Blue Cheese OmnivorousWritten by Bryan Applegate
IngredientsRomaine Lettuce (head $1.29) 1 pound of steak ($10 per pound) 1 box of colorful pasta ($1.03 Blue’s Clues because my inner child sways me at times.) 1 red pepper ($2.62) Blue Cheese dressing ($2.43) ½ pound block of blue cheese ($3.79 optional ingredient) *Save money everywhere but in buying meat. Cheap meat is too tough for this. Wash and shred lettuce. Put it in refrigerator so that it remains cold and crispy at serving time. Then, cook pasta until tender but not downright floppy. We want pasta to be somewhat cooler, so in this instance, it’s okay to rinse it off with cool water a little bit so it no longer steams. Meanwhile, cut steak into slices and sear with salt and pepper. Do this in a shallow pan and a tablespoon of oil in pan. As meat cooks, toss it around a bit. When it starts sticking to pan, you’re done in thirty seconds. As steak finishes, wash and half red pepper. Faux roast a half on an electric range or carefully roast a half on a gas stove so that outside is dark and toasty. While pepper can still keep its shape, remove it carefully from heat and slice lengthwise. It’s a lovely and tasty garnish with dramatic flair during cooking!
| | Adventures in Cheese Making – Walk this WheyWritten by Paul Rinehart
I’ve had homemade cheeses before and loved how they tasted, but I never got around to making cheese myself. So one day recently, I mustered up courage and began process of learning how to make a simple cheese.Making cheese is a lot simpler than one might think – at least when it comes to making a simple cheese. You can make it just by heating milk and adding vinegar, which is fairly similar to way I improvise on a recipe requiring buttermilk. When I make imitation buttermilk, all I do is add lemon to milk until it curdles, only difference is that when it comes to making cheese, you harvest curdled part. The solid substance is called curd, leftover liquid is called whey – same curds and whey Miss Muffet enjoyed. This seemed a little too easy and this type of cheese is fairly soft, with an almost cottage cheese-like consistency. I researched a little further to find a way to make a firmer cheese? The answer came… Rennet! Rennet is traditionally made from stomach of a calf, it is salted after beast is slaughtered. You can buy rennet easily through various cheese-making supply websites. I was too impatient to wait to get real stuff, but I found out that there were other forms of rennet that would give same results. After looking for what seemed like an eternity, I found a recipe for vegetarian rennet. I took about a pound of nettle leaves, a couple of ounces of hops, and some yarrow flowers, put then in a pot and covered it with just enough water to immerse plants. I brought it to a simmer and then let it sit for a while to steep. I then drained it and added about a cup of salt. Another thing that helps in cheese-making is conditioning milk. Through my research I found that I had to add live cultures… but where to get them? The answer ended up being rather simple, buttermilk and yogurt. In same pot as milk, I poured a half-gallon of milk, one quart of buttermilk, and a whole container of yogurt. I put in half a pint of heavy cream for good measure. I let this sit for a good two hours and guess what? It began to curdle. I wanted thicker curds though, so I poured a half-cup of my homemade rennet in and curds got thicker in just a matter of minutes. To promote growth of bacteria in yogurt, I let it sit a while, warming it slightly over stove, careful to not even bring it to a simmer.
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