Recipe: Creamed Honey

I love honey. I’ve always loved honey. One of my earliest memories is of the dozens of honey quart jars my parents kept in the basement. Most of them were quite older by then and fully crystallized. I loved to open the jars and crunch my way through a spoonful of crystallized honey. One of my favorite treats is still a couple slices of super-sharp cheddar and a small bowl of honey.

There was also, of course, the time I discovered that you could drop those quart jars over the side of the stairs. They made the most incredible sounds and patterns as they shattered on the basement floor, but we’ll leave that story for another time….

Anyway, in my prepping for doing beehives either this spring or next (probably next due to other issues) I discovered that creamed honey is actually quite simple to make. I had always assumed that creamed honey was, well, creamed and complex. It’s not. It’s really quite easy, and I just finished making my first quart-size batch. Delicious.

The secret to creamed honey is that it is just crystallized. Like most any substance that crystallizes, if a crystallized structure is introduced to the non-crystallized liquid, the liquid will form crystals similar to what was introduced. In English, that means that if you put big crystals in a batch of fresh honey, it will crystallize with big crystals. But if you put very small, fine crystals in the honey, you end up with creamed honey.

All you really need is some fresh honey (local is better tasting in my opinion, has stronger anti-allergenic properties for your region, and supports your local beekeeper!), a sample of creamed honey with a smooth crystal structure, and a strong arm. That’s it.

Take your fresh honey and add a portion of creamed honey equal to a tenth or so of the total amount. The actual amount truly is unimportant, and for my batch I used about two tablespoons for 1 quart. After you’ve added the creamed honey, mix it. This is where that strong arm comes in. The better your blend, the faster it’ll cream. I’ve seen some sites that recommend hooking a mixing blade up to your power drill because a standard mixer is not powerful enough to really blend the honey.

After you’ve mixed the honey, set it in a cool place to set. You’ll know when it is done when the honey no longer pours and is solid (turn it on its side; if it runs out, it’s not creamed). Mine set in about two weeks, but I’ve heard that it takes longer in really cool or really warm conditions.

One of the big advantages with creamed honey is that it won’t crystallize anymore than it already is, which is nice if you’ve got a problem with your honey setting up with big crystals that are hard to break and work with. That is also a big advantage if you need to store honey for food storage, like we do. And of course, nothing quite tops the smooth, creamy texture of a finely creamed honey.

After you’ve done your first batch and if you like the texture, save a little  and use that as the starter creamed honey for future batches.

Easy, delicious, and totally worthwhile.

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Divine Desserts! Passion Fruit Mousse

Here’s one from the mission days that is remarkably easy and by far one of the tastiest things you’ll ever put in your mouth:

• 1 part Passion Fruit concentrate
• 1 part condensed milk

Blend until thoroughly mixed, pour into dishes, chill in the fridge until set, EAT!

The hardest part is finding the concentrate, which you won’t find in just any store. Your best bet is to head to an import store that specializes in Brazilian and South American foods. In my city, there are numerous choices to serve the large returned missionary population.

When you go in, ask for “passion fruit” or “maracuja” (Ma-ra-cu-ja with the ja pronounced like the ja in the French name Jacques).

One standard bottle of concentrate should be enough to equal two cans of condensed milk. If you make the whole thing, it’ll serve about 10 people easily enough.

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Recipe: Tilapia and roasted veggies

I know so many people who don’t really appreciate fish. Believe me, I’m with you. I personally don’t much care for fishy fish, particularly salmon and I COME FROM ALASKA!!!

I’m much more into the white, mild fish like halibut and tilapia as well as shrimp. If you’ve never done tilapia and are a fish hater, do give it a try. It’s generally extremely mild, flaky, and very tender.

The other night, I prepared a new recipe that was originally written for salmon, but with some quick modifications, it turned into probably my second-favorite dish with tilapia. My first would be my pesto tilapia and rice. Yum yum.

