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Ice Cream Man!


Growing up, summer was spent fully submerged in water. With the liquid-air humidity of July and August, whole summers were spent playing Marco Polo, jumping off granite cliffs in Gloucester, or fighting the undertow at the beach reserve.

After swimming all day, my brother, sister and I always had a ferocious appetite that couldn’t be ignored. My mother almost always came prepared with a picnic basket. But sometimes, if we were really good, Mom would give us a dollar so we could go buy ice cream from the Ice Cream Man.

Everyone had their favorites. The creamsicle. The frozen strawberry shortcake. The push-pop. But for me, the best was always a classic ice cream sandwich. Beneath the paper wrapper were two soft, frozen chocolate cookies hugging a rectangle of pristine plain ice cream. Or maybe it would be two mammoth chocolate chip cookies holding together a frozen wheel of vanilla ice cream. Regardless of the formation, the play of textures always captivated me.

I enjoyed the challenge of eating the sandwich. I’d plan each mouthful so that I could avoid the inevitable see- saw of two cookies pushing together and squeezing out the precious ice cream between them. I’d take a bite and quickly lick away the extra, oozing ice cream trying to escape out the side.

Though I loved my ice cream sandwiches, they often left me feeling sad or upset at myself for making a mistake in how I ate my precious dessert. I either rushed to keep the ice cream from melting or savored the flavors too long–only to lose half the sandwich to the ground and the awaiting ants. Sometimes, this was always the saddest of mistakes, I let one of my hungry parents take the sandwich from my hand to “help me.” I’d watch their over-sized tongue lick away the edges of the ice cream and suddenly the ice cream sandwich wasn’t mine any more. After that, I really didn’t have much interest in finishing my ice cream.

So many lost ice cream sandwiches

I haven’t really thought much about ice cream sandwiches. Until now.

Just around the block, at food importer and gourmet marketplace Joan’s on Third, I have discovered the glory of gelato on brioche. Known to southern Italians as the food of choice on hot sweltering days, it’s an adult ice cream sandwich that’s so good you’ll want to stop everything you’re doing to focus on devouring every delicious bite. Its powerful combination of buttery brioche and rich, soft gelato will make you territorial for every last bite.

For just $5.50 you can experience one of the best flavor combinations in town. For the record, this isn’t a dessert to be savored. The gelato melts fast and you don’t want to waste one bite!

JOAN’S ON THIRD
8350 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA
323 655 2285
www.joansonthird.com

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Keeping it real

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of being a “real” cook. I mean, can you be a real cook if you use pre-prepared items? Do real cooks use pasta sauces from a jar? Do real cooks use frozen vegetables? Do real cooks buy frozen pie dough?

Nancy Silverton, one of my chef heroes, believes that you don’t have to make everything from scratch in order to be a good cook. As a matter of fact, her newest book is based on this premise.

In Twist of the Wrist, she shows home cooks how to make healthy and delicious meals at home with a handful of fresh ingredients and pre-made items that can be found at the local store. So if bread maven Nancy Silverton says it’s okay to cook at home with pre-made items, surely that means you can be a real cook and use store-bought, prepped items…Right?

If you happened to read the great article my friend, writing partner (more about that someday soon) and fellow food blogger, Leah of Spicy Salty Sweet wrote about trying out a recipe from the Twist of the Wrist cookbook, you’d probably end up saying “NO” to that question.

Leah is an incredible cook and when it comes to making a meal, she almost always prefers making everything from scratch. And when I say everything, I mean everything. She makes her own pasta, her own pizza dough, her own ice cream…But then, Leah self-admittedly calls herself a kitchen masochist, which makes me believe that maybe there is hope for the prepared food aided cook. Maybe a real cook like Leah might believe you don’t have to cook everything at home in order to consider yourself a “real” cook. Maybe.

Okay, so I’m obsessing

The reason I’ve been thinking about this subject, is because I recently made a pie with store bought frozen pie crust. Now, if you’ve been reading Food Woolf lately, you’ll know that I’m trying to get over my fear of pastry. Which hasn’t necessarily been easy. I’ve messed up measurements, I’ve had to bake and rebake a cobbler until I got it right.

