We finally got moved and somewhat settled, now it’s time to blog again. At least a little.  I have lots of ideas for the new home and garden, plenty of projects to keep me occupied. Getting the composter set up and planting the herb garden seem like good things to start on. Then there is the less interesting task:

The kitchen

the kitchen. It is small with about 4 feet in total length of counter space (that’s being generous). Small sink, no dishwasher. You’re looking at the entire thing in the photo: fridge, stove, counter, sink.

Not very inspiring for cooking anything involved. So, I guess projects will be limited. On the other hand, the limited space encourages simplicity and fresh, minimally processed ingredients. The summer produce is just wonderful right now: fresh corn on the cob; cucumber and tomato salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper; fresh fruit galore.

I am  looking forward to starting a new sourdough starter in this old house. I bet there are good little microorganisms in a 100 year old dwelling.

And then there is the payoff. A few (??) months down the road we will have a lovely new kitchen downstairs, complete with all the amenities and plenty of counter space! Patience.

heat a 1-2 quart heavy bottomed sauce pan (one with a lid) over medium high heat,
add a little olive oil and sweat shallots and garlic, toss in tomatoes and red wine, add mussels and cover with a tight fitting lid and steam for 3-5 minutes until the mussels open.
remove the mussels and reserve in a serving dish
reduce the pot liquor slightly , turn off heat and
mount with butter
pour sauce over mussels and garnish with freshly chopped basil

i really like mussels. i used to like them less when i spent time as a prep cook cleaning at least 20 pounds a night. Since 2000, 80% of the mussels available in north american are pei mussels, which minimize what was once a labor intensive process in the kitchen. Mussels like many other bivalves grow in the intertidal zone of the ocean, where the happily filter feed and reproduce, they attach themselves to a substrate and grow in large clumps. on prince edward island an industry has developed by growing them on strings in deeper water and this has resulted in a better product. but enough about the history lets get back to the cooking.

i like them steamed in red wine and served with a nice baquette for sopping up the juice in the bowl. they are also delicious served with french fries and a nice belgian beer. i’ll give you the recipe and method i use and you be the judge. feel free to try steaming them in white wine with shallots and tarragon as well.

back to the cheese; the last one i bought after one taste, the smell (OMG!) sealed the deal. i like the stinky cheese and it has a rind that’s beautiful, i believe it’s an aged sheep milk cheese, the mystery is because i had a bite saw the tan/brown pebbly rind and knew i had found a good cheese, the name is secondary. the farmers market stand had just three baskets and cutting board. in the baskets were 10 or twelve wedges wrapped in wax paper, i tried one and….had to have it, take it home, keep it in my refrigerator. of course a few minutes later i let my wife see it and she turned her nose up , pouted and asked me how much i paid, i believe she was jealous. go down and get yourself a love tree farmstead cheese, and you might like it.

K and K is one of the few remaining cheese plants that accept milk from amish farmers who milk by hand, cool the milk in spring houses and ship it out in old fashion milk cans. In the seventies the amish farmers of this area created a system that would allow their milk to be utilized in milk cans. Normally most dairy farmers milk the cows by machine, pump it to a refrigerated holding tank and ship it out in bulk form of several hundred gallons at a time. the amish farmers on the other hand milk by hand, and since there culture prohibits the use of electricity, they cool the milk in springs water tanks in milk cans. without electricity they also had to find some-one to run the cheese plant. the arrangement that has been in place for the last 28 years has been very successful for both the 325 amish farmers in the cooperative and the cheese producer. It fills a niche market that is highly sought after and keeps a way of life alive for growing number of amish farmers.

after a 1 hr tour we stopped at several amish farms and had a delicious lunch on the grass courtesy of the other partner in rochdale farms, Bentley Lein. the afternoon followed up with a chance to chat with a couple of amish farmers in the area. the amish farm is a unique operation but highly successful and innovative. typically the farmers milk 12-15 cows and subsist on land from 40 – 80 acres in size. more than a few have been organically certified and all are fully inspected by the wisconsin milk board. i found the barns to be compact and well ordered. the typical amish farmer is actually quite open to questions and rather a friendly sort. i would like to spend a few day working living at a farm to really get a better feel for this way of life.

the side garden has been planted. my wife saw asparagus roots on sale the local home improvement store and bought them. we have a trench planted with twenty four 1-2 year old asparagus roots, i thought it was going to be 3 asparagus crowns, more is better.  i moved the rhubarb plant to this side as well. i put in mesclun under the dome in the front yard. peas will go into this space as well.

the first batch of compost for this year has cooled and will need to be sifted/screened before i can use it as a side dressing.  there are more than a few sticks and a few corncobs that need to be reprocessed in the next pile. composting proceeds through a ‘hot stage’ at the beginning of the process, this is due to the action of beneficial microbes. the heat also is purported to kill the weed seeds. when i first dug into the pile after a week , i was impressed by the color change and the heat. the color change was due to the rapid growth of fungi. i continued turning the pile every 3 -7 days until it cooled,  six weeks is good time frame for an active pile with plenty of aeration. it’s not a completely broken down pile, but there are no discernible ‘kitchen scraps’ evident and it looks a lot like dirt and smells earthy not rancid.

enjoy your spring, the planting of warm weather crops is still a few weeks off in Minnesota. see ya in the garden.

