One of my favorite ALL TIME DESSERTS is The Chocolate Mousse. Light, rich, chocolatey goodness. On a recent trip to the international market I came across an entire SECTION devoted to Mexican Sour Cream. What could be so special and unique about this said Mexican Sour Cream to have an entire dairy case devoted to it?
So I bought a small container and went home and tried to use it as dip. UTTER FAILURE. Turns out, Mexican sour cream is hardly like sour cream at all. It's much runnier and has only the slightest big of tang of what you would expect of sour cream. Instead, its more like an ultra thick, ultra rich heavy whipping cream similar to a creme fraiche. Apparently, chefs love this stuff because it holds up for days, rather then collapsing after a few hours, which frequently happens with heavy whipping cream whipped desserts.
I concocted a pretty simple to do Chocolate Mousse using said Mexican Sour Cream. The result: a very light, yet dense mousse. To me, it's almost like a really light ice cream, sans the frozen component. Rich, smooth, its an over all tasty success!
After making this, I would also think that crumbled Oreo Cookies would be a really good addition to it as a topping or layers (remember those chocolate pudding earth cups you got as a kid?)
Chocolate mousse
ingredients
1.33 c mexican sour cream
.5 c heavy whipping cream, divided
2 c semi sweet chocolate chips
3 oz strong coffee or espresso
1 tblspn dark rum
1 tblspn Godiva liquor (optional)
3 tblspn butter
1 tsp granulated gelatin
instructions
1. put your mixing bowl and beaters (or whisk attachment) into the freezer
2. in a double boiler mechanism, bring about 1.5 - 2" of water to just below a simmer
3. in a small heat proof measuring cup, measure out .25c heavy whipping cream. sprinkle on the gelatin into the measuring cup
4. in large, heat proof mixing bowl (that can be comfortable over your pot of just below simmering water), put in the chips, coffee, rum, liquor, and butter
5. with a whisk, mix until just about all the chips have melted, at this point remove from heat and continue on whisking
6. cool by occasional stirring, until just warm to the touch.
7. turn the heat off the double boiler and place your mixing cup (with the gelatin/cream mixture) itself into the water. stir until it is throughly heated, warm to the touch
8. pour the cream/gelatin mixture into chocolate mixture and stir
9. remove bowl and beaters from freezer. put in sour cream and remaining heavy cream. beat until peaks form
10. stir in .25 of the whipped cream mixture into the chocolate mixture. fold in remaining whipped cream in 3rds of what remains (add whipped cream mixture three times)
11. DO NOT OVER MIX OR ELSE YOUR MOUSSE GOES SPLAT! It's okay if there will be white streaks in the chocolate mixture
12. spoon into desired containers: ramekins, martini glasses, one 9x9 baking pan
13. chill for 1 hr, consume with happiness!
makes uh... well, depends on what you use as a container. I ended up pouring into 1 large martini glass and the rest into a 9x9 pan, making a layer of mousse about 1.5" thick.
Showing posts with label dairy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dairy. Show all posts
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
A Breakfast Sandwich with Perfectly Scrambled Eggs
As some of you may or may not know, I have the most insatiable love for breakfast foods. The only exception would be pancakes. I abhor pancakes. One bite and I am so done.
Another fun fact about me, I used to work for a breakfast deli, both as The Coffee Girl (yeah, thats right, I walked around pouring coffee and bussing tables) and then somehow got sucked into being the occasional Kitchen Staff. There, I perfected the art of buttering toast, plating out food, and scrambling eggs (yes, all of the above really IS an art). If you've never heard of Herb's Deli and you're from Southeastern CT, you ought to try it at some point or another. Delightful breakfast food and personally, I really like the corned beef, which Herb makes in house. Tasty.
Lately, I've been loving The Sandwich. Last night, I made a tasty seared open face skirt steak sandwich, where the sauteed mushroom and caramelized onions came from. So this recipe is more about perfecting the art of making the perfect scrambled eggs for your sandwich. Anyone can put together a breakfast sandwich, but what truly makes a good breakfast sandwich is the egg you have as the protein. So I won't tell you how to put your english in the toaster (also, english muffins take a long time to toast, so to get a nice golden toast, put your toaster on high) or how to saute your mushrooms or how to make the onions, but instead focus on the eggs. If you do this right, you really don't need more then one egg per sandwich but since this wouldn't be filling enough for me, I always scramble two.
Perfectly Scrambled Eggs
ingredients
olive oil
2 eggs
1 tblspn milk
1. Prepare your pan. In a heavy, non stick pan turn the heat on high and put in enough olive oil to coat the bottom
2. In a medium bowl, crack two eggs and add the milk. beat the eggs with a fork. I mean, BEAT THE EGGS. beat the eggs until when you lift the mixture with the fork, there isn't this eggy dangling mixture from your fork
3. check your pan, is it hot enough? you can always test by putting a drop of egg on the pan and if it cooks right away, then your pan is ready. turn the heat down to medium high
4. with your Non Dominant Hand, hold your bowl with the egg mixture. In the other, the fork.
