Fried, grilled, or baked, paneer is a great fresh cheeses to make from scratch. The delicious milky lemony flavor can be tilted to sweet or savory dishes. Paneer is a lightly pressed cheese, which makes it easy to slice, dice and plank. This is great for one important reason. Paneer doesn’t melt! Read more ›
Exciting news this month! I wrote an article for the local Twin Cities beer rag, Growler Magazine, with how to make three fresh cheeses from one easy recipe. Check it out! Read more ›
Let’s talk blue cheese. Blue cheese is one of those preserved foods that even home preservers are hesitant to try making themselves. The main ingredients are deceptively basic – milk, culture, rennet. Then comes the penicillin mold. Eeeeewwww! Read more ›
There are two schools of thought on pie crusts: One is that the crust should be a neutral vessel that adds a little texture and flavor, but otherwise supports the filling. The other thought is that the crust is the real star—flakey, nutty, sweet, salty, spicy—whatever the flavor profile, the filling supports the crust, not the other way around. Read more ›
My mother got me a classic butter churn for Christmas. Whoopie! Only problem? I need a cow. (Not to be confused with “having a cow,” as my daughter likes to say.) Every time I make a cultured milk product like yogurt or cheese, I wish for a cow of my own, though I’m not sure the City of Minneapolis will go that far for urban agriculture. Read more ›
Paneer is an acid-set fresh curd cheese made from cows milk that is popular in northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh where milk is a regular part of those cultures. I made this cheese for the first time in my tiny college kitchen at University of California at Santa Cruz. Read more ›
On my recent trip to New Orleans, I was on a search for Creole Cream Cheese. I’d read about the cheese in my copy of Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. Surprisingly, the cheese proved incredibly hard to find. I rode my bike all over the city looking in shops, at the Crescent City Farmer’s Market (great cheese, just no Creole Cream Cheese) Read more ›
Acid cheeses are some of the easiest, quickest cheeses you can make at home, not to mention much less expensive and tasty than store-bought. Ricotta and mascapone cheese are both made with some kind of acid added to heated milk or cream, then strained.
My dehydrator has been working overtime this summer preserving all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Colorado Peaches just showed up in my local market and I grabbed a bunch. But fresh peaches don’t last long. My daughter likes packing them in her lunch, but they bruise easily. I’ve been meaning to try making fruit leather and these peaches looked like the perfect opportunity. Read more ›
The party of the summer season is the underground Dinner in White. The Dinner in White (Dîner en Blanc) began 25 years ago in Paris as an upstart flash mob that took over public spaces (without permission), throwing a fabulous fete filled with elegant diners dressed in white, feasting and drinking under the stars. They were way ahead of their time. Read more ›
Behold! It’s time to unmold (pun intended) the Cumin Jack Cheese with Smoked Paprika that I made back in January. After the cheese was coated in smoked paprika and the surface had dried for several days, I coated it in red cheese wax and tucked it into my wine fridge. Because the cheese is inside the wax, I did not have to add humidity to the fridge as I do for charcuterie and unwaxed cheeses. The cheese aged for just over two months. Read more ›