This particular recipe came from a potluck with an Eastern European theme held by, who else, my mom and her friends at the library. The party people. Did I mention that my mother is a great and adventuresome cook (despite the fact that I did not appreciate this much in my youth!)? Maybe I should pretend to get some of my recipes from elsewhere… Well, you would all like my mom. Shall we get her a blogger ID, too?

I’ll also add that I made my first batch using ground beef. It wasn’t until afterward that I realized it was supposed to be made with beef round. So the nickname it carries around here is “European chili.” Made it up myself.

Hungarian Goulash
2 pounds beef round (or ground beef, if you prefer!)
4 Tblspns olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
3/4 cup ketchup
3/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. vinegar
1 Tblspn brown sugar
2 1/2 tspn. paprika
1 – 2 tspn. salt
1 tspn dry mustard
dash of dried red pepper flakes, optional
Cut the beef round into 1 inch pieces. Brown it in the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Then add the onion and garlic and brown lightly. Mix together all the other ingredients (the ones not yet in the pot). Add the mix to the pot and stir in well. Add 3 cups water. Cover and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Thicken at the end with 2 Tblspn. flour and 1/2 cup water shaken together in a jar until well- mixed. Alternatively, add a little less water upfront – but watch that it does not burn!

Enjoy over noodles. Serves about 4 to 6. Freezes well.

Homemade yogurt in a jar

When my firstborn was a baby, there was much discussion about when to start solids and what foods were good and that is when I began in earnest to put lots of thought into our food at home. A good friend, whose child is a year and a half older, taught me how easy it is to make homemade yogurt. And Super Baby Food fed right into that.
Then I began to dislike buying and throwing away (even into the recycle bin) the plastic yogurt container every week. It didn’t seem right to purport good food for my kid and contribute so much pollution to the world at the same time. So I started making yogurt and you know what? It’s really easy and fits into the busy week here pretty well.

There is a nice discusion, including comparison charts of yogurt, kefir, sour cream, etc. on Wikipedia under fermented milk products. Fermented foods have been around for centuries as ways of keeping foods longer and there are certainly health benefits to this. I am also a big fan of kefir, which has its own interesting history and several websites devoted to it! It seems there is even a National Yogurt Association which I don’t know anything about, but if Dr. Sears likes them, they can’t be all bad.
I’ve recently discovered home cheesemaking and read Ricki Carroll’s book cover to cover. Check out the website for more ideas, where to get supplies and the blog.

Yogurt
Glass jar, wide neck, preferably heat resistant (I like 24 to 32 oz size), with a screw top
Cooking thermometer that reaches at least 190F and has a clip
Milk, enough to fill the jar
Yogurt culture – can be purchased dry or take a spoonful (2 tablespoons) from a plain store yogurt
Dry milk powder, optional (this thickens the yogurt and adds protein)
A pot that will fit your glass jar and allow water to come most of the way up the neck
A place to keep the yogurt at a constant temperature of about 105F for 6 – 10 hours

To make sure everything is spiffy clean, I sterilize it first: put the thermometer and your stirring spoon into the jar and fill with boiling water; let sit 5 minutes then empty the water into your pot. Fill the jar to within an inch from the top with milk. Put the thermometer in, clipped to the side and put the jar into the pot. Fill the pot with water up to the neck of the jar. Heat over medium heat until the milk reaches 185F, stirring to mix the cooler top milk with the bottom.

Once the milk reaches 185, remove it from the water bath and set to cool somewhere, thermometer still in place. If using some other yogurt as your culture starter, take it out of the fridge now to bring to room temperature. Stir the milk occasionally until the milk has cooled to about 105 -110 F. Then add the culture to the jar of milk. If you wish to add some milk powder, mix a tablespoon or 3 with the yogurt culture starter and then add it to the milk.

Place cover on the jar and put it in a warm place, about 100F works well. Wrap in a towel to keep warm if needed. I use my oven – with just the light on inside, it holds a temp of about 100F. Sometimes a pilot light keeps a gas oven warm like this. There are also electric yogurt makers that maintain the temperature. I let it sit 8 to 12 hours (overnight) and then, voila!, it’s yogurt. Remove your next culture starter before doing anything else and put in a separate container in the fridge. Then taste it. Yum. Goes great with granola… another post idea!

photo courtesy of anthony bourdain; food porn 2 slideshow

1 lb cooked pasta, dakota growers
1 tbsp olive oil
red onion, julienne
prosciutto, 1/3 cup, julienne
optional: 1 roasted chicken breast, leftover from last nights dinner, 1 inch dice
1/2 cup peas, frozen or fresh
heavy cream, 42% butterfat cedar summit
parmesan cheese, freshly grated, saravecchio(antigo, WI)
1 egg yolk

heat ten inch skillet until smoking
saute red onion in olive oil, untill wilted and slightly caramelized
add prosciutto and chicken saute longer
add peas
add cream and reduce slightly
add parmesan and turn off heat [gas stovetop, turn off flame/ electric stovetop remove from burner]
when parmesan is melted and blended
add egg yolk and stir to thicken
add pasta