5. Pour the mixture into the middle of the pan, and as you pour, with your fork, move in a circular direction
6. the eggs should be instantly cooking and as you move in a circle, it should allow more even cooking. As the eggs cook, I like to lift folds of cooked egg and let liquid egg flow underneath.
7. Just before it seems that everything is cooked all the way, TURN OFF THE HEAT. The residual heat from the pan will cook the eggs the rest of the way.
8. You'll note that you might not have pieces of eggs but instead one huge scrambled egg. You can scramble, scramble it but I always find it easier to eat (in a sandwich) as one piece of scrambled egg.
9. If you did it right, you're volume should be pretty big, and you'll only need half of what is in your pan to fit on the english.
nom nom nom.
Another fun fact about me, I used to work for a breakfast deli, both as The Coffee Girl (yeah, thats right, I walked around pouring coffee and bussing tables) and then somehow got sucked into being the occasional Kitchen Staff. There, I perfected the art of buttering toast, plating out food, and scrambling eggs (yes, all of the above really IS an art). If you've never heard of Herb's Deli and you're from Southeastern CT, you ought to try it at some point or another. Delightful breakfast food and personally, I really like the corned beef, which Herb makes in house. Tasty.
Lately, I've been loving The Sandwich. Last night, I made a tasty seared open face skirt steak sandwich, where the sauteed mushroom and caramelized onions came from. So this recipe is more about perfecting the art of making the perfect scrambled eggs for your sandwich. Anyone can put together a breakfast sandwich, but what truly makes a good breakfast sandwich is the egg you have as the protein. So I won't tell you how to put your english in the toaster (also, english muffins take a long time to toast, so to get a nice golden toast, put your toaster on high) or how to saute your mushrooms or how to make the onions, but instead focus on the eggs. If you do this right, you really don't need more then one egg per sandwich but since this wouldn't be filling enough for me, I always scramble two.
Perfectly Scrambled Eggs
ingredients
olive oil
2 eggs
1 tblspn milk
1. Prepare your pan. In a heavy, non stick pan turn the heat on high and put in enough olive oil to coat the bottom
2. In a medium bowl, crack two eggs and add the milk. beat the eggs with a fork. I mean, BEAT THE EGGS. beat the eggs until when you lift the mixture with the fork, there isn't this eggy dangling mixture from your fork
3. check your pan, is it hot enough? you can always test by putting a drop of egg on the pan and if it cooks right away, then your pan is ready. turn the heat down to medium high
4. with your Non Dominant Hand, hold your bowl with the egg mixture. In the other, the fork.
5. Pour the mixture into the middle of the pan, and as you pour, with your fork, move in a circular direction
6. the eggs should be instantly cooking and as you move in a circle, it should allow more even cooking. As the eggs cook, I like to lift folds of cooked egg and let liquid egg flow underneath.
7. Just before it seems that everything is cooked all the way, TURN OFF THE HEAT. The residual heat from the pan will cook the eggs the rest of the way.
8. You'll note that you might not have pieces of eggs but instead one huge scrambled egg. You can scramble, scramble it but I always find it easier to eat (in a sandwich) as one piece of scrambled egg.
9. If you did it right, you're volume should be pretty big, and you'll only need half of what is in your pan to fit on the english.
nom nom nom.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Homemade Ricotta
Over the holiday break, my wonderful friend Andrea gave me the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I'm not going to lie, I'm a reader of Barbara Kingsolver. I've read "The Bean Trees" & "The Poisonwood Bible" and enjoyed both works immensely. Of course, those were fiction too, and what woman doesn't love reading a good fiction book?
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is actually a nonfiction work, written in conjunction with her husband and daughter about transitioning from an urban life in Tuscon, AZ to Appalachia and farming to feed themselves for an entire year. It's a book that talks a lot about nutrition, the growing cycle throughout their one year, all the crap that goes into your everyday conventional food (Genetically Modified foods anyone?), and the carbon footprint you leave when you eat those raspberries in the middle of winter.
Reading it, along with just being/wanting to be more health and environmentally conscious, really wants me to just grow my own garden and have my own cow. Of course, living on the 16th floor of a high rise in the windiest city on earth.... not so conducive to gardening. I've also managed to go, for the most part, refined sugar free! It is so difficult, but I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I've pretty much eliminated it, but some days, I can't resist having a little bit of cake or chocolate.
OK- so why the ricotta? I'm currently in preparations for making an entirely from scratch lasagna. Ricotta, Mozzarella, sauce, pasta noodle, all made by me. In "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", Camille had a great 30 min mozzarella recipe, which I made once. First attempt = success, Second = fail. Ricotta, oh! what an amazing cheese. So inexpensive to make, and soo easy! I read various techniques and found a great recipe via Simply Recipes and changed it very slightly in directions to make a seemingly perfect ricotta for my lasagna.
