5

1/2 c. pearl tapioca

1 c. water

2 c. whole milk

1/2 c. whipping cream

4 oz. panela** (or some kind of sugar)

2-3 tsp finely chopped ginger

1/2 - 1 tsp ground cardamom 

1. Combine tapioca and water in a medium bowl and soak for 30 min, then drain. Depending on the pearl size, soaking time will vary.  If you have very small pearls, reduce to 15-20 min soak time.

2. In a medium pot, combine tapioca, milk, cream, sugar, ginger and cardamom and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue to stir for ~15 min until thickened.

3. Top with fresh slices of mango.

 *A few notes about tapioca: (a) I don't know if it's the tapioca pearls I inherited or if this is common with all tapioca, but when I cook it, it smells smokey, like cedar chips in a wood fire. Utterly bizarre and disconcerting to have that smell and then taste a sweet dessert. (b) My first tapioca cooking experiment: traumatic. Do not believe recipes that begin cooking the tapioca with milk and water straight away! It is a fool's errand!

 **You could also use some other type of unrefined sugar, or if you care about looks, it might even be prettier using white sugar. I bought panela, which was extremely exciting as it was my first time, until I opened it and tried to actually use it. One large chef's knife and one large bread knife later I was no closer to understanding how people actually chop this stuff unless they own a chain saw or machete. Must find out.

A Few Things About the Kitchen and Me

A few things you should know about my kitchen style:
(1) Despite being a child of the 80's, I function more like a child of the depression: No food shall go wasted. Seriously. Nothing makes me cringe more than throwing food away, or not finding a use for all the odds and ends.

(2) I don't own a dishwasher. This makes the clean up after large scale cooking much more difficult, especially given our tiny sink nook (see photo right for proof). But I am not about to let that stop me from cooking!

(3) I have a love/hate relationship with plastic bags. Love the utility, hate the wastefulness. Therefore I attempt to wash and reuse all plastic bags as much as possible. It's a guilt thing.

(4) Muffins are the bane of my existence. Not like they're out to get me in the general sense but I have never had so many recipe fails as with muffins. My wife claims this is because I'm always substituting, but really I've cut back on recipe innovations since the number of muffin fails. I don't understand it though - my biscuits and scones, fluffy and soft without fail. You would think those would be the harder ones. This blog may have an inordinate amount of muffin posts for that reason: attempt to triumph over the muffin.

(5) I have a bit of recipe ADD: it is not enough to simply have one recipe, I must compare and contrast 4-5 recipes for the same dish and then concoct my own combination of them all to fall in line with my gut instinct. For this reason, attempting to replicate the same recipe later is always... interesting to say the least.

Here we go?

This is starting off as a secret project - a tiny dare to myself to see if I really love preparing food as much as I think I do. So shhhh... don't let anyone know I'm here yet!

Earl grey and pear cake, circa 2009, for inspiration