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5 Spoke Creamery Redmond Cheddar

5 Spoke creamery redmond cheddar

While shopping at one of my local produce markets (Greenline Organic aka “The Tiki Hut” because of the thatched overhang), I checked their cheese section and found they carry this 5 Spoke Creamery raw cheddar from Port Chester, NY (that’s near the Connecticut border). I saw that it is raw, and decided to check it out. It is delicious!

I was particularly impressed with how the Redmond Cheddar melted in the quesadillas I had for lunch (raw cheddar and CSA tomato between two Tortilleria Nixtamal corn tortillas, fried in pasture butter) today. I also snacked on it a bit and found it very satisfying. It has a wonderful texture.

I’m really happy that a delicious raw cheddar is so close at hand!

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CSA Bounty – Week Two

We had another week without radishes, but with plenty of lettuce. Last year we got a head each week for almost the entire season; I wonder if this year will be the same.  I will eat a large salad tonight.  This week we got:

week 2 menu

The strawberries were better this week than last week, I think, which is kind of like saying we got 12 oz of gold this week over last week’s 11.5 oz.  Both weeks have brought us amazing strawberries. We ate them for breakfast this morning with some cantaloupe I cut up last night.

strawberries week 2

This week’s lettuce head was a leaf lettuce in a very unusual color – kind of the color of manzanita wood.

red lettuce

We got cilantro this week!  Also dried black beans.  I’m thinking of making a black bean salad tonight with them both.

cilantro

bagging black beans

I have a share of beans and grains from Cayuga Organics, which grow the best beans I’ve ever had.  Their grains are also amazing.

We also got asparagus – I think we are at the end of the season.

asparagus

Last night I had some of it and it was so good.  Simply pan roasted with some salt.  I ate it with a quesadilla I fried in coconut oil, made with raw pepperjack cheese (also from the CSA), some cilantro and Tortilleria Nixtamal tortillas.  We had stopped in over the weekend and picked some up on our way home from touring the Louis Armstrong House in Corona (fabulous).  They really are the best tortillas around.

In addition to the veg, berries, black beans and grains (farro!), my meat and dairy order came in – my freezer is now full of grass fed/finished beef, organic chicken breasts and turkey sausage, and I’ve got a nice goaty chevre to look forward to tonight, too.

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I Eat Butter and Coconut Oil

Yes, it’s just like the title says:  I eat butter and coconut oil.  Often.  And with pleasure.  However, I don’t eat just any old kind – I do have my standards.

For butter, I aim for a product made from grass-fed milk.  Grass-fed butter has a higher concentration of CLA – conjugated linoleic acid.  CLA is a good fat – a natural trans fatty acid – that is believed to be an effective cancer fighter, blocking tumor growth.  It also has been shown to increase HDL (“good” cholesterol).

Animals that feed on grass have 3-5 times the amount of CLA in their system than their grain-fed pals.   So, meat and milk from grass-fed ruminants are a good source of CLA.  Pastured eggs are also rich in CLA.

There are two brands of butter that I buy regularly.  First, is Kerrygold, an Irish butter.

kerrygold

It is 100% grass-fed, and is so, so good.  I love it’s rich yellow color, its creamy texture, and delicious taste.  It’s also readily available – I can get it at the local supermarket, at independent markets, and even at Trader Joe’s.  I prefer the cultured unsalted, but will use the salted butter in a pinch.

Next, is the Organic Valley Cultured Butter.  This is in the gold wrapper with claims that their butter is made from “cows allowed to pasture freely”.  Even better, though, is the Limited Edition Pasture Butter, in the green wrapper.

pasture butter

I only got to try it this week.  It is fantastic!  The texture is… well… like butter. Smooth and creamy – it seems to melt at a lower temperature, too.  It’s a gorgeous yellow color – they use the summer milk for this butter.

I also eat raw butter, but I get that privately.

I have plans to make cultured butter in the next couple of weeks, from grass-fed cream.  I’ll certainly share my experience here when I do that.

I won’t disagree that these butters can be spendy.  But I think in their case, you really do get what you pay for.

I’m really happy to be incorporating so much butter into my diet.  For years I used it in cooking, but sparingly because of my fear of saturated fats.  Now that I can get butter that is so nutrient-dense – and have lost my fear of saturated fats – I cook with it much more regularly.  I especially like to fry eggs in butter.  It’s one of my favorite combinations.

coconut oil

Coconut oil is somewhat new to me.  For what seems like forever, I believed that coconut oil was a terrible thing to put in the body, that it would only cause harm.   Turns out that unrefined, expeller-pressed virgin organic coconut oil is quite the beneficial oil, and its goodness is vast.  The two things that stick out in my mind is coconut oil’s role in weight loss and its high levels of lauric acid.

Lauric acid, a saturated fatty acid, has apparent antimicrobial properties; coconut oil is 42% to 57% lauric acid. When you eat coconut oil, it transforms into a substance called monolaurin, which then strengthens the immune system. As far as weight loss and coconut oil goes, it’s those short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off those extra pounds. It also speeds up the body’s metabolism by removing stress on pancreas, and supports a healthy thyroid.

