Category: Useful ingedients

LIke pastries, or sauces

Italian Meatballs

Serves 10 to 12

  • 3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
  • 6 tablespoons whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, preferably chuck
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
  • 3 large, whole eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Dried breadcrumbs, for work surface
  • Olive oil, for frying

Directions

  1. Place breadcrumbs in a small bowl. Drizzle the milk over and let stand until absorbed.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
  3. Place the ground meats in a large bowl. Add breadcrumb mixture to meats along with the reserved onion and garlic, whole eggs, yolks, parsley, oregano, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix until just combined.
  4. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over work surface. Roll 3/4 cup meatball mixture into a thin strip, about 12 inches long; repeat 3 more times. Line strips next to one another; sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Cut strips into 1-inch lengths. Repeat process with remaining meat mixture.
  5. Working in batches, transfer 1-inch pieces to a large sieve; sprinkle lightly with breadcrumbs to prevent sticking. Toss until pieces become round and form meatballs.
  6. Lightly coat the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil; set over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook meatballs until browned and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Repeat with additional oil and remaining meatballs.

Use these in a pasta sauce, or lasagne.

recipe borrowed from Martha Stewart’s site.

Fresh Mozzarella

Ingredients

The Cheese

3/4 cup (6 fluid ounces) whipping cream
1 3/4 gallon + 1 cup nonfat milk (29 cups or 6.63 litres total)
1/4 rennet tablet or 1 teaspoon liquid rennet2
1/4 cup (2 fluid ounces) cool water
1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) freshly opened buttermilk
The Brine

Ratio of 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) salt to 1 quart water. Mix in corrosive-resistant bowl.
Making the Curd

Note: All instruments used during this step need to be sterilized before each use either by immersing or pouring boiling water over them. This includes each time a thermometer or spoon is used. If you don’t, bacteria will make the cheese taste funky.
Combine cream and milk in a four gallon pot. Mix these together using only a metal spoon on low heat. The milk has to reach a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.22 Celsius). Regularly check on this with a thermometer. This could take an hour, so go pick up that book you’ve been trying to finish. In the meantime add the rennet to a bowl containing the cool water. Let stand until the rennet is dissolved. When the milk hits 90 degrees add the buttermilk, spooning out any butter clumps. Mix thoroughly. Slowly add rennet mixture and stir until it is completely and evenly distributed throughout the milk. The milk will begin to clot. Check the thermometer often, making sure the the temperature stays at 90 degrees. After 30-45 minutes it will be completely clotted. It’s time to release the whey. Cut a crosshatch pattern into the curds using a sharp knife and stir slowly.

Removing the Whey

Note: From here on out, it’s not necessary to sterilize your equipment.
You’re now about to seperate the curds and whey. Wouldn’t Little Miss Muffet be jealous? In your kitchen sink line a big colander with a few layers of clean cheesecloth. Dump the curds into it. The whey should drain away. Then place the colander, cheese and all, in an airtight container in your refrigerator. Every day, remove it, drain the whey, and change the cheesecloth. This should be done for three to four days. Then it will be ready for molding. How can you tell?

Cut off a small piece of the mozzarella. Let it sit in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. If it stretches under it’s own weight when you pull it out by one end, it’s ready. If it tears, let it continue chilling in the refrigerator for a few more days. Make sure you repeat the daily draining and cleaning process. If it still continues to tear, you’ve got cottage cheese. It’s not a loss, go get yourself some sliced peaches or salt, pepper, and scallions.
Molding the Cheese

Divide cheese into four workable sections. Remove any dried portions and cut one section into 1/4 inch slices. Put these slices in a bowl and cover them with very hot water. Push the slices together with a spoon and begin to lift the mass out of the bowl by one end. The cheese should stretch and start to form a rope. Keep pulling and don’t let this rope fold back on itself. Now grab one end of the cheese rope and begin to create a ball in your hands by rolling it under itself. You can make several mozzarella balls out of each section by pinching off the cheese as you go. Place each completed ball in the brine solution. This will give the mozzarella balls some flavor. The longer you leave them in, the saltier they will be. The four sections of cheese will make 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of mozzarella.

