FRESHLY MADE BUTTER!

I haven't made butter since Kindergarten!  That's almost 50 years ago!  I saw a dude making it on Martha Stewart earlier this week.  He had a big fancy contraption...a modern butter churn (it was motorized).  It got me to thinking about some hot bread with fresh sweet cream butter dripping down the sides.  Yummmmm.

I looked at the Martha web site but only found a recipe for the rolls...guess they didn't think people would really make butter....or maybe I didn't look far enough.  Anyway, I think there is a tutorial for just about everything on youtube these days, so I went there and searched "how to make butter" and the first thing that came up was a real interesting guy who was using the process to teach the science behind the butter...so to speak.  I watched it all the way through.  Very cool!  I learned stuff I didn't know and it made me want to go shake some cream!

In Kinder I recall we made the butter standing in a small "kitchen area" of the church classroom.  It was almost like a hallway and I remember it clearly.  All the little people squeezed into a fairly tight area, taking turns shaking a jar with cream in it and seeing it turn to solids as each person got a try.  They spread it on toast I think...that part is not as clear...but I remember it tasted really good.  It was exciting...but I never considered doing it myself at home.  Who knows why...just didn't.

Today, however, I pulled out the last bit of some cream that was in a quart container in the fridge.  Poured it into a bowl that had a very tight lid (I don't save jars and didn't want to risk a plastic container's lid coming lose and sloshing this stuff all over the house).  In the video he said to let it sit for 12 hours...but I only had about 4 hours until dinner time, so it got to sit about 3 1/2 hours.  At least it was room temperature.

He said it would only take about 3 minutes...it took me 5 minutes before my arms were tired and I recruited the teen to continue shaking.  He begrudgingly did it...with the comment "why can't we just eat the butter in the refrigerator?"  Because I WANT to make it, I snapped (somewhat tired after 5 minutes of purposeful shaking).  He shrugged and closed the door to his room and I could hear the shaking going on so I went to set the timer.  Before the 5 minutes ended, he appeared and said "how much longer Moooommmm"...in that long drawn out way only a whiny teen can say their mother's name.  I could see the butter had formed now and said "okay, I think it's done" with an excited tone to my voice.  He rolled his eyes and left...I called him back.  Come on, don't you want to see the butter.  Let's take a picture.  Oh heavens to mergatroids...you'd think I'd asked him to climb the Himalayas in the dead of Winter. "Mom, I really don't care about the butter".  Tough - I want you to see it...it is interesting.  More rolling eyes but he stayed.

The butter formed and sitting in buttermilk

I showed him how you drain off the buttermilk, rinse the butter, and ta-da...there's the butter!  Thoroughly unimpressed he says "can I go now?".  Yeah, fine.

Buttermilk drained from the container into another container

Ready to be rinsed

So, I made a loaf of refrigerated dough (Pillsbury's) Italian Bread to go with dinner and sliced it hot out of the oven.  I set the butter out next to it.  The boy ate FOUR PIECES slathered in the butter...begrudgingly saying "it's good". <sigh>

Ready to spread!

I did add a tiny bit of salt.  It was good but it didn't taste as buttery as I remembered from Kindergarten.  I think I'm used to salted butter because it tasted wonderful once I added just the tiniest little pinch of some fine sea salt and stirred it in.  Yum... I ate two pieces of bread myself!

If you have kids, you should show them how to do this.  Watch the video linked above with them, and I guarantee they will want to do this "experiment"...so long as they aren't teen-agers :-)))

There's not much of a recipe...but I'll write down what we did.

BUTTER

1 cup heavy cream
1 pinch fine sea salt

Leave cream out for 12 hours if possible, but at least to room temperature.
Pour into impeccably clean jar or any container that has room for the contents to be shaken and has a tight lid.
Shake methodically for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes...you will see the cream separating and the butter beginning to form ... it looks curdly and the cream stops coating the sides of the container.  Once the liquid begins to look thinner than cream, I deemed it "done".

