tofu misozuke

I encountered tofu misozuke (miso-cured tofu) at a farmers' market stand in California and was kind of blown away. It is tofu that has been transformed into a creamy cheesy spread simply by coating it with a mixture of miso, sugar, and sake. I knew I had to try making it. Here is the recipe from Rau Om (you can try/buy Rau Om's tofu-misozuke at several markets in the bay area and Oklahoma, or buy it from their online store).

Our first attempt at making tofu misozuke was semi-successful.We changed the moisture-absorbing paper towels every 1–2 weeks. After only 4 or 5 weeks (as opposed to the 2 months recommended by Rau Om), the tofu was cured all the way through. Maybe it went quickly because of the fridge temperature or altitude... Unfortunately, there were some mold spots growing on the outside of the cheesecloth/marinade, and one of our two blocks had to be composted because it was too moldy. The other one was delicious though. For our next attempt, we will check the paper towels more often and check the doneness after 3 or 4 weeks. And maybe we will try some variations that include red pepper flakes, nori, or tea.

local cheese and homemade crackers

 We picked up 10 lbs of local wheat flour (Farmer John/Butte Mill) and some cheese (Windsor) at the winter farmers' market last weekend, so I've been working on perfecting cracker making with local ingredients. I've been using a recipe from the New York Times, minus the sesame seeds, as a base recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/4 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 t. salt (not local)
5 T. olive oil (not local)
4 to 5 T. water, as needed

Directions
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, mixer, or food processor. Add olive oil and mix. Add water and mix. You should be able to form the dough into a ball. Roll out the dough as thin as you can (I roll out on a flexible cutting board and then transfer to a baking sheet, then I roll out more with a small, maneuverable rolling device). Then perforate the dough into cracker size pieces with a pizza cutter--don't worry about actually separating them, that will happen on its own when baked! Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 F or until crispy.

This is a great base recipe for cracker experimentation. As is, the crackers are great for eating in soup or with cheese, dips, jam, or local mushroom pate. And if you add flavors like dried basil and fresh garlic, the crackers are great on their own too. If you add sesame seeds and sesame oil as in the original recipe, they taste like those sesame sticks found in bulk bins. I'm planning on trying a nut yeast version sometime as well.

And yes, this counts as a meal; we ate cheese and crackers for dinner!

pesto pizza & ramblings on local food legislation

Yum! For dinner tonight, we made pesto pizza on a cornmeal crust, topped with our first tomatoes of the season and cheese from Windsor Dairy.

Ingredients for large corn meal pizza crust:
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. corn meal
1 T. sugar
1 t. dry active yeast
1/2 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
1 1/2 c. water
Onto the rambling! Windsor Dairy is great. They sell excellent artisan cheeses made from local, organic, grassfed cow's milk. The cheeses are just the gateway. The REALLY cool thing about Windsor Dairy is that they offer raw, unpasteurized grass-fed cow's milk to the masses. The way they do this is a little complicated but it is still effective. In Colorado, legislation allows you to consume raw milk from a cow that you own. Windsor Dairy offers a "cow share" program, where you buy a share of a cow and then pay a monthly boarding and milking fee on that cow and in return you can consume a weekly installment of raw milk.

This is significant to Eric and me because when we started getting into local food in Illinois, we were shocked to find no small-time dairy operations. I mean surely there must still be a few devoted small farmers, right? The thing is, there are laws. To sell milk, you need to own a lot of expensive equipment to process and pasteurize the milk to government standards. The standards are often prohibitively expensive for small processors: "Get big or get out." It's crazy though because you honestly don't need to pasteurize milk if its fresh, local, and from healthy, grass-fed cows. In fact it is way better for you than pasteurized milk trucked to you from CAFO cows. So why is it that the consumer doesn't have the right to choose?? In Illinois, we did end up finding a guy who would sell us raw, grass-fed cow's milk. It was totally under the table and we did it because we're that kind of people, but the point is that it shouldn't be so convoluted for the regular person to sell or buy quality food.

While I am on the subject, the government doesn't just inhibit small dairy, they also inhibit small, local food processors (people who make granola, jams, pastries, pickles, sauerkraut, etc). Small economies have unfair competition with grocery stores thanks to all of our subsidies to agribusiness. As if that weren't enough, you need a license and a commercial kitchen to sell food. You can't just sell your excess jars of jelly or custom cakes occasionally. To sell, you basically need to make a business commitment. I mean you can sell, but it's not so legal. Even if you try to do everything right, the city of Chicago may still swing by and destroy your granola. Unlike Illinois, Michigan recently took a really positive step in this arena by approving a cottage industry farm bill. People selling less than $15,000 a year in goods in Michigan no longer need a license nor do they need a commercial kitchen. They just have to label what is in their product and who/where it came from.

In conclusion, it is time for us all to change local food legislation in our states!

nacho ordinary cheese sauce

"Hey, what kind of sauce is that?" "It's nacho ordinary cheese sauce." Ahhahahah...