Tilapia with Roasted Veggies

Ingredients

• 1 bag/can of green beans
• 1 bag/can of corn
• 1 tilapia fillet per person
• 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
• 1/4  cup mozzarella or Italian blend cheese
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• onion powder
• garlic powder

Grease a large baking dish with some olive oil. Dump the green beans into the pan and spread them out. Cover them with a light drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkle some salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder on top. Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they are cooked through (canned tends to be done faster).

After they are done cooking, pull the beans out and add the corn. Mix it all well and push the veggies to one side of the pan. On the other side of the pan, lay out the tilapia fillets. Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder over the tilapia and then add a light covering of the mozzarella. On top of the mozzarella sprinkle the parmesan cheese. Sprinkle any remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese over the veggies and fire the whole thing back into the oven for 12 to 15 minutes at 450. Serve.

I think my favorite part of this dish is that the corn starts to seep some of its sugars, and those caramelize nicely in the pan adding a sweet tang to the veggies that contrasts really well with the garlic and onion flavors. The fish, on the other hand, is nice and moist and extremely flaky. Added bonus: Only one pan to clean.

Like I said, if you’re not a fish person, you might give this a try.

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Peanut Brittle

Just in case you forgot, I really am the owner of the world’s greatest fudge. (It’s not bragging if you’re telling the truth, right?) But while I may have the world’s greatest fudge, the Peanut Brittle gods have turned their collective backs on me.

I think it’s because I’ve worshiped at the fudge altar one too many times, but really… Can you blame me? It’s truly incredible fudge!

Last Christmas, we tried to make peanut brittle three or four times, and it never set. Ever. It was always too soft. This year we bought a candy thermometer  to help us get everything just right, and we tried again. We even replaced the peanuts with cashews which, frankly, looked like it’d taste better anyway. I was super careful to measure perfectly and carefully each time. Super careful to cook exactly to the right temperatures. Super careful to stir and to mix and to pour.

End result: Soft peanut brittle.

Again.

The only thing I can think of is moisture in the air. Either that or a huge global conspiracy run by grandmother’s around the world to tightly control the peanut brittle market. I’m convinced that they have left out one secret ingredient. Without that ingredient, no amount of effort or talent will ever result in perfect peanut brittle.

Personally, I think that secret ingredient is my fudge.

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Just in case you forgot… Fudge

I posted this recipe last year, but I figure it’s worth giving it a bump.

Last week, Courtney and I decided to make fudge for family and friends for Christmas. I finally got around to it earlier this week, and I quickly realized that I could either do it in multiple batches or all at once. Being a time saver, I chose the all-at-once route.

To put it simply, we filled a turkey pan almost two inches deep in fudge. My guess is it’s pretty close to 20 pounds of fudge, and every piece is creamy smooth and totally delicious. It also took almost 24 hours to finally set.

We’ve been slowly cutting large blocks of fudge out of it to give to friends and family. If you haven’t tried that recipe yet, you just found something to do this weekend. Trust me, you won’t be sorry.

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How to make Cheese

Courtney and I are on this huge self-sufficiency kick where we’re learning how to do all sorts of stuff on our own. We already learned how to make our own butter, we currently make our own bread, we’re learning how to make yogurt, and this last weekend I learned how to make cheese.

That’s right, cheese.

The recipe I used was a quick Farmer’s Cheese I found here. We went with this cheese because it was fast, easy, and didn’t require some of the specialized temperature and humidity controls of other cheeses.

The cheese itself was really creamy and smooth in taste–not too strong, not too mild. For flavor, we garnished the cheese in olive oil and pepper, but Courtney pondered using other seasonings, which I think would work really well.

We made the cheese for a family birthday party, and it was a huge hit. Most people spread it on bread, much like you would a cream cheese, or ate it plain. The following recipe was enough to satisfy 7 hungry adults.

