Homemade Yogurt - Put a Little Culture in Your Life!!!

V, GF

Let's put a little culture in our lives!!!

I never knew until a few weeks ago about how easy and how much better homemade yogurt is to make! