Category: Using

Curds and Whey

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Fermenting, Topic, Using5 Comments

Once you start making cheese, you’ll quickly realize you’re left with a large quantity of whey—so much you’ll be loath to just pour the yellowish liquid down the drain. Fortunately, whey has many uses. You probably already consume more whey than you realize: it’s popular in protein powders, weight-loss beverages, and even infant formula. Cheese makers have long known the value of this by-product and use it to make more cheese, like ricotta and my favorite gjetost.

Whey is considered sweet or acidic. Hard cheese and Fresh Yogurt give you sweet whey; Lemon Cheese gives you acid whey. Some sources prefer sweet whey for baking, but I love tangy flavors. I use the whey from Lemon Cheese in baked goods, as a cooking liquid for rice, a stock substitute in soups, and a cheese sauce replacement for soups and pasta.
Learn to make Whey Sauce and the Cheesiest Mac and Cheese

Cheese and Yogurt

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Fermenting, Topic, Using, Workshops5 Comments

Queso blanco, paneer, whole-milk ricotta, farm cheese, lemon cheese—they’re the same cheese by different names. Even where recipes for them may vary, they share two features: all form curd through the addition of an acid, and all coagulate because they are heated above 176°F, the temperature at which the milk protein casein “sets.” This makes Lemon Cheese, my preferred name because I like to use lemon juice to form the curd, surprisingly simple and easy to make. This recipe is also a great first cheese because you need few special tools or ingredients: just cheesecloth, a thermometer, and ideally cheese salt. You can make about 2 pounds of cheese from a gallon of milk, but I prefer to use some of that gallon to make yogurt.
Learn to make Lemon Cheese and Fresh Yogurt

New Workshops and a Road Trip

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Event, Fermenting, Refrigerating, Using, WorkshopsLeave a comment

People love to gather in kitchens. Whether you’re feeding a family or hosting a party, the scents of good food being prepared draw people to the room. It’s part of what makes a Twice as Tasty–catered house concerts special: live music in an intimate setting is coupled with delicious appetizers and the scent of baking cookies for intermission. It’s also what is making Twice as Tasty workshops so popular: instead of trying to keep people from hovering while you cook, you gather your friends in your kitchen. Then I teach everyone how to prepare a fabulous dish, make a favorite from scratch, or use a new technique.

Twice as Tasty workshops have been so popular that I’ve taken them on the road. My recent road trip to the Pacific Northwest was such a success I plan to repeat it in the future. Workshops are always available locally in Montana’s Flathead Valley.
Read more about the current topics and scheduling a workshop

Quick Freezer Breads

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Freezing, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

When I was growing up, my mom was forever trying to find uses for my dad’s giant annual squash crop. My dad has a sweet tooth, so chocolate zucchini cake was a favorite way of putting more the zukes in our bellies. My dad is also a fan of butternut squash cooked in its skin, sliced in half, and deseeded so that its cavity could be filled with butter and brown sugar.

I didn’t inherit that sweet tooth. The cake was OK, but I detested the sugary squash and even pumpkin pie when I was growing up. It wasn’t until I left home and tried savory squash soups that I developed a taste for these vegetables. As you can see from my squash-based recipes, such as Zucchini Pancakes, these quick breads, and even Pumpkin–Chocolate Cookies, I still look for more flavor and less sugar when baking with summer or winter squash. Learn to make Zucchini Sesame Bread and Harvest Pumpkin Bread

Risotto

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Ingredient, Using4 Comments

Why do we consider pasta to be easy and versatile but risotto to be challenging? Italians, the masters of both, don’t see it this way. “Every conceivable vegetable, seafood, and meat can go into risotto,” says my sumptuously illustrated copy of Venetian Taste. “The frugal Venetian does not hesitate to stretch a bit of leftover into half a meal by amplifying it with rice.”

I have often eaten delicious risotto, but my first memorable one was in Venice, turned deep violet-black by cuttlefish ink. Although replicating this particular pairing is nearly impossible stateside, the pale, creamy rice dishes colored by local vegetables and various spices are well within reach. All you need is to start with the right rice and then adjust your standard technique for cooking it. The rest, as the Venetians would say, is due volte più gustoso.
Learn to make Fresh Improv Risotto and Sunshine Risotto

Freezer and Storage Soups

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Dehydrating, Dry storage, Freezing, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

One of my off-season joys is making an easy meal that tastes as though it took time and effort to create. Soup is among the easiest—and I’m not talking poured out of a can.

