Kim Pezza
6 tomatoes (medium to large), ½ inch slices
Soft goat cheese (your choice of flavor)
Fresh small baguette, cut in half or loaf of French bread cut into thirds or fourths
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt, to taste
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste
Sugar, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Mix together the salt, cracked pepper, sugar and garlic powder to create a dry rub. Place tomatoes on parchment covered cookie sheet and generously sprinkle rub mix on slices. Bake at 225°F until tomato slices are roasted and dry to the touch, but still quite pliable. This could take 3 or more hours, depending on your oven.
Lightly toast bread. Place roasted tomatoes and crumbled goat cheese on one side of the bread. Place under a broiler until cheese melts slightly. Remove, and top with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Cover with top piece of bread. Serve warm or cold.
Variations:
Sprinkle extra rub on sandwich before serving.
Rub toasted bread with roasted or raw garlic before building sandwich.
Use garlic or roasted garlic oil instead of olive oil.
Wiki Cookbooks
1 hour
11 ounces goat cheese, room temperature
1 (5.2-ounce) package Boursin brand cheese, room temperature
4 ounces Ricotta cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon minced chives
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
2 teaspoons minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
1 cup flour, for dredging
3 eggs, beaten lightly (to make an egg wash)
About 1 cup bread crumbs
4 tablespoons olive oil
In a mixing bowl, combine goat cheese, Boursin and ricotta cheese, and set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, shallot, chives, thyme, basil and tarragon. Cook just until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Fold herbs into cheese mixture. Cover and refrigerate until mixture is firm, at least 30 minutes. When cheese mixture is firm, divide it into 8 equal portions and form each portion into a cake about ¾-inch thick. Dredge each cake in flour, then shake off excess flour.
Dip each cake in egg wash, then into breadcrumbs, covering well on both sides. Set on a wire rack. Heat oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat. Gently add cheese cakes and fry until golden on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Drain on a wire rack.
Makes 8 cakes.
Wiki Cookbooks
2 large red bell peppers
1–2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
¼ cup red wine
1 pound pasta
4 ounces goat cheese (bouchon, crottin, or generic chevre)
Basil, to taste
Oregano, to taste
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Skin and finely chop or process the red peppers. Place in saucepan and cover with water. Crush and add garlic (I leave the cloves in; some people may want to fish them out later). Cover and stir in wine and olive oil until simmering.
Add basil, oregano, and Tabasco, stirring occasionally at simmer; allow sauce to begin cooking down. While you’re doing this, make the pasta the usual way. Remember that the sauce only needs to take its sweet time to cook down. Cut the rind from the goat cheese; you only want the inner part for this.
As soon as the pasta and sauce are ready, toss them, and the goat cheese, together in your serving dish. You have to do this fast, so the goat cheese will melt through the sauce and over the pasta. Stirring the goat cheese into the sauce could result in burned sauce.
Serves 4.
Wiki Cookbooks
½ teaspoon Island Spice Scotch Bonnet Pepper Soya Sauce
2 ounces scallion or spring onion
2 pounds ground goat meat
1 teaspoon salt
2 bundles fresh thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
Half a loaf of French bread
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup lard
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon ground turmeric (or ½ teaspoon Jamaican Curry Powder and ½ teaspoon annatto for coloring)
Filling, for patties
½ cup milk
Grind scallion and Island Spice Scotch Bonnet Pepper Soya sauce. Add to ground meat with salt and thyme, and cook. While beef is cooking, pour cold water over bread in a saucepan to cover and soak for a few minutes, squeeze dry saving the water.
Pass bread through mincing mill and return the ground bread to the water with thyme and cook until bread is dry. Combine meat and cooked bread. Add paprika and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Sift flour, turmeric (for coloring), curry powder, salt and knead in lard. Bind with water to form a firm dough and knead for 2 minutes. Roll pastry 1/8 inch thick. Cut pastry round 6 inches. For extra patty crust flakiness, roll out brush with lard, fold over and roll again. Do this about 3 times.
Divide meat filling between patties, brush edges with water. Fold over and seal glaze with milk. Bake on top shelf of oven for about 25 minutes.
2 large onions
2 carrots
1½ pounds goat meat
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons tomato puree
½ bay leaf
⅛ teaspoon cloves
⅛ teaspoon ginger
Dash cayenne
Dash salt and white pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons flour
Peel and dice the onions, and slice the carrots. Finely dice the meat, and crush the garlic. Heat peanut butter to medium heat and sauté the meat and vegetables for a few minutes. Add tomato puree, spices, lemon juice, and stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer until meat is tender. Mix peanut butter and flour and stir into the stew. Let simmer for a few more minutes and check for seasoning.
Wiki Recipes
¼ pound goat cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 radish, diced
4 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup romaine lettuce
½ cup spinach
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Slice goat cheese, brush with oil and broil until golden. Serve on top of salad with diced radish and sun-dried tomatoes. Drizzle with oil and vinegar.
Wiki Recipes
2 pounds goat meat, diced
1–2 onions, quartered
2–3 hot chili peppers, cleaned and chopped
1 cup water
4 cups meat broth or stock
2 tablespoons ground dried shrimp
1 small bunch fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh or dried utazi leaves (or bitterleaf)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Allspice
Anise pepper
Anise seeds
Cloves
Coriander seeds
Cumin seeds
Dried ginger
Fennel seeds
Tamarind pulp
In a deep pot or Dutch oven, combine meat, onions, chili peppers, and a cup of water. Bring to a boil and cook until meat is done, simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, adding water as necessary to keep pot from becoming dry.
Make a mix from the seasoning mix ingredients. Add the seasoning and the broth or stock (or water) and simmer over low heat for 10 to 20 minutes. Add the dried shrimp, mint leaves, and utazi leaves. Add salt and pepper according to taste.
