mix, mix… stir, stir

Fresh cranberries are showing up at the market, so it is the perfect time to share my cranberry sauce recipe with you. Freshly made cranberry sauce is such a world away from the canned version. Granted it won’t have the lovely can shape and can ridge texture on the sides, but the taste of freshly made cranberry sauce easily outweighs the nostalgia of cranberry sauce shaped like a can. If you have never made cranberry sauce, you need to know it is a snap to make. I have been making versions of this recipe for my entire adult life. Over the years it has evolved into what is now my favorite version.

photo by David Peterman

Warm exotic spice flavors play between the sweet and tart flavors of this sauce. It is perfect for the Thanksgiving table, but I enjoy this cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches all year long.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Makes about 3 cups

16 oz. fresh or frozen whole cranberries
¾ cup water
½ cup red winevinegar or raspberry vinegar
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 cups sugar
zest of one medium orange
2 star anise, whole
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon, ground
½ tsp. clove, ground
½ tsp. allspice, ground
½ tsp. cardamom, ground
1” piece of fresh ginger, juiced in garlic press

Clean and de-stem cranberries. In a medium saucepan combine cranberries, vinegars, water, sugar, orange zest, and star anise pods. Cook over medium heat until cranberries begin to pop. Stir and mash the berries with the back of a spoon.

Add the spices and the ginger juice. Cook at a medium-low boil for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If you prefer less pulp, press a quarter to half of the sauce through a sieve to strain. Taste the sauce and adjust spices as desired*. Once the sauce cools it will thicken.

It keeps well for a few months in the refrigerator. If you like to can, preserve this sauce following proper canning proceedures. Leave ¼ inch headspace and process in a water bath for 10 minutes, if using half-pint jars or smaller. If you pack in larger jars, or live at an altitude above 1000 feet, refer to a trusted canning resource to adjust the processing time.

* Spice Note: I use whole spices and grind them as I need them. Once I made the switch to buying whole spices I dialed back the amount of spice in the recipe because freshly ground spices are so much more powerful. If you are using pre-ground spices and feel like the flavors aren’t as prominent as you would like, add a bit more of each to suit your taste.

I think I have finally conquered stock. Partly because I have realized that the biggest challenge for me is figuring out how to fit it into life. Though I have made stock now and again throughout my cooking life, I never managed to adopt it as a way of life. Reaching for a can of stock in the store is always accompanied by a tiny bit of guilt with hearing a faint chorus of cooking show host and chef voices ring through my ears saying, “you should make your own stock.” Now I think I will finally be making my own stock on a regular basis.

photo by Carol Peterman

The primary reason? I just made three batches in the last few weeks and managed to work out some little issues that make all the difference. The inspiration behind my stock-fest is an online culinary program I am participating in at Rouxbe.com. Rouxbe is a great cooking site with the best quality instructional video I have come across and this summer they started a self-paced online cooking school complete with lessons, homework and tests. Sign me up! The site has some free content, but the cooking school and bulk of the content requires purchasing a subscription to access. Though I received my initial subscription as a gift by being a Metrokitchen.com customer, I will resubscribe next year.

The revelations I have had come from seeing the stock making videos and finally understanding what “simmer” looks like. Seeing a great example of what clear stock looks like and realizing I achieved that; I can see a carrot at the bottom of my bowl! Having confidence that I am doing this right makes me want to make stock. Hooray for my new found confidence, but there is still the issue of working out a few irritating kinks. They may seem trivial, but I tell you it’s the little stuff that can make the difference between something becoming second nature and it just feeling like too much darn work.

The first batch of stock I made I carefully scooped out the bones and vegetables into a bowl and moved on to straining and cooling the stock. I now have this large bowl of very hot drippy wet stuff I need to throw away. I don’t want to just toss it in the outside garbage can loose, I can’t put it in a paper garbage bag, so I scooped it into a plastic bag that I then nearly burned myself carrying outside and was worried the contents would melt the bag before I got to the garbage can. That would be a fun mess to clean up! Not to mention that I now have a giant messy bowl to wash. The better way - empty milk cartons!