So when I bought the ingredients for a pie and put together a recipe that was inspired by Fine Furious Life, a fellow food blogger, I was really excited to go into work at the restaurant and tell the girls in the pastry department about it.

“Oh really?” they smiled. “What’d you put in it?”

I rattled off the ingredients. They nodded with interest. Until I told them I used a frozen pie crust. Their eyes went dim. Did I just say “frozen pie crust”? In the pastry department? What was I thinking?

I gulped back my embarrassment as I skulked out of Pastry. I was crestfallen. Until I spied this month’s Bon Appetit. In the June issue, they featured a rustic plum and port tart recipe that, get this, called for a refrigerated pie crust.

A ha!

Victory, I thought! Bon Apetit appeals to real cooks, right? They recommend prepared pie dough. Surely I must be taking all this prepared food item stuff way too seriously.

Yeah. Seriously.

What follows is this delicious, easy, fast and fresh Rhubarb, Nectarine and Cardamom Pie. It’s really great fresh from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Be sure to drizzle a bit of freshly ground cardamom and some Maldon sea salt on the ice cream to make it really special.


Rhubarb, Nectarine and Cardamom Tart
adapted from a recipe from Fine Furious Life
Makes one pie

Two pack of pre-made pie crusts. I used organic pie shells from Whole Foods.
1 1/2 pounds rhubarb, cut in 1-inch pieces
4 nectarines seeded and sliced in 1-inch cubes
1 nectarine cut into wedges
1/2 cup sugar
1 orange, juiced
12 fresh cardamom pods, opened, seeded and ground
2 tblsp raspberry jelly

Bonus points if you use:
Maldon sea salt
A pint of vanilla ice cream
A handful of cardamom pods, opened, seeded and ground

Prepping the cardamom:
To open the cardamom pods, use the back of your knife or a mallet. Take out the black, flavorful seeds and put them into your mortar. Hand grind with the pestle until the cardamom is more like a rough powder.

For the filling:
Combine rhubarb, nectarines, sugar, orange juice and cardamom in a bowl. Transfer to a large skillet. Stir over medium-high heat until liquid starts to bubble. Reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer until rhubarb is almost tender, stirring very gently in order to keep rhubarb intact. About 8 minutes.

Drain rhubarb and nectarines well, reserving the sugared juice. Add the juice from bowl to skillet. Boil the juices until it becomes a syrup or a medium-to-thick reduction. Mix in preserves. Cool. Very gently add the rhubarb and nectarines to the mixture.

Preheat oven to 375F. Follow the directions for the frozen pie crust (thaw and pre-bake one of the two pie crusts. Reserve the other for the lattice top). Once the pie crust is cooked (about 20 minutes), add the fruit mixture. Line the top of the pie with the nectarine wedges.

Prepare the lattice top:
Carefully transfer the second, uncooked pie crust dough onto waxed paper. Cut one inch strips into the dough and lay across the top of the pie in a lattice pattern.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until filling is bubbling thickly and crust is golden brown.

NOTE: This post was amended on 6/29

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My friend, the Michelada


When it’s hot out, the last thing I want to do is put on heavy layers of clothes. Or exercise. Or work. Forget cooking.

If I’m not working on one of these unbearably hot July days, I’m hiding out in my apartment with my trusty fan, a spray bottle of cool water and dreaming of the refreshing beverages like Nan’s iced tea, lemonade, or a Michelada.

aaaah, Michelada

The Michelada, for anyone unfamiliar with the drink, is a “prepared beer”, or a beer cocktail, from south of the border. Using little more than chili, salt, lime and Worcestershire sauce, a glass of light beer is transformed into a transcendent adult beverage that is so delicious and fulfilling, it can make you forget how hot it is outside.


Michelada

For the Chili salt

Mix a handful of kosher salt with a pinch of cayenne pepper or Thai chili.

Mix together in a mortar and pestle. Taste.
Note: I make my own chili salt with Kosher salt and a Thai chili “paste” I found at the Asian market. Feel free to experiment with other chili peppers and your favorite salt. Or, if it’s just too hot out to think about that sort of thing, skip the experimentation and just buy a chili salt mix which can be found in the spice section of most supermarkets!

