<![CDATA[vegetarian - FuzzyChef Food & Pottery]]>http://fuzzychef.org/Ghost 0.5Thu, 29 Jul 2021 02:33:58 GMT60<![CDATA[trofie con agretti]]>pasta bowl full of trofie with agretti ready to toss

Unless you're Italian, you've probably never heard of agretti. This saltwort plant, also colorfully known as "friar's beard", is yet another one of those greens that you rarely see until you run into it at a farmer's market, then snap it up hoping you can find a recipe for it. It's a green, grassy herb, that tastes a little like seaweed and a little like celery and is quite delightful.

It's also harvested only in the spring, so hopefully you're reading this article after an internet search, because right now you can't get any more for the year. Sorry.

bunch of agretti, with roots attached

We discovered agretti when we were staying near the Campo di Fiori market in Rome; they had it there with a lot of vegetables we didn't recognize (including puntarelle, which maybe I'll write about later). We bought a large bunch and took it home to make an ad-hoc pasta dish using other ingredients we picked up. We've liked the result so much that every spring we buy some agretti and re-create it.

trofie pasta

This is definitely a dish of few but exotic ingredients that you're only gonna find in a good gourmet market. In addition to the agretti, it requires trofie, a pasta made of little hand-rolled spindles of dough. While you could make it with some other pasta shape, the small size and chewy texture of the trofie really work with the crunchy brightness of the agretti. If you're really getting carried away, you can make your own.

Finally, there's the cheese, which needs to me some kind of soft but slightly funky cheese, such as taleggio, young pecorino or asiago, quadrello di bufala, or similar. The cheese definitely needs to be on the gooey/sticky side so that it melts into the pasta immediately, and you need some tang from it.

trofie con agretti

1 lbs / 500g trofie pasta
1 large or more small bunches of agretti; stripped leaves should total 2 cups
8-10oz soft tangy cheese (see above)
2-3 Tbs good olive oil
4qt pot, very large pasta bowl, colander, heatproof cup

Fill a large pot with salted water and set it to boil for the pasta.

Strip the leaves from the agretti. We're not really cooking it, so you need to remove the little tubular leaves from any tough stems or roots. If the leaves and tender stems are long, cut them into 1-2" pieces. Put the pile of agretti leaves in the bottom of a large bowl, sufficiently large for vigorously tossing a pound of pasta in. Also get something for tossing it; I suggest salad tongs.

Remove any rind from the cheese and then divide it up into small pieces, like 1/2" cubes or blobs. Depending on the cheese, you may be able to do this with a wire or sharp knife, or you may need to pinch off blobs with your fingers.

When the water is boiling, put in the trofie. Don't do this too early; you want to have both the agretti and cheese prepped before the pasta comes out of the water. I have found that trofie actually needs to cook for a couple minutes longer than the time listed on the package. It never loses its chewiness, but it should taste fully cooked around 11-13 minutes.

When the pasta is done, dip out one cup of the pasta water (or capture it while draining), and drain the pasta. Immediately, before it can cool off at all, dump it on top of the agretti and add 1/4 cup of pasta water, Toss vigorously for around a minute, which should distribute the agretti and wilt it.

Add the cheese cubes/blobs, well distributed, and 2 Tbs olive oil. Toss some more, until the cheese melts. Add additional pasta water and olive oil as necessary until the cheese dissolves into a creamy sauce.

Season with a little salt and pepper. Serves four as a main dish, 6-8 as a first course.

http://fuzzychef.org/trofie-con-agretti/a04a4c09-52cf-41c1-9548-dc3ad73391d7Sun, 04 Jul 2021 21:11:30 GMT
<![CDATA[tray kibbeh with Refika]]>photo of cooked tray kibbeh, cut into stars and strips

One of our recent FoodTube discoveries is Refika's Kitchen. Refika is a successful Turkish television chef (and celebrity chef in general), and shortly after lockdown started, she launched a channel to broadcast cooking shows in English as well. This has been truly great, because she is really into Turkish and Cypriot food, and shows a lot on-screen about exact techniques and textures. Like after watching her segment on kisir, I made the first kisir I've actually liked ... despite having three recipes for it in different cookbooks.

Another recipe she made that I would never have attempted without watching her do it on video was Sini Köftesi, otherwise known as "tray kibbeh" because of how you cook it. I have recipes for this in books, too, but they honestly sounded pretty daunting and I never imagined that I could make it come out well. Thanks to watching Refika, though, I made a beautiful (and delicious) tray kibbeh on my first try! You should make one too.

Now, I'm not gonna show a step-by-step for this because you should just watch the video. However, Refika does mention a vegetarian variant on her lamb-based Sini Köftesi, but doesn't really lay out a recipe for it. My sweetie and I worked out the veggie version based on her comments in the video, and it's that version I'll give you a recipe for below.

There's two important pieces of special equipment you need for this recipe. The first is a tray to bake it in; the ideal tray is around 12"-13" in diameter with 1/2" to 1" sides. If you don't have anything of the sort, then your best bet is a quarter-sheet baking pan (9"x13"), again with 1/2" high sides (do not use a rimless one). It'll be harder to press out the dough into a rectangle, but most folks I know outside the Near East just don't have large round baking pans. The second piece of equipment is a roll of large, wide, extra-strong plastic wrap (watch the video).

Your special ingredients include fine bulgur, otherwise known as #1 bulgur, instant bulgur, or "tabouleh" bulgur. This is bulgur wheat with grains about the same size as polenta. Do not use larger-grained bulgur, it will not work. The recipe also calls for Turkish pepper paste; if you can't get this, then use an equal quantity of tomato paste plus a teaspoon of olive oil. Or you can make your own. The cheese should be any mild, middle eastern, melty cheese, such as Syrian cheese, village cheese, sulguni, kefalotyri, or kasseri. Use dry mozzarella if you can't get any of those.

This recipe sounds like a lot of steps, and it is, but each of the steps is fairly easy. And the result is spectacular.

vegetarian tray kibbeh


  • 1lbs to 1.25lbs yellow potatoes
  • 1 1/4 cups water
  • 1 cup fine bulgur
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1/4 - 1 tsp Urfa, Aleppo, or Italian pepper flakes (to taste)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbs Turkish pepper paste (mild)
  • 1 whole egg, beaten
  • Scattering of black pepper


  • two medium-large onions, diced small, 3-4 cups
  • 3/4 cup raw unsalted pistachios, walnuts, or almonds, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 3-4 Tbs butter
  • 2 tsp pomegranate syrup (subs 1 tsp lemon juice)
  • 8-10oz grated mild middle eastern cheese

Peel the potatoes and slice them 1/4" thick. Pack them into the bottom of a medium pot, and cover with the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for around 20 minutes, or until they are very tender and soft. Turn off, pour the water on top of the wet potatoes in the pan, and mash them around a bit with a big fork or potato masher. Cover again, and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Turn the oven on to heat to 375F.

