Moka Stovetop Espresso Pot

If you love expresso as much as I do, you have got to have one of these. I think that every house in Italy has at least two. The “Moka” Espresso Pot could trick a blind-folded Starbucks barista into thinking that this came out of a shot brewed at 190 degrees for 27 seconds. You can find these Moka Espresso Pot’s at most specialty kitchen stores or online for around $15-20. Pick up some Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters coffee and ask them to grind it fine.

Vanilla Bean Syrup

This is a very helpful and versatile tool to have around the kitchen. You can add this to just about anything from your afternoon coffee to yogurt to a homemade cream soda drink. This is very simple to make and will keep for up to two weeks.

Makes a 1/2 pint

1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of sugar
1 whole vanilla bean split and seeded


Combine water and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil, let simmer for 1 to 2 min. Pour into a canning jar then add the vanilla bean. Keep uncovered until completely cooled, then screw on the top and let steep for two days.

Quick tip: Don’t waste the vanilla bean, put the scraped vanilla bean pod in your sugar to infuse some vanilla flavor in your sugar.

Farmers Markets May 21

What to look for at the markets this weekend.

The growing season in Texas is well underway. As the weather is starting to warm up a bit, start looking for those sweet little berries to start popping up everywhere along with some peaches. Here is a list of what you should find this weekend:

Strawberries, Peaches, possibly some blue berries and black berries, assortment of squash, green beans, new potatoes, cauliflower, mushrooms, greens are still around, lettuce has slowed, but there are still some very nice hydro lettuce out there. All the pastured meats and eggs will be there along with some great pastries and artisan breads.

Look for recipes this week to involve these seasonal goods.

Fajita's

Here's a simple farm fresh meal you can pick up at any local farmers market. I picked up some very nice onions and bell pepper at the market last weekend, then got some dry aged flank steak from 3J Beef (you can use free range chicken as well). Made with some fresh tortillas. Here is how I prepared the meal.

Sliced onion and bell peppers, then tossed with some vegetable oil and salt and pepper. Let sit for about 20 minutes in a bowl.

For the flank steak, all I use is salt and pepper. When you get a great cut of meat, all I ever use as a dry rub is salt and pepper to let the true flavors come out in the meat.

For the tortillas:
3 cups of whole grain flour (I use a “sifted” whole grain from Homestead Farms)
5 tablespoons of shortening
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of warm water

Place 3 cups of flour in a vertical mixer with hook attachment. Start on slow speed and add in the shortening 1 tablespoon at a time. Once you have 5 tablespoons of shortening slowly add in the salt and let incorporate. Finally slowly add the cup of warm water to the mix. Once you have a nice dough (about 1-2 min) pull out of mixer and let rest on the table for about 20 min. Divide the dough into about 10-12 dough balls and round them with your hand. Roll the dough balls out with a rolling pin to about 1.5 mm thick.

Heat a cast iron skillet on med-high and place the tortilla on the skillet for about 45 seconds, then turn over and cook the other side for about 30 seconds. You may need to adjust the heat so you don’t burn the tortillas.

I normally start the meat on the grill the same time that I am starting the tortillas, so everything is ready at the same time. So once you finish with your final tortilla, make sure that you are wrapping them with a clean dish towel or linen to keep them warm, your cast iron skillet should be nice and hot to throw your onions and peppers right in. Cook them for about 7 min or until they look good and tasty. Slice your flank steak up and serve in the cast iron skillet at the table with your fresh whole grain tortillas.

This is very simple and very fast. I normally have dinner ready with in about 30 min.

Goes well with salsa (which will be another recipe coming soon) and fresh lime margaritas!

Making Butter and Yogurt

On sundays I normally make about a pound of butter and a quart of yogurt for the week. I start by skimming the cream off the milk. I use non-homogenized milk, where the cream sits on top. I use a spigot jar, you can find this jars anywhere, or something with a large top opening. Pour your non-homogenized milk into the jar and let it settle. You will start to see a line in the jar where the cream starts to settle. Take a ladle and gently “skim” the cream off the milk and put in a separate container. The milk that will be left is skim milk, which you can drink, or I will make show you how to make some yogurt.

For the butter, I normally get a little cream and set aside in a small container for my coffee in the morning, i normally get about a quart of cream per 1 gallon of milk. My kids love to make butter, because it is so simple and the only equipment needed is a quart jar and two hands.

The ingredients you will need to make the butter:
1 quart cream
salt to taste
I have found that if you leave the cream out at room temp them butter starts to separate from the butter milk faster and with less effort.

