Baked Alaska

Here's another item I made this week using the Chevre that I made last weekend. I had some fresh peaches from my CSA. I sliced them into serving dishes. In another small bowl, I whisked together Chevre, honey, and a little heavy cream that was very lightly whipped. Place a dollop of this on the peaches, and top with crumbled amaretti cookies. This was a nice easy dessert, combining the sweetness of the peaches and honey, the tanginess of the chevre, and the almond flavor from the amaretti cookies.

This is one of the things I made using the fresh Chevre I made this week. Toast a nice chewy bread in the broiler until lightly brown (both sides). Remove from oven, and spread with Chevre. Drizzle with honey, and top with chopped toasted walnuts and a little chopped fresh rosmary. A great flavor combination.

I'm a few days late, but it's time for the June Curds Our Whey. This month I chose for us to make Chevre cheese. Chevre is the French word for "goat".

I was really looking forward to making the Chevre until I began my search at the grocery stores. When making cheese, you want to use pasturized, but not ultra-pasturized. The curds don't usually form properly when using ultra-pasturized. I checked every grocery store and health food store I could think of in Anchorage, and the only goat's milk I could find was ultra-pasturized. The recipe also called for a gallon of goat's milk, and the only size available to me was quarts. At around $6/quart, and when I didn't think it would turn out, I wasn't willing to try with more than one quart. So I divided my package of starter into quarters, and proceeded to make the cheese.

This recipe is very easy. Heat the milk, add the starter, and let it sit at room temperature for 12 hours. I needed to go to bed, so mine only set for about 10 hours. But it did already have the "yogurt texture" called for. Well, a little softer than yogurt, but I didn't have a choice. So before going to bed, I drained it. I let it drain overnight, and it was still too soft. This was Friday morning, and I was leaving town for the weekend, so I decided to tie the muslin to a long spoon, hang the cheese over a bowl, and refrigerate until I came home on Sunday. When I checked it on Sunday, it was perfect. A little softer than the kind I buy in the grocery store, but still firm enough that I could cut into rounds to place on a salad.

Another thing that suprised me about the cheese was the yield. I thought by using only a quart that my yield would be next to nothing. I forgot to weigh the cheese before I used it, but it was a little more than a small ball or log that you would buy at the store. So maybe between 6 and 8 ounces? If I used an entire gallon of milk, I'm not sure what I would do with that much goat cheese.

I'll post in the next couple of days how I used the Chevre. One thing the cookbook suggests is to use it as a spread, flavored with herbs and spices. Or it also can be used as a substitute for cream cheese.

Here's the ball of Chevre that was my end result.

Continue reading "CURDS OUR WHEY - CHEVRE" »

On Tuesday, June 27th I talked about the Daring Bakers Challenge of Bakewell Tarts. I used homemade Bing Cherry Jam in them. I meant to post that recipe at the same time, but evidently, I forgot. So here it is. It's a really nice cherry jam that spiced with cinnamon and cloves. It's great on biscuits, scones, etc. but my favorite way to use it is to glaze a pork tenderloin. It would also be good on chicken and duck, and I think I've also used it to glaze salmon with.

SPICED BING CHERRY JAM
4 cups pitted Bing cherries, chopped
1 (2 oz) pkg powdered pectin
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup almond liqueur
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 1/2 cups sugar

1. Place all ingredients, except sugar, into a 6-quart kettle. Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.
2. Immediately add sugar. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes.
3. Skim mixture.
4. Pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Seal.
5. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.
Yield: 5 to 6 half-pints

This week our salad was chosen by Marcia. As she was deciding what salad to choose, she received her copy of the April Bon Appetit in the mail and on the cover was a salad-Grilled Chicken Salad with Tarragon Pesto. She decided to choose it as her salad.

This salad is very tasty. Make a tarragon pesto, which is very flavorful and unusual. Toss greens, radishes and cucumbers with a lemon vinegrette. Grill chicken and bread. Place on plate.

I made 2 changes to this recipe, one which you've probably already noticed in the photos. Instead of chicken, I used Sockeye(red) salmon that my husband caught when we were out camping this weekend. The other change I made was to add about 1 teaspoon dijon mustard to the vinegrette.

Continue reading "SUNDAY SALAD SAMPLERS WEEK #10 - GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD WITH TARRAGON PESTO" »