As long as I'm sidetracked on summer produce -
HOLY SHIZZLIN' SHISHITOS BATMAN!
My friend Daniel, who I used to call Goofy or Goofyman (so called after his discovery that although right-handed, the roll that most righties would consider the "off-side" was actually easier for him, rather like a "goofy-footed" surfer) here on Frogma back when we were paddling together, lives with his family not too far from me. They've got practically a whole little farm going on in the backyard, with 3 raised beds the size of the one I have at the club (or maybe a little larger) and a few other containers, plus the chickens that I sometimes get to chickensit, and I got a really nice email yesterday saying "Come pick stuff, we have too much!" - so I did! Probably their most abundant item is shishito peppers, so I took a bunch of those. Most of them I added to a pasta with beet tops and chard dish I'd made with some of the pickings from my own garden, but I also saved a few to have on their own with breakfast this morning, they are so good just cooked up quick in a really hot cast-iron skillet - and they looked so pretty I had to take a picture. Delicious, too!
CAPRESE FROM SCRATCH!
I was going to paddle today but I ended up switching out paddling time for CHEESEMAKING TIME! I'd bought a cheesemaking kit over the winter and tried my hand at it with pretty good results, making a couple of batches of fairly good mozzarella and one batch of cottage cheese. Making the "mootz", one thing I could not keep out of my head was how much I was looking forward to the summer, when I could actually make a caprese salad mostly from scratch (oil and vinegar would still be from the store, but I was looking forward to homegrown tomatoes and basil to pair with my homemade cheese).
Well, when I originally picked tomatoes on Friday, I didn't think I would have time to make cheese this week, but in the end I just couldn't resist!
Note added the next day: One of my paddling friends asked for my mozzarella recipe so in case anybody else is interested in trying this - it's not really a recipe, it's a kit. The one I'm using is from Roaring Brook Dairy, and there's also one from the New England Cheesemaking Supply that comes with cheesecloth, which is helpful, but basically either one's good. This is a totally unsolicited plug btw, I just bought the kits on a whim at a store and have been happy with the results.
Well, when I originally picked tomatoes on Friday, I didn't think I would have time to make cheese this week, but in the end I just couldn't resist!
Note added the next day: One of my paddling friends asked for my mozzarella recipe so in case anybody else is interested in trying this - it's not really a recipe, it's a kit. The one I'm using is from Roaring Brook Dairy, and there's also one from the New England Cheesemaking Supply that comes with cheesecloth, which is helpful, but basically either one's good. This is a totally unsolicited plug btw, I just bought the kits on a whim at a store and have been happy with the results.
2 comments:
Yummy. All sounds great. How do you make cheese? In my garden have the tomatoes and the basil, various peepers, beet greens but no cheese!
ha, I was just posting links to a couple of cheesemaking kits in case people asked that exact question, as a friend did on Facebook this morning. You can get the supplies independently but the kits do make it really easy, everything's in there and you just follow the instructions and then you have cheese. Pretty cool!
Post a Comment