Sure, there can be a lot of time-consuming dicing and mincing for freshly made soup. By planning ahead, I eliminate nearly all of that effort at mealtime. I also ensure the produce carries all the flavor my garden can generate; with a little extra effort at harvest time, there’s no need to buy a mealy tomato or flavorless broccoli.

This week, I offer you two soup recipes that I can make on a moment’s notice because their ingredients are staples in my house in winter. They’re staples because during harvest, I dry-store potatoes, dry-store or freeze onions and garlic, dehydrate smoked chilies and herbs, and freeze cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and Vegetable Stock. Hopefully this list of links and the recipes that follow will inspire you to take similar steps as you grow or buy local food in the next few months.
Learn to make Spanish Potato–Garlic Soup and Italian Broccoli–Pasta Soup

Granola

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Dehydrating, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

Granola is a beast in the food world, racking up $2 billion in U.S. sales annually. But it can be easily made for a fraction of the cost of a 12-ounce package, and it’s endlessly adaptable to dietary needs or preferences or to what’s in the cupboard. It can be made in a low-temperature oven, which requires you to check and stir regularly to ensure even toasting. I prefer to dry it: Throw all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, spread on dehydrator sheets, and let it run overnight for a fresh morning batch.

Like salad dressings, all you need for granola is a basic recipe that gives ideal proportions. At last summer’s Montana Cup, Twice as Tasty recipes were featured in two batches of granola, one nut free and the other certified gluten free. Both showcased local and regional ingredients, and both versions were based on my basic granola recipe.
Learn to make Basic Granola and Nut-Free Gourmet Granola

Mustards

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Refrigerating, Topic, Using2 Comments

Like most American kids, I grew up squeezing mustard from a bright yellow plastic bottle. Unlike most American kids, it was my favorite condiment from an early age, and as I grew older, I quickly shifted to my mom’s more sophisticated glass jar of Grey Poupon.

Although my stay-at-home mom made most of our meals from scratch, the only condiments she created were sweet jams and savory relishes. The idea that mustard could be made at home was only a vague notion inherited from my uncle, whose homemade Swedish-style spread was too heated for my young taste buds. The idea that mustard was easy to make didn’t sink in then. And yet if you have a kid who likes mustard, it’s a great parent–child project. My preferred version is a German style, with a grainy texture and a little less heat but packed with flavor.
Learn to make Spicy German-Style Mustard and Hot Swedish-Style Mustard

Hummus

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Dry storage, Grilling, Topic, Using3 Comments

Hummus, to my mind, is like applesauce: store-bought versions are no substitute for the real deal. Fortunately, the two have many other similarities. Both are incredibly easy to make. Both only require a few, easily obtainable ingredients. And particularly when made at home, both are not just good eating but good to eat.

Although few people get excited about applesauce these days, hummus remains hugely popular. Anecdotally, I know this because I get more requests for made-from-scratch hummus than any other creation at Twice as Tasty catered events. Neil Irwin of the New York Times supports this view by ranking hummus among “foods that have generally had staying power.” When you combine it with homegrown veg or Sourdough Pita Chips and flavor it with roasted garlic, hummus is guaranteed to fly off the table.
Learn to roast garlic and make Roasted-Garlic Hummus

Winter Creations

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Refrigerating, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

These first few weeks of the year have been busy at Twice as Tasty. The first monthly newsletter just hit the inboxes of email subscribers. If you’re following this blog via email, you should have received a copy. But if you’re following via WordPress, you’ll need to sign up here. Once you do, you’ll still receive post notifications via WordPress, but you’ll also get an email once a month with a link to a downloadable and printable PDF version of the latest recipes so that they’re easy to use in your kitchen.

If you’re local, there’s still plenty of time to sign up for a sourdough or other winter workshop. I’ll also be giving a free public sourdough workshop at Free the Seeds next month. For nonlocals, keep your eye out for Twice as Tasty on Pinterest starting later this month—including links to fabulous winter creations that can be made in any kitchen.
Read more about winter creations