The interesting part about all of this, is 1 gallon of whole milk was a mere $1.99 and the most expensive was the 1 quart of whole milk plain yogurt, which was $2.99. Yikes. Next time, I'll most likely go with the organic (across the board: whole foods, conventional grocery, Trader Joe's, it seems to be about $5.99 for a gallon of organic whole). But for trial and error purposes, and on the graduate student budget, $1.99 seems to be the way to do it.
NOTE: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT when purchasing milk, purchase whole, pasteurized milk. NOT ultra pasteurized Ultra pasteurization is a process that allows milk to last longer so that it can be transported further. This process also breaks down the milk proteins much more such that it can never be reconstituted into any other dairy form. So, if you go for the organic, and don't pay attention to the pasteurization process, and end up with the ultra, then you can expect cheese= FAIL.
And for my photo set up, well I haven't made the lasagna yet, so I just had the cheese pose it up. Surprisingly, it was quite delish on naval orange slices with slivers of fresh basil.
Ricotta Cheese
ingredients
1 gallon, whole pasteurized milk
2 cups whole fat, plain yogurt
4 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp salt
instructions
1. in a heavy large pot, pour in milk and yogurt. mix well
2. set over medium low heat
3. in a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and salt
4. slowly stir in vinegar and salt mixture
5. let the solution slowly heat up to a boil. refrain from stirring all the time, but you can stir... just sparingly. It's really important to do this step slowly. Sure, it might take 20 or so minutes, but the outcome is worth the wait!!!
6. while the mixture is heating up, line a colander with cheese cloth
7. when the mixture reaches about 180F (it should be just about steaming), pay very close attention. As it comes to a rolling boil, curds should become visible. Let boil for about 2 minutes.
8. Take off heat and ladle out curds into cheese cloth.
9. Let drain to desired moisture content.
10. Enjoy in lasagna (like me), or make yourself some cannolis, or spread it over, warm over some fresh fruit. Yum!
makes about 4 cups
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is actually a nonfiction work, written in conjunction with her husband and daughter about transitioning from an urban life in Tuscon, AZ to Appalachia and farming to feed themselves for an entire year. It's a book that talks a lot about nutrition, the growing cycle throughout their one year, all the crap that goes into your everyday conventional food (Genetically Modified foods anyone?), and the carbon footprint you leave when you eat those raspberries in the middle of winter.
Reading it, along with just being/wanting to be more health and environmentally conscious, really wants me to just grow my own garden and have my own cow. Of course, living on the 16th floor of a high rise in the windiest city on earth.... not so conducive to gardening. I've also managed to go, for the most part, refined sugar free! It is so difficult, but I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I've pretty much eliminated it, but some days, I can't resist having a little bit of cake or chocolate.
OK- so why the ricotta? I'm currently in preparations for making an entirely from scratch lasagna. Ricotta, Mozzarella, sauce, pasta noodle, all made by me. In "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", Camille had a great 30 min mozzarella recipe, which I made once. First attempt = success, Second = fail. Ricotta, oh! what an amazing cheese. So inexpensive to make, and soo easy! I read various techniques and found a great recipe via Simply Recipes and changed it very slightly in directions to make a seemingly perfect ricotta for my lasagna.
The interesting part about all of this, is 1 gallon of whole milk was a mere $1.99 and the most expensive was the 1 quart of whole milk plain yogurt, which was $2.99. Yikes. Next time, I'll most likely go with the organic (across the board: whole foods, conventional grocery, Trader Joe's, it seems to be about $5.99 for a gallon of organic whole). But for trial and error purposes, and on the graduate student budget, $1.99 seems to be the way to do it.
NOTE: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT when purchasing milk, purchase whole, pasteurized milk. NOT ultra pasteurized Ultra pasteurization is a process that allows milk to last longer so that it can be transported further. This process also breaks down the milk proteins much more such that it can never be reconstituted into any other dairy form. So, if you go for the organic, and don't pay attention to the pasteurization process, and end up with the ultra, then you can expect cheese= FAIL.
And for my photo set up, well I haven't made the lasagna yet, so I just had the cheese pose it up. Surprisingly, it was quite delish on naval orange slices with slivers of fresh basil.
Ricotta Cheese
ingredients
1 gallon, whole pasteurized milk
2 cups whole fat, plain yogurt
4 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp salt
instructions
1. in a heavy large pot, pour in milk and yogurt. mix well
2. set over medium low heat
3. in a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and salt
4. slowly stir in vinegar and salt mixture
5. let the solution slowly heat up to a boil. refrain from stirring all the time, but you can stir... just sparingly. It's really important to do this step slowly. Sure, it might take 20 or so minutes, but the outcome is worth the wait!!!
6. while the mixture is heating up, line a colander with cheese cloth
7. when the mixture reaches about 180F (it should be just about steaming), pay very close attention. As it comes to a rolling boil, curds should become visible. Let boil for about 2 minutes.
8. Take off heat and ladle out curds into cheese cloth.
9. Let drain to desired moisture content.
10. Enjoy in lasagna (like me), or make yourself some cannolis, or spread it over, warm over some fresh fruit. Yum!
makes about 4 cups
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
