Mozzarella, 6 failures

After taking a cheesemaking class at the Angelic Organics in Caledonia, IL, I was highly motivated to make homemade mozzarella. Using the Angelic Organics recipe, the 30-Minute Mozzaralla recipe from cheesemaking.com, and Barbara Kingsolver's mozzarella recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I've now failed 6 times. Each time, the recipe seemed to be proceeding fine until the last step, when you heat and stretch the curds, and they become shiny, pliable mozzarella. Mine became incohesive, ricotta-like curds, or hard, cratered, nonstretchy curds.

I wrote to cheesemaking.com, where I bought my cheesemaking supplies, asking for advice, but no response.

Milk that is pasteurized at too high a temperature can cause curd failure. Is it possible that all the costly milks I've used were overpasteurized? Doubtful, but maybe. For the record, these are the failed milks and recipes:


1) Organic Valley Whole Milk, Barbara Kingsolver's mozzarella recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
2) Organic Valley Whole Milk, Angelic Organics Quick Mozzarella recipe
3) Oberweis Dairy Whole Milk, 30-Minute Mozzarella Recipe
4) Fair Oaks Whole Milk, 30-Minute Mozzarella Recipe
5) Milk made from Similac Nonfat Dry Milk Powder plus Dean Foods Light Cream, 30-Minute Mozzarella Recipe
6)Similac plus cream again.

Dried milk is supposed to work fine, according to the Cheese Queen Ricki. Also, I think the cheesemaking class at Angelic used Organic Valley milk. What, oh what, am I doing wrong?

Mike has acquired the highest quality possible milk--some Whole Foods offering billed as nonhomogenized, gently pasteurized, and local. Four dollars per half gallon. Dare we try again? I think I have to.

Ruined mozzarella is still edible. Once we made pizza with it. The cheese didn't melt, but still tasted good. I also used it to make ice cream (tasted like cheesecake) and crustless pumpkin pie.

Ruined Mozzarella Crustless Pumpkin Pie

1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
3/4 c. sugar
1 t. ginger powder
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg
pinch cloves
3 eggs
1 1/3 c. milk or cream (I used a mixture of soy milk and light cream)
your ruined mozzarella

Preheat oven to 375°. Food process ingredients until smooth. Pour into buttered pie pan. I used a ceramic one. Bake for 40-45 minutes until custard is set. The result is a cheesecake-like pumpkin custard.

Basic, Relatively Healthy Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 can pumpkin puree
1 cup milk (any kind: soy, cow's, etc.)
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
whole pecans for decoration

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease two loaf pans, six mini loaf pans, or two muffin tins.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, oils, applesauce, and molasses. Mix wet ingredients into dry along with chopped pecans until just combined. Decorate tops of loaves or muffins with whole pecans, if desired.

Bake for 18-20 minutes (muffins), 30-40 minutes (mini loaves), or 40-50 minutes (full size loaves) until golden brown at edges, and knife stuck into center comes out clean.

Quark

Quark is a fresh white Eastern European cheese, similar to French fromage blanc. I came across this recipe while looking for a fromage blanc recipe, and it's amazingly easy. Basically, I take buttermilk, let it sit in my dehydrator at 115° F for about 6 hours, and then drain it in cheesecloth. So good! If you like buttermilk, you'll like quark.

Quark recipe

Chocolate Chip Scones

This will sound ridiculous, but my very favorite food might be chocolate chip scones. They aren't as easy to find as they used to be. Chocolate chip scones were a coffee house staple of the mid-90s in Chicago, but I haven't seen any for sale lately. So I made my own.

This recipe is based on orangette's Scottish scone recipe.

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 egg
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 oz. unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 3 T. sugar
• 6 oz. chocolate chips. Or less. I like them chocolately. I used Enjoy Life Semisweet Chocolate Chips, which are a local brand according to signage at the Whole Foods. Believe it or not, they were the least expensive chips I could find (the 365 chips must have been out), and are vegan and allergen free.