Simmer until soup is to be served.
Wiki Recipes
¾ cup pumpkin seeds, or egusi, usually found in African or tropical food markets
1½ pounds cubed goat meat
½ cup palm oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 habañero peppers
½ cup crayfish
1 tablespoons ogiri
Salt and pepper
Chicken bouillon
Beef stock
1 pound fresh spinach, washed and chopped
Basil (optional)
Place egusi (pumpkin seeds) in a blender and blend for 30 to 40 seconds or until mixture is a powdery paste and set aside. Also blend in the crayfish, ogiri, habañero pepper and half onion, set aside. Mince other half onion into bite-size cubes. Season to taste in a large pan. Heat oil over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Add minced onion and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes or until brown, then add the crayfish, pepper and ogiri blend.
Cook for 5 minutes, and then add into already cooked meat with stock. Add blended egusi, stir and reduce heat to low-medium. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until meat is tender. Add spinach and continue to simmer 10 minutes more. Optional, add some fresh, chopped basil to increase flavor.
Wiki Recipes
3 pounds stewing goat meat
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium onion, chopped or ground in blender
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Fresh red tomatoes, chopped or ground in blender (optionally, one 6-ounce can tomato paste)
1 teaspoon dried red pepper, crushed or ground
1 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
2 Maggi cubes (optional)
1 teaspoon thyme leaves (optional)
Cut goat meat into small pieces and place in stewing pot. Combine with water, salt, and onion. Boil until meat is tender. Drain, remove meat from pot and save water in a bowl. Heat oil in stewing pot, add and brown onion. Add meat and ground tomatoes or dilute tomato paste with water and add to meat. Add the remaining ingredients one by one, stirring each as added.
Simmer for 10 minutes and serve.
Wiki Recipes
4 ounce fresh, mild, soft goat cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh marjoram
8 large fresh zucchini blossoms
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups vine-ripened cherry or other small tomatoes, halved or quartered, or two large vine-ripened tomatoes cut in bite-sized pieces
Salt to taste
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil baking sheet or line with parchment paper, and set aside. Mix cheese with half basil and half marjoram. Form into 8 balls of equal size. Inspect blossoms for insects, and snap off pistils inside flowers with fingertips. Cut stems to about 1 inch. Put ball of cheese inside each blossom, and arrange on baking sheet. Brush blossoms with half the olive oil, and season lightly with salt. Bake stuffed blossoms for 7 to 10 minutes, or until petals collapse onto cheese and sizzle slightly around the edges. Meanwhile, toss tomato halves or slices with remaining olive oil, marjoram and basil and season with salt.
To serve, arrange salad on four plates, and top with warm blossoms.
(from Wikibooks)
Home cheese making has been in practice for thousands of years and comprised nearly all cheese production until the 19th century. While factory cheese production has taken over the majority of the market, many people still make cheese in the traditional fashion.
Milk contains a wide variety of fats and proteins. Some of these are suspended solids and minerals; others are liquids. The process of separating the solids from the liquids is curdling; the white solid remainder is known as curds, and the greenish liquid remainder whey. Cheese is curds in a wide variety of forms. Soft cheeses are little changed from the original curd; they are typically drained but not pressed, and are usually unaged. Semisoft (or semi-hard) cheeses are drained and lightly pressed, and may be aged. Hard cheeses are drained and well pressed, and are almost always aged.
To cause milk to curdle requires a curdling agent. There are a wide variety of curdling agents available in nature, both plant and animal based—a quick search of the Internet will show some to you. In practice, only a few are regularly used in cheese making. Vinegar is commonly used in soft cheeses, and also assists in making ricotta; it creates a sticky curd in small flecks. Lemon juice is also used in a few soft cheeses. Tartaric acid is the sharp, lemony curdling agent that makes mascarpone cheese, and creates a very fine sticky curd. For most semisoft and hard cheeses, rennet is used. There are three types of rennet in common usage. The most traditional rennet is animal rennet; this is an enzyme taken from the digestive tract of mammals. For vegetarians, more companies are producing a “vegetable” rennet. These are not truly vegetable, but are microbial based.
Color is related to two things: the natural color (which is usually a creamy white to pale yellow), and additives. The most common color additive is annatto, an extract of the dark red seeds of plants in the Bixacae family, typically grown in South America. Their dark red/orange color dilutes into the typical cheddar-yellow that we’re all familiar with. Annatto coloring is generally available in two forms: powder and liquid. The powder can take time to dissolve, and should be added as early in the cheese making process as possible (preferably during pasteurization, as the heat helps it dissolve). The liquid extract is easily mixed in, and can be added at any point before the curdling agent is added.
Traditional food coloring does not work well at all for coloring curds; it tends to remain in the whey instead of the curd. However, adding food coloring to uncolored curds after they have been drained but before they have been pressed leads to an attractive mottled pattern rarely found in commercial cheeses.
1. Pasteurization
2. Cooling (in cold water or snow)
3. Inoculation (in all cheeses that age except surface-ripened cheeses)
4. Curdling (using a curdling agent)
5. Cooking (typically only rennet-based cheeses)
6. Draining
7. Salting (mixed into the curds)
8. Pressing (on most semisoft cheeses and all hard cheeses)
9. Brining (on brined cheeses)
10. Aging (on aged cheeses)
General Rules for Making All Cheeses
• Always pasteurize your milk, even if you bought it from the store.
• When pasteurizing milk, do not forget to stir. If you’re forgetful, set a timer. If you forget to stir, the milk will scald; scalded milk should never be used.
• Do your best to avoid contaminating your sample. Try not to put anything that’s not clean (including unclean hands) into your cheese.
• Make milk-cheeses in batches of at least two gallons to save time (requires a large pot).