Farmers Cheese

• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 cup active culture butter milk
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp salt

1. Pour the milk into a heavy sauce pan.
2. Heat to 175 while stirring regularly on low heat.
3. Add the buttermilk and lemon juice and stir them in. The milk should curdle immediately. If it doesn’t, add another tsp of lemon juice.
4. Let it sit for 10 minutes undisturbed.
5. Line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth.
6. Ladle the curds into the cheese cloth and let them drain for 5 minutes.
7. Tie off the cheese cloth and hang it over a bowl to drain for 30 minutes.
8. Unwrap the cheese, put it into a bowl, and add the salt. Stir it in.
9. Pack the cheese in a mold (a small bowl works well) and refrigerate over night. You can also serve it immediately, but we thought it was really salty. The time allowed the salt to distribute more evenly.
10. Garnish with olive oil and pepper for flavor.

It took, all told, maybe an hour from start to finish to make it, but 45 minutes of that is just sitting there waiting for things to drain. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite cheese nor something I would do often, but the experience was well worth it and others really enjoyed it. I’d even go as far as to say it was fun to make.

Stay tuned for our yogurt recipe. I’ll post that after we make it and try it out.

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How to make butter

Courtney and I have been feeling very much the need to learn how to be self-sufficient and do things on our own. It was in that vein that we moved entirely to home-baked bread, have researched making soaps and detergents, and started canning this summer among a host of other projects we’re planning on doing but have yet to start.

Courtney is largely leading this effort now, and she recently proposed a switch from margarine to butter. I was initially opposed because I, like most of you, fell into the media propaganda that butter was bad and margarine was good. Margarine is also infinitely cheaper than butter.

Honest question: Do you know how they make margarine? Look it up sometime, and I’ll welcome you over to butter with open arms.

When we made the switch to butter, we began asking how to make it ourselves. It’s a surprisingly simple and quick process.

Home-made Butter

You’ll need the following ingredients and equipment:

• Heavy whipping cream (1 pint makes about 1.5 cups of butter or so)
• A quart-size glass jar with a lid
• Water

Set the cream out about 12 hours before you make the butter so that it starts to go sour. It’ll smell sour and all that, but it’s fine. When we made it last night, we actually skipped this step (it sat out for maybe two hours), and it still turned out great.

Pour the cream into the jar and seal it. Shake the jar firmly. You want a solid single shake about once every second or so. After about 4 or 5 minutes, you’ll notice that the cream turns thick and fluffy (that would be your whipped cream). Another minute or two and you get an immediate separation into butter and butter milk. You can shake it a bit more if you like, but once you’ve hit that point, you’re pretty much done.

Pour off the buttermilk and either save it for baking or throw it out. What’s left is pure, fresh butter. If you are going to keep the butter for any amount of time, fill the jar with cold water, seal it, and shake it a bit longer to rinse away any remaining butter milk. You can do that a few times until the water turns clearer.

Drain away any other fluids, pour the butter into a bowl, and enjoy!

I’ve started cooking with our home-made butter, and I’ve noticed that it tastes and works even better than the butter we are now buying. It’s unsalted, so remember to add some (if you want it).

While we don’t do it this way, we’ve seen recipes that say you can do this in a blender or with a mixer. Personally, it isn’t hard to do it by hand, and I take great joy in doing things a more natural, old fashioned way.

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Dave’s Homemade Pesto

Here’s a recipe that Courtney found and I improved. We use it all the time, and it’s super-easy to make and use. Before we begin, please note that this is one that I make on the fly without really measuring. I’ve guessed approximate measurements.

Homemade Pesto
In a blender, mix the following ingredients:

• 1/2 cup to 1 cup olive oil depending on the size of your blender. We use a mini chopper blender for this and can get about 1 cup of olive oil.
• 1/4 cup Basil
• 1/4 cup Oregano or Italian Seasoning
• 1 tbsp of Garlic powder (I go heavy because I like it)
• 1 tbsp of Onion powder (again, I go heavy)
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup of Romano or Asiago cheese. The more cheese you add, the sharper the flavor. We like it extra sharp, so we add more than 1/2 cup of cheese.