In a bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and work into the flour mixture with your hands, until you have butter lumps no bigger than the size of a pea. (Or do this in the food processor.) Whisk together egg, milk, and vanilla. Add chips to dry mixture. Mix wet mixture into dry until just combined. Knead a few times on a floured board, until cohesive, but handling as little as possible. To form scones, you can mound the dough into a disk and then slice like a pizza into wedges, or cut out like biscuits. I went the latter route using a drinking glass, and got 10 scones. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on rack.

Of course, scones don't have to contain egg or dairy. It's been years since I made non-vegan scones. One of my favorite vegan scone recipes is made with spelt flour and can be found in Alex Jamieson's The Great American Detox Diet.

Beet and Goat Cheese Bruschetta

I should have taken a picture--these were pretty. I was attempting to recreate a favorite dish from Cafe Lula.

• 4-5 small-to-medium-sized beets. We got these in the CSA this week; we had a couple candy cane beets, and the rest were golden
• 4 oz. goat cheese at room temperature
  
• one mini whole-wheat baguette
• garlic clove
  
• olive oil
• white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• lettuce of your choice -- something sharp like arugula is good
  

To roast the beets: Preheat oven to 375°. Peel beets and slice into thickish rounds--maybe a quarter of an inch or so. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, a couple pinches of salt, a generous grind of pepper, and a little splash of white wine vinegar. Arrange a sheet of aluminum foil on a baking sheet with a rim. Spread beets out on sheet; top with another sheet and seal edges by rolling the aluminum sheets together and pinching closed. Bake for about half an hour. Check the beets a bit beforehand; you will want to cook them until fork tender and just browning on the edges. When done, toss in a bowl with a little more vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

For bruschetta, slice baguette into rounds on the bias, about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick. Brush both sides with olive oil. Heat grill pan to medium-high heat. Grill rounds of bread on each side until golden brown with attractive char marks. (You can do this in a regular skillet also, or under the broiler.) Cut garlic clove in half and rub each side of each piece with the cut side of the clove. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

For salad, dress greens with a mixture of 3 T. olive oil to 1 T. balsamic vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. Dress lightly.

To assemble, spread each bruschetta thickly with goat cheese. Top with two slices of roasted beet. Lightly mound salad over a plate with several bruschetta.

Ravinia picnic

Mike and I went to Ravinia last night. It's gotten too cold for Ravinia, really, but we haven't been all summer, and who knows if we'll ever have a chance to go again. We ended up leaving halfway through the performance; Mike hadn't brought a coat, and we were getting damp and chilled. Our picnic dinner was really good. We had

• grapes
• apples (the earliest local apples have appeared)
• Greco de Tufo wine, purchased at Whole Foods for the bargain price of $6, marked down from $28
• bruschetta toasts
• fresh mozzarella
• goat cheese
• tomato topping
• white bean topping
• roasted red peppers
• deviled eggs
• vegan cappuccino cupcakes with espresso pastry creme
• chocolate

The wine was amazing, and the best bargain ever. The cupcakes were pretty good but rubbery. I don't know if I would make them again. Overall, it was just about the perfect dinner.

Summer is over.

Chipotle Vegtable and Tempeh Stew

I threw together this stew, and it turned out really well, so I want to record what I did.

1 large white onion
5 or so small cloves garlic
2 canned chipotles, plus a few spoonfuls of adobo sauce from the can
1 tablespoon or more cumin
olive oil
a few small celery stalks
1 enormous zucchini squash
2 small eggplants
3 carrots
5-10 small tomatoes
2 cups broth
2 cups water
a few tablespoonfuls tomato paste
2 packages tempeh
quite a lot of fresh corn kernels (3-4 cups)
salt and pepper
juice of one lime
pinch cinnamon

Chop all vegetables into biggish pieces.

Saute chopped onion and garlic in a couple T. olive oil until soft and slightly browned. Midway through cooking, add cumin, chipotle, salt and pepper. Add celery, zucchini, carrot, eggplant and cook a few minutes. Add tomatoes, followed by broth and water. Add tomato paste and more adobo sauce if desired. Add diced tempeh and corn. Simmer for about half an hour, until all vegetables are well cooked. Add more salt and pepper to taste, then turn off heat and stir in lime juice and cinnamon.

I would've liked to have added some chili powder, but we seem to be out.