In the meantime, make the filling. Melt 2 Tbs butter in a large pan. Fry the onions over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until they turn golden, around 7 minutes. Drop in the nuts, salt, and pepper, and fry for another minute or so. Turn off heat, and add the remaining 1 or 2 tablespoons butter (to taste) and the pomegranate syrup. Set aside to cool down to room temperature.

The bulgur should be soft now. Turn the bulgur/potato mixture out into a large bowl and finish mashing it until any large pieces of potato are gone. Add the spices to the dough, the pepper paste, and the egg. Now knead the mixture until it makes a sticky paste. The best way to do this is to squish it with wet hands like Refika does. Also, see the video on how to determine whether the mixture is too wet or too dry.

Divide the dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other ... a 60%/40% split. Lightly coat your tray with olive oil, and the press the larger of the two dough balls out with your fingers until the bottom of the tray is completely and evenly covered. Patch any holes.

Cover the bottom dough evenly with the onion/nut mixture, leaving 1/2" around the outside edge bare. Add the grated cheese, covering the same area.

Now, spread out 1-2 sheets of plastic wrap on the counter, making a surface larger than your tray. Using fingers, press out the smaller ball of dough on this wrap until it forms a thin, even layer the size of your tray. Place the tray next to the wrap, and carefully pull up the wrap and flip the bulgur layer on top of the fillings. If it's a bit off-center, tug the plastic wrap to get it into place. Then peel back the wrap, leaving the top crust in place. It sounds tricky, but this really works.

Seal the edges of the kibbeh by pressing or crimping the dough layers together. Then, using a wet paring knife, cut the kibbeh into decorative serving portions. These can be any design you like, but watch the video for how to make a beautiful diamond design.

Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. When the kibbeh is done, the crust will be firm and not at all sticky, and some of the cheese will be bubbling up through the cuts.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Serve, offering each diner some Greek-style yogurt as a topping.

http://fuzzychef.org/tray-kibbeh-with-refika/c8fee67e-f915-432c-b287-c0982316fbbdFri, 28 May 2021 16:00:07 GMT
<![CDATA[quick khachipuri]]>khachipuri bread, cooked

Thanks to Portland's large Slavic population, I've been able to readily buy sulguni cheese for the first time in my life. This has me wanting to make khachipuri, the famous "Georgian Pizza", frequently. However, while the cheese is readily available, dough is another thing entirely, until I found a shortcut for weeknight dinners.

Imeretian Khachipuri, which is a disk of dough, stuffed with cheese, with a small hole in the top, is my favorite kind, probably because that's the first type I had in Moscow. I have two dough recipes for it, one is a yeasted dough that takes 1.5 hours, and one is a yogurt-based dough that's faster, but finicky delicate and hard to work with. Neither was really suitable for a weeknight dinner of khachipuri and lobio, starting cooking at 7. And then, at Albertson's, I discovered this:

pizza dough in a package

Thin-crust, prerolled pizza dough, like they sell in many parts of Europe. It's not a very good pizza dough, but it makes an excellent yeasted dough wrapper for empanadas, and for other things. Like khachipuri!

Since then, we've had more "weeknight khachipuri" than is really good for my chloresterol level.

Now, a note on the cheese: if you can get sulguni, do use it for this. Most folks can't, though, so a good substitute is 2-3 parts dry part-skim mozzarella (but not pre-shredded) to 1 part crumbled feta cheese. In the recipe below, that would be 3oz dry mozz, and 1-2 oz feta. In a pinch, just dry mozz or even Monterey Jack would work.

weeknight khachipuri

  • 4-5oz sulguni cheese, or substitute
  • 3 Tbs minced cilantro, parsley, or green onion
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander, unless using cilantro
  • 1 egg
  • 2-3 Tbs greek yogurt
  • 1 thin-crust "European style" prerolled pizza dough

Place a baking stone, or inverted cookie sheet, into your oven and heat it to 475F.

Grate the cheese on the large holes of a grater. Mix with the egg, yogurt, minced herb, and coriander (if using).

Unwrap the pizza dough and unroll it, smoothing it out. Make a circular heap of the cheese mixture in the middle of the dough, and then press it into a compact disk. The cheese should only cover about the middle 1/2 of the dough.

Fold the dough over the cheese, turning it 1/8 with each fold, so eventually you have an octagon of folds. The edges should not quite meet in the center; you want to leave a hole that's 1-2" wide.

Trim the baking parchment the pizza dough comes on so that it's not a lot wider than the khachipuri. Slide the khachipuri onto the baking stone (or sheet). Switch the oven to convection (if you can). Cook for 11 to 15 minutes, until the dough is brown and the cheese is foaming and threatening to bubble out of the hole.

Take the khachipuri out of the oven and put it on a rack to cool for 5-10 minutes; you want it hot, but you don't want to destroy your mouth. Cut into 4-6 wedges and share.

Note: Pillsbury also sells "prerolled pizza dough" in a carboard cannister. This is not suitiable for this recipe, or much of anything else either; it has a texture like factory biscuits.

http://fuzzychef.org/weekday-khachipuri/ec865f6e-b6c7-4137-8a16-b22edcf7de84Fri, 26 Feb 2021 18:25:42 GMT
<![CDATA[St. Nicholas' feast, part 2]]>bowl of pomegranate soup

(Continued from part 1)

Since our first course was fairly substantial, we took a break followed by a palate-cleansing "pomegranate soup". This soup was truly amazing for something with so few ingredients and steps involved. I really recommend that you keep the recipe (at the bottom of this post) available during pomegrante season because it is so easy and yet so tasty. Really. Until you try making it, you won't believe that anything this simple can taste this good, but it does.

