Day Eight

Sorry to have been dormant this last week (all 3 readers of this blog)! Last week I was in beautiful San Luis Obispo for the Cal Poly Cheesemaking Short Course. While most of the lecture was focused on cheesemaking at the plant level - plant meaning industrial, meaning coagulating 13 million gallons of milk a day, meaning Smart Car sized chunks of cheese- we did have one day of hands-on cheesemaking. Here are some pics:

Above we have a pasteurization system. The milk is actually pasteurized in the pipes and not the tank...
Hair masks, perhaps a reason not to become a cheesemaker...
Cold storage of stater cultures around -45 degrees F...
One size apparently does not fit all...
Measuring the stater culture. It looks like the Ice Cream of the Future, duhn, duhn, duhn...
Measuring the lipase. We used lipase to promote sharp flavors in the milk as we were using cow rather than the traditional goat or sheep's milk used in feta...

Titratable Acidity test...We have achieved pink! (It's a good thing, still not grasping the TA test magic, but they tell me pink is good...)

Measuring the rennet, CyroMax...
We have a gel!
Cut feta curds...
Emptying the whey...
Filling the feta forms/hoops...
Squeezing out more of the whey...
On to cheddar.... Stirring the milk...
After setting, the cheesemakers/students begin cutting the cheese-the term is used so much in cheesemaking and selling, it's just not funny to giggle...
Cheddar curds, slightly larger than feta curds...

Draining off the whey and moving the curds into aisles...
The curds are then cut into loaves, flipped and stacked two loaves high to expel more whey...


Then the curd is milled. There are, like 12 warning: danger stickers on this machine...
Milled curds. At this point, if you chew on the curds they make a squeaking noise...
Filling the molds and weighing the cheddar...
Cheddar! Well not for a few weeks to a few years.

Day Seven

And now to go with our homemade yogurt: granola!

I just started making granola recently after discovering I had been scammed into paying $5-7 a bag for the good stuff when it's super easy and cheap to make it at home.

The beauty of granola is that it's one of food's blank canvases. Once you've got the primary ingredients (oats, a little oil or butter, and maple syrup or sugar) you can add pretty much anything you have in your kitchen or looks yummy while shopping the bulk bins.

I got my original recipe from Joy of Baking: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/HomemadeGranola.html

The basic recipe:

3 cups rolled oats. I recommend thick cut.
3/4 cup nuts
1 cup seeds. I've been using sesame and flax, sometimes pumpkin.
1/2-3/4 cup dried coconut (optional)
1/2 tsp spice, such as cinnamon or ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil or melted butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup dried fruit


In a few short words, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, mix the dry ingredients, save the dried fruit-you'll add that after the baking, together in a medium bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the wet ingredients. Pour the wet over the dry and mix well.

So far, pretty easy. But wait, it gets even easier!

Spread your unbaked granola on parchment lined baking sheets (do this and you won't even have to wash them when you're done) and bake for 30-45 minutes. It'll keep crisping after it's out of the oven, so stop just short of where you want it.


Once the granola has cooled, add your dried fruit and mix. Store in an airtight container.

Holy crap that was easy.

FYI: Today I used macadamia nuts, dried papaya and pineapple in my recipe.

I had to bust up the nuts a little as they were a little too big. Plastic bag worked best, but I had to focus my mallet on one nut at a time. Sounds much more Sadistic than it was.

Day Six

Day six actually took place last night. Over six hours. One more six and we're in trouble.

Adam and I spent the evening making our first batch of home-brewed beer. It still has a second fermentation and a few weeks to go before we can taste the outcome. But I've posted pictures here of the first of the two processes.

While I could explain the whole process it's probably best that you go here: http://www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com/articles.asp?ID=132 or take a trip to Brewmasters in San Francisco, http://www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com. They are very helpful there: don't let the speed metal deter you. They are also apparently experiencing a recession-based uptick in business. I guess more time on your hands + more worries - money = homebrew. Although I'm not really sure if this is saving us any money. Maybe if we make a lot of beer over a long period of time.

The first process did take us six hours plus, so make sure you have the time. Most of that is passive so you also want a book or a movie. And preferably someone with you on the first go as it just seemed easier to have physical/moral support.

Here we go:

Dumping the grain into the cheesecloth bag...


Grain soup...

For some reason you dunk the grain bag 7-10 before removing...

Beer soup. The house now smells like the Molson Brewery of my youth...

Another beer making mystery: spa time.

Add the sweet, yeasty malt...

Some other stuff...

After boiling for 45 minutes the brew cools in an ice bath...

"Pitching" the yeast...
Now more brew...

