Mozzarella Cheese!

Hello again! It's been some time since I've updated this, so I figured I would share a recipe I learned today. So, I have always wanted to make cheese. I didn't realize that it was a job that you could do at home with relative ease. My first batch I used a recipe and totally jacked it up. Didn't work. At all. The second batch, I took a few tidbits from multiple recipe sites and made my own version of the recipe. I hope you enjoy this and have fun making it. Prepare yourself for a mess to clean up afterward, though! The cheese will be good for about a week after making it. There are a number of good videos on how to do this on YouTube, but the recipes vary. Rennet can be pretty hard to find. I was able to secure mine from a Whole Foods Market, but not all of them carry it. There are various online outlets that you can purchase it from if you cannot find it locally. Citric acid can be found at Whole Foods, too. Or, many other places that carry health products.

Mozzarella Cheese

Ingredients:
1 1/4 Cup of Water
2 TSP Citric Acid Powder
1 Tablet of Rennet/1 TSP Liquid Rennet (Do not use Junket Rennet for this.)
1 Gallon of Milk - Doesn't matter the type as long as it's not ultra-pasteurized
A Lot of Sea Salt.

Gear:
6-6+ quart steel/ceramic (IE Non-reactive) pot
Digital Thermometer (That starts at a minimum of 80 degrees)
Measuring Spoon
A Decent Length Knife
Slotted Spoon
2+ Cup Measuring Cup (Two would be nicer, but not necessary)
A Reasonable Sized Fine Strainer
A Like-sized Glass Bowl Filled Up with Salty Ice Water.
Another Pot That Can Hold About the Same Amount of Water. (4-6qt)
Gloves. Thick Cleaning Ones.


First of all, I'm sure if you look around this recipe will look familiar, but I've put my
own bit of learning into this.

1. Prepare the Citric Acid: Measure 1 cup of water. Stir in 1TSP of citric acid until dissolved.

2. Prepare the Rennet: Measure 1/4 cup of water, stir in one tablet of rennet or 1TSP of liquid rennet until dissolved.

3. In another pot, fill it with water and bring to just shy of boiling. (158-160º) Mix in lots of sea salt. If it doesn't taste like the ocean, you're not there yet. You will use this later on.

4. Pour the milk into your non-reactive pot, medium-high heat and stir in the citric acid mix. Sprinkle in another 1TSP of citric acid directly into the milk. Stir while gently until the milk reaches 90ºF. The citric acid gives the cheese its stretchability.

5. Once at 90ºF, remove the pot from the heat and gently stir in the rennet solution, taking no longer than about 30 seconds to do so. Put the lid on the pot and leave it for about 30 minutes. The rennet will coagulate the milk, separating the curds from the whey.

6. Once it has set, check the curd for a clean break with your finger or knife. Using your knife, cut the curds into 1-2 inch squares, making sure your knife is making it to the bottom of the curds/pot.

7. Put the pot back on a medium heat, putting your slotted spoon to the bottom and stirring the whole block of curds slowly. Once the mixture reaches 108º, remove it from the heat.

8. Using your slotted spoon, scoop out the curds into your strainer, making sure all the that can be strained out is strained out. You can also use cheese cloth, but a strainer is just as effective. This should take 5-10 minutes.

9. Using your slotted spoon, scoop out a nice hand full-sized bunch of curds. Submerge it into the salt water pot that you started prior to all of this for 20-30 seconds. This is where you'll need those thick gloves to avoid burning your hands. Pull the curds out of the water with the spoon, pick it up with your (gloved) hands and start kneading it and stretching it over itself. Keep repeating this until the cheese is glossy and smooth texture that stretches easily. (And doesn't break like after the first time or two you do this.) This process can take a number of times. Try not to over-work it.

10. Shape the cheese into a ball and place in the ice water so it will cool evenly. After 20 minutes in the ice water, the cheese will be ready for consumption - unless you choose to marinade it. The cheese will be good for about a week. Place in a container with about a cup of cool salt water in a container, cover, and refrigerate.

A salad of spring greens with freshly made mozzarella cheese, chicken and grape tomatoes. Not pictured - A homemade fig balsamic vinaigrette dressing. This mozzarella was no more than an hour old.