Pour the cream into two separate quart jars. You only fill them half way to give enough headspace for the cream to expand. Screw the lid on tightly.
Shake or “churn” the cream for about 6-8 minutes. When the butter starts to form, you will hear and start to fill the sloshing and the butter will then start to make a “thud” sound.
The next step is draining the buttermilk off and washing the butter. Simply open the lid and with your finger hold the butter in the jar and pour off the buttermilk. Save the butter milk for many other applications in baking or dressings (we like to make ranch dressing with ours). Once all the buttermilk is drained, you will need to wash the butter. I put about a 1/2 cup of cold water back into the jar with the butter and shake the butter/water around for about 30 seconds, then drain the water from the butter, and repeat this process again until you get clear water.
Dump your butter into a bowl and add salt to taste.

The butter will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, it freezes as well.

Since that was so very hard and sooo time consuming, all of ten minutes? Lets make some yogurt which is just as easy.

For the yogurt you will need a starter culture. If this is your first time making yogurt you can us a store-bough yogurt that is labeled “containing active cultures.” I have found that starting with a thinner brand of yogurt aren’t as successful in making yogurt.

The ingredients need to make yogurt:
1 quart of whole or skim milk
1/8 cup of starter yogurt
If using raw milk, unpasteurized milk, you will need to pasteurize it, simply heat the milk on medium heat to 180.
Remove the milk from heat and let cool to 115-120 degrees. If using pasteurized milk, simply heat the milk up to 115-120 degrees.
After the milk is at 115-120, pour into a quart jar with the 1/8 cup of starter yogurt. Stir with a whisk until the yogurt is mixed into the milk.
Place the lid on the jar and wrap in a bath towel (that helps keep the mixture maintain a warm environment). Set the jar in a warm spot, I put it on top of a hot water heater, fro 4-6 hours. Do not disturb the jar during the incubation period. when the yogurt has thickened up, unwrap the jar and let cool in refrigerator.

The yogurt will keep up to about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. If you like thicker yogurt, you can add a teaspoon of milk powder to the milk when heating it. We eat yogurt with some granola and fruit for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

We also did some pickling and canning today but I'll save that for another post.

INTRO

Okay, so here we go. I am starting a blog as a guide to help navigate you through eating/cooking local for your family. In doing this, I will help with simple, straight forward recipes for weekly meals of products that are in season. I will have formulas for baking, recipes for canning/pickling, how-to-guides for artisan cheese making at home, and much more.

Little about me... I am a professionally trained baker, a father of four children (Ben, Clementine, Anna Claire & Callahan) and married to Kim. Kim and I have owned and operated the Village Baking Company for the past 8 years. For the last year and a half we have been selling our Artisan Breads and Pastries at farmers markets around DFW and Austin. Kim grew up on a century old Farm and Ranch in the Panhandle. Her family owns and operates 3J Cattle Company and 3J Beef, Inc., where they produce hormone free, dry aged beef around.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is going to be very simple. I will show different areas to make cooking local in your kitchen very simple and straight forward. We will not be reinventing the wheel here, most of the techniques will be coming from many generations ago.

Normally we go out to the farmers markets on Saturday morning. I buy enough ingredients for our family of six to eat on all week (80% local) and then go to Central Market Whole Foods, Market Street or Sprouts to fill up the other 20%. Most everything that we buy is organic. At the Farmers Market, I normally pick up extra produce that is in season to can on Sundays along with making some cheese, butter and yogurt. Luckily, we have a freezer full of venison and some of the best beef from 3J Beef (all natural-dry aged). We have a small herb garden and three chickens for eggs and then fill in the remaining products with all the great products that are produced locally around here.

This week, May 14th, we picked up some greens, onions, red potatoes, snap peas, squash, herbs, pickling cucumbers, strawberries, peaches, milk, hot-house tomatoes, Italian sausage, and some chicken. I am going to can the tomatoes and pickle the cucumbers with some dill. There were some really nice looking green beans out there today, but i have tons already to eat that I canned last year. I am going to see how these early season peaches are before I make them into jam or pies. This is the first week, so I probably need to let them ripen a bit, before making a decision.

For a weekly menu, we normally have some sort of pasta with homemade noodles (you can also buy really nice dried noodles at the farmers market), a meal with chicken and fresh veggies a couple of times a week, something beef (steak or hamburger) and fresh Veggies, and we like to throw in some tex-mex once a week as well. On the weekends, Saturday night and Sunday night I like to do something special like foie gras! I love foie gras!

Here are some pictures that I took at the farmers market this morning. I will go over how to skim the cream off the milk to make butter and use the skim milk for yogurt all week, again think VERY SIMPLE. I will also show some pictures, probably tomorrow about canning the tomatoes and pickling the cucumbers. I will be posting some recipes about the pasta and some of the other meals that we will be making for our family this week. I also really need to brew some more beer soon, as my keg is about to float!