I also love the smell of coconut oil, and find the odor rather soothing. Last night I used it to fry up some chicken, and it was an excellent frying fat for my needs. I also use it in granola and sometimes even put a bit of it in my coffee. I am a huge fan of the taste of coconut, so I enjoy it this way. I expect it would be delicious in hot chocolate, too.

Normally I buy Barlean’s brand but I picked up a jar of Spectrum Naturals and I’ve enjoyed using it.

So, these two traditional fats are wonderful additions to the diet, plus they are available as high quality products.  Both delicious and nutritious, it would do you good to give them a try if you’re not already.  Enjoy!

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Cultured and Fermented Foods – Yogurt, Kefir, Kombucha

fermented foods

Some of the most delicious traditional foods I’ve tasted are cultured and fermented food and drink. Before I started eating such things, I really had no idea how extensively humans utilized fermentation, aside from yogurt and kefir. I’ve found that I love the raw yogurt and kefir I get from the farm as well as their kombucha. Plus, my body loves these fermented and cultured products – when I eat them, I feel great!

So, when I first started drinking raw dairy, I limited myself to just drinking fresh cow’s milk. I was comfortable with that, and I was just trying it out (so I thought). I didn’t anticipate how much I’d come to love it compared to the conventional organic milk I had been drinking.

It was only after a few months that I even considered moving beyond that to exploring the raw cultured and fermented dairy available to me. I’ve been eating yogurt for ages, so I tried that first. Delicious! I actually had tasted kefir before, but I suspected that this raw kefir was going to be different from the essentially “drinkable yogurt” I’d consumed before. I tried it, and found it to be quite tasty, too, but definitely different from yogurt.

Along with these two dairy products, I started drinking (and brewing) kombucha. I took a kombucha brewing class at The Brooklyn Kitchen, which was a lot of fun and very informative. I brewed kombucha pretty regularly until I moved and my SCOBY kicked the bucket. I now purchase kombucha from the same place as where I get my raw dairy, and plan to start up the brewing process again later this spring.

After a conversation I had with my friend Charlene, I started to wonder how the bacteria differ among the three products I eat on a regular basis: yogurt, kefir, and kombucha. They all contain probiotics for a healthy gut, but different kinds of friendly bacteria. I decided to do some research.

Yogurt is ubiquitous. It’s in all the supermarkets and convenience stores. It is considered to be a true health food, and is delicious. It is made from whole milk, lowfat and nonfat milk, but I prefer to eat yogurt made with non-homogenized whole milk.

Yogurt is made by heating milk at a low temperature and combining it with bacteria to encourage fermentation (which then preserves the milk). The most common bacteria in yogurt are: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and L. acidophilus (this produces vitamin K, lactase, and several anti-microbial substances). Streptococcus lactis, S. cremoris, thermophilus, and L. plantarum (also found in lacto-fermented vegetables) may also be present. In short, lactobacillus helps convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid, and Streptococcus is the force behind the souring and coagulation of milk.

Yogurt has been made for millennia and is one of the oldest ways of preserving milk.

Milk Kefir resembles yogurt in it tartness, but does not share the same texture. It is produced by combining milk and kefir “grains”, which are a SCOBY – a Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast. The grains kind of look a little like lumps of small tapioca balls smushed together in a rough paste, and have a spongy texture.

The grains are placed in the milk and the mixture is allowed to ferment for as short as 24 hours. Kefir can become slightly alcoholic (about 1%) if let go for an extended period. Each time you make kefir, the grains grow and expand, so people tend to share their kefir grains with others.

kefir grains

Kefir shares some bacteria with yogurt, including Lactobacillus bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, Streptococcus lactis, S. cremoris, thermophilus and L. plantarum. Additionally, Lactococus lactis subsp. Lactis, Lactococus lactis subsp. Cremoris, Lactococus lactis subsp. Diacetylactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. Cremoris (also found in cultured butter), Lactobacillus kefyr, Kliyveromyces marxianus var. marxainus, Saccharomyces unisporus (yeast) are in kefir. It is full of probiotic goodness.

Kombucha is a fermented sweetened tea with origins in China. The tea ferments for a number of days under something colloquially called a “mushroom” and technically called a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). It also can become slightly alcoholic (1.0% to 1.5%) depending on the brewing time.

As I said above, the SCOBY contains a symbiosis of bacteria – Acetobacter (acetic acid bacteria) – and yeast – Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Candida stellata, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Torulaspora delbruecki, and Zygosaccharomyces bailii.

kombucha brewing

Kombucha sometimes tastes a little vinegary after a spell, and that is due to the presence of the acetic acid, which provides much anti-microbial activity. It also contains butyric acid, gluconic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid, usnic acid, as well as some B-vitamins. It does not contain glucuronic acid, contrary to popular belief and scientific testing.

