Apricot Butter

Boozy, salty, sweet, fruity butter.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup cognac or other brandy
2 TB brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
Salt

Equipment:  Long match or stick lighter.

Soak apricots in cognac in a small saucepan for 10 minutes.  Then turn on heat and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, ignite! Whee! The alcohol will shoot some tall blue flames into the air and will burn for a good little while.

Once the flames die off, turn heat to medium, add brown sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Take off heat, scrape into a food processor, and allow to cool.  Add the butter and process.  Salt the mixture to taste and eat on bread.

Look how fun!!

Chris's Foolproof Cold-Brew Coffee

My spouse has spent I-don't-know-how-many hours tinkering with his cold-brew, which is now my favorite coffee anywhere.  He finally typed it up for us:  

There are two great things about making cold-brew coffee. First, this method results in a very low-acid brew. The coffee is sweet and chocolatey, and great for mornings or before a long run. Second, once you make a pitcher of this, you've got coffee in an instant for at least a week. 

The key here is the nut-milk bag. I've tried this just pouring the coffee through a filter or cheese cloth, and it takes forever and creates a big mess. With the bag, this is no harder than making a pot of tea.

Ingredients/equipment:

2 cups dark-roast coffee, medium grind

4 cups cold water

1 nut milk bag

1 large bowl

1 large pitcher

(Optional) large coffee filter or cheesecloth + mesh strainer

This is a coffee-inefficient brew method, but fortunately you can use an inexpensive preground coffee. I usually use a store brand french roast.Eight O' Clock works great, too. There's no reason you can't grind your own, but I don't think it is really worth the effort here.

Here goes nothing:

1. Put the coffee in the nut milk bag, and the nut milk bag and the water in the bowl.

2. (Optional) Put something heavy on the nut-milk bag to keep it below the surface.

3. Put the coffee (in the nut milk bag in the water in the bowl) in the refrigerator for 12-18 hours, You can stir it up once or twice if you remember.  Set a phone alarm so you don't let it sit too long.

4. Remove the nut milk bag from the bowl, giving it a good two-handed squeeze to get the last of the good stuff out.

5. Ladle or pour the coffee concentrate from the bowl to the pitcher.  A bowl with a spout makes this easier.

6. (Highly optional) If you want to be really persnickety about this (like me), put a large coffee filter or cheese cloth in a strainer and pour the coffee through that into the pitcher to remove any fine sediment that got through the nut milk bag.  

Now you've got a coffee concentrate that will last for a week in the fridge, probably two if you get a hermetic pitcher.

The recipe can be scaled as long as you maintain the water-to-coffee ratio.

Again, it's a concentrate, so when ready to enjoy, pour over ice and add an equal amount water. (Or, if your name is "Sarah," about 2 parts water to one part concentrate,) Milk and simple syrup are optional but delicious. 

Late Winter Meals: Eating Lately (Refried Beans with Veggie Hash and Eggs, Sausage Soup, and Polenta Bowls)

It's been a long winter here in Boston. This week we have a reprieve, but since the God of Prediction Nate Silver says we're probably gonna get more snow, well, I thought I'd better post our late winter staple meals. I'm starting to move onto lighter fare, but I'm sure that these three will make at least one more appearance each before it's really spring.

Sausage Soup
I've made soooo many variations of sausage soup this year. I took photos of none. But! Look! Someone else already did a better job than I ever could on the food photography and recipe development front! Lucky for you, Deb Perelman's version is delicious and hearty, with sausage, lentils, chard, and garlic. I subbed the carrots and celery for potatoes and red peppers and think it was the favorite attempt of the season.

Refried Beans with Veggie Hash and Eggs
A pretty standard improvised weeknight meal for us. I just pick my favorite veggies -- usually red peppers, potatoes, jalapenos, garlic, shallots, and kale -- chop 'em up and saute them in olive oil, with tons of salt and pepper.

Right before they're finished I clear two little spaces in the pan for my eggs, crack 'em and fry in a bit of butter while the veggies finish cooking. Serve it up with hot refried beans and either rice or warm corn tortillas. Sharp cheddar and avocado are always welcome additions, and spooning on some of this hot chili garlic sauce is a must.

Polenta Bowls
A long time ago, Annalise tried to sell me on Joy the Baker's Baked Polenta with Tomato and Basil. Ever the know-it-all, I assured her I wouldn't like it. Then I moved to Boston now I make my own version of it at least weekly. My apologies for the condescension, sweet sister. Clearly, you know what's up and what's good.

