30 Minute Mozzarella

On Friday we made 30 minute mozzarella (recipe available from New England Cheesemaking).  It was really fun to make and it tasted so good!  For dinner we had a caprese salad and pizza.  Mark made the dough, and we layered pesto, tomatoes, homemade mozzarella, green peppers and Italian sausage on top.  All local and completely delicious!

Potato Kohlrabi Salad

Potato Kohlrabi Salad

2 Kohlrabi cut into little pieces

12 medium sized potatoes, peeled and boiled

2 hard boiled eggs, cut into small pieces

Handful of dill (diced)

Handful of parsley (diced)

1 1/2 cups of homemade mayonnaise (see Local Lunch post for the recipe)

Mix and enjoy!

Homemade Mayonnaise

For lunch I made egg salad sandwiches with onions and radishes with homemade mayonnaise on homemade multi-grain bread.  It was my best batch of homemade mayonnaise yet!  Here's the recipe:

Mayonnaise

1 garlic clove

1 whole fresh egg

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp powdered mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

3/4 cup olive oil

Add the garlic, egg, cayenne, mustard  and lemon juice to a cup.  Then slowly layer on the olive oil.  Use a hand blender to quickly mix the ingredients.  (Warning: using raw eggs does come with the risk of salmonella).

Making Cheese

Making soft cheeses is surprisingly easy.  I've found that it's not really cost effective to make it compared to buying it, but it's fun and I really enjoy the satisfaction of eating the cheese I made.  I've had a lot of questions about how cheese is made.  The details are different for different types of cheese, but the basics are the same.  A starter bacteria culture is added to milk which starts to separate the curds and whey.  Some cheese also require the addition of rennet; an enzyme that further separates the curds and whey and makes a harder cheese.  I like to make chevre, which is a soft goat cheese (about the texture of whipped cream cheese).  It only has two ingredients, and it's very simple.

Chevre (soft goat cheese) 

(steps shown below)

Ingredients: 

1 gallon of goat's milk (I've tried cow's milk but the result is a cheese that tastes like sour cream)

1 packet of chevre starter culture (available from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company)

1. Heat the milk to 86 degrees F

2. Stir in chevre starter culture

3. Let sit for 12 hours (or overnight) at a temperature of at least 72 degrees F

4. Ladle curds into a colander lined with butter muslin

5. Allow whey to drain by hanging the butter muslin filled with cheese for 6-12 hours (depending on desired consistency)

The cheese can be kept in the refrigerator for a week or it can be frozen for a long time.  It freezes really well.

Beautiful day in Pittsburgh!

Today was a beautiful toasty day in Pittsburgh.  I had a wonderful time picking raspberries from my neighbor's raspberry bushes this afternoon.  I found it so satisfying to harvest fruit while enjoying its deliciousness on a hot summer day.  While I was picking, my multi-grain bread was rising in the kitchen.  Later I made flax-seed crackers so they could share the oven with the bread.  Finally I started making some chevre cheese with the goat's milk I bought at the farmers market.  It was a bountiful day!

Kohlrabi and Mushroom Pasta

When I get ingredients that I'm not sure what to do with, I like to serve them on pasta.  Here's the kohlrabi pasta recipe I tried:

Vegetarian Kohlrabi and Mushroom Pasta
Servings: 4
Total time required: 25 minutes

1 tbsp. butter (or olive oil)
2 kohlrabi peeled and cut into quartered slices
10 mushrooms sliced
6 small green onions diced
3 garlic scapes cut into little pieces (regular garlic could substitute)
Herbs (I used oregano from the garden)
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup cream
4 servings of pasta
Sprinkling of fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Bring a stockpot of water to boil, then add sliced kohlrabi and cook for a total of 12 minutes (cook pasta in the same pot, so add it in before the 12 minutes is done, so the pasta and kohlrabi will be done at the same time).  While kohlrabi is cooking, saute mushrooms and onions in butter for a few minutes, then add scapes and herbs.  Saute for a few more minutes then add white wine.  When white wine reduces, add cream and simmer.  When pasta and kohlrabi are finished, drain water and add to a large bowl and put sauce on top.  Mix well and sprinkle with Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Local Salad

Here's a salad I made with local lettuce, spinach, raspberries, snap peas, goat cheese (that I made), and non-local walnuts.