Cheese Making!

For Christmas this year Jerome and I got each other cooking classes which has been a really fun thing to do. You get thrill of finding out what your gift is, and the excitement of waiting for the actual class and then of course the actual experience, and all the cool new knowledge you get from it! My class was today, and it was a workshop on Home Cheese Making at Love Apple Farm in Santa Cruz. It is incidentally the sole garden supplier for Manresa which is a 2 Michelin Star Restaurant not too far away that we've been meaning to try out for a special occasion. 

It was a really fun afternoon and I learned a lot about cheesemaking! Our fearless leader was Fiona, who was really nice and funny, and full of useful tips she's figured out making her own cheese, and she made it seem like it was super easy, which was very encouraging! She went through all the equipment you need, and what you can do without and what you can't. She discussed the various different milk options and the pros and cons and where to get all the supplies without going too far away. And she generally made the time fly by while teaching us tons, and making everyone believe that they can do this at home no sweat! 

We learned how to make three kinds of cheese: Chevre, Feta and Mozzarella. We also got to taste them all, and they were all wonderful! It was really interesting to see how they all start with the same basic ingredients and turn into very different textures and tastes with the variation of cooking temperatures, times and some minor ingredients. 

Draining the Chevre

Slicing the Feta

Cooking the Mozzarella

Our formed Mozzarella Balls!

Not bad for 4 hours huh! During our break we got to wander around and explore the farm a little bit which was fun. In the basement of the building we were in there were baby chicks which were adorable, and gave a nice background soundtrack to the class with their cheeping. They had a bunch of chickens nearby, and a very vocal rooster somewhere!  And there were many of the vegetable gardens right outside. Oh, and I nearly forgot one of the funnest parts! We got to milk Trixie the goat!! And then taste the milk while it was still warm. Pretty interesting. 

Trixie

Many started herbs

The garden beds

The chickens!

The farm offers many other really cool sounded courses, which we might just have to check out! I'm going to try and make some of my own cheese here at home before I forget everything, I'll keep you posted! Also, hopefully Jerome will get around to posting about his course soon! 

Fresh Vegetable Battle

A few weekends ago, we decided to have an Iron Chef type battle. We went to our favourite little cheese and vegetable store The Milk Pail Market and each picked a vegetable that looked fresh and tasty. I had an asparagus recipe in mind, and was lucky enough to find some great looking ones, while Jerome was winging it, and found a beautiful eggplant. We decided to prepare them at the same time and then cook the dishes one after another and eat the first one while the second one was cooking. 

JEROME: EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Jerome went first. He chose a recipe for Eggplant parmesan. Here you can see him breading his eggplant slices in Panko breadcrumbs .

They were then baked or broiled to cook them most of the way through.

 

After this, Jerome layered them with old cheddar cheese and angry spaghetti sauce.

Here is the final product. It was very tasty, and a very healthy and inexpensive meal. We thought that next time we might not layer them up but put them on a flat tray in a single layer. But definitely a recipe we'll be making again. 

LAURA: CRISPY ASPARAGUS POTATO TART

I decided to make an asparagus and potato cheese tart in phyllo pastry that I had found in one of my Jamie Oliver cookbooks and that sounded pretty good. Recipe

For the preparation, I blanched the asparagus. Next I boiled and mashed a potato adding some old cheddar cheese, whipping cream and eggs and some nutmeg and pepper for seasoning. 

Next I layered 4 sheets of phyllo with melted butter brushed in between. 

Then added in the potato mixture and placed the asparagus across the top.

This is the final product. The phyllo browned up nicely and was nice and crispy. This dish was also very tasty, but richer and a bit less healthy. We would make this one again, probably for a bigger crowd though, we ate it for leftovers for the whole week! It would make a nice brunch dish I think. 

All in all it was a very fun and filling evening of cooking and eating. The only thing we thought we'd do differently if we do another challenge is to make one dish each weekend day, as it was hard to stop eating the first dish when it was so tasty to save room for the second! 

Ketch-up

So apparently it has been a year since we've updated this blog. Not for lack of cooking, but because other minor things have gotten in the way. Such as planning a wedding and getting married, me moving to California, and just plain forgetfulness. But we're back, and have a ton of fun pictures from our cooking adventures to share so things should get exciting again! As a tidbit of things to come, one of the things I've done is make us fun spice jar labels, which I just got all filled up a few weeks ago!! Bonus points to whoever can guess the one with the caricature on it.