Week 12: Cheese - Fresh Ricotta

I am a little late in posting this, since this was last week's post, but I was deathly ill last night and the mear thought of food sent me to the bathroom. Not from making cheese. No, I made this on Monday night. Yes. I made fresh cheese on a weeknight. You can too.

This is the second time I have made this recipe that I picked up from food52. It is pretty simple. The hardest thing about it is finding the cheese cloth at your megamart.

Don't need any fancy cheese-making magic, just buttermilk.

DO NOT WALK AWAY AT THIS STAGE. Unless you like burned milk and big messes.

When they say curds start to develop, here they are.

As suggested, I scooped out the curds instead of just pouring through the cheese cloth.

Just wrap it up and let it drain and there you have it.

Broke the grill out and grilled some sausages up with our springtime "pasta."

When I make this, I like to let it drain for at least half an hour. This does leave a much drier cheese that crumbles, but it can also be spread on toast the next morning.

I made this springtime pasta using our fresh ricotta, with a few minor changes. As you can see, I switched out the fettucine for a whole spaghetti squash that I halved, seasoned, and microwaved for ten minutes (in a bowl covered with plastic wrap). It was all very delicious.

Week 11: Breakfast - Corned Beef Hash

Last night's dinner

The combination of St. Patrick's Day and corned beef has always existed in my house. I did some reading to see just how Irish it really is and found that, while corned beef production was dominated by Ireland in the 19th century, it was rarely consumed by the Irish because they couldn't afford it. It was all consumed by the colonial English, especially the Royal Navy. The connection between the dish and St. Patrick's is purely an American invention. Still, I will always make corned beef on March 17th, if for no other reason than having corned beef hash for breakfast the next day.

This recipe from Alton Brown has been a standby in my house since the first St. Patrick's Day my wife and I lived together. We have substituted various meats in it as well: leftover turkey, pork shoulder carnitas, beef brisket. It is really easy to adapt it to whatever is in your fridge.

We didn't have bell peppers, but did have some sweet peppers. Like I said, adaptable.

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, get one. If you don't have friends that bring you Amish butter, get some of them too!

Brown up the peppers.

Chop everything else up and throw it in. Mix it up.

In fact, if you don't have two cast iron skillets, get two. Lined with parchment paper and used the second skillet to weigh down the hash. This is how Alton did it on Good Eats, but the recipe doesn't tell you that.

This is Kilgore. He is obviously very interested in how to cook, because he always right by me when I am cooking.

Fry up an egg and throw it on top. Hot sauce optional. Don't worry about a little char; it makes it better.

Recipe, as always, is available from the source.

Week 10/; Movie Inspired - Hot Brown (Elizabethtown)

I admit that I have not been "in the game" these last couple of weeks, but i haven't found the challenges very exciting. This week is movie/book-inspired. I am currently reading Tinker Tailor Solider Spy which is not exactly a tale rich in food. In fact it is written in a weird conversational voice, but that is beside the point. I tried reading a bit of Alice in Wonderland and found nothing specific other than currants to spell out "Eat Me." I didn't want to do something from the Game of Thrones series, because I spent so much damn time last year reading them. I came about the recipe that I selected by browsing my movie case. I like the movie Elizabethtown for many reasons, but we will say that it is Kristen Dunst's fault. So here I present to you, Hot Browns, inspired by the famous dish created by the chefs of the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY, the hotel which the characters in the movie stayed.

My wife lived in Louisvile  for a year while we were dating, and I would drive two hours every weekend to see her (or her me). She likes to "spread out the awesome", as she says, so she never took me to the Brown for a Hot Brown, and I will always hold that against her. She does this in Cincinnati, where we now live as well. I think it is just her excuse for being lazy for not showing me the cool stuff.

Last night I made us a mid-year Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, and brussel sprouts. It was awesome and necessary, since we needed some leftover turkey.

First, some bacon.

You must have a good base.

Slice last night's turkey

We start with the Mother sauce (Bechamel) with a roux.

Add some cream and whisk ( I cheated with skim milk).

To the mother, we add some cheese.

These sandwiches are really quite easy, layer the turkey and bacon on a good slice of bread. Put on the Mornay sauce and broil.

Broil until it is brown and delicious.

Oh mu Gawd! Yum.

I served this with some sauteed spinach and smashed celeriac and potatoes. (If you want the celeriac recipe, let me know. I would have to type it out from Jaime Oliver's cookbook.) This dinner was so damn good, that I am angry that my wife never took me to the Brown for one while she was living in Louisville.  The next time we are down there, we will have to forgo our bologna sandwiches at Cumberland Brew and stop at the Brown for lunch.

As always, the recipe is available from the source.

Week 9: Coffee - Molasses Coffee Marinated Pork Chops

This week's theme is coffee.

I'll be honest. I couldn't get excited about this one. I am not really a dessert person. We still have Christmas cookies sitting around. I wanted to do something savory. After searching and reading recipes all week long and not finding anything that floated my boat, I turned the task of picking what the hell I was going to cook to my wife. She picked this, molasses coffee marinated pork chops, from Alton Brown.

Always remember to read the directions days before you plan on cooking. Recipes that call for marinating over night can sneak up on you.

There have been better days of recent to break out the grill, but the cold outside didn't stop the heat. Now if only I could get out and golf!

My grandmother is from Mississippi, and even though I can not remember her ever making me grits and collard greens, I couldn't help but think that she would have enjoyed these side dished: sauteed collards and cheesy grits (again from Alton Brown).

Never having cooked collard greens, I wasn't sure what to do. All the recipes that I skimmed through called for long braising. I decided to go the way of the Brazilian couve and julienne the greens and saute them in bacon bits (and grease) and garlic.

My wife gets sous chef credit for her work on the grits. She kept a good eye on them and stirred them regularly while I was grilling the chops and doing up the greens.

Recipe is available from the source.