eating as a fine art: not looking a gift horse in the mouth

Sunday, July 11, 2010

not looking a gift horse in the mouth

So, we're getting WIC (coupons for free food for women, infants and children). For a family of three, we're getting 5 and a half gallons of milk a month. That's insane! Do people really consume that much milk? I wish that we could up the amount of veggies we get (only $10 worth) and forgo some of the milk (and frozen juice and 6 cans of tuna a month too!), but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Instead, I decided it was finally time to learn to make cheese.

So, here's my first attempt. I made ricotta and we had:

homemade pizza with tomato sauce (from last year's garden tomatoes), zucchini and crookneck squash, corn, spring onions, basil and fresh homemade ricotta.

We also had a lovely salad with garden lettuces, garden sugar snaps, spring carrots and cucumber.

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Recipes

David’s mac & cheese, as re-interpreted over the years

Preheat oven to 350*

Boil in salted water (should be like sea water) until just before al dente: 1 lb pasta (like macaroni shaped or penne or whatever you like)

Grate 1 lb+. cheese of choice. I like to use some jack, as it melts well, and is a good medium for the other highly flavored cheeses you should consider using like: sharp cheddar, gruyere, pecorino, goat cheese etc.

Meanwhile, sauté a small diced onion in a few TBSP butter until soft over medium heat. Add a couple cloves of garlic, smashed, and sauté another minute. Add another TBSP butter and four TBSP flour, sauté to lightly toast the flour, about a minute (should be the consistency of wet sand). Add, oh, 1 cup milk slowly and whisk to break up clumps. Slowly add milk until you get a sauce with the consistency of heavy cream or campbell’s tomato soup, just out of the can (should be about 3 cups total). Add salt; I like to add some smoked paprika and woscheshire sauce. Taste for seasoning (should be highly seasoned). Add oh, ½ the cheese.

Now, layer in a buttered casserole (I actually make this recipe in 2 dishes and freeze one): pasta, roux (milk/cheese sauce) and cheese in about 2-3 layers.

In David’s version, you’d put some pats of butter over your pasta layers, then sprinkle on wheat germ. That’s good—the germ is kind of sweet, and yummy. What I do is sauté some breadcrumbs very lightly in butter and garlic and toss in some wheat germ at the end and sprinkle this (liberally) over the pasta.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. If you’ve made two casseroles (you smart thing), take the one you’ll freeze out of the oven after about a half hour, let cool, wrap in foil then in plastic, label and freeze.

eating as a fine art

Sunday, July 11, 2010

not looking a gift horse in the mouth

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