For the Drink
1 Can of Tecate (or any light beer with very little flavor)
1 lime (cut into wedges)
2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1 dash of hot sauce
ice

Rub the lip of the glass with one of your limes. Dip the rim of the glass onto a plate covered with chili salt. Put glass aside.

Throw the 4 lime quarters into your cocktail shaker. Muddle until the juice is released. I suggest muddling the limes to give the drink it’s necessary texture. But if you don’t have a muddler, just squeeze the juice in the glass. Add two dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1 dash of hot sauce (or more if you like it really spicy). Add ice. Shake to coat the ice with the spice and lime juice. Pour contents into your salt-rimmed glass. Add beer to the top.

You will find that there is still plenty of beer left over in the can. The beauty of this drink is how it starts off really spicy and as you add your beer, it becomes lighter and lighter.


Though I don’t drink beer often, this drink is so unbelievably refreshing and easy to make, it’s got me thinking that maybe I should keep a six pack in the fridge. Enjoy!

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Art of the bar


Maybe it’s because I grew up in a sea-side village in Massachusetts, but fresh fruit wasn’t something I was accustomed to. Fresh fish, yes. But fresh fruit? Ah, no.

Exotic bananas, kiwis and citrus fruits could be bought for an inflated price at any of the major New England based grocery stores, but they were purchased knowing full well they were treasures from far away. Crisp apples, juicy pears, fat strawberries, tart blueberries, soft raspberries, mouth watering melons and delicate concord grapes were mine, but only for the fleeting dog days of summer and cool nights of fall.

As a bartender in Cambridge, Mass., I made plenty of cocktails. I made the classics (Martinis, margaritas, and simple mixed concoctions) with brand name liquors with sour mix from a plastic bottle, canned pineapple juice, coconut mix, orange juice from Florida, or soda. Fruit, for an east coast bartender like me, was never a featured element. Lime, orange and lemon were visual flourishes, only to be used as a garnish.

Calfornia Flavors

It wasn’t until I moved to California that I tasted a fresh cocktail. My understanding of what a drink could be was changed forever when I tasted my first handmade Mojito. I was floored (literally) by the fresh flavors of lime and mint and the balance of acidity and sweetness.

Suddenly, I understood that cocktails shouldn’t be a barely disguised alcohol delivery system–it should be a delicious, refreshing, appetite enticement made with as much care as a diner’s first course.

During my time working in California restaurants, I learned how to make cocktails with hand-squeezed citrus, freshly muddled herbs and specialty liquors and perfected the art of balancing sweetness and acidity. Then, when I starting running a restaurant that specialized in hand made cocktails, I was free to show my creativity behind the bar and create amazing cocktails from fresh, seasonal produce for the restaurant. It was, by far, the most fun and rewarding part of my job.

Though popping open a ready-to-drink bottle of wine can be undeniably easy, making a great cocktail at home doesn’t have to be difficult.

Creating a cocktail

Here are a few simple rules to follow when making a fresh cocktail:

1) Use great, fresh ingredients
Fresh fruit and citrus should be juicy. If you discover you’ve purchased “dry fruit” (fruit that just isn’t giving up its juice easily) either toss the fruit or, if you don’t want to go back to the store, double up on the amount of fruit you use in order to get the correct flavor.

2) Maintain balance
Acidity and sweetness must always be in balance with each other, as well as the alcohol. Don’t let one ingredient hog the limelight. Everything in well-crafted drink, must perform together, in unison.

3) Taste
Don’t be afraid to take a little taste of what you’re making to make sure it’s right. A great bartender, like a chef, must always taste in order to maintain consistency.

4) Experiment
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Buy fresh fruit and taste them. What flavors would go well with it? What does it remind you of? A favorite pie? A childhood popsicle? These trusted flavors can lead you and your cocktail making to great places.

The following is a recipe I created this weekend after tasting the sweetness of a ripe pluot, fresh from the market.

Dapple dandy
Half plum, half apricot, the pluot’s intense sweetness and playful acidity is the perfect center point for this refreshing summer time drink.

