Strata!

I ordered 1/2 gallon of milk from the dairy earlier this week. I used half to make yogurt, but what would I do with the other half? Given that eggs are no short supply, I decided to try my hand at making strata. Before this past Christmas, I had never had it. Thanks to Andy's mom, I tasted it for the first time during Christmas brunch at her house. And boy, was it delicious!

Strata is essentially a layered breakfast "casserole" with milk, cream, cheese, eggs, bread, herbs and veggies and/or meat. Thank you again to Andy's mom, I received the cookbook, Eggs: Fresh, Simple Recipes For Frittatas, Omelets, Scrambles and More by Jodi Liano, for Christmas. My hens started laying eggs around Thanksgiving, so this was the perfect gift!

I used the Herbed Tomato Strata recipe as my guide. I say guide, as I'm not one to strictly follow recipes.

Ingredients (according to what I used):

6 eggs (from my hens)
2 cups of whole milk (from the dairy)
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (from my garden)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (from my garden)
1 baguette, sliced in 1/2 inch portions
1 1/2 cups gruyere
1 yellow roasted sweet pepper, chopped
2 cups chopped baby bella mushrooms, sauteed in butter
4 smoked tomatoes (from my friend's garden), chopped
Dash of salt and pepper

Mise en place

I used 1 1/2 cups of gruyere (as opposed to the 2 cups of mozzarella the original recipe called for) because I find mozzarella to be quite boring.  Also, because it is a stronger-flavored cheese, I use less. The original recipe called for fresh tomatoes, which I refuse to buy until tomato season, so I chose mushrooms and [jarred] roasted yellow pepper. Luckily, I had some of my friend's homegrown and smoked tomatoes. Just adding a few to any dish really gives it that smokey flavor. I used more parsley than the original recipe calls for because I have it in my garden and because I like it!

Directions:

Butter a 9 x 13 in glass baking dish. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, Parmesan, thyme, parsley and dash of salt and pepper.

Arrange half of the sliced bread on the bottom of the backing dish. Top with half of the egg mixture, half of the gruyere cheese, half of the mushrooms, pepper and smoked tomatoes.

First layer of bread, cheese, veggies

Complete first layer

Repeat the layering, using all the remaining ingredients. Let the strata stand for 20 minutes at room temperature, occasionally pressing the ingredients with a spatula to keep the bread well coated.

Ready to go in the oven

Preheat the oven to 350. Baked the strata until golden brown, puffed, and set, about 45 - 60 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, remove the strata from the oven and press on the top layer of bread, keeping it submerged in the custard (OOPs, I didn't do this). Let the strata rest for about 10 minutes upon removing it from the oven. Cut into squares and serve right away.

The strata is done!

I plan to eat this throughout the week, let's see how long it lasts :)

I Was Spoiled by Yogurt

I was spoiled by yogurt while serving in the Peace Corps in Bolivia.

In addition to up a recycling project at an orphanage and teaching English at the university,  I gave private English classes to a German/Bolivian boy whose family settled in Bolivia some 20+ years ago. As a Peace Corps volunteer, one cannot take monetary payment for services given. The German family was very thankful for their son’s private lessons, and as a way of thanking me, gave me homemade bread, pickles, cheese, cured meats, jam and yogurt. The family owned a dairy, so milk was omnipresent. 

When I returned to the States, I longed to have freshly made yogurt. I missed the sour bite that I grew accustomed to over the two years and I missed seeing the cows whose milk I was consuming . I was determined to start making my own yogurt.

Lucky for me, I found a dairy here in Central Texas from which I could buy fresh milk every two weeks. The cows are the ones that frolic in our bucolic dreams. They eat grass. They aren’t given hormones. They are treated with dignity.

Once I found the dairy, I needed to find a recipe. I searched online and found many recipes, after all, yogurt is quite simple to make.  However, my curiosity got the best of me, and ended up purchasing the book by Anne Mendelson, Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages. If you enjoy cooking and learning about the history of food, I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful reference that weaves together the history of dairy products (horse, goat, cow, sheep, etc. etc) throughout the world with 120 recipes, simple and complex alike. 

Making yogurt usually takes place at my house in the evening. (You’ll see why shortly.) Flip to page 158 and you will find “Homemade Yogurt: Basic Recipe with Cow’s Milk.” The steps are as followed:

2 quarts milk

4 tablespoons plain unflavored yogurt (as the starter) *I generally buy organic yogurt*

Fresh milk and plain yogurt (for starter)

“Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan and gradually heat it to or just below boiling.”

When I first started making yogurt, I had a thermometer. However, it kept getting steam in it and now it no longer works. So, I’ve learned to heat the milk slowly and recognize when it is near the boiling point. Because you want the milk to heat slowly, make sure you are heating the milk on medium heat and you are stirring occasionally. This should take ~ 15 minutes. However, it is best if you are right near the pot so as to not burn or boil the milk. You can tell the milk has reached the “magic point” when you see small bubbles and the milk looks like it wants to start “rolling” like if you were to boil a pot of water. 

Slowly heating the milk on the stove-top

Remove the pan of milk from the heat. 

“Let it partly cool until not quite hot to the touch, about 110 to 115 degrees.” (Without a thermometer, this feels like a very hot bath that you would get into without getting yourself burned.) I speed up the cooling process by either placing a large metal spoon (metal conducts heat away from the milk) into the milk and stirring frequently OR by placing the pot of milk into cold water. The stirring method takes ~15 minutes and the water immersion method takes ~10 minutes.  Again, you want to be present during this process so the milk arrives at the proper temperature.

Expediting the cooling process by stirring with a large metal spoon

Once the milk is cooled “not quite hot to the touch”, place four tablespoons of the starter yogurt into the pan.

Stir. 

Funnel the milk/yogurt mixture into a mason jar(s). Place jar, wrapped in a towel, into a cooler. Close cooler. It is very important that the milk keep warm for 4-6 hours so that the yogurt sets. If you do not have a cooler handy, you could also wrap the jars and place them in the oven (oven off) with the oven light on. Make sure the cooler is in a place in which it will not be disturbed during the incubation process.

Place the jar into a cooler to keep warm

Cover with a towel, then close lid

Since I make the yogurt in the evening, I always let it set overnight. Inevitably, this is way more than 6 hours (I sleep a lot!); there is no harm in letting the yogurt have more time to set. 

In the morning, open the cooler, unwrap the towel from the jar and open it. Voila! The consistency should be that of“delicate custard, not a heavy putting.”

Voila! Yogurt!

My breakfast today

I find that my yogurt keeps much longer than store-bought yogurt. Sometimes several months even. I use it in place of sour cream; place dollops on top of spicy lentils; and eat it for breakfast with granola.