Final Note: Any curds or cheese you don’t use can be stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to five days. But beware, the cheese will not taste as fresh.
Copy from Sunset Magazine, June 1989.

Gravalax

Ingredients

1 Boned Salmon Fillet (about 2 lbs.)
1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup coarse Salt
1 1/2 tablespoons Black Pepper
1/4 cup Fresh lime juice
The juice and zest of one lemon
4 sprigs Fresh Dill
1/4 cup Cognac (optional)

Preparation

Mix sugar, salt and pepper and lightly rub mixture all over fish. Lay fish, skin side down in glass or stainless pan. Pour lime and lemon juice over fish and sprinkle with lemon zest and cognac. Lay fresh dill on top. Cover dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours, basting with juices occasionally. After 12 hours turn fish over and return to refrigerator for 12 more hours.

To serve, remove from brine, place skin side down on cutting board and garnish with lemon and fresh dill. Slice paper-thin slanting slices and place on crackers or toast with sour cream and mustard sauce if desired. The fish may remain in the brine for 48 hours, then removed patted dry and stored in tight plastic wrap for up to two more days.

This is excellent on wheaten bread t00, especially the home made stuff, fresh from the oven.

Roast tomato passata

Swiped from the River cottage web site again.

3 – 4 kg ripe Tomatoes (as many different varieties and sizes as possible)
Sea salt and black pepper
1 tsp fresh oregano
1 tsp fresh thyme
Small handful of torn basil
4-5 cloves of garlic
Good trickle of olive oil and rapeseed oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Depending on the size of the tomatoes, cut them either into halves or quarters. With very small or cherry tomatoes, pop them in whole but slash the skins first to release the juices. Place all of the tomatoes into a large roasting tin.
3. Crush and roughly chop the garlic and sprinkle it over the tomatoes with the salt and pepper.
4. Roughly tear the oregano, thyme and basil and scatter over tomatoes.
5. Drizzle over a little rapeseed and olive oil then roast in the oven for 45 minutes until slightly blistered and soft.
6. Cool after cooking, push through a sieve and place into containers for freezing.

Traditional Cured Ham


1 whole or half leg of fresh, free-range pork, on or off the bone

Ingredients:

• 4 litres water
• 1.2kg salt
• 2 teaspoon dried red chilli
• 1 tablespoons cloves
• 2 tablespoons white peppercorns
• 6 juniper berries

Combine ingredients, mixing well to dissolve the salt.

Boil all the brine ingredients together in a large pan and leave to cool. Transfer to a non-metallic brine tub and chill to 3–4°C. Place your piece of pork – also chilled, ideally to almost freezing – in the tub and submerge completely, using a non-metallic weight. Leave the pork in the brine, in the coolest place you can find, for 3 days (minimum) to 4 days (maximum) for every kilo. The maximum time is for a ham you intend to keep a long while; the minimum will suffice if you plan to cook and eat it soon after it is finished.

After its allotted time, remove the ham from the cure, wipe it dry with a cotton cloth and hang it to dry in a muslin bag in a cool, well-ventilated place for 24 hours.

You can then smoke it if you like: hang it high above a hardwood fire or place it in your smoker and either smoke it continuously for 24 hours or intermittently (6–12 hours a day) for 5–7 days. Ideally the air temperature where the ham is smoking should not exceed 40°C (27°C is perfect but a little variation will not hurt).

Smoked or unsmoked, this ham keeps well if you go for the maximum cure time: hang it in a well-ventilated outbuilding, or covered porch where a draught can get to it but the rain can’t, and it should keep right through the winter months. In warmer weather, hams are at risk from flies and other bugs: best get them cooked before too long. A minimum-cure time, unsmoked ham should be kept in the fridge, wrapped in a cloth or muslin, but not plastic, and cooked within a month of curing. Don’t worry if a few specks of mould appear; just wipe them off with a cloth dipped in vinegar.

Hams should be soaked in plenty of fresh water, changed every 12 hours, for 24–48 hours (depending on the length of the cure) before boiling. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2–5 hours, depending on size. If the water tastes very salty after the first hour of cooking, pour at least half of it away and top up with fresh boiling water from the kettle.