1 ripe pluot, cut into thick wedges (a ripe plum could work, also, though you may need to add more lime juice to balance the flavors)
Juice of one lime
Simple syrup* to taste (about 2-4 tablespoons)
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1-1.5 ounces premium vodka
Ice

Muddle the pluot wedges (in either a cocktail shaker or pint glass) until most of the juice is released. Add the juice of one lime and almond extract. Fill shaker with ice. Add vodka and shake to mix well. Taste. Pour into glass and serve.

Enjoy!

*Making your own simple syrup is easy. It’s just one part sugar to one part water. Boil water, add sugar. Take off heat when sugar dissolves. Let cool. There’s a simple, step by step recipe here.

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LA on Foot

photo by Douglas Morgenstern

Me, I’m lucky. I live in an amazing, centrally located LA neighborhood called “Miracle Mile”. In this famed place of miracles, I have everything I need just 5 to 10 blocks from my home. There’s a movie theater, a museum, a library, a newly opened wine store, more than a handful of restaurants, three grocery stores, a farmer’s market and a laundromat. For years I’ve done most of my local shopping on foot. And though I live in a rather populated area, I’ve been a lonely walker in the city, never quite sure why my neighbors haven’t caught on to the ease (and financial return) of walking. Until now.

With record high heat and the nation’s highest gas prices (my corner gas station sells the “cheap” gas at $4.69 a gallon), the city sidewalks are finally being used by people other than myself, tourists and the homeless. In what may be the first time in decades, many of Los Angeles residents are enjoying their weekend plans on foot.

Though doing errands on foot may not be a novel idea for city residents outside of southern California, the sprawling city of Los Angeles county covers a total area of about 500 miles, making driving to destination almost a necessity.

Change afoot

People all over the city are noticing there’s a change afoot. Residents that usually take weekend trips to the beach are walking to the local grocers to buy enough food to fill one or two reusable canvas bags so they can BBQ in the back yard. Couples skip the gym and walk a mile to the movie theater. Instead of rushing off to drink ice coffee in their car, money-conscious consumers are enjoying free air conditioning and reading the paper.

Suddenly, the streets are filled with smiling faces, people with canvas shopping bags and paper umbrellas to shade them from the sun. Of course, this goes against the popular Los Angeles tradition of driving half a block to get a cup of coffee as satirized in the popular Steve Martin movie “LA Story”.
()

Finally residents are leaving the car at home and walking.

Though the prices at the gas pump are unbearable, it’s good to see a major shift in the way people think about local transportation. If everyone spent more time on foot, perhaps we could see a dramatic shift in the state of the environment as well. Regardless, it’s nice to see people out of their cars and walking in the neighborhood.

Here’s to positive change.

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In Italy


In Italy
An excerpt from a poem by Nobel Laureat in Literature Derek Walcott
Published in The New Yorker
April 21, 2008


“…Light
older than wine and a cloud like a tablecloth
spread for lunch under the leaves.
I have come this late
to Italy, but better now, perhaps, than in youth
That is never satisfied, whose joys are treacherous,
While my hair rhymes with those far crests, and the bells
Of the hilltop towers number my errors,
Because we are never where we are, but somewhere else,
Even in Italy…”

******

Reading this incredible poem immediately brought me back to Italy and to my undeniable love of that place. In just a few words, Derek Walcott rekindled my love of all things Italian–the ancient light. The hills. The small stores filled with fresh ingredients and grey haired ladies with rounded bellies. The skyline of green trees, blue sky and sparkling waters. The food, and the love of food of all of its inhabitants. The smell of baking bread, of chestnuts, of wine aging in casks, of olives hanging from the trees just days from picking. The amazing culinary characters we met during our October honeymoon.

Dear reader, though this may not be my traditional post, please consider this a recipe for nostalgia.

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Happy Father's Day


Dad,

Thank you for working so hard to take care of us, your children. Thank you for the sacrifices you made at such a young age in order to feed and shelter us. Thank you for your ferocious loyalty and love. Thank you for instilling in us the belief that hard work and passion is the most important element we can give to our life and work. Thank you for believing in us, no matter what paths we take.

Thank you for our curious sense of humor. Thank you for Sunday morning memories of the Funnies and donuts. Thank you for giving us the love of the grill, the ocean and swimming in the quarry.

Thank you for telling me that everything I do is magic.
I love you.