Kickass Hot Sauce

I struggle as I make the decision to publicize my prized hot sauce recipe. I'm sure some in my family will think that I am crazy (I'm instant messaging my brother right now and he's not happy about me making this public) for just giving it out instead of trying to sell it, but I think that sharing what little of my own self-made recipes will help others try making their own.

So here's main the story. I love my little backyard garden. It's mostly herbs and peppers (hot and cold). For some reason, I got a wild hair up there to use my home raised herbs and hot peppers and make a hot sauce. I looked on the good ol' interweb for some ideas and and how to achieve a good product. I didn't like what I saw in any one specific recipe, so I kind of went and made my own thing. (I'm sure on the internet you'll find something that is exactly the same as my recipe, but I've found that it's kind of hard to find anything truly original anymore - but I did come up with this myself without any major help from any other recipes) More on this story later down after how to make it. I believe this recipe yields approximately six to eight cups. You'll need a food processor or at the very minimum a blender and large saucepan.

Brian's Kickass Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Habanero Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers
1 Serrano Pepper
1 Hand full of Cilantro
3 Sprigs of Oregano
1/2 White Onion
2 Large Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of Mustard Powder
2 Tablespoons of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Pepper
2 Cups of Distilled Vinegar
The Juice of One and a half Lemons
The Juice of One Lime

Directions:

Give a nice rough chop up all of the solids nicely so that when you put it in your food processor or blender. No need to go overboard chopping manually because the food processor will take care of the rest. Put all of the solid ingredients along with the one cup of lemon and lime juice into the food processor. Along with that, put in the first of the two cups of the vinegar and blend for about one minute. Stop the blending and clear the sides of the food processor/blender while adding the second cup of vinegar. Restart the blend until it is liquid.

Now, using a fairly large pan (I use my 4qt saute pan, myself) pour the contents into it and bring the sauce to a boil. Let it boil for a few minutes while stirring constantly then reduce the heat to a simmer. Reduce the sauce for about 15-20 minutes and you're almost done! Just mix in the final lemon juice in and you're finished.

There are some seriously hot ingredients in this, so this may irritate some people's breathing, so be careful in that respect. Make sure wherever you cook this at, it's very well ventilated and wash your hands VERY thoroughly after handling any of the peppers. After it is I usually fill up one squirt bottle container with the sauce then put the remaining sauce in a storage container of some sort for later use. (I have one great friend who kills for a nice bit of it when I make it)

Now, as far as heat goes, it is reasonably hot. But, overall, I've been told by 99% of people three is the perfect heat level. I am pretty sensitive to heat, so three habaneros is about the perfect level for me. You can always add more or take some away to adjust to your level but I think three is perfect. I also find that the use of multiple types of peppers adds to the flavor of the sauce.


The Back Story:

I have not found anyone who doesn't like this sauce. My mother, who doesn't eat hot things much at all, loved it. She lives in California and works with a lot of Latinos who love hot things. My brother made a batch she took it in to work to see how they'd like it. They wanted to pay my brother to make another batch for them. On top of that, I had friends over for dinner where I pan fried some rib eye steaks and used the squirt bottle (To get that neo-chef look) to make a nice line along with little drops along the edges of the plate for them to dip the steak in if they wanted. They loved it and wanted more. Unfortunately, due to price, I didn't have anymore steak on hand. They lead me to believe that they loved it.

Anyway, I hope that you make it and that you enjoy it. I've been told by everyone who's had it that they loved it and wanted some to take home with them.

Welcome!

Welcome to my nifty new blog. My name is Brian and I am a home cook currently located in Virginia, just outside of our nation's capital. I figured I'd share my successes and mishaps with whomever wants to read this because cooking should be fun. I'll be honest, I'll get the food from wherever I can get it from. I'm not one of those zealous cooks who will only buy from certain stores or only organic. If the food is available and it tastes good: I eat it.

As far as my experience goes: Very little.

As far as my gear goes: I have a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, an All-Clad Copper Core 12" fry pan and 4qt saute pan with lid and splatter guard and a Ruffoni risotto pan. My knives consist of a small collection of Wusthof Classics. Enough to get me by, I think. I don't have a lot of those random gadgets, but hey, I'm always willing to try them. I hope you enjoy this and I hope I get enough updates to keep people coming back!

-Brian