And then it was time for the manti. Manti are tiny dumpings popular throughout Central and near-Eastern Asia, including Turkey, Armenia, Uzbekistan. While exact fillings and shapes differ a little, they're always tiny and labor-intensive, and served with yogurt and tomato or pepper sauce. In Armenia, lamb manti are a traditional dish for Christmas eve, so I thought they would be perfect for this meal. I'm gonna show you how labor-intensive these are, which is why I'm giving you a recipe for the soup and not for the manti. Face it, you're not making these; I'm not making them again either.

manti wrappers being filled

Now, one of the reasons I wanted to try making these is that, while you can sometimes find lamb or beef filled manti frozen or in fancy Turkish or Armenian restaurants, you never ever see vegetarian manti in the US, despite chickpeas being a standard filling in Turkey. So I made a paste from cooked chickpeas, onions, and spices, and set out filling a bunch of tiny pastries. The dough is a white-flour pasta dough, you roll it thing and cut it into 1.5cm squares, and fold it into a little four-cornered hat. Then repeat 200 times, because you need 25-40 of these tiny dumplings for each diner.

tray of manti after baking in the oven

Due to the Armenian influence, I didn't just boil the Manti. I first baked them until lightly browned. This both adds to texture and prevents them from splitting open when boiled or steamed, which was definitely a good thing because the seals on the little dumplings were none to great. I'm not sure I'd recommend that for the chickpea manti, though; it also made them pretty dry inside, which was not a good thing. The dish up to this point having taken three hours, I put them away for the night.

boiling manti in broth

Right before the meal, I boiled them in vegetable broth, to make them extra-savory.

plate of manti with yogurt and tomato sauce

I then plated them and dotted them with garlic yogurt sauce, and a tomato sauce I also made the day before. This was the classic manti presentation, and they were good, and I'm happy to have finally had proper chickpea manti. But I don't think I'll make them again.

piece of kataifi pudding

Dessert (of course we had dessert) was a terrific kataifi "bread pudding". My sweetie dried out the shredded phyllo, then soaked it in a cinnamon-seasoned custard, and baked it. It was delicious and a perfect end to the meal, if surprisingly reminiscent of noodle kugle.

pomegranate soup

based on a recipe by Ghillie Basan

  • 1 liter boxed veggie stock or broth (I used Imagine brand)
  • 1 cup pomegranate juice
  • 1-2 Tbs juice from 1 lemon
  • Seeds from 1 pomegranate (about 2/3 cup)
  • Salt to taste
  • Fresh mint leaves (as garnish)

Heat the veggie stock to a boil. Add the pomegranate and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Bring it back to a bare simmer. Turn off and stir in the pomegranate seeds.

Taste, and adjust with a little lemon juice and/or salt.

Dish out into 4-5 bowls, making sure to get some seeds into each bowl. Garnish each bowl with sprig of mint. Serve.

http://fuzzychef.org/st-nicholas-feast-part-2/3b66f9b2-5cd4-4a37-89a2-c32ebd6f2a8aFri, 22 Jan 2021 05:56:02 GMT
<![CDATA[St. Nicholas' feast, part 1]]>platter of sigara boregi

Since it was just a few of us this last Chistmas and not the usual crowd (thanks to you-know-what), we decided it was time to make our dinner a tribute to St. Nicholas. Specifically, Saint Nicholas of Myra, the Bishop of Turkey. Which means ... Turkish cuisine!

Now, a proper Turkish feast means lots of different dishes. But I didn't want to go crazy given that there were just the four of us, and there was only so much we could eat. So I settled on a menu of two meze (small dishes), two salads, a palate-cleaning soup, manti as the main course, and a pastry pudding as dessert.

tray of sigara boregi in process

The two meze were what I jokingly called "cheese sticks and meat sticks". The "cheese sticks" are a very common Turkish appetizer known as "sigara böreği", or "cigar pastries", for reasons that should be obvious if you look at the picture. If you can locate the correct dough, called yufka, these are very easy to make. Yufka is about twice the thickness of phyllo, but doesn't dry out or tear as easily. Better, in a well-stocked Middle Eastern grocery you can find yufka cut into triangles perfect for rolling sigara in the freezer case. Grate some village cheese or kasseri, add a little yogurt and chopped mint, and roll them up, then fry.

platter of kebabs

The meat sticks were even easier, because I bought them pre-made from the butcher at Basics Market on Sandy. They were a mixture of beef & lamb, a simple kebab I didn't need to prepare myself (especially since I wasn't going to eat it). Then, the salads.

sun-dried tomato salad

For a touch of seasonality, both salads were red and green. Red with a little green is this salad, made from rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, pomegranate seeds, feta and mint. This was excellent, and worth making again as a winter salad. But it wasn't as good as then other salad.

big bowl of herb salad

This one was green with a little red. The red was just hothouse cherry tomatoes, but that wasn't what made the salad great: that was the herbs. Like other near Eastern recipes, this salad treats herbs as salad greens, having handfuls of parsley, mint, basil, watercress, and dill. Now, as you can imagine in the middle of winter that made it a bit spendy, probably $20 worth of herbs there. But boy was it worth it, so that's the salad I'm going to share with you.

Herb Salad with Pomegranate Dressing

based on a recipe from Istanbul & Beyond

Salad greens

volumes below are loose packed, and very approximate. More of one herb can substitute for less of another

  • 1/2 head of Romaine lettuce (full leaves, not just hearts), torn into bite-sized pieces, about 3 cups
  • 1 bunch watercress leaves, about 1 cup
  • 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped large, about 1 to 1.5 cups
  • 1 small bunch basil or Thai basil, leaves stripped and very roughly chopped, about 1 cup
  • 1 small bunch dill, roughly chopped, about 1/2 cup
  • 1 bunch mint, leaves stripped, around 1 cup
  • Leaves from several twigs of oregano, about 1/2 cup
  • 1 basket cherry tomatoes, halved


  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 Tbs pomegranate molasses
  • 1-2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Put the greens in a very large bowl and toss them until completely mixed. Add the tomatoes on top.

Whisk the dressing together, and taste it for tartness. It should be pleasantly tart; if not, add the extra tablespoon of lemon juice. Drizzle it onto the greens. Toss again, and serve within 1/2 hour of tossing.

Enough for six people as a first course.

http://fuzzychef.org/st-nicholas-feast-part-1/1a308843-6c2f-468d-b4ce-7e261bdfe1f3Sun, 17 Jan 2021 19:11:26 GMT
<![CDATA[caldo vegan]]>picture of a bowl of caldo verde

2021 or not, it's still winter, and we're still in quarantine, so it's time for another simple recipe. Whether you're a new cook, or just tired and want something easy to make, caldo verde is it.

This potato-and-kale stew is the unofficial national dish of Portugal. You can see why: it's simple, homey, adaptable, nutritious, tasty, and filling. I also realized this week that it was easy to modify to make it vegan, without losing any of the flavor that it's known for.