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Stone Fruit Cobbler

With summer already on its way, it’s time for a bevy of backyard barbeque’s and dinner parties. The minute I read the June Gourmet I thought I found the perfect party-time dessert. Unfortunately, Gourmet’s original recipe for a stone fruit cobbler didn’t dazzle the crowd as promised. However, after a bit of tweaking, I think I’ve come up with a crowd pleasing version that wows guests and makes them want to dive in for more.

MARKET SUGGESTIONS

Nectarines at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market

If you live near a farmer’s market, I suggest buying stone fruits that are in season. In Southern California, you can find nectarines, plums, pluots and peaches in abundance.

Plums at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market

Peaches at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market

For simplicity’s sake, I suggest using only plums and nectarines in this recipe. That way all you have to do is pit and slice and never have to peel off the skin. Otherwise, if you pick peaches or pluots, you’ll need to remove the skin before cooking. Also, choose firm fruits as they are a better choice for baking.

Stone Fruit Cobbler
Adapted from Gourmet magazine
Serves 8 (or a handful of gluttonous people)

For the filling:
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
¼ cup all purpose flour
3 lb mixed stone fruit, pitted and cut into ½ inch thick wedges (8 cups).
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp pure almond extract
NOTE: I adjusted the amount of sugar required from the original recipe. Keep in mind that after blending together the filling ingredients, you may want to increase the sugar level if the fruit mixture tastes overtly sour.

For the biscuits:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal (not stone-ground)
2 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon (rounded) salt
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
3 cups (plus 1 Tbsp) heavy cream
4 Tbsp demerara sugar

Make filling
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F with the rack in the middle. Butter a 3 quart glass or ceramic baking dish.

Toss together filling ingredients in a large bowl. Spread filling into the baking dish. Bake until just bubbling 15-20 minutes.

Make topping
While the filling bakes, whisk together sifted flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Blend together the dry ingredients with your fingers until the mixture resembles a course meal. Add 1 cup cream and stir until a dough forms.

Turn dough onto a floured surface. Lightly dust the dough with flour. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until it’s ½ inch thick and is 10-inches around in diameter. Cut out dough with a 2-inch cookie cutter (or use the top of a small to medium sized glass). Gather scraps and re-roll once to cut out more biscuits.

Arrange biscuits ½ inch apart over hot filling. Brush tops with remaining Tbsp cream and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake until topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling in the center. About 25-30 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Whip the remaining heavy cream until it forms soft peaks. Serve cobbler and finish the individual portions with a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Suggested dessert wine paring:
Brachetto, a semi-sweet sparkling rosé, or my all time favorite: Vin de Bugey, a semi-sweet sparkling rosé from France.

I’ve brought this cobbler to several parties already. It’s an easy recipe that results in a real show stopping dessert!

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Culinary Aha! moment

get over fear of baking
Not all sugars and measurements are the same

Sometimes life offers up little discoveries that remind you to stay sharp and be humble. You learn to swim after fearing it all your life. You read a book you always thought was “too deep” for you. You meet a stranger that inspires a courageous journey. You see stars in the sky and realize how small you are. You observe a piece of artwork that inspires a new idea. You taste a Madeline and suddenly the glories of youth are remembered.

These shifts in perspective, be it big or small, can redirect your life in an instant. Oprah calls this flash of understanding an “Aha!” moment. These life changing moments certainly do have a Sherlock Holmes-esque “A ha!” or “Egads!” quality to them.

My Aha! moment

I had one of those eye-opening moments a few days ago during a conversation with a long time friend, Anne, over lunch. She’s a former model turned pastry chef (what a great combination, right?) and is one of the most honest and real people I know in Los Angeles. So not only can I talk to this smart and lovely woman about life, but I can also ask her all sorts of questions about baking. Maybe too many questions about baking. But she doesn’t seem to mind it. Considering my fear of making desserts, I think Anne is the only one that will teach me to get over it. ASAP.

So, back to the “Aha” moment. I was in the thick of asking for Anne’s culinary perspective on a cobbler recipe I was perfecting, when I asked her how she measured out her recipes.

“Kitchen scale,” she said. “Though, I have a few of my early recipes in cup measurements.”