Carefully pour off buttermilk and save in refrigerator for later use.

Add some cool water to the butter container and "rinse" the butter and drain off that liquid as well.

Add a small pinch of salt to butter and stir with spoon.

Serve on hot biscuits or bread for best flavor!

Yum yum - that was delectable!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

I MADE CHEESE TODAY!

I was shocked to see how easy it is to make your own Ricotta Cheese!  I was reading about how to make different kinds of cheeses and I considered trying to make Feta Cheese.... in my searching I found the absolute easiest recipe for making homemade ricotta instead.

I found this information about ricotta -
In Italian it means "recooked". Ricotta is strictly speaking not a cheese; ricotta is made from the leftover whey from other cheeses, either ewes' or cows' milk, and is sometimes enriched with Milk or cream. As the whey is heated, the cloudy top layer is skimmed off and drained to make the cheese. - "The Chef's Companion" by Elizabeth Riely

That description, however, is when you use a whey from a cooked cheese.  The kind I was interested in is made directly from cow's milk and an acid is added to make the curds separate.   Oddly enough, Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, happened to be making it zippity quick on her show the other morning...and I think it was obvious serendipity that I flipped over to Food Network at just that time.  Sometimes it sends a shiver down my spine when I'm searching for information on a topic, turn on the television, and there is someone demonstrating it.  Woo woo stuff!

Here's the recipe and photos of my endeavors.  I am hoping to make some lasagna using my ricotta...what a kick!  I always think about making the noodles (have done so on more than one occasion)...but who thinks about making the cheese???  Fun!

I'll also make a batch of my favorite lemon cookies, Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze. (although I'll have to make another batch of ricotta for that).  I'm so excited to be developing a new skill :-)  and I can't wait to find a doable recipe for Feta Cheese too!

HOMEMADE RICOTTA CHEESE
Courtesy of Ina Garten and Food Network

Ingredients

• 4 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons good white wine vinegar

Directions

Set a large sieve over a deep bowl. Dampen 2 layers of cheesecloth with water and line the sieve with the cheesecloth.


Damp cheesecloth over strainer



Pour the milk and cream into a stainless-steel or enameled pot such as Le Creuset.
Stir in the salt.
Bring to a full boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar.
Allow the mixture to stand for 1 minute until it curdles. It will separate into thick parts (the curds) and milky parts (the whey).

the curds are forming in the pan

Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined sieve and allow it to drain into the bowl at room temperature for 20 to 25 minutes, occasionally discarding the liquid that collects in the bowl. The longer you let the mixture drain, the thicker the ricotta. 


The cheese is forming on top of the cheesecloth


Transfer the ricotta to a bowl, discarding the cheesecloth and any remaining whey.

Use immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
The ricotta will keep refrigerated for 4 to 5 days.

OK - it's done and it was really easy!  It made about 2 cups I think.  There was a lot more whey (over 3 cups of whey) than there were curds!  Hmmm, I can't believe I should throw all that nutritious whey away...but what does one do with whey?  While I waited for my curds to separate from the whey in the cheese cloth-lined strainer, I Googled "what to do with whey" and I'm finding out some interesting stuff.  I'm not tossing this protein-laden stuff down the drain.  I'll keep you posted on what I do with it!

First, though, I had to sample my homemade Ricotta.  It still has about 10 minutes to sit - but it's not letting off a lot more whey at this point.  IT IS FREAKING DELICIOUS!  It tastes like cream cheese more than cottage cheese.  It has a tiny "bite" to it I don't taste in cottage cheese.  Definitely RICOTTA!  I'm so happy.

I calculate it cost about $2.75 to make...and I got 17.3 ounces by weight...actually a bit more, because I sampled about a teaspoon of the nummy delicious stuff. I know that I bought some ricotta (a 15 ounce container) for my cookies and it cost about $3.58 at the grocery store (if my memory serves me correctly - I'll double check next time I'm there).

