Do it yourself: Homemade Ricotta

I have no idea why it took me so long to come back to this. 

A few Years back you could not buy Ricotta in Germany so my Stepfather at that time (who was an Italian chef) each week made a big Pot of Ricotta.

I watched but never did it myself. After the divorce, I just forgot about it.

So now I can buy Ricotta but it’s pretty expensive and we don’t have this much money. What means my boys don’t know the pleasure of Ricotta Cakes, Ricotta Bund Cake, Pasta filled with Ricotta and so on.

What a good thing I finally did it.

Yesterday I made Ricotta and let me tell you it’s easy, cheaper and if you are using a bigger pot ( so it will not cook over and make a mess) it’s painless.

 

Give it a try and please tell me how you like it.

This Pot is to small!

Great Ricotta. Great Mess.

Homemade Ricotta

 

Ingredients:

 

2l whole Milk

200ml cream

½ - 1 teaspoon salt (if you like I like your Ricotta salty you use 1 teaspoon)

3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice OR if not available 3 tablespoon white wine vinegar

 

Little Tip: Each time I cook milk I rinse the pot with cold water before use. This helps to prevent scorching the milk.

 

Place the Milk, cream and salt into the pot. Place the pot onto the stovetop and heat slowly, stirring occasionally.

Just before the Milk boils add the lemon juice/vinegar and stir. The curds form immediately.

Reduce the head to low and cook the mixture for one more minute.

Put a piece dampened cheesecloth into a colander and the colander into a bowl.

Careful pour the mixture into the cloth. Let it drain for at least half an hour. If you like your can lift the cheesecloth up by the four corners  hang it up and let it’s own weight do the work.

Now your Ricotta is finished.

Put it into the refrigerator for up to a week, use it immediately.

Don’t freeze it, Ricotta does not freeze well.

look at the mess and know it was worth it.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' November Challenge – Sushi

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

 

The Challenge came in 4 Parts.

Part 1: Making proper sushi rice – you will wash, rinse, drain, soak, cook, dress, and cool short grain rice until each grain is sticky enough to hold toppings or bind ingredients. Then you will use the cooked rice to form three types of sushi:

Part 2: Dragon sushi roll – an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling

Part 3: Decorative sushi – a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut

Part 4: Nigiri sushi – hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings

 

This is my first Daring Cooks Challenge and after some interesting results in my Daring Baker Challenges I was ready to do what has to be done. I wanted this to be a story of success not failure.

Believe me I was shocked as I got it right at first try. It was so easy , it was so pretty and tasted so good that I had to stop myself from eating all the rice before I started rolling.

I had fun and each and everyone should at least ones try it.

But you don’t really believe that it would be that easy. No not for this little Daring Cook.

A few hours after my victory dance, after cleaning my kitchen ( this rice is sticky stuff) I became problems breathing. My ears started to itch. There were read spots all over me, and boy did they itch.

You already know it don’t you? I had an allergic reaction to the Nori.

So I will have to make Sushi without it in the future. No Problem.

It’s delicious and I will make it again.

Thanks to Audax and Rose my little world got a little bigger.

And don’t you think my Dragon looks cute? Now go and make some Sushi and don`t forget to take a look at the fantastic creations of all the others.

You can find the recipe right here.

Playing with dough : Sourdough Potato Bread

 

I adore everything Potato, there is not a week going by without a big bowl of mashed potato in this house. The kids like it, hubby is not averse to it and it’s so easy.

All the great things you and I can make with the leftovers. 

Not to forget that Hilde, that’s the name of my starter, is eager to go to work. I will tell you some more about my little feisty girl in one of my coming posts.

Because now that my twins are finally are on Kindergarten I have two more people that want a delicious filled lunchbox. So what better start can there be. Lets bake some bread.

Potato bread, soft fragrant delicious Bread.

Until next time

 

Sourdough Potato Bread

Ingredients:

 

Sponge:

1 cup        sourdough starter, bring to room temp

1½ cup    warm water

2 cups      bread flour

 

dough:

1 cup       mashed potatoes

¾ cup     warm water

2 tsp        salt

½ cup     oil

⅓ cup      sugar

6½ cup  bread flour

 

Combine the Ingredient for the sponge and let them become light and bubbly. You can let them stand on the kitchen counter for 3-5 hours or you put it over night in the fridge. 

Put the sponge into a mixing bowl, ad the water, the potatoes, salt and oil. Now you add the first 3 cups of flour. Mix well. Gradually stir in enough remaining flour until you create a soft pliable, non sticky dough. 

 

The Dough should be soft and smooth and at the same time pliable. Place dough in an oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover and let rise double in a warm place. This will take 1 ½ to 2 hours.

 

Punch down dough with floured hands and cut dough in half. Let rest 10 minutes on the counter. Now it’s time to shape the dough, you can make what loaves and place into 2 greased 9 x 5x 3 inch loaf pans or you can use a bowl or basket (Gärkorb) to let it rise. Cover and let rise.

 

Preheat the oven. You can bake this Bread on a stone, a baking sheet or as I like to do in a roasting dish. I place it just like you would a stone in the oven to heat up.

 

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 25-35 minutes or until golden and done.

If you used a loaf pan remove from pan to finish cooling on racks, if you baked it.

Granny love: German Waffles with Redcurrant Jelly

I love Waffles, my Kids love them. German Waffles are not like American or Belgium Waffles. Our Waffles are more cake like. We do not eat them as Breakfast ( not usually ) we eat them like Cake, with a little hot cacao or coffee.

 

We eat them as dessert. 

In my family we even make a meal out of them, the kids love them in the Advent Season. For a snack on St. Nicholas' Day right before the good man stops by.

 

We eat them fresh and hot with powdered sugar on top, the little dents filled with homemade jam. Fresh cooked compote is always welcome and fresh fruit will not be rejected.We love them with fresh whipped cream. 

I use the recipe and waffle iron from my Grandmother. It is as old as I am, it’s ugly and if the fire department knew what I was doing they would scream. But if you have a Waffles Iron that makes great waffles and they don’t stick to often keep it.

 

So if you want to give this Waffles a try here is the receipt . I would love to hear how you like them. See you next time.

 

German Waffles

Makes 12 waffles

 

Ingredients: 

200 g butter, room temperature

120 g  sugar

Pinch of salt

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or if you are so inclined some lemon peel

100 g all-purpose flour

100 g cornstarch

1 ½ tsp baking powder

powdered sugar to garnish

 

First step should be preheating the waffle maker/iron, if you need to grease it with oil or Pam.

Separate the eggs and beet the egg withes to a soft peak.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and salt.

Add eggs and vanilla extract to the mixture and beat well.

Mix Flour, Cornstarch and Baking powder and stir into the Butter Egg mixture.

Don’t overwork the batter. Fold in the egg withes and you are ready to bake our Waffles. 

Now it’s time to bake the Waffles.

Pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter for each waffle into the griddle and bake golden brown and delicious. Repeat for the remainder of the batter.

Serve and indulge.

 

 

A little known Waffle Fact :

 

Medieval waffle law

In medieval Europe, vendors were permitted to sell their waffles outside of churches on saints' days and during other special religious celebrations. Competition at the churches eventually became very heated, and at times violent, so that King Charles IX of France imposed a regulation on waffle sales, requiring vendors to maintain a distance of at least deux toises (4 m/12 ft) from one another.

If you want to know more about waffles go here.

 

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