We skip the baking, preferring bowls of soft, cheesy stovetop-polenta made as per the instructions of the package, plus a little extra Parmesan and butter. I like to make a simple marinara from tomato paste for our bowls. So easy, so good, so damn cheap. Just dice some garlic and onions, cook in olive oil, add a 6 oz. can of tomato paste, Italian spices, 1 and 1/2 cups water, and a pinch of sugar. Then simmer. I sometimes throw in white beans, mushrooms, peppers, or whatever else for substance and nutrients.

Want to make a quick meal, and have no time for marinara? Just throw some grape tomatoes in when you add the polenta to the boiling water. They'll burst, and you can just serve it all up with some pesto. Or add a pat of butter and wilted greens.

Food Allergies and Ethics
All gluten free. Sausage soup - not vegetarian. But you got that, right? None of this is vegan. Sorry about that, but the theme of this winter was "it snowed and I ate cheese."

Yogurt: A Collaborative Sororial Post

Sarah dictated her foolproof yogurt-making process to ace interviewer Katelyn, who transcribed and gave it back for editing, and here you have it:  

Homemade yogurt is awesome, saves a ton of $$, and isn't all that effortful, although it takes 1 or 2 tries to get in the swing of it.  I make it roughly every 2 weeks on Sunday nights.

You will need:

A starter yogurt.  I like Noosa best if you can get it.  Fage works great too.  You need at least 2 TB; I usually use about 1/2 a cup.  Or, you can buy a stable culture online at www.culturesforhealth.com.  (They also have a lot of good advice and info on their site.)

Half a gallon of full-fat, high-quality, pasteurized (but not ultra-pasteurized) milk.  If you make a gallon at a time, it takes a LOT longer to heat and cool the milk, so I've decided a half gallon is the perfect amount.

A stock pot big enough to hold all of your milk; a soup pot to boil water in for sterilizing things; a strainer; a whisk; a ladle; a cooking thermometer; enough canning jars to hold 1/2 gallon total; and a cooler big enough to hold all the jars.   (Canning tools are nice to help handle the hot jars, but not necessary.)

About an hour (mostly because of the time to heat and cool the milk).

To make the yogurt:

1.  Assemble equipment and get your starter yogurt out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature.

2.  Heat the milk in the stock pot up to 175 degrees (Farenheit) to scald it.  Start stirring when it gets up to about 165 to prevent it from boiling over.  (Since we're using a strainer, don't worry too much about some milk cooking to the bottom of the pot.)  As soon as it hits 175, take it off the heat.

3.  Cool the milk to 120.  This takes a LONG time at room temperature.  I recommend putting the stock pot in the freezer with the lid off and checking the temperature frequently.

4.  While the milk cools, fill your cooler with 90-degree water, just high enough that it won't come up to the lids of your jars and leak in.   And start your saucepan of water boiling to sterilize the jars.  (You can also sterilize your whisk, ladle, strainer, and canning tools at this point and lay them out on a clean towel.)

5.  When the milk gets to 120, take it out of the freezer, and whisk in your starter yogurt so the bacteria get mixed around.

6.  Then, sterilize your jars one by one, ladling the milk mixture through the strainer into each one to fill it, putting a lid on it (not too tight), and putting it in the warm water in the cooler.

7.  Leave the yogurt in the closed cooler for 10-12 hours (overnight works well). It should be quite thick and tart; the longer you leave it, the thicker and more tart it will get.  Mine comes out thick enough that you can see little bubbles frozen on the surface around the edges.

NOTES:

- I like to sterilize because that way, the yogurt lasts a VERY long time (like a month!) in the fridge.  When I tried skipping that step, I had a few batches go bad.

- I used to love thick greek-style yogurts, and experimented with straining my yogurt to get that thickness, but have come to love the delicate texture of unstrained yogurt.

- Commercial yogurts don't have stable cultures, so you need to either buy a stable culture like one from Cultures for Health (and then use your own yogurt to start each subsequent batch), or use a new starter each time.  Since we usually eat up a whole batch before I get around to making another, it's been easier for me to just buy a new starter each time - and still cost-effective given the quantity.

- If you want to make a gallon at a time, 1/2 a cup of starter yogurt is still plenty.

- If you have a spot in your house that stays at a steady 90 or 95 degrees, you could skip the cooler and just put the jars there.  (Top of water cooler, by heater, in greenhouse, etc.) 

"Ricotta"

In quotes b/c I have no idea if this is how one actually makes ricotta.  But you can't beat the level of effort:

Bring 1/2 a gallon of whole milk and a cup of cream to a boil with 1/2 a tsp of salt.  As soon as it reaches a rolling boil, toss in 4 TB fresh lemon juice, bring down to a simmer, and stir for a minute or two to make sure everything curdles.  (Fascinating!)  Drain in a cheesecloth-coated strainer for an hour.  Keep the whey for smoothies if you're into that kind of thing.  Eat.