Making it vegan means using some vegan fake sausage, though. The classic sausages for caldo verde are chouriço or linguiça, both very firm-textured garlicky Portuguese dry sausages. Their texture isn't that different from many vegetarian sausages, though. For flavor, you want to find something that's garlicky, spicy, and maybe even smoked. My suggestions in preference order are: Field Roast Chipotle, Tofurky Andouille, Field Roast Garlic & Fennel, Tofurky Kielbasa, Beyond Sausage Hot Italian, or LightLife Italian. If you want this to be vegetarian and don't care about vegan, though, Lightlife has a fake Chorizo which would be perfect (do not use Soyrizo, which is soft and too spicy).

The second part of caldo verde is the kale. In Portugal, they use a particular kind of dark-green kale or cabbage similar to collards, but just a bit lighter. In the US, I'd recommend using either dino-kale (cavalo nero), or collard greens. Curly green kale would work OK, though.

Now that you've found those, you can get on with the recipe.

vegan caldo verde

  • 4-6 Tbs olive oil
  • 3-4 vegan sausages
  • 1 large or 2 small onions, about 3/4 lbs
  • 2-4 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 to 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
  • 3-4 lbs russet, Yukon, or other starchy potatoes
  • 1-2 tsp salt
  • 1 qt vegetarian broth or stock
  • 2 medium bunches kale (around 8 cups when sliced)
  • Equipment: a larger stew pot than you think you need, probably your largest. Large sharp knife, long-handled potato masher.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2" to 1" chunks. Dice the onion(s) small. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash the kale leaves and set them aside to dry. Peel off any casing from the sausages, and slice them into 1/2" thick rounds.

Heat 1-2 Tbs oil at the bottom of a large stew pot. When shimmering, place the rounds of veggie sausage on in the oil, lying flat. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until they are well-browned, then flip them and brown the other side. Remove them from the oil and set aside.

Add 1-3 more tablespoons of olive oil depending on whether the sausages gave off any fat of their own; you want a good 1/8" slick of oil on the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and garlic, and fry, stirring, until the onions become translucent.

How much paprika you add depends on whether your veggie sausages had peppers in them or not. If they did (like the Chipotle ones) then just add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, depending on how peppery the oil is. If not, use 1.5 tsp. Add it, stir for only around 30s, and dump in the potato chunks. Stir them up to coat them, then add the veggie stock.

Finally, add 3 cups more water, plus the 1-2 tsp of salt (depending on how salty your stock is). Turn the heat down to low, and cover.

Simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the potatoes are easy mashed into paste with a spoon.

While the potatoes are cooking it's time to prepare the kale. A key element of caldo verde is the hair-thin ribbons of kale, so you're gonna get your knife work in. Remove the stems from the kale or collards, then stack bunches of leaves, and cut them crossways as thin as you can ... like 1/16" wouldn't be too thin here if you can manage it (usually I can't).

When the potatoes are done simmering, turn off the heat and mash them in the stock using the potato masher (or a large spoon if you don't have one). Smush them up until all of the chunks of potato are gone and you're left with a pot full of very soupy mashed potatoes.

Turn the stove back on to low, and stir in the thinly sliced kale, a handful at a time, until it's all in there. Let simmer for around 5 minutes more, then turn off the heat. Taste; see if it needs a little more salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Serve the soup in large bowls with several slices of the fried veggie sausage on top. This recipe makes about 6 meal-sized servings, and keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Notes: for a little extra flavor, replace 1/2 to 1 tsp of the salt with smoked salt. You can use water and a couple bay leaves instead of veggie stock, if you don't have any.

http://fuzzychef.org/caldo-vegan/95f8b7c2-0ff7-421d-b4e2-35be7a68174cFri, 08 Jan 2021 18:29:50 GMT
<![CDATA[ecumenical latkes]]>four latkes on a chrismas platter

After I made latkes for Christmas, some of my non-Jewish relatives wanted this recipe, so here it is.

Latkes are potato pancakes, or fritters, not much different from kartofelpuffer or rosti. Since the story of Hanukkah features olive oil, though, we shallow-fry ours in plenty of oily goodness. Plus that means maximizing the crispy bits.

This recipe is based on one from the Bette's Diner Pancake Handbook, which I recommend you acquire.


2 large russet potatoes, or 4-5 small ones, around 2lbs
1 small sweet potato, about 8-10oz (or just use more russet potatoes)
1 small-medium yellow onion, around 8oz
2 oz melty but mild cheese, like dry mozzarella or monterrey jack
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup of flour, plus more
1/2 tsp baking powder
up to 1 cup olive oil, depending on pan size
sour cream (optional)

Peel the potatoes, sweet potato, and onion. Grate them on a box grater or in a food processor into a large bowl. Grate in the cheese. Add the salt and pepper and mix.

Mix in the eggs, then the flour, and then the baking powder. See if you need to add more flour; this is gonna depend on how "wet" your potatoes are. If they're especially dry, you might even need to add a couple of tablespoons of water. If there's a big pool of starchy water in the bottom of the bowl, add more flour until the liquid reaches a batter-like consistency and coats the potato shreds.

Fill a large, steep-sided pan about 1/4" deep in olive oil. Heat it until a shred of potato dropped in sizzles right away, around 350F. Drop in spoonfulls of potato batter, around 3 Tbs at a time; you're looking for little round latkes here, not big flat ones, because smaller latkes means more crispy bits. Depending on the size of your pan, you can fit 3 to 6 in one pan. Fry them until the edge potato shreds turn brown, 3-4 minutes, and then flip each one. Brown the on the other side, around 3 more minutes.

As the latkes come out of the pan, drain them of oil and put them on a rack or heavy paper towels to cool and crisp up; they're actually a little better if you hold them in a 200F oven for around 20 minutes, enough time to make the whole bowl.

Serve with applesauce, and optionally sour cream. Serves 4-5 people.

http://fuzzychef.org/ecumenical-latkes/9422b32e-3e65-4587-a54b-54792c22e118Sun, 27 Dec 2020 17:46:13 GMT
<![CDATA[blintzes with shortcuts]]>blintzes with fresh strawberries on a plate

Blintzes vie with bagels for "best Jewish breakfast food", but in our household they've already won. The problem is that they can be enough of a process to make that they are a special occasion food, which is sad. So I'm gonna give you a few shortcuts to help you make blintzes, in less than an hour the day you want to eat them, using what you can find in a big-city supermarket.