photo by Carol Peterman

Next issue of contention: cooling the hot stock. From a food safety aspect the only way to go is an ice bath. I now have the stock divided between two more large bowls that I then set in two more even larger bowls containing the ice bath. That’s four more large bowls to wash! It’s late and I am tired and not liking all this effort. Revelation: Plastic dish pans for the ice bath. They are light weight and really just need a rinse and quick dry before putting them away. I am now down to only dirtying two large bowls and a stock pot. This is progress! The ice bath is nice because it is fast and the stock can be portioned for freezing and put away within about 30 minutes. The tip for a good ice bath: buy a bag of ice at the store so there is enough ice on hand to make an effective ice bath.

photo by Carol Peterman

After reading Harold McGee’s latest article in the New York Times on ice and cold things I learned how to make the most effective ice bath - add salt. It is colder and will chill faster. I had two ice baths going anyhow, why not have a little contest? The bath on the left was just ice and water the one on the right I added about a third cup of kosher salt. Sure enough, the stock in the salted water cooled to 40 degrees F in just about 30 minutes and the other one was still at 47 degrees F. After 30 minutes, the water temperature of the salted bath was 28 degrees F and the non-salted water had climbed to 37 degrees F. I didn’t get quite as dramatically different cooling results that McGee did in his tests, but my two samples weren’t so perfectly controlled as I suspect his were. I don’t know how long it would have taken the non-salted stock to cool completely because in the interest of getting to bed I moved the lagging bowl of stock into the salted water bath to wrap up the project as quickly as possible.

With only three practice batches of stock I managed to work out a few little process issues that make it just enough easier that stock-making is on the verge of becoming second nature to me. I now have the timing down - as in start early in the day so I am not up to all hours, know the volume of ingredients off the top of my head, and don’t end up dirtying every bowl in my kitchen during the process. I don’t stir and have learned to control the heat so I never let the stock boil, just simmer. Best of all I have a freezer full of great tasting stock. The true test will come when my freezer supply runs low. Will I pull out my stash of bones from the freezer and get cooking, or head to the store and once again hear that little chorus of voices?

I bet you already own many cookbooks with instructions on making stock, plus you have the Internet at your fingertips as a further resource. I hope you will have your own little stock-fest and figure out how to work this core element of cooking into your life.

It has never occurred to me to make ricotta cheese. I didn’t even know it was something one could easily make at home, but after stumbling across two different ricotta cheese making references in the last few weeks, combined with the next Tuesdays With Dorie baking assignment involving ricotta cheese, I got all fired up and decided I must make ricotta cheese!

The best part is it’s very simple, the even better part is it actually worked! There is absolutely no reason to ever buy ricotta cheese again. Packaged ricotta, the only kind I had known until this week, looks like it should taste delectable but it just strikes my palate as strange. One bite of the homemade stuff and I now understand what all the commotion is about. I was eating it by the spoonful. The velvety soft texture gives way to a delicious sweet creamy flavor; this ricotta really does tasted as good as it looks.

After reading loads of resources and making many batches of ricotta I have settled on what will be my standard recipe. During my testing phase I learned a couple of key things. First, stirring makes tough cheese and second, don’t use ultra-pasteurized milk. The higher heat of the ultra-pasteurization process changes the protein structure of the milk just enough so that curds won’t form.

My experience with ricotta has been limited to its use as a filling in lasagna or ravioli where thankfully other flavorful ingredients make up for its rather bland presence. With fresh homemade ricotta a whole new world has been opened up! Though spooning it up right from the strainer while it is still warm is a delectable treat, I decided to come up with something a little more elegant to serve at a party or as a lovely light dessert after dinner. 

Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese

1 quart whole milk (do not use ultra-pasteurized milk)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Cut a piece of cheese cloth large enough to line the strainer and be folded to create 2-4 layers. Wet the cheese cloth with water and wring out the excess so the cloth is just damp. Layer it and spread it evenly over the strainer and set aside.

Pour the milk, vinegar, and salt into a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and heat the mixture over a medium-low temperature stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture reaches 175 degrees F the curds should begin to form. If you have a thermometer, use it to track the progress, but it is not critical to use a thermometer because either way you want to watch carefully for the curd formation. As soon as you see the first signs of curds forming, remove the pan from the heat and resist the urge to stir.