Damn, I thought. I really do have to go out and by a kitchen scale. With the cost of gas weighing heavily on my wallet, I asked, “Is there a way to make sure to get perfect measurements from my measuring cups?”

Without missing a beat Anne answered. “Yeah. That’s easy. Just scoop and level the ingredient out.”

I immediately pictured my big glass measuring cup filled half way with flour.

“Yeah, but what if the recipe calls for 2 cups and your measuring cup holds 4? How do you level it out then? By punching it down?”

Anne gave me a Kung-fu master smile. “You’re using a liquid measure to measure dry ingredients, Brooke. You need dry measuring cups to measure flour.”

CUE SOUND: record scratching

AHA! Egads! THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MEASUREMENTS?!!

No wonder my baking skills aren’t great. I didn’t know how to measure my ingredients!

Dry measurements vs. liquid measurements

If I had paid attention in my high school science class, I would have known that liquids and dry products measure differently. In the interest of anyone else that may be as in the dark about measurements as I am, I offer this quick and easy lesson.

In baking, accuracy is one of the most important skills for the cook. Follow recipes closely and use the correct measuring tools and accurate measurements. Using dry measuring cups allows for proper leveling and volume.

DRY MEASUREMENTS
Dry measurements should be put in individually portioned (nestled) dry measuring cups (or a professional grade portion controlled measuring cup). Ingredients are then leveled off the top with the back of a knife or spatula. This website strongly recommends using a scoop to fill the measuring cup with dry ingredients and not to use the measuring cup itself. Otherwise, your measurements will be off.

SPOON MEASUREMENTS
Despite what my mother told me about using kitchen spoons, measuring spoons are necessary in creating accurate measurements in baking. Measuring spoons should offer a wide range of sizes including 1/8 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, and 1 tablespoon.


LIQUID MEASUREMENTS
Liquid measuring cups usually come in 2 or 4 cup containers which allow for pouring. Liquid measuring cups allow room at the top of the container for the curvature (meniscus) of the liquid.

This helpful website gives conversions for national and international kitchen measurements.

Aha moments can be a little unnerving at first, but in the end they can make you a better person, or in my case, a better cook.

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Inspirational Dishes


Eating at a great restaurant is inspiring.

If you can get beyond the the daily challenges of the service industry, working at a great restaurant is galvanizing.

While working in a great restaurant: I met and fell in love with my husband. I found some of my best friends. I discovered (and tasted) wines from all over the world. I became a foodie. I learned how to make a miserable guest happy. I unraveled the mystery of cheese making. I gained an acute sense of taste and smell. I sampled a panoply of dishes and made them my own.

This spring time antipasti, is one of them.

This is one of those great restaurant dishes that once I tasted it, I needed to know how to make it. The following is my interpretation of the dish we currently serve at the restaurant.

Peas Mint and (home made) Greek Yogurt Cheese

3 tablespoons (a full palm’s worth) of Greek Yogurt Cheese
(Note: see previous post for the full recipe). To save time, goat or sheep’s milk cheese will do.
1 cup of sweet peas (in the pod), juilienned
1⁄4 cup red onion, diced
Juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons of a good red wine vinegar
1⁄4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Maldon sea salt (or a good finishing salt)

*Begin preparation of Greek Yogurt cheese one day before serving with salad!

Toss the julienned peas and onion with the olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put on plate and serve with a small round of your home made Greek Yogurt Cheese. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of Maldon sea salt.

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Say Cheese


For some people, cheese is just a food. For others, it’s an addictive substance.

Cheese lovers hover at cheese counters and unconsciously paw at the glass that keeps them from aromatic wedges of Parmesan, stinky rounds of French triple creams and pungent British blues. They’re the people that actually eat the cheese samples at Whole Foods. Normal people may go to a cheese shop and ask to speak to the cheesemonger–but cheese addicts go to cheese counter and ask for “the pusher”.

I am one of those people. My name is Brooke and I have a cheese problem.