The first shortcut is the blini. Proper blintzes start with an egg-flour batter crepe, cooked only on one side, as your blintz wrapper. For a dozen blintzes, this is already an hour down and the cheese is still in the fridge. Fortunately, more and more supermarkets are now carrying premade crepes of one kind or another. The Melissa's brand, for example, is carried by Albertsons and Safeway. While not as good as making your own, these save you a ton of time, and the blintzes you make are always better than the ones you don't.

package of melissa's brand crepes

The trick with packaged crepes is to learn the foibles of the particular brand. For example, Melissa's are stored at room temperature, and used that way; either chilling them or heating them will cause them to become stiff and crumbly and unworkable. But other brands need to be heated in a pan before folding. Buy an extra package and experiment with yours.

tub of russian farmer cheese

The second bit is the cheese. Properly, blintzes are made with Russian farmer's cheese, a soft, pasty relative of ricotta. If you live near an Eastern European community you can find this, and soft farmer's cheese is common in places like Wisconsin and Amish country. Belfiore and Gina Marie brands offer it in some places. Otherwise, you need to substitute.

One of your best choices is Galbani ricotta. This standard supermarket brand is too dry and chalky to be good ricotta ... which makes it a pretty good farmer cheese. Another option is getting small-curd cottage cheese and draining it in a cheesecloth or paper towels; expect to lose about 1/4 of the weight in this process. If you can get "cultured" cottage cheese, it's nice. You can easily make your own farmer cheese, but then we're back to taking 3 hours to make breakfast, so we'll skip that.

burrito being rolled up

The final part of this is perfecting your burrito roll technique. Like just about any other stuffed tube, blintzes are made as little burrito rolls, where you fold, fold, fold, and roll. It's worth getting the hang of this technique, because you'll find it's useful across any number of stuffed food recipes.

shortcut blintzes

10-14 premade crepes
1 lbs farmer cheese, or substitute
2 eggs
zest of one medium lemon, about 1 Tbs
1/2 tsp fresh-ground nutmeg
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
At least 1/3 cup butter and 3 Tbs vegetable oil for frying
Assorted fruit jams or sliced fresh fruit

Make the cheese mixture: add the cheese, eggs, zest, nutmeg, sugar, and vanilla into a bowl. Mix until homogenous.

Now, time to make the blintzes. Add around 2 heaping tablespoons of cheese about 1/5 of the way from the bottom edge of a crepe. Fold the bottom edge over, then the sides, in classic burrito roll technique. Roll the cheese crepe up into a tube, and place on a plate or board, seam side down. Do this with the other 9 to 13 crepes. Put them on your plate in a single layer; do not stack.

rolled up blintz

Heat a large nonstick pan or griddle over medium-low heat. Melt around 3 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs vegetable oil in it (the oil helps keep the butter from burning). The bottom of the pan should have a good coating of butter all over. Place 4-7 blintzes in the pan, seam sides down, as many as you can without crowding them (the are hard to flip, so you'll need room).

blintzes in a frying pan with butter

Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until the bottoms start to brown. Carefully flip each blintz; I use two spatulas, one in each hand. They can be tricky to flip without breaking them, so use patience, and be prepared for a few "ugly" blintzes. I do not recommend tongs.

Cook for 2-3 minutes on the other side. At this point, the bottom of each blintz should be browned, and the cheese filling should have firmed somewhat.

Continue cooking batches until all the blintzes are done. You can hold your first batches in a warm (180F) oven to serve them all at once.

Serve with a choice of two or three different fruit jams, or with sliced fresh fruit. Diners cut off a piece of blintz and dip it in jam or scoop up some fruit from their plate. Feeds two to three people for brunch, particularly if you serve them with vegetarian Kosher sausage.

blintzes with berries and sausage

Cooked blintzes keep well in the fridge for a week, but do not freeze well.

http://fuzzychef.org/blintzes-with-shortcuts/9962878f-17b5-44a8-8b1e-ebd59780c424Thu, 27 Aug 2020 19:20:49 GMT
<![CDATA[gazpacho Berkus]]>bowl of gazpacho topped with diced avocado

Gazpacho is probably the ultimate hot-weather meal; a cold, chopped tomato soup, usually served with room temperature sides, it's great when your AC isn't keeping up, and really can't be eaten on a day that isn't hot. Besides, for your tomato gazpacho to be good, you need garden-fresh produce. Winter gazpachos are better made from almonds and garlic.

I don't make any claims to "authenticity" in this recipe; this is my mother's recipe, and she's from Wisconsin. But it's easy and tastes really good, which is more important, after all.

The quantities of the various vegetables below are rough guides, and should be read more as ratios between the ingredients than exact measurements. You have quite a bit of leeway, as long as you make sure there's more tomatoes and peppers than anything else. For the chopping, you really need to use a food processor, so that you can get the right fine-minced texture. Blenders and food grinders will create a puree, which simply won't be as enjoyable to eat.

The main recipe does use a little heat to temper the garlic and onions, but see the notes for how to make a heat-free version.

gazpacho Berkus

  • 1/2 lbs sweet or red onion
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • 2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
  • 2 Tbs high-quality olive oil, then 3 Tbs more
  • 4-5 oz bread, crusts removed
  • 1 lbs to 1.5 lbs ripe red sweet peppers (bells, Italian, etc.)
  • 3 lbs ripe summer red tomatoes
  • 1 lbs cucumber
  • parsley, about 3/4 cup chopped and loosely packed
  • 2-3 tsp sherry vinegar
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, plus more
  • 1 ripe avocado

Peel and roughly chop or slice the onion. Peel and slice the garlic. Heat 2 Tbs of the olive oil in a small pan, and saute the garlic and onion until they soften (this is to take the "bite" out). Add the paprika, cook for around 20 seconds more, then take off heat and let cool.

Next you're going to be dicing a lot of vegetables before they go into the food processor. In order to get a nice even chop in the processor, you'll want everything to be about the same medium-small size, like a 1/2" cube of tomato or a 1/3" thick slice of cucumber.

Cube the bread. Core the peppers and cut them into large dice. Core and cut the tomatoes into large dice, making sure to capture the tomato juice running off the cutting board (pour it over the bread cubes). Peel and slice or dice the cucumber. Chop the parsley.

Put stuff in the food processor in this order: bread cubes, onion & garlic mixture, everything else. You'll probably have to do 2 or 3 batches, so divide things up accordingly. Add the remaining 3 Tbs olive oil, 2 tsp sherry vinegar, and salt. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is reduced to a very very fine mince, but stop short of pureeing it.

Taste to see if you want a little more sherry vinegar or salt. Let sit for 15 minutes for the flavors to blend.

Serve topped with a little diced avocado. Accompany with slices of bread topped with Manchego or other Spanish cheese. Serves 4 as a main course, or up to 8 as a first course.

