In the Medicine Cabinet

It's the season for sickness in the Goat home, and along with Kleenex and a humidifier and soup, we have been calling up soothing honey sticks to the front lines.  GoatSpawn will occasionally tolerate them, which is more than I can say for almost anything else we try to give her. 

Fontina Cheese, Where Have You Been All My Life?

I have a new favorite cheese right now: Fontina.

We have GoatSpawn to thank for this new discovery - she changed the TV to a different channel, which happened to have a cooking show on that mentioned Fontina cheese, which neither Foodgoat nor I had tried before.  The next time he was at the Italian deli, what should he spy in the cheese counter but ... Fontina cheese.

I'm glad he picked some up, because Fontina is a delicious cheese.  Made in the Italian  Alps, in the Valle d'Aosta, since the 12th century, it is a cow's-milk cheese with a nutty taste and creamy but firm texture (versions made in other countries such as the U.S. and Denmark tend to be younger and milder in taste).  It is wonderful all by itself, but it also melts very nicely, as well - becoming smooth, and not turning stringy or crusty or separating.  I would say it's not unlike Gruyere, or maybe provolone, but tastier. 

Ohio City Burrito

 

One of my wishes is to find a really good burrito place close to me on the east side of Cleveland, because while I am sometimes in the mood for burgers and sometimes in the mood for pizza, I am always in the mood for Mexican. 

Well, I still haven't found it.  But we did find Ohio City Burrito, which is near the West Side Market, making it a nice stop for lunch after our monthly Market ventures. 



The burritos were large and delicious and the hot salsa suitably fiery and the guacamole did not cost extra, which is a sore point between me and Chipotle.  It's a small place with a small menu, but what it has was tasty and left me satisfied. 

Beer Is Delicious: Brewing Beer At Home

Last year, I gave Foodgoat home beer brewing equipment and kit for his birthday.  

They sat, unused, for months.  

Until, a) he got a really big pot, which I had neglected to include in the equipment set, and b) he watched this video on youtube that demonstrated how to make beer at home.  The video was great because it  showed, more clearly, than any written instructions could, how to use the equipment and what each step of the brewing process was and how really simple it all was.  Plus, it has a rocking song at the end.  We set up the laptop in the kitchen and played the video while making the beer, pausing and rewinding and replaying when needed, which was helpful. 

Once he made the first batch of beer, Foodgoat was hooked.  Since then, he has made several more batches, with many, many more on the horizon (he recently went on a hops buying binge).  

Brewing beer at home isn't hard at all, and anyone who enjoys beer should consider trying it.  In fact, more people do seem to be catching up to the idea - homebrewing was listed as one of the top food trends for 2010.

Here are the essential steps.

The key to making good beer is cleaning - and this stuff, Straight-A, or its even easier version, One Step, works great, especially at taking off old labels. Remember to clean/sanitize all your equipment that you will be using for after the boiling stage - because after the boiling stage, any foul bacteria introduced can ruin your beer.  So sanitize everything (tubes, buckets, bottles, etc).  It's the most tedious part of brewing, but it's important.

The beer kits have the grains already crushed, but Foodgoat sometimes crushes his grains in a food processor.  And it smells like the best batch of cereal EVER. 

This step of making beer is basically like making a big batch of tea.  Put in the crushed malt grains (in a cheesecloth bag) until it reaches 155F and let it steep for 20mins.   Then take out grains.  Do not let it get over 165F.

Bring your beer tea - I mean, the wort - to a boil, then add the liquid and dry malt extracts.

Watch out - it may boil over!!  But like making dumplings, once the foam breaks you are good for the rest of the day.  Also like making dumplings, using a very big pot and a very big spoon helps.

Add the hops and let boil 1 hour- then add finishing hops for a few minutes.

Bring the hot wort to room temperature as quickly as possible - while using a whisk to stir.  Foodgoat uses an ice bath - the kitchen sink filled with a bag of ice and cold water. 

Next, add yeast - and fill water in the gas exchange thingy.  Close and let sit for 5 days at 65-80 F.  What's it doing?  Fermenting!  Turning sugars to alcohol! Yum!

Transfer beer from the primary fermenter to either a secondary fermenter (using a clean tube to siphon) or go straight to bottling (adding a priming sugar, which makes the carbonation, to the bottling bucket) like Foodgoat did the first time.  

Add a tube to the spigot of the bottling bucket with the filling wand attached and fill the bottles.

Cap it!  Foodgoat generally gets about 4 cases of beer per batch.

Now real hard part - wait 3 weeks and enjoy.

Making the Full Manti (Turkish Ravioli)

Foodgoat recently picked up the practice of trying out a new dish - one he hasn't made before - each week.  His first one was meatloaf, the second was the scallops.  Both turned out so well that for his most recent experiment, he went ambitious - making a dish he not had never made before, but one he had never tasted before.

The dish was manti - Turkish dumplings which are basically a variation of ravioli.  At the moment he casually mentioned needing an idea for something new to cook, I happened to be reading an article, with a tasty looking photo, about manti. 

So he did something I rarely, if ever, see him do: he followed the recipe.

Generally, if Foodgoat ever looks at a cookbook or recipe, it's only to get a general sense of the ingredient list or technique, then it's into the kitchen with just his intuition, and not a recipe, to guide him.  

But in this case, since he had no idea what the end product was supposed to be like, he had to follow the detailed recipe. 

Well, somewhat.  He did change one of the main ingredients - instead of lamb, Foodgoat based the meat filling on pork instead. And he used his own recipe for the chicken broth that the manti is cooked in. 

This dish was also ambitious in that, unlike the super-quick scallops, manti was one of those dishes that take days to make.  You could do it all in one day, but it will be a long day.  Instead, on the first day, he made the dumplings.

First, you put 2 eggs, 1 2/3 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup water in a medium bowl and mix until it forms a ball.  Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes, then divide into 4 balls, covering with a damp cloth, and letting them rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, you make the filling by combining 1/2 lb of ground pork, 1 chopped onion, 2 T of chopped fresh parsley, and some salt and pepper.

Then you take one of the dough balls, roll it out into a square about 11" x 11", and cut it into 1" squares.

Into each square, put a tiny bit of filling, and fold opposite corners together, exposing some of the filling. 

Repeat with all the squares, and all the dough.  

That's enough work for one day!  At this point, Foodgoat put the dumplings in the fridge (you can also freeze them), until the next day. 

The next night, Foodgoat preheated the oven to 400 degrees and put the dumplings into a big greased dish in a single layer.  He baked them until golden, about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, he brought about 4 cups of chicken stock to boil.  He then poured the hot broth over the dumplings, covered the dish with foil, and baked until most of the stock had been absorbed, abouut 25-30 minutes.

While the manti is baking, Foodgoat made the sauce - mixing 2 cups of plain yogurt with 3 garlic cloves crushed with salt, a handful of fresh chopped mink, and a tablespoon of chile flakes. 

He then spooned the sauce, along with some melted butter, into bowls and top with the sauce. 

The manti was a hearty, comforting kind of dish that was wonderful for the cold weather.  The dumplings were warm and tasty and filling, and the sauce gave it spiciness and tanginess and some unexpected flavors.  It was delicious - something I hope Foodgoat makes again!

GoatSpawn, in particular, loved this dish.  We are used to having to coax a few more, just a few more!, spoonfuls of food in her, but not the manti.  We had to refill her bowl twice, she ate so much.