My architecture firm has season tickets to the Colorado Rockies which means Eric and I get to go to 2 games a season. I am not all that into sports but I do enjoy sitting outside, eating peanuts, and drinking beer. The experience could only get better if a concession stand sold veggie dogs or quality nachos, but alas they do not. No worries though, because the stadium allows you to bring in your own food so we brought nacho chips and a vegan nutritional yeast sauce.

Nutritional Yeast Sauce Ingredients:
3/4 c. soy milk
1 c. nutritional yeast flakes
2 T. olive oil
1 t. apple cider (or other) vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. black pepper
1/4 t. salt (or to taste)
dash cayenne

Combine everything and blend with hand blender, stand blender, or fork. You can heat if you want, but it's not necessary.

palak paneer

With the amount of spinach at the farmer's market right now, we are finding that we need to change up how we eat it - not just in salads, not just on sandwiches, not just steamed. An Indian spinach stew called palak paneer happens to be one of Julie's favorite dishes. Palak paneer is deliciously creamy and smooth. If you are thinking of trying Indian food for the first time, this is a good dish to start with.

Palak refers to the spinach and paneer refers to little cubes of soft cheese. Palak is often made with heavy cream, whole milk and ghee. Apparently, cashews can be used instead of milk products to add creaminess but they traditionally are used only for special occasions because cashews are expensive. Well, since we can afford cashews for more than just special occassions and since we wanted our palak to potentially feed our vegan friends, we made ours with cashews. Being the make-it-from-scratchers that we are, we made the paneer from scratch. If you are making this dish vegan you could easily replace the paneer with tofu.

Serving Size: 6

Paneer Ingredients:
1/2 gal. whole milk
3 T. lemon juice
2 layers of cheesecloth, approximately 12"x12" squares

Palak Ingredients:
1 lb raw spinach
1/3 c. (~50g) cashews
1/2 onion, minced
3 oz. tomato paste or 1 tomato
2 T. earth balance margerine
1 T. frozen cilantro
1 t. frozen ginger
1 t. turmeric, ground
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. ground cayenne
1/2 t. cumin, ground
1/2 t. corriander ground
salt to taste

For the paneer, I followed instructions from Indira's blog titled "Mahanandi". I also found helpful comments at the blog "food and other musings".

Basically, boil milk in a tall pot. Try to keep it at a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes. Stirring a lot and having a tall pot helps to keep the foam from spilling over. Then, remove from heat, add lemon juice, and stir for 3 minutes. Curds will form. Let it sit for 10 minutes to get more curds.

If you don't get many curds, you can just boil it again and try adding lemon juice a second time. Reading the comments on the blogs mentioned above really helped--I'll summarize what I think are the most important points below:

• Both pasteurized and raw milk will work.
• Ultra-pasteurized or ultra high temperature (UHT) milk will not work.
• Cow, goat, sheep, horse milk...it's all good.
• Whole milk works best. 2%, 1%, and skim may work, but will yield less cheese.
• Use the tallest pot you got.
• Boil the milk for at least 5 minutes, stirring to prevent the foam from spilling over.
• You can use any acid to promote curdling: lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, yogurt.
• When the curds form, a translucent, yellowy liquid (whey) will remain.
• When the curds do form, it is like magic.

Strain the curds through the cheesecloth, saving the whey (you can put it in shakes or make ricotta). Flatten the curds on a plate to 1/2" thickness. Press between two plates for at least 20 minutes to squeeze out more whey. Refrigerate overnight.

For the palak, I used Indira's palak recipe as a starting point.

In medium pot over low heat, melt 1 T. margerine and add the cayenne pepper and spinach. A pound of spinach may sound like a lot, but it cooks down dramatically. Feel free to use fresh green chilis instead of cayenne pepper. When the spinach is wilted, let it cool (you can add ice cubes if you're in a rush) and blend it in the food processor. Mix in half of a 6 oz. can of tomato paste. If tomatoes are in season, boil and mash a fresh tomato instead of using tomato paste. Set aside.

Dry-roast the cashews. Then blend the cashews to a fine powder in a food processor. Set aside. Use the already dirtied food processor once again to mince the onions.

Saute the onions in 1 T. of margarine until translucent. Add in the ginger, cilantro, garlic, turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Cook for a few minutes. Add in the wilted spinach, tomato and cashew powder. Mix well and salt to taste. Remove the paneer from the fridge and cut it into cubes. You can fry it first or add it to the palak as is. Serve with rice, rotis, or naan.


Side Notes:
Saag is pretty much the same thing as palak except that palak is exclusively spinach while saag can have mustard greens. I bet garlic mustard would make a great saag!

If you have raw milk, you can skip the boiling step and simply form curds and whey by letting it "spoil". Do not do this with pasteurized milk because it skips the curds and whey step and goes straight to bad. Bad meaning bad, not bad meaning good.

Indira's blog is one of my new favorites--the photos are great! Go here for the most recent posts!