Notes: To make a heat-free version, slice the onion, and soak it in cold water for at least 2 hours before making the recipe, or lightly salt the onion and the toss it with a little of the vinegar and leave it for 20 minutes. Only use 1/2 clove garlic, mashed, and 1 tsp paprika if you're not going to cook it.

You can use charred and peeled red peppers in this and that gives it a little extra flavor. The bread is just here to stabilize the soup and keep it from being too watery, so gluten-free bread should work fine.

Keeps in the fridge for up to a week as leftovers. Do not freeze, as the water will separate out.

http://fuzzychef.org/gazpacho-berkus/387c97ef-061f-46bf-b2f0-1d1032067b91Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:38:32 GMT
<![CDATA[pan con tomate]]>plate with long piece of pan con tomate

You ready for the easiest recipe, the appetizer/side dish that will rock the rest or your summer, the thing you want to make next now that tomato season is here? Our Catalonian friends have a treat for us: pa amb tomàquet, or pan con tomate, or just "tomato bread", this is an irresistably delicious five-ingredient self-assembly dish. Have it for breakfast! Have it with cold vermut or rosé on the porch at 5pm! Have it with every meal!

Amazingly for such a simple recipe, many online recipe sources nevertheless screw this up, probably because they're trying to account for substandard ingredients. Don't do that! This is a dish for tomato season, when the tomatoes are ripe and juicy. Also grab some high-quality Spanish olive oil (it's OK, you'll use a tiny amount, it'll last a long time) and some good bread. The bread needs to be something that has large holes and is firm and chewy, like a baguette, cibatta, sourdough loaf, or pain de campagne. This is also a good recipe to bring out your fancy sea salt for, you'll actually taste it.

One of the things that makes pan con tomate so easy is that each diner assembles it for themselves. So this is not so much a recipe as a set of assembly instructions.

First, split or slice your bread, and grill or toast it lightly. You want it to be firm without browning.

plate with tomatoes, bread, an half garlic cloves

Then, put out on the table:

  • several pieces of the toasted bread
  • several garden-fresh ripe tomatoes, cut in half
  • a few large garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
  • one bottle of high quality Spanish olive oil
  • some salt

Each diner then makes their own pan con tomate, using these steps:

  1. grab a piece of bread
  2. rub the cut top of the bread with the cut side of a garlic clove
  3. rub the bread with half of a tomato (or a whole one if they're small) until all the tomato pulp is rubbed into the bread (this is why you need those large holes)
  4. drizzle it with olive oil, maybe a teaspoon
  5. sprinkle on some salt
  6. eat!

That's all there is to it. If it sounds underwhelming, try it first -- if you like tomatoes at all, you'll be delighted. And if your sweetie is like mine, you'll be eating pan con tomate until summer ends.

http://fuzzychef.org/pan-con-tomate/3b04714f-07e6-43d8-a15d-458101df4e62Thu, 23 Jul 2020 17:34:55 GMT
<![CDATA[the summerest salad]]>snap pea, tomato, and corn salad in a ceramic bowl

There is a brief window in the middle of the summer, when the snap peas are producing their last pods before they dry up, and the early tomatoes and corn start to come in. It's during that week or two that you must -- simply must -- make this salad. Here in Portland, that window is now, so don't wait on it.

The salad is a variation on a caprese salad that was the single good recipe we got out of a vegetarian magazine subscription a relative gifted us. While most of the other recipes were brown-things-for-health, this one was delightful and we've been making it every summer since.

I mean what I said about only doing this during the right couple of weeks in summer; the salad will not work with winter tomatoes, starchy corn, or frozen snap peas. Ideally, make it out of your own garden.

snap pea, tomato, and corn salad

  • two ears sweet corn
  • 1 lbs ripe cherry tomatoes, or small salad tomatoes
  • 1/2 lbs snap peas (around 1 1/2 cups)
  • 8-12 basil leaves
  • 6 oz fresh, water-packed mozzarella, such as bocconcini
  • 2-3 tsp high-quality, "fruity" olive oil
  • 1 to 1.5 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • fresh ground pepper
  • a few pinches of salt

Strip and blanch the corn, either by steaming or in the microwave. When it cools, cut the kernels off the cob and break them up in a medium salad bowl.

If using cherry tomatoes, cut them in half. If using salad tomatoes, dice them into large (1/2") dice. Remove stems and strings (if any) from the snap peas, and cut them in half. Mince or chiffonade the basil. Cut the mozarrella into 1/2" or smaller pieces.

Toss all this together with the corn in the bowl. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic over the top, add several grinds of pepper and a few pinches of salt, and toss again, gently. Let sit for 15 minutes, then serve.

Serves 4 as a appetizer, and 2 as a main course (with bread). Leftovers will be OK in the fridge for a couple of days, but let them warm to room temperature before eating.

Notes: because it uses such small quantities, this salad is a good place to use fine, expensive oil and vinegar. Ideally, use real balsamic, the kind that comes in tiny costly bottles. It's also a good target for any fancy sea salt you have around. Do not use "paste" tomatoes such as Romas, because you need the acidity from sharper tomatoes. Vegan Adaptation: substitute diced avocado for the mozzarella.

To steam corn in the microwave, strip the ears and them wrap them in plastic wrap. Microwave in bursts of 30-40 seconds until they get really really hot; usually 2-3 bursts does it. Cut off the plastic and let them cool.

http://fuzzychef.org/the-summerest-salad/3808eff3-8419-4a8b-b9a1-98dcc91c79ebSat, 18 Jul 2020 18:25:20 GMT
<![CDATA[the easiest sauce]]>asparagus with dill-mustard sauce

Given how hot it is in so much of the Northern hemisphere right now, nobody wants to get out a pan to make a finishing sauce for dinner, particularly after cooking everything on the grill so that you don't heat up your house. But dinner needs a little something to elevate it from just food to cuisine.

Behold! This traditional Skandanavian sauce is one of the easiest, most useful things you will ever make. It's good on fish and vegetables, especially asparagus, which is still available here on the West coast, at least (traditionally, it's served with gravlax or herring). It comes together without any heat or power tools, uses inexpensive common ingredients, and will keep in the fridge for several months, so feel free to scale it up for the whole summer. While based on mustard, it's mild and balanced so that even non-mustard-lovers are good with it. It's also vegan.

Ready? This'll take just five minutes.

simple mustard-dill sauce

3 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 tsp dry yellow mustard
2 Tbs sugar (possibly more)
2 Tbs white wine vinegar (or rice or apple vinegar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced fresh dill (or 1 Tbs dried)
equipment: medium bowl, whisk, measuring cup with pouring spout

Whisk together the mustard, dry mustard, sugar and vinegar in a bowl, until homogenous.