Look for a future post on fermented vegetables, additional dairy products, and non-dairy drinks as well. The world of fermented food is vast and delicious!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Kefir grains photo: (cc) user Phrood on Wikimedia Commons via a Creative Commons license.

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Making Mascarpone Cheese

mascarpone

This week I’m working on adapting a favorite carrot cake recipe to accommodate soaking the flour ahead of time. Soaking the flour will break down its phytic acid, making it more easily digestible. And while I was able to make other adjustments pretty easily, one sticking point was what to put on top of the cake.  The recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting, which is a perfect thing to put on a carrot cake, but it seems a shame to use a highly processed product like commercial cream cheese on top of this wonderfully earthy cake.   Fortunately, I was able to come up with an excellent solution: mascarpone cheese.

So, a little while ago, my friend Judith had a recipe of hers featured in one of the top slots on Foodbuzz.  Nearby was another featured recipe, this one for homemade mascarpone cheese.  I took a look at the recipe, and realized that I had found my solution right there!  Mascarpone is a little bit softer and creamier than cream cheese, but for my purposes, it’s perfect.

Making mascarpone at home takes a just little bit of time, and the process is pretty straightforward.  The resulting product is fresh, creamy, and delicious.  And you know exactly what you’re getting because you made it.

March 2010

Mascarpone Cheese
Adapted from a recipe from Teenie Cakes

2 cups heavy cream (I used raw cream)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Fill a saucepan with enough water so that when a heat-resistant bowl is set on top of it, the water touches the bottom of the bowl. This will be your double boiler setup.  Normally you don’t want the water to touch the upper pan, but in this case, it is desirable.

Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is at a simmer. Pour the cream into bowl, then place it on top of the saucepan. Heat the cream, stirring often with a whisk, to 190 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

Add lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently until the cream curdles. The whipping cream will become thicker and should evenly and thickly cover the back of a wooden spoon.  The curds will be very, very small, almost imperceptible; the thickening of the cream is the key.

Remove the bowl from the saucepan and cool for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a strainer with four layers of cheesecloth, run water over it to dampen the cheesecloth, and set the strainer over a large bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined strainer. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface. Once cooled completely, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the strainer) overnight or up to 24 hours.  The cheese will drain during this time.

The next day, remove cheese from the bowl and strainer, transferring it to another bowl. The mascarpone will be removable as once solid piece.  Stir it, and you will see how magically creamy it has become!

Make approximately 12 oz.

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The Best Rice Pudding

rice pudding

Recently, I read this post by traditional food blogger Cheeseslave, entitled Paula of Guadalajara, Mexico: A Testament to Dr. Weston Price, and was struck by her exchange regarding dessert:

I asked her how many times a week her children got dessert. I thought maybe she’d say once a week. She said, “Usually every night.” …  She’d also make them “arroz con leche” or rice & milk custard, made with milk, butter, rice, raisins, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of sugar.

When I saw that, I was instantly inspired to make rice pudding.  I’ve been a fan of rice pudding since I was a little girl, and especially liked the recipe my grandmother uses.  She passed it down to me, and I’m so grateful to have it, because it’s wonderful!  In fact, I’ve made this rice pudding for people who say they hate the stuff, and after tasting it they become total converts.

I used to make it with conventional ingredients, but now I make it with my raw milk – and yes, the milk cooks in the process, but as it’s grass-fed, non-homogenized and did not go through the pasteurization process originally, it’s so much better for you.

I use raw milk, organic sugar, pastured eggs, grass-fed butter, and organic rice – I like to use sushi rice because it results in an even creamier pudding than with long grain white rice; arborio rice would work, too, I bet.  I do wonder if maple syrup would be a good replacement for the sugar; I’ll have to try that next time.

Rice Pudding

Dessert is something I love, and although I’m severely reducing my sugar intake, I’d be sad to completely abandon dessert.  I’m constantly looking for options that do not wreck havoc on my system, and that are relatively healthy while being delicious.  This pudding works for me – it’s made with top notch ingredients and is very rich, so a little goes a long way.  It’s also a wonderful dish to share with others – rice pudding is so comforting.

1/2 c. organic white rice (long grain or sushi, not instant)
1 c. water
1 qt. milk (4 cups)
1/2 stick unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
3 pastured eggs
1/2 c. evaporated cane juice or rapadura
1 c. raisins (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon

Pour rice slowly into rapidly boiling water in large pot. Don’t stir.

Cover tightly and cook exactly 7 minutes. Water should be absorbed for the most part.

Add milk and butter. Stir a little.

Bring mixture to a boil, cover and cook slowly over a low flame for 1 hour.

5 minutes before the hour is up, beat eggs, add sweetener and vanilla.

Temper egg mixture by mixing a little bit of the hot milk and rice in with the eggs. Pour mixture into rice, stirring slowly until rice starts to thicken. Add cinnamon to taste. Can be enjoyed either warm or cold.