Adventures in Thyme

Our adventures in food

Say Cheese!

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Mascarpone and crackers

Mascarpone and crackers

Happy New Year!  Have you made your resolutions?  Me too.  Let’s throw them out the window and begin 2014 making homemade mascarpone.  Yes, it’s fattening, but who the hell cares?!  We don’t need no stinkin’ diets!  Bring on the curds…

This recipe is marvelously easy, all it takes is 1 quart of half n’half (do not get ultra-pasteurized), tartaric acid and a fine strainer or cheesecloth.  You can substitute this acid with lemon juice, but if you have a brewing store in town, definitely make the journey to your local purveyor of booze-making equipment and support your neighborhood retailer.  You might find your first new hobby of 2014.  If you do go to a brewing store, check out the supplies of netted bags used in brew making, these also work wonderfully to strain curds and they are relatively inexpensive.

To the recipe: In a double boiler, bring the milk slowly to temperature, about 173 degrees F, then turn down the temperature to low.  Gently sprinkle a generous 1/4 tsp of the tartaric acid over the milk and stir gently with a whisk – these curds need TLC!   You should begin to see the whey (greenish liquid) and the curds separating.  As the pot begins to thicken with curds, I remove from the heat and let it sit about 8-10 minutes, then carefully spoon into a prepared strainer and cheesecloth.  Once you see that the whey is no longer dripping from the strainer (maybe 15 mins), you can add your salt.  Then it’s up to you whether this mascarpone needs herbs and garlic, OR cinnamon and sugar, that my friends, is up to your tastebuds.

Enjoy!

Mascarpone - warming the half and half

Mascarpone – warming the half and half

Mascarpone - curds

Mascarpone – curds

Mascarpone - curds

Mascarpone – curds

Mascarpone - spooning the curds into cheese cloth

Mascarpone – spooning the curds into cheese cloth

Mascarpone - after straining out the whey

Mascarpone – after straining out the whey

Mascarpone, half and half and whey

Mascarpone, half and half and whey

Stroopwafel – One cookie to rule them all!

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Stroopwafels

Stroopwafels

What’s not to love about a cinnamon-cookie sandwich with sweet creamy caramel inside?  These delicious treats are a bit time consuming, and yes, there’s that pesky Pizelle iron that you need – but it’s worth it.  Let me say that again – IT’S WORTH IT!  This is “crack” for cookie aficionados.

You see, you take these little delicacies and place them over your hot cup o’joe, or maybe your mug of Earl Grey tea, and remember that caramel I mentioned?  It warms up and gets even more delicious and this becomes your favorite Breakfast food ever!  And of course then there’s Second Breakfast, and who can forget about Elevensies?!  If your family has not absconded with them, you will find you’ve eaten the whole batch yourself and frankly can’t remember how you did it!  They were there, and then they weren’t, all that’s left are the crumbs upon on your shirt…

But what’s the recipe you ask?  Stroopwafel recipes are heavily guarded secrets, passed down generationally.  Do a Google search and find an ingredient list that looks appealing (I’d personally steer clear of the ones that include Yeast, but that’s me), and you’ll know when the recipe is successful – you’ll start hearing the raspy moans from friends and family “I want’s it…my precious…”

 

Stroganoff Shmoganoff

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Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff

 

To quote the Bard “What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet”.  I would argue the same could be said of well known recipes.

History pegs this dish as either hitting the culinary scene in the late 1800’s or later in the 1900’s.  It’s made with sour cream (or not), onions or mushrooms (or not), and sometime tomato paste – not!

Our humble version has little in common with the modern version and more akin to the one noted in a Russian cookbook of 1861.  With an eye towards not inflaming the delicate constitution of our home’s inhabitants, our stroganoff began with strips of beef lightly fried (no flour) and then placed into a crockpot set on low for six hours.  The beef was then left to have a “spa day” in a mixture of Burgundy wine and beef stock, one packet of Beefy Onion soup and a tub of Tofutti imitation Sour Cream.  The herbs we used were Rosemary, Thyme and some Savory, all crushed into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle.

It’s up to you what carbohydrate delivers the creamy goodness to your tastebuds – rice, pasta, baked potato or a humble slice of buttered bread.  On a lazy Fall day, this is the perfect recipe to kick back and enjoy a slow cooked meal.