Pour the vegetable oil into the bowl in a stream, and whisk the mixture with your other hand; this will produce an emulsified sauce with a texture like mayonnaise. If you have trouble doing it two-handed like this, then just add 2 Tbs of oil at a time, whisk it in, and then add another 2 Tbs.

When all of the oil is incorporated, mix in the dill. Taste it; if it's too sharp for your taste, add a couple teaspoons more sugar. Let sit at least 1/2 hour for best flavor.

Makes about 1 cup, enough sauce for fish/vegetables for 4-6 people. Store leftovers in the fridge, keeps for up to 4 months.

While you can make this sauce with dried dill, get fresh if it's not too hard to find, it does make a difference.

http://fuzzychef.org/the-easiest-sauce/e20f70be-c650-4e76-8984-960204bb653eMon, 06 Jul 2020 19:00:54 GMT
<![CDATA[daughter-in-law soup]]>bowl of red lentil soup

Everyone should have a few recipes where you can always have the ingredients on hand, especially for dinners where your original plans didn't work out or you can't think of anything else. This recipe is one such, nutritious, tasty, and from pantry to table in 45 minutes or less.

I first got this very traditional recipe from a little cookbook my relatives brought back from Kapadokya in Turkey. The name of the soup has, in typical Turkish fashion, a tragic story attached to it which has two or three different versions. Tragic or not, the soup is really good and one of the easiest things you'll ever prepare, so I've marked it Good First Recipe.

I'm going to start with the version that's mostly ingredients that are simple to obtain in the US, and give you some notes on more Turkish ingredients.

daughter-in-law soup

4 tbs butter (or olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
3 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp paprika (but see below)
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups stock
2 tbs fine bulgur wheat (#1)
½ tsp salt, plus up to 1 tsp more to taste Mint, 2 tsp dried or 2 tbs chopped fresh
4qt or larger pot, with lid

Heat the butter (or oil) in the pot. Fry the onion until translucent, stirring, then add the paste and saute for 2-3 minutes, until it separates and turns oily. Add the paprika or other pepper and cook for 30 seconds more.

Add the lentils, ½ tsp salt, bulgur and stock. Bring to boil, cover and simmer over low heat for about ½ hour, or until the soup is creamy and the lentils are soft. It should be a porrigelike consistency, but add some hot water if you feel it's too thick. Taste and see if you need to add more salt. Add mint, simmer for 5 minutes more, then let cool enough to serve. (usually about 10 minutes).

Serve with bread and cheese. Makes 6 cups, enough for a first course for 4-6 people or a main course for 2-3. Keeps up to a week in the fridge, and freezes fairly well.


For an even faster version which is almost as good, forget about frying the onions and just simmer everything together.

You must use red lentils for this. Other varieties of lentils take an hour to cook, and don't look nearly as pretty.

For stock, you can use canned or boxed stock, instant stock, bullion, or in a pinch salted water. If you have a choice, vegetable or beef stock is preferable to chicken.

Fine bulgur, also known as instant bulgur, is the same grind you'd use to make tabouleh, tiny grains the size of coarse salt. Either instant couscous or whole wheat bread crumbs would work as a substitute. Bob's Red Mill "bulgur", which is actually cracked wheat, will not work.

If you can get Turkish ingredients, use red pepper paste instead of tomato paste, and 1 tsp Aleppo or Urfa pepper instead of the paprika. Note that Aleppo and Urfa are hotter than paprika, so use some discretion in how much to add.

http://fuzzychef.org/daughter-in-law-soup/0dabb431-7ce6-421f-996e-680605ed0a1aSat, 06 Jun 2020 17:27:52 GMT
<![CDATA[spring onion noodles]]>bowl of spring onion noodles

The city of Shanghai as a lot of distinctive dishes (perhaps most notably soup dumplings) but there are none which are so friendly to social isolation time -- or really any time you want to throw something together in 20 minutes and one pot for a meal -- as spring onion noodles. A quick throw-together of Asian sauces, flavored oil and noodles, they can be made entirely from pantry ingredients, modified based on what's on hand, or even easily made vegan or gluten-free.

picture of bowl of noodles from Shanghai

I first had these while on a food tour of Shanghai with Lost Plate Tours, and decided I had to find out how to recreate them. I started with a recipe by Chinese Cooking Demystified and added some tweaks to make it simpler and faster.

Now, I'm going to give you the whole schmear of a recipe for how I make it at home using all the proper Chinese ingredients. However, almost every ingredient in the recipe can be substituted or omitted, so don't skip this because you don't think you can get something. Read the notes at the end on substitutions. And, because it's actually a very quick recipe, requires few measurements, and is honestly very hard to mess up in a way that's not still edible, I'm calling it a Good First Recipe and giving you very explicit instructions.

The first part of this is making the green onion oil. My recipe below makes a quart, because the oil actually keeps quite well for up to 5 months in a cool pantry, or probably longer in the fridge, and it's actually easier to make a large batch than a small one. Plus, once you taste the oil, you'll want to use it on other dishes like steamed fish.

jar of green onion oil

green onion oil

  • 1 quart vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
  • 3-5 bunches scallions, 1/2 to 3/4 pound

Wash the scallions and dry them very well. Cut off the roots and any ragged ends, and then cut apart the green and white parts. Cut the green parts into 2" pieces. Split the white parts in half lengthwise, or in quarters if they're thick. Then cut those into 2" pieces.

Put all the onion pieces into the oil. Heat it until the onions start sizzling, and then leave it over medium heat until all the onion pieces turn brown and the sizzling decreases. Set aside to cool.

Pour oil and burnt onion pieces into a glass jar and store in a cool cupboard or the fridge for up to 5 months. If you are concerned about food safety, use the fridge.

Once you have your oil, you can make the noodles any time you like.

spring onion noodles

For two diners, scale up as needed. Note that almost every ingredient below can be substituted.

  • 12oz Shanghai-style wheat noodles
  • 2 Tbs tiny dried shrimp
  • 2 Tbs Shaoxing Wine
  • 2 Tbs light soy sauce
  • 1 Tbs dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 4 Tbs scallion oil (recipe below)
  • Fried onions from the scallion oil, about 2 Tbs
  • Fresh green onions, sliced thin, about 1/2 cup
  • Salt & Water
  • Equipment: large (4qt+) pot, steamer of some kind that fits it

Fill the pot with water, salt it, and set it to boil. Prepare two small cups or bowls that will fit together in the steamer. In one, put the dried shrimp, Shaoxing wine, and 2 Tbs water. In the other put the light and dark soy sauce and sugar. Put the steamer over the pot, and steam for 10 minutes.

