So this blog is a little late but better late than never. So a few weeks ago I set out on two challenges; the first was making homemade cheese, the second was having a a couple and their baby over for dinner but not spend all day cooking. Let's start with the cheese...
First off making fresh cheese (or Queso Fresco) is surprisingly easy and requires about 45 minutes of active cooking time and 2 to 3 hours of passive cooking time. What do you need? Well it's pretty simple a Gallon of Whole Milk, two cups of Buttermilk, some Citric Acid (which you can actually find at grocery stores, usually called Sour Salt) and a cheese cloth.
It really is easy to make and well worth trying it out. The more and more I am making fresh homemade food the more and more it makes me think about where our food comes from and how it gets there. As an American culture why don't we drive to local farms and learn how to milk a cow, or churn some butter, or make our own cheese? I think if we did these kinds of activities and really see where our food comes from and how it is made we would think of food not just as fuel but really as a little miracle on a plate.
Now on to the dinner party...
When discussing this project with other people one of the complaints I hear regularly is that they would love to have people over more often but cooking is so time consuming. The solution for many is not to have anyone over or buy a bunch of prepackaged pre-made food. While it is true you certainly can spend hours cooking a feast it doesn't have to be this way. In fact I made simple chipotle rubbed skirt steak and chicken tacos (with homemade corn tortillas), cowboy beans, and tomatilla salsa con queso fresco in about an hour and a half. The best part was when our guests came over I taught our friend Chelsea how to make the corn tortillas and she took over and made the whole batch.
This was so rewarding to me because it is part of what I want this blog to be about. Community through food. Here we had our guests and their baby and we all participated in making and eating this great but simple food. And it was all made from scratch!! We knew exactly what we were eating and it was so flavorful (if I do say so myself)!
I guess this project teaches me more and more that good food made from scratch (even cheese) doesn't have to be complicated.
Separating the Curds from the Whey
The final product
Tomatilla Salsa con Queso Fresco
The feast
Homemade Tortillas
Tacos
My Molcajete named Bonita (Thanks Chelsea for the name)
Chelsea and her little Sous Chef Owen
p.s.
For any of you adventurous types who want to make your own cheese here is a link to the recipe:
and here is a great cookbook of fairly quick and delicious (and surprisingly healthy) mexican food.