Blend the living crud out of the whole mix until everything is finely blended. If it is too dry, add more olive oil.

It lasts for quite a while in the fridge, but you have to warm it up to make it pourable. We make about 2 cups at a time every three or four weeks.

Uses
Our favorite uses are as follows:

• Pasta–Make your pasta, add the pesto to taste, and toss.
• Bread dip–Nothing like warm bread dipped in the pesto.
• Marinade–Courtney has taken to baking chicken in the pesto. Wow.

And we wonder why we are having trouble losing weight….

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Oreo Truffles

This weekend is the annual Manly Man Feast in the Elders Quorum. As the reigning champ two years running (I won the top prize the first year and took first in my category last year), I have a reputation to uphold.

For those of you who might not remember, the Manly Man Feast is where the elders cook and the sisters judge. The evening is dominated with manly things like sports trivia and power tools. One year, the activities committee went so far as to create center pieces using “bouquets” of screw drivers. It’s always fun.

My entry this year and, I might add, the upcoming champion in the dessert category, is Oreo Truffles. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 pkg of Oreos–Using the double-stuffed makes everything extra creamy
• 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 pkg of melting chocolate or chocolate chips

Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler or other means. Be careful not to get the chocolate too hot; you’ll be dipping your fingers in it in just a minute.

Crush the Oreos using a food processor until you get fine crumbs (no large chunks). Combine the crushed Oreos with the cream cheese and mix until combined. Using your hands, roll the Oreo mix into small balls about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter (about the size of a cherry chocolate).

Using your fingers, dip the balls into the melted chocolate and place them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Throw the balls into the fridge to set for at least an hour.

Serve, enjoy, repeat as often as you like.

As a variation, roll the freshly dipped balls in nuts, coconut, candy sprinkles, or toffee chips.

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Recipe: Eggs Benedict

I think it must be because Courtney and I have committed to being healthier in our eating, but I seem to be thinking a lot about food lately. And all of it is rich, creamy, and totally unhealthy. Speaking of that, a good friend who is in marketing suggested a slogan to help her and us lose weight. The slogan, while absolutely not catchy, certainly puts it all in perspective:

LARD FREE 2009

I did warn you that it wasn’t very catchy.

Eggs Benedict is one of my all time favorite foods, and it is gourmet eating made simple. This recipe feeds 4-6 people and, with practice, can be prepared start to finish in under 10 minutes:

• 6 sliced English muffins
• 1 dozen eggs
• hollandaise sauce (you could make it from scratch, but it is much easier to make it from a mix and tastes just fine)
• 1 dozen slices of canadian bacon (these should be big enough to cover the face of the English muffin)

Open the English muffins, butter the inside, and toast them in the broiler just long enough to turn the face crispy. Set them aside.

Prepare a large pot of water and heat it to just shy of boiling. I find it easiest to use a large skillet because I can poach all the eggs at once, but a pot or pan will work as well. Gently crack each egg onto a plate and slide them into the water. The key is to not disturb the egg whites. I find it easiest to crack the egg into a ladle and then “scoop” the egg into the water. Cook the eggs until the whites are stiff, but the yolks are still runny. I find it easiest to tell when the eggs are done by looking at the whites right next to the yolk. If they look firm, they are probably good.

While the eggs are cooking, place the English muffins on plates, and place a slice of canadian bacon on top. I like to fry the bacon really fast to warm it up and give it a boost in flavor. When the eggs are done, scoop them out of the water using a slotted spoon, allow them to drain briefly and put them on top of the canadian bacon. Spoon the prepared hollandaise sauce over the top of the egg.

For a garnish, sprinkle just a hint of paprika over everything.

This meal goes really well with anything breakfast. Our favorite is to serve it with a side of hashbrowns and a large glass of ice-cold orange juice. Timing is crucial, so make sure you have everything ready and waiting when those eggs go in the water.

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