Tomatoes and Mozzarella

It's finally here. We have been waiting a long time, since March, for this moment. This is the time I look forward to every summer. This is why we grow a garden in our backyard. It's time. Time, to harvest the tomatoes. Look at them!

Since starting our garden we have grown heirloom varieties. I'm still learning, and I don't know all their names, but we have heirloom tomatoes and heirloom paste tomatoes - the best for making sauce - in our tomato raised bed.

The plants are heavily weighed down with tomato fruit, and everyday there are ripe tomatoes to harvest. This Satruday will be the first of an upcoming few where we spend all day processing tomatoes for canning. Those paste tomatoes will turn into puree, sauce, salsa and ketchup. The colourful heirlooms will be used for fresh pasta, pizza and Caprese salads - one of my favourites.

Caprese salad, or Insalata caprese, is so delicious because it is so simple. Only worth eating when all of the ingredients are in season, it's the freshness and ripeness of the tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella coming together that creates a taste experience worth revisiting. It's true that what grows together goes together, and we know basil and tomato are best friends. Their second best friend, mozzarella, is best when it's fresh - no rubbery yellow cheese balls, please - and worth trying to make yourself.

In the August/September issue of PEARL magazine I write about St. Veronus Cafe and Taproom's new menu and their homemade fresh mozzarella cheese. Chef Susan Houde flavours her mozzarella with Affligem beer and seasonal ingredients to create a seasonally evolving salad, a staple of the menu. She shared her recipe with me, and I'm going to include it here.

Now, I have tried making mozzarella and I wasn't as successful as Susan. Rennet and citric acid (this is a powder) are essential to successful mozza. From experience, you cannot replace the citric acid with lemon juice.

You can find citric acid at health food stores (Joanne's or the Main Ingredient in Peterborough carry it). I purchased my rennet from the Empire Cheese vendor at the Saturday Peterborough Farmer's Market. He looked at me like I was crazy - why on earth would I want to make my own cheese? After making some successful fresh ricotta cheese I can tell you that it is very, very, very rewarding. That is why you should make your own cheese.

Susan told me that while there are many steps to making mozza, it's actually fairly simple. What's important to remember is that once the ingredients have come to the right temperature, and you're ready to start working the mozzarella, things happen very fast. Read the recipe a few times so that you have a good grasp of how and when you need to jump to action. You need to stretch and play with the curds in order for them to come together into mozzarella. The curds need to be warm for this. Susan has said that this stage just takes practice - the more you do it, the more you recognize how the curds should feel before being shaped into the mozzarella.

You will need:
Stainless steel pot
Candy thermometer
Bottled/filtered water
Cheesecloth and strainer or colander
Wooden spoon
Knife

Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
This recipe is designed to make a large batch for a restaurant's use. You will want to reduce the measurements quite a bit if you're just making it for your Insalata caprese or pizza margharita

12 L homo milk
2 tsp citric acid
1 tsp rennet mixed with 2 cups bottled water

1. Pour the milk into a stainless steel pot
2. Heat, stirring, to 80 degrees Fahrenheit
3. Add citric acid, continue to heat to 90 degrees Fahrenheit
4. Once temperature is reached, turn the burner off
5. Add rennet, stir and leave to curdle (about 20 minutes for this large batch)
6. Cut into the curds making a criss-cross pattern
7. Heat curd mixture on high for 10 minutes
8. Strain mixture into a strainer or colander lined with cheesecloth set over a pot. This will allow the whey to drain from the curd. Reserve whey.
9. Press curds (in cheesecloth and colander) to remove moisture
10. Heat the whey (which has been reserved in the pot), to 165 degrees Fahrenheit
11. Add the curd back into the whey for a few seconds to reheat the curd - it must be warm to stretch
12. Stretch and shape the curd, pulling it and pinching it into a ball
13. Store the mozzarella ball in cold water and salt, or, like they do at St. Veronus, in some beer

Alternatively, you can purchase some lovely Buffalo mozzarella at Chasing The Cheese on Water Street. I spent some time with Jacquie Mellor, an employee of Chasing The Cheese, and she gave me some great tips on composing a cheeseboard. I won't overload you with them now, but watch for them in my next post.

Good eating!

It's been a while...

Hi.

Sorry I've been MIA.

Summer is always so busy. Work picks up, social life picks up, housework picks up...

I've been away from my blog for over a month and I've been thinking about it a lot. I needed to return.

I've been cooking a lot. Using up all the great things growing in our backyard and coming into season at the Farmer's Market. This is truly the best time of year to be cooking. Everything is so fresh and delicious. Everything tastes good together! I can't divulge everything I've been doing in the kitchen over the six weeks I've been away, so here's a collection of thoughts that will give you a quick snap shot of my summer so far.

My new favourite ingredient is chili - fresh or dried. I'm using it in everything. Dried chili sauteed with Swiss Chard, in soups, sauces, roasted with vegetables. Fresh chili in salsa, marinades and salad dressings. I believe it is as essential as fresh lemon. It adds flavour, brightness and an overall better-ness to everything I make.

I love cooking in summer because everything can be done outdoors and tastes great with next to no cooking - as contradictory as that sounds. This week we enjoyed linguine with a next-to-not-cooked tomato sauce: local cherry toms crushed with some melted butter, balsamic, fresh herbs and chili, of course. I added some onion chevre from local goat farmers and cheese makers Cross Wind Farms. It was simple, fresh and tasty.

Roasted cauliflower, while roasting is not very summery, is awesome. I've had it at two great Toronto restaurants over the last six weeks and copied their recipes at home. Last week I went to Brockton General on Dundas West for the first time. It's a really cool little spot. They print the day's menu on a large roll of butcher paper pulled down along the wall. You get what's on offer, and, if my one visit is any indication, the few things on offer are always good. Roasted cauliflower with garlic, bacon and fresh basil. So delicious. I did it at home minus the bacon adding chili, lemon juice and celery.

Celery is one of my new favourite vegetables. While I find it rather boring raw, it's fantastic sauteed or roasted. We know celery is essential when making a roast (a trivet of celery, carrot and onion makes gravy) and that it is crucial in mirepoix (the base of many soups and sauces), but it will also contribute great flavour to vegetable and lentil dishes. I've been using it a lot in new ways and I can taste the difference. Next time you roast or saute a vegetable throw in a little chopped celery for flavour. It's not meant to be the star of the dish, but it will become an ingredient you talk about, as in "wow, that celery really makes a difference!"

Peas are a spring vegetable. Did you know that? If you get greedy and decide you are going to leave the pod on the plant because you think it'll get bigger and you'll have massive peas (why you ever wanted that is still inexplicable) what will happen is the pod will start to dry and shrivel. You'll, unintentionally, have dried peas. Dried peas are great if it's the dead of winter and you want to make split pea soup. They are incredibly disappointing when it's the height of summer and you've waited three (or four) long months for sweet, fresh, spring peas. Too bad you're so greedy...

Fava beans are awesome. I think I already knew this, but now that I grow them and eat them the day they are picked I really know their awesome-ness.

And... while on the topic of the garden. The tomatoes are turning colour and my garlic is ready to eat. I'm sorry if this seems a bit too precious, but when I'm cooking and using the garlic I've grown in my backyard instead of the stuff you buy from the grocery that comes from China, I feel great. It's. Really. Great.


See you soon. Real soon.