Confessions of a Cheese Lover

It’s sad how much money I’ve spent on goat, sheep and cow’s milk cheeses. With the ridiculous cost of gas, I’d rather go easy on the environment (and my cheese buying budget) and walk a mile to the store and back, just so I can get a great wedge of cheese. Considering my commitment to the creamy stuff, I recently decided I should learn how to make it. Maybe not a great idea for a cheese lover (addict) like myself to do, but besides being a great learning experience, I could save some serious money while I’m at it.

Maybe making my own cheese a bad idea for someone like me. But after getting my first taste of home made cheese I have to say, how can something so good be bad?

After doing some tentative research on-line that offered me disappointing results, I stumbled upon some chefs making cheese at the restaurant I work at. Low and behold, in my very own place of culinary work, I learned that cheese making didn’t need to be difficult. At all.

Thanks to the kind, smart and talented chefs at my restaurant, they answered all of my questions and tolerated my obsessive observation of the cheese making process so that I could come to you with some great tips and one of the easiest cheese making recipes around! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Greek yogurt cheese!


Greek Yogurt Cheese
(makes approx. 12 oz. of cheese)
*This cheese would also be great with the addition of lavender or herbs such as thyme, dill or oregano.

Ingredients:

1 regular sized (32 oz.) container of Greek Yogurt
1 lemon (to be zested and then squeezed)
Kosher salt
Cheesecloth (cut into 3-4 18-20” pieces)
Kitchen twine
Tall prep container


Pour the container of Greek yogurt into a medium sized bowl. Mix into the yogurt the zest and juice of one lemon.

Add salt to taste. 2-3 tablespoons should do.

Line a second bowl with the cheesecloth, being careful to leave the sides hanging out over the side.

Ladle the cheese mixture into the cheesecloth-lined bowl. Bring the tops of the cheesecloth together, creating a semi-tight sack or “purse”. You will notice clear liquid dripping from the sack already. The cheese making process has begun! Though this is a very exciting step, be sure not to get too eager to remove moisture from the yogurt and squeeze the purse too tightly. Otherwise you’ll see yogurt oozing out through the cheesecloth, not just liquid. Tie the top of the purse off with kitchen twine.

Wrap the loose portion of the purse (use twine if you need to) to the neck of a wooden kitchen spoon or ladle. Set the spoon across the top of your prep container (or, if your prep container is too shallow—set it between two tall containers and let the moisture fall into a short bowl).

Make sure that the bottom of the cheesecloth purse doesn’t touch the bottom of the container! Keep in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. The cheese will feel firm, like a goat cheese when it is done. Remove from cheesecloth. Serve! The texture of the cheese should be that of a goat or sheeps’ milk cheese. The flavor, however, is incredibly refreshing, zesty (from the citrus) and deliciously creamy. You won’t want to waste one bit of this cheese!

My husband and I vow to make this cheese every month and skip the cheese counter.

Simple serving suggestions: Serve on crackers with Italian flat parsley and thinly sliced lemons.

Or toasted bread with tomato, parsley and prosciutto.

Next up, the dish that inspired home made Greek Yogurt Cheese!

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Inspirational Dishes


Eating at a great restaurant is inspiring.

If you can get beyond the the daily challenges of the service industry, working at a great restaurant is galvanizing.

While working in a great restaurant: I met and fell in love with my husband. I found some of my best friends. I discovered (and tasted) wines from all over the world. I became a foodie. I learned how to make a miserable guest happy. I unraveled the mystery of cheese making. I gained an acute sense of taste and smell. I sampled a panoply of dishes and made them my own.

This spring time antipasti, is one of them.

This is one of those great restaurant dishes that once I tasted it, I needed to know how to make it. The following is my interpretation of the dish we currently serve at the restaurant.

Peas Mint and (home made) Greek Yogurt Cheese

3 tablespoons (a full palm’s worth) of Greek Yogurt Cheese
(Note: see previous post for the full recipe). To save time, goat or sheep’s milk cheese will do.
1 cup of sweet peas (in the pod), juilienned
1⁄4 cup red onion, diced
Juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons of a good red wine vinegar
1⁄4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Maldon sea salt (or a good finishing salt)

*Begin preparation of Greek Yogurt cheese one day before serving with salad!

Toss the julienned peas and onion with the olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put on plate and serve with a small round of your home made Greek Yogurt Cheese. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of Maldon sea salt.