Let the mixture rest 10-15 minutes and then give it a gentle stir to release any curds from the bottom of the pan. Carefully pour or gently scoop the curds with a mesh scoop into the cheese cloth lined strainer. Let the ricotta cheese drain until it reaches a consistency you are happy with. Once the initial volume drains down, you can gather up the cheese cloth ends and tie them to create a sack that can be hung from a kitchen faucet to continue draining. Store the ricotta cheese in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week. You can freeze any ricotta you will not be using right away.

Pecan Shortbread with Fresh Ricotta and Honey

These are delicate little shortbread cookies that offer a perfect stage for fresh homemade ricotta. The ricotta plays so nicely against the peppery bite of the mace. If you are not serving the ricotta you could use a bit less mace or substitute a less potent spice like nutmeg or cinnamon. 

Makes about one dozen 2 -1/2 inch cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
12 nice looking pecans for garnish
honey for garnish
1 batch fresh ricotta cheese (see recipe above)

Sift together the flour, mace, and salt and set aside. Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat for about 3 minutes. With the mixer on the lowest speed add the flour and stop the mixer just before all of the flour is fully incorporated. Add the pecans and finish mixing by hand just to the point that all the flour is mixed in and the pecans nicely distributed. Over mixing will build gluten and make the cookies tough.

Turn the dough out onto an large piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a round disc. Wrap tightly with the plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to chill.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or bake on an ungreased sheet pan.

Unwrap the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to about 3/8-inches thick. the dough may crack as you roll, but just press the cracks together and keep working the dough out. It will tend to stick to the work surface so after every few rolls slide a spatula or bench scraper under the dough to free it from sticking. Cut the dough with a cookie cutter and place each cookie on the baking sheet about one inch apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack, if you are not using parchment let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes until they are set enough to safely lift to the cooling rack without breaking.

Just before serving, place a scoop or fresh ricotta on each cooled cookie and top with a pecan half then drizzle with honey. If you have just made the ricotta it will be extra delicious to serve the cheese warm, but if it has been in the refrigerator let it warm up a bit before serving on the cookies. 

Feeling a little lost as to how to start my very first blog post, I turn to one of the most basic and key elements of cooking and have decided to start by adding a little salt.

I recently purchased a beautiful chunk of Himalayan pink salt with the expectation of adding some exotic drama to my cooking by grating salt from this large beautiful rock right into dishes as I cook. I imaged what a beautiful presentation it would make at the table letting guests grate their own salt, fresh off the rock.

Well, salt is really, really, hard and even my beloved Microplane grater wasn’t up to the task. Frustrated that I was only able to create super-fine salt powder and a little turned off by the realization that dinner guests would be putting their hands all over the salt while trying to grate it, I knew I needed a different solution.

Visually this large chunk of salt is stunning and wanted to take advantage of that. In addition, I wanted to actually use it for seasoning because this salt has a wonderful clean delicate flavor. I started to chip off some chunks and crush them into granules when it hit me to turn the rock into a salt celler of salt!

Using the narrowest chisel I could find at the hardware store, I chiseled a well in the center of the rock. After collecting the salt chunks that were chiseled off, I simply crushed them in a mortar and pestle and filled the well with the crushed salt. As I use the salt I can keep chiseling away to create more granules.

A few tips for chiseling:

• Place the salt on a towel up against a wall or solid surface to create resistance and stability while chiseling.
• Cover the whole set-up loosely with plastic wrap to keep the salt pieces from flying all over the room. You will need them to fill the lovely well!
• Safety glasses are a good idea. The salt can really fly and sometimes gets around the plastic wrap.
• Keep turning the salt to work all sides of the well evenly as you chisel. You can sculpt your salt into any shape you like. Salt sculpture could be the next big thing!
• In chiseling the salt try to get large pieces off. This requires some aggressive hammering on the chisel so don’t be shy, though I am sure it is possible to crack the whole chunk in half so start gently and work into it.
• Once you are finished carving your vessel, give it a rinse under running water to restore the shine of the salt. Dry with a towel and you are ready to fill it up.
• After gathering all the salt bits, sift out the fine powder and set that aside for some other use. Crush the larger pieces in a mortar and pestle to a coarseness you like and place it in your new salt celler.

Himalayan Pink Salt rocks available at World Spice.