Recipes & Nutrition Bits

results of my 1 liter fresh cheese fiascoThis has been my cooking thrill of the past month. White, creamy, fresh cheese..infused with anise, black cardamom, a bay leaf and seasoned with some salt.

I’m totally fascinated with making cheese and eating it as Paneer. I won’t go into much detail about how to make it. But I will tell you that with my small German kitchen (about 6 sq meters), I can only work with about 1 liter of milk in my 4 liter Ikea +365 stainless pot at a time -beyond this point, cheese making becomes a major fiasco.

Some great links for making fresh cheese:

• Do you make your own paneer? - beautifully photo documented but I think the next one explains it better.
• Cooking with Kurma - I got an ‘ah ha’ after reading this
• Ricotta Making Illustrated - what to do with the whey

Yes do save the whey! Use it for the following:

• add to curry, like chicken masala,
• soak the paneer before use or after the paneer is fried in oil,
• soak (not cook) beans for at least 24-hours,
• substitute water with it when making slow-rise bread,
• in pickles or Sauerkraut making

that is.. homemade, gourmet Käsespätzle sauce and store bought Spätzle. How could I spend another hour making the noodles when there’s perfectly good, fresh Spätzle in the store.. calling my name, Hees saa?

It’s fantastic! I could eat buckets full of this stuff. I jazzed up a typical cheese sauce recipe with Max’s “Ente Mehlschwitze”(Duck rue) (about a 30g/30g flour to fat ratio) and a splash of Vermouth before adding 250 ml Milk and 200 ml of water.

The story goes back to about two weeks ago during a dinner engagement at Max’s. He pulled out all the stops to impress us with a roasted duck and traditional Bavarian fixings. One thing he forgot to make in his all-too-tiny kitchen was a sauce for the duck and potato dumplings. So we together whipped up something of half-ready Roux with all of the fat to make enough for two gallon of sauce.

I rationed out just about the right amount of Roux for the evening and coyly asked Max if I could take some left over Roux home with me (Roux stores forever frozen and about 1 month in the fridge). I imaging he thought I was just trying to help him clean up the leftover chaos, but that stuff he had in the pot was worth hours of sweat over precious flavor and potentially heavenly sauces.

I could barely contain myself when he gave me a jelly jar full. Score! Still, because of time constraints (sauces take forever but the results are worth it) my sauce that evening was a bit too flourly. Still it was fun spending time with Max and Veronika.

My Käsespätzle sauce has about 150 g of Gouda and about two slices of some cheese called ‘old Amsterdam’, (a hard cheese, mildly sharp) but you could stick to Gouda or add some cheddar if you’re lucky. I added sliced cherry tomatoes and green onions to a pan of hot butter before browning the ready-made Spätzle and smothering it was my cheese sauce.

Did I mention? This isn’t diet food. It’s next to heart-attack food. Make sure you have your stationary bike near by if you attempt to make this dish. Happy Monday and Happy Eating.

P.S. Yes, I could tell you how to make homemade Spätzle but that burns too many calories for this post.

creamy broccoli cheese soup brought up a hearty notchI love the taste of Chili's or Panera's Broccoli Cheddar soups, but they are engineered for the masses. They tend to be waterier and lack the heartiness (and nutrition) of homemade soups. Here's a recipe I adapted from others I have seen on the web. I hit it right on the money on the first try -excellent, thick and tasty. The vegetable measurements are estimates. You may have to add more vegetable broth if you have more veggies in your soup. Romanesco is also called Broccoflower.

+ 3 Tbs butter
+ 1 carrot, finely chopped
+ 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
+ 1/2 cup bell pepper, finely chopped
+ 2 cloves garlic, minced
+ 2 Tbs flour
+ 2 cup vegetable stock
(I use Alnatura Klare Gemüsebrühe)
+ 1 1/2 cup brocco stem pieces and some florets, chopped
+ 1 cup peeled potato, small cubes
+ 2 cups milk
+ 2 cups grated Gouda Cheese
+ 1 1/2 cups broccoli, broccoflower, cauliflower florets, bite size
+ 1/4 tsp finely grated hazelnut
+ salt and pepper to taste
+ chili sauce for garnish and spice

1. Melt 3 Tbs butter over medium heat in a large soup pot
2. Add carrot, onion, red bell pepper and garlic to pot and cook until veggies are tender.
3. Remove the pot from the burner and add 2 Tbs flour. Stir until well mixed with the vegetables.
4. Then pour in vegetable stock and return pot to burner. Whisk until stock and flour are well blended.
5. Add brocco pieces, potatoes to the stock
6. You may have to add more stock to cover the vegetables. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and cover. Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender.
7. Use a hand mixer to puree the vegetables until the mixture is thick and smooth.
8. Add 2 cups of milk and heat until the soup gets warm again
9. Sprinkle 2 cups of gouda cheese and stir until melted
10. Add brocco florets and allow to cook a bit in the simmering soup for a few minutes. Then serve