Remove the steamer from the pot (but keep it on heat). Strain the dried shrimp, letting the shrimpy wine liquid drain into the soy sauce mixture. Mix that, making sure no sugar granules remain. Mince up the dried shrimp and set them aside.

Boil the noodles until cooked, 2-4 minutes depending on variety. Quickly, drain the noodles, and then divide them between two large bowls. Drizzle 2 Tbs scallion oil on each. On top of the noodles, put half the fresh green onions, half the minced shrimp, and a small pile of fried green onions. Drizzle half the sauce (2-3 Tbs) on each bowl.

Hand each bowl to your two diners, allowing them to mix the noodles themselves.


Noodles: Shanghai noodles are a white, round, wheat noodle slightly narrower than spaghetti. You can replace them in this recipe with almost any relatively thin, eggless Asian wheat noodle, such as the "dried udon" available at many markets (what I used in the photo at the top), or even Korean knife-cut noodles. You can even use angel hair pasta, although it won't absorb the sauce as well. For a gluten-free option, use glass (mung bean) noodles.

Dried Shrimp: if you can't get these from an Asian or Mexican market, or if you want to make this recipe vegan, just omit them. If not using them, then omit the 2 Tbs water from the sauce, and mix all sauce ingredients together in one bowl before steaming. In this version, you could also boil the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan instead of steaming.

Shaoxing Wine: in many/most places in the US, you either can't find this or can only find the salted "cooking" version (check the label for salt), which would make this recipe too salty. If you can't get the good stuff, use a medium or dry sherry instead.

Light Soy Sauce: any lighter variety of soy sauce would work, including Tamari. I use Pearl River Bridge Light Soy Sauce.

Dark Soy Sauce: a sweeter, darker soy sauce with a molasses flavor. If you can't get this, then replace all the soy sauce with a richer, darker regular soy sauce like Kikoman, and double the amount of sugar.

If you want to make this entirely from pantry ingredients, the fresh green onions are optional.

http://fuzzychef.org/spring-onion-noodles/5fe847b3-c782-4e44-9739-8223c81e7fe6Wed, 13 May 2020 16:10:13 GMT
<![CDATA[make some cresenza put it on pasta]]>crescenza cheese wheel cut in half on a plate

So we're into the sixth week of isolation, and you've already mastered sourdough. What's next? Well, making your own cheese, of course!

While many cheeses like cheddar or brie require special aging environments, there's several cheeses that either require no aging at all, or can be aged in a household fridge. The obvious one to start with is ricotta, which is probably the easiest cheese there is and has the benefit of being worlds better fresh-made than from a store. But after you've done that, what's next?

Well, in Italy we were introduced to crescenza (aka stracchino), which is a very young, soft-curd cheese ideal for melting over pasta. Because it's a young cheese with a short shelf-life, it's really really hard to find for sale in the US. It also goes great with a lot of veggies that are in season right now, like asparagus, fiddleheads, and agretti. It doesn't require special cheese cultures you need to mail-order, and you can "age" it in the fridge. So let's make some!

The below is based on a recipe from Ricki Carroll's Home Cheesemaking, a book I heartily recommend to anyone interested in getting started with making cheese.

whole crescenza cheese wheel

crescenza cheese

1 gallon of milk
1/4 tsp calcium chloride (if milk is pasteurized)
1 Tbs fine salt
2-3 oz live culture yogurt, Bulgarian or Russian style
1/8 tsp liquid rennet or 1/4 rennet tablet
non-chlorinated water
equipment: large pot, large spoon, long knife, instand-read thermometer, 2 cylindrical cheese molds (but see note), 2 cheese mats (but see note)

Slowly heat the milk up to 100F/38C. If using, dilute the calcium chloride in 1/4 cup water and add. Stir in the salt, then the yogurt. Cover and keep at 100F for 30-45 min.

Dilute the rennet in 1/4 cup water, and stir in for 30 seconds. Cover and let sit (keeping at 100F) for another 60 minutes, at which point the curd should give a clean break. Cut the curd into 3-inch cubes and let "heal" for 30 min. Cut the curds in quarters, and carefully and gently stir them around. Cover, let sit 5 minutes, and stir them again. Do this twice more.

The curds should sink; spoon off most of the whey from the top. Ladle the curds into the two molds, trying to distribute them evenly. Place the mat across the top of each mold and flip it over. Let them drain for an hour, then flip them back over, and then do this twice more (3 hours total). Finally, let the cheeses rest in the molds for at least 4 hours, ideally 8, and preferably in a room that's between 72F and 78F.

Remove the cheeses from the molds, carefully because they will be very delicate and soft. Put them on the mats in a big tupperware and put it in the fridge. Let age for 3-5 days, periodically taking them out and draining out any excess liquid.

Once you're ready, you can put the cheese on pasta, although it's equally good on bread.

Note: the yogurt really needs to be Bulgarian or Russian style, because those contain some different cultures (Y-1 yogurt culture) from other yogurts. On the West Coast, I recommend Pavel's brand.

Equipment Substitution: you can also use ricotta molds for this cheese. If you don't have cheese molds at all, get two empty 1qt yogurt tubs and punch a few 1/8" holes in them at different levels, four holes in the bottom and 12 holes around the outside. For cheese draining mats, you can use sushi rolling mats, or a relatively tight-mesh cooling rack, or basically anything that forms a tight mesh and can be sterilized.

pasta with crescenza and veggies in a big bowl

pasta with crescenza, fiddleheads, and asparagus

1 lbs short, ruffly pasta (campanelle, farfalle, torchietti, garganelle, etc.)
12 oz cresenza cheese
10-12oz skinny asparagus, stemmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
8-12 oz fiddleheads
small bunch chives, minced, about 3 Tbs
black pepper

Boil a 4-6qt pot full of salted water. Blanch the asparagus and fiddleheads, together, for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and put in a big bowl. Top with the chives and the crescenza cheese, diced small or pinched into small blobs.

Cook the pasta (you can use the same water from the blanching) until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water. While still very hot, toss the pasta with the cheese and veggies. Add pasta water as needed to make it creamy. Salt and pepper to your taste, and optionally drizzle with olive oil. Serves 4.

Note: you'll notice that this is essentially the same recipe as the taleggio pasta

http://fuzzychef.org/make-some-cresenza-put-it-on-pasta/614670ff-cd10-4093-b043-6093056b849cSun, 03 May 2020 19:33:46 GMT