And we have our first fermentation. We'll be back in six days with part two!

Day Five, Part Two

Now for something happier! Hollandaise! Just in time for the weekend. And I can feed 3-4 people Eggs Benedict for the same price as feeding just me at a restaurant.

Hollandaise, as it turns out is not as tricky as everyone says. The real trick I found it timing everything right so you have nice smooth sauce, warm crispy English muffins, and hot running egg yolks all at the same time.

This Hollandaise recipe has worked well for me in the past, so I'm using it again here. http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_hollandaise.htm

Here are the ingredients:

2 tbls warm lemon juice (about one lemon)
3 tbls boiling water
3 large egg yokes
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 tps cayenne
1/2 tps salt

For the rest of the Benedict:

English muffins (I tried the fancy, fluffy ones once and it didn't taste as good as just regular old EMs.)
eggs (I serve two per person.)
cheddar (I like to put a little sharp cheddar on the muffins while they are toasting, but it's optional.)
prosciutto or smoked salmon (Again, optional. I serve one with and one without on each plate.)

Here we go:

One of the tricks I've found to Hollandaise is to have all of my ingredients ready to go. So I start by getting my double boiler ready. Again, the inside pot is not to touch the boiling water below. I get my eggs out, I start my kettle for the boiling water, I'm melting the stick of butter on another burner, the lemon juice is warming in the microwave, my cayenne and salt are measured and ready to be thrown in at the very end.


Same goes for the other Benedict ingredients. My EMs are separated and cheesed, the prosciutto is out of the fridge, the broiler is on, a medium pot of water with a little white vinegar is boiling on my remaining burner.

Back to the sauce: yokes go into the double boiler bowl. I whisk until they are starting to thicken. One at a time I pour in the three tablespoons of boiling water. Again with the whisking. It's not thickening very quickly so I throw the eggs in for poaching and by the time I am done the sauce is beginning to thicken again. Then I add the lemon juice and remove it from the heat.



I throw the muffins into the broiler for browning. (I usually set the timer for this kind of thing as I frequently forget to check on the broiler until I smell burning.) Returning to the sauce, I pour in the butter while whisking. Then the salt. Then the cayenne. And we have Hollandaise! Now quickly back to the broiler to check on the muffins, then quickly back to the eggs. I remove the eggs from the pot with a slotted spoon, place them carefully onto a plate lined with paper towel (to soak off the water), and season with salt and pepper.

Muffins are out from the oven. One of each pair gets a slice of prosciutto. They both get an egg. Then big dollops of special sauce and we have brunch success!

Day Five

Get ready: there are two posts coming at ya today. The first is chicken. Yes, just chicken.

Yesterday Adam and I visited our farmer friend Ken. Ken's a real 'live off the land' kinda guy and as such was preparing to slaughter some of his roosters for dinner. (Did you know that most of the chicken we eat is actually rooster? Because hens are used for egg laying. Of course! It just had never occurred to me...)

I can see I'm already making you squirm at the idea that this issue of Homemade will involve chicken slaughter. And squirm you should. I promise only to show the least gory of the pictures I took and to explain a little of why I'm even posting this entry.

While watching and participating in the slaughter and butcher of chickens didn't make me a vegetarian (well, maybe for the last 24 hours), it did certainly give me a new found respect for where meat comes from. It was very clear yesterday that an animal was killed so that I would have meat to eat. I have never really had qualms with eating meat as I have long felt secure about my place, as a human, in the food chain. I also believe in becoming more personally involved in producing the food I eat and limiting our store-bought meat to that from farms employing humane and sustainable practices. And that is why we were at Ken's farm yesterday.

Yesterday really drove home to me the idea that our relationship with animals is sacred, and that things like monster burgers, cheap meat, and daily doses of bacon are signs of a cultural addiction to and total lack of respect for meat and the animals that provide it. Today, to be honest, I still feel a bit traumatized from killing those chickens. In fact, we had to put our chicken in the freezer because I can't yet bring myself to prepare it, even though my renewed sense of the sacred is telling me that I'm verging on the wasteful.

Here are some of the images from yesterday's endeavour:

Adam looking clean and happy as Iron Chef of the chicken slaughter.

You know what these are for.

Farmer Ken. Everyone is still smiling at this point.

Putting the chickens momentarily in a paper bag calmed them down so we could tie up their legs.
This is where is gets ugly...

Dunking the dead chicken in hot water makes the feathers easier to pluck.

I was primarily on plucking duty.

Removing interior parts...
...including the testicles.

Cleaned and cooling chickens.

A more palatable scene...Ken's hens have begun laying eggs.