Now, I don't know if it tastes better to me because I made it myself...or if it REALLY tastes that much better than the stuff you buy in the store.  But, gotta tell you.  I won't be buying much of that stuff any more.  THIS is delectable!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!

Creamy Polenta

Following along from my last post on the braised country pork ribs, it calls for a bed of creamy polenta when serving.  I've never had much luck making polenta.  I either make it too dry, or it has no flavor...I've only tried it a couple of times...and gave up.

I have high hopes for this recipe because Melissa d'Arabian said a chef told her to finish the polenta in a slow cooker for a no-fail method, using a 1:7 corn meal to liquid ratio.  Her recipe also calls for half-and-half, butter, and Parmesan cheese...part of my own personal holy trinity!  High hopes people!

The cornmeal I finally selected

The first challenge was finding the proper corn meal...my stop at the Port Isabel HEB garnered pre-made polenta on the "Italian foods" aisle (nope - that won't do) and had me moving on to the cornbread fixin's aisle, aka the baking aisle, where I found no coarse ground corn meal.  I didn't even find corn meal that had a recipe for polenta on the packaging.  I flip flopped on over to the breakfast cereal aisle and looked at the "grits"selections...no yellow grits.  So, I moseyed my way back to the "baking" aisle and looked at what I determined to be my best options.  One was a medium grind corn meal from Corsicana, Texas.  Probably would have been my first pick, except it expired in about 6 weeks...and I knew I was only using a small amount...and it was likely to go bad, resulting in my throwing it away.  So, I took the slightly more expensive but longer shelf-lifed option of a Stone Ground 100% whole grain cornmeal - medium grind.

It looked like the stuff I used to buy in Austin - the packaging was clear so I could see what I was buying.  Expiration date in mid-2012...with freezer storage and the assistance of my Food Saver seal for the bag after opening, this should be a winner and last long enough that I can use it multiple times.  I reckon I was wayyyy over-thinking the whole process...but I wanted to have the correct product!

So, onward towards the recipe....

CREAMY POLENTA
by Melissa d'Arabian

Ingredients:

Vegetable cooking spray
1 cup milk
1 1/3 cups half-and-half, divided
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/3 cup coarse polenta, or corn grits
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Special equipment:  Slow cooker

Method:

Spray the insert of a slow cooker with cooking spray (for easier cleanup) and preheat on high. (Note - if I had any brains I would have used a slow cooker liner - this looks like some hard-to-clean stuff...see the photo below at the 45 minute mark)

In a medium sauce pan, add the milk, 1 cup of the half-and-half, 1 tablespoon butter, and polenta. 

Polenta into the cold liquid

Season with salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking constantly to keep the mixture lump-free.  Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.  Pour the mixture into the slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours, stirring once or twice per hour. 

At the 45 minute mark in the slow cooker -
I'm thinking I'll try it on low heat for the remaining time!

Once you are ready to serve, open the slow cooker and whisk in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, remaining 1/3 cup half-and-half and the Parmesan cheese....um, okay...I confess, the last 1/3 cup was not half-and-half...it was whipping cream :-)  My own personal touch.  I think it made it extraordinary.

Also, my slow cooker is old...and high was too high for 2 hours.  I turned it down to low for the last hour and turned it off for the last 15 minutes of cooking time.  That was perfect for my slow cooker.  I was worried there was not going to be enough...but I was wrong.  It was the perfect amount for the base of my serving platter!  Verrry cheesy and rich.

I put this out on a serving platter and placed the ribs down on top of the polenta and ladled the reduced braising sauce over the ribs.  Really, really good stuff.

Braised Country Pork Ribs over Creamy Polenta -
the steamy heat makes for blurry photos...sorry!

I served this dish with Melissa's Roasted Balsamic Onions.  Another post coming your way for that one...

Bon Appetit, Y'all!