What did I cook this weekend.....

[unionrdr]

Yeah, of course. But the local stuff here is made by a Swiss family. I think Heini's is better myself.

 

[passedpawn]

Yeah, of course. But the local stuff here is made by a Swiss family. I think Heini's is better myself.

Do they offer tours? That would be very cool. Do you get their cheeses in your local grocery?

 

[mattmmille]

The Jarlsberg Swiss cheese is made about 75M SE of me near Berlin.

Jarlsburg is one of my favorites...Emmenthal and Gruyere are awesome, but Jarlsberg is great on a sandwich or burger. I didn't even realize it was a domestic! Harris Teeter has it on sale for $4.99 lb...cheap for a decent cheese, these days!

 

[Homercidal]

Fun Fact: Pinconning Cheese was developed in Pinconning Michigan.

I thought it was an old cheese style that they named the town after, not the other way around!

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I have a lemon tree in my backyard that I planted 15 years ago. It isn't as useful as you might think. Buckets of lemons. ??

I also have a kumquat tree that I planted. Don't ask me what I was thinking. Dade City, just north of me, has a annual parade where they award the Kumquat Queen. Just imagine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLhYghzNfII

Bit late to this, but have you considered Limoncello? That's a lot of work but it'll blow through a ton of lemon peels.

 

[passedpawn]

Bit late to this, but have you considered Limoncello? That's a lot of work but it'll blow through a ton of lemon peels.

I have a friend who said the same thing. In fact, I was supposed to give him a bunch of lemons for this purpose. I'll keep that in mind - thanks for the idea.

 

[Temptd2]

I like to make lemon curd with my abundance of Meyer lemons. It's such good stuff.

I also freeze the juice in the little ice cube trays, then pop 'em into Foodsaver bags and vacuum-seal them and keep in the freezer. It's nice when there aren't any lemons on the tree to grab a couple cubes of that freshly-frozen juice for recipes or to add to drinks.

 

[ChefRex]

Yesterday, chicken thighs, sugar snaps and a couple types of shooms,

 

[Temptd2]

We just polished off Frito Pie - chili cheese Fritos, two cans of Dennison's chili, shredded Mexican blend cheese. DANG that stuff is so good!

And NO homemade stuff would NOT be better. You gotta get it all out of a can or package of some kind. Well, except the beer. Had a homebrewed Porter with it, which was excellent!

 

[passedpawn]

Lots of lemon juice in the marinade for chicken souvlaki. And some in the homemade tzatziki sauce, from homemade yogurt. The red pot is the milk in the oven overnight, gelling into yogurt. The next pic is a cool sieve I have for filter the whey and thickening the yogurt.

Grilled, but it's so hard to get pics once it hits the table and the family gets busy.

 

[bob1852]

Tell me more about that sieve, please.

Just made my first batch of yogurt with my sous vide wand, but my plain ol' strainer and cheesecloth set up for draining whey isn't fun.

And, what do you do with your whey?

 

[bob1852]

Made some rouladen the other night. Used pork, since I didn't have any beef, but had some thin cut pork loin chops.

Easily one of the top ten things I've made, and my kids loved it, too. No pictures.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

Pizza last night. I have the crust down and almost dialed in on the sauce. After that I don't know if I should make pepperoni or mozzarella...
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435714686.596887.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435714703.429309.jpg

 

[passedpawn]

Tell me more about that sieve, please.

Just made my first batch of yogurt with my sous vide wand, but my plain ol' strainer and cheesecloth set up for draining whey isn't fun.

And, what do you do with your whey?

Dumped the whey. You can make riccatta cheese with it, but not much, not worth the effort. It makes a good soup stock I'm told. Smells great, tastes great, but I haven't used it for anything. I make a lot of cheese and dump a LOT of whey, so I'm looking for targets.

Yogurt seive:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091XNL0I/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Works great, just clean carefully. I find that about 12 hours is perfect for getting the right consistency. Too much and the yogurt gets really thick, too little and it's runny.

 

[passedpawn]

Pizza last night.

I'm so jelly. I made such a mess of two pizzas this weekend that I had to run my oven on self-clean yesterday, then wet-vac it this morning. Dough was the problem.

 

[ChefRex]

I'm so jelly. I made such a mess of two pizzas this weekend that I had to run my oven on self-clean yesterday, then wet-vac it this morning. Dough was the problem.

Jelly? PP I'm so disappointed, unless you're making it

 

[bob1852]

I'm so jelly. I made such a mess of two pizzas this weekend that I had to run my oven on self-clean yesterday, then wet-vac it this morning. Dough was the problem.

I've heard whey makes good pizza dough.

 

[podz]

I just bought a steak yesterday that is so large that I think I need to fast until Friday evening when I will put it on the grill.

In the right hand corner, weighing in at 1.77kg (3.9 lbs), it's the Hereford Tomahawk Steak (photo borrowed from internet):

How does one even grill a steak this large and ensure that it remains rare / medium-rare on the inside? I'll be grilling it over briquets on my open brick grill. The thickness is 7cm (2.75 inches).

 

[bob1852]

Sous vide, then seared!

 

[passedpawn]

Sous vide, then seared!

That sounds like a really good plan!

 

[podz]

Sous vide, then seared!

This steak is as long as my forearm!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

How does one even grill a steak this large and ensure that it remains rare / medium-rare on the inside? I'll be grilling it over briquets on my open brick grill. The thickness is 7cm (2.75 inches).

You might try one of these methods:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anw_rLVK9Pg[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiyTeTIueDs[/ame]

You may need to get a little creative in order to adapt these to your grilling setup, but the techniques will be basically the same, though the times will likely vary a little.
Regards, GF.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Went to the German deli/grocery just down the street from my house last night and picked up a selection of brats, some sauerkraut and some german potato salad. Fired up the grill and cooked them up right while my sister and cousin sauteed some peppers and onions. A touch of Deli mustard and a 750 of a Bock that was sent to me from Montana and it was a good evening. No picture though. Food didnt last that long.

And I got to try some refridgerator pickles my cousin made. Pretty tasty. I may have to get into pickling, or encourage her to expand to sauerkraut and kimchi and other fermented foods. Maybe we can get a beer/food trade thing going.

 

[Homercidal]

Grilled a Pork Loin last night. Marinaded for two days. Stuffed with feta and spinach.

I added a few wood chips to the grill as well.

 

[Melana]

Dumped the whey. You can make riccatta cheese with it, but not much, not worth the effort. It makes a good soup stock I'm told. Smells great, tastes great, but I haven't used it for anything. I make a lot of cheese and dump a LOT of whey, so I'm looking for targets.

Yogurt seive:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091XNL0I/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Works great, just clean carefully. I find that about 12 hours is perfect for getting the right consistency. Too much and the yogurt gets really thick, too little and it's runny.

the last time i had some i used it in some bread dough and it was fantastic.

 

[mattmmille]

Tasted a pickle from a single jar I started fermentingseveral days ago...pretty good, but needs more dill and less red pepper flakes. I went ahead and sealed them up and stuck 'em in the fridge. I'll try them again when they are nice and cold and I get back from a trip. No cooking this weekend...hitting Vegas food for the next several days!

 

[passedpawn]

Tasted a pickle from a single jar I started fermentingseveral days ago...pretty good, but needs more dill and less red pepper flakes. I went ahead and sealed them up and stuck 'em in the fridge. I'll try them again when they are nice and cold and I get back from a trip. No cooking this weekend...hitting Vegas food for the next several days!

A few notes from my last make: I fermented my last batch of pickles, but I really want to make Claussen-style, which to me is the pickle pinnacle, and they are NOT fermented.

For Claussen, I you need a TON of garlic, much less dill, and vinegar. Also, since there's vinegar, it's not going to ferment, so a few days of "pickling" on the counter, then into the fridge to stay. I think if you don't cook the pickles, and don't ferment them, they will remain white and crunchy. Also, there's a product at the stores called Pickle Crisp that claims to keep them crunch (even through fermentation?). Pickle Crisp is just Calcium Chloride, which you might have if you make cheese, maintain a saltwater reef fish tank, or do much canning, or use salts to adjust your water for homebrewing.

 

[bob1852]

I find that about 12 hours is perfect for getting the right consistency. Too much and the yogurt gets really thick, too little and it's runny.

12 hours of "cooking" the yogurt or 12 hours of draining?

My first batch was ~6.5 hours in the sous vide @ 115*F, and drained for ~1.5 hours.

It's very good. A little thicker than I wanted, but not nearly as "bitter" as normal store bought plain greek yogurt (probably because I only "cooked" for ~6.5 hours).

Also, ended up losing almost half the volume to whey....if I only wind up with ~2 qts of yogurt per gallon of milk, I probably won't bother (from a cost savings standpoint) anymore.

 

[Homercidal]

A few notes from my last make: I fermented my last batch of pickles, but I really want to make Claussen-style, which to me is the pickle pinnacle, and they are NOT fermented.

For Claussen, I you need a TON of garlic, much less dill, and vinegar. Also, since there's vinegar, it's not going to ferment, so a few days of "pickling" on the counter, then into the fridge to stay. I think if you don't cook the pickles, and don't ferment them, they will remain white and crunchy. Also, there's a product at the stores called Pickle Crisp that claims to keep them crunch (even through fermentation?). Pickle Crisp is just Calcium Chloride, which you might have if you make cheese, maintain a saltwater reef fish tank, or do much canning, or use salts to adjust your water for homebrewing.

Good to know! I tried making pickles different ways and haven't nailed the perfect recipe yet. My family basically only eats Claussen and I thought they were fermented, as I assumed all production pickle factories made pickles this way.

I'll go back to trying a vinegar soak to get that same flavor.

 

[BGBC]

Good to know! I tried making pickles different ways and haven't nailed the perfect recipe yet. My family basically only eats Claussen and I thought they were fermented, as I assumed all production pickle factories made pickles this way.



I'll go back to trying a vinegar soak to get that same flavor.

I would have said the opposite - most big production pickles are vinegar-pickled. Much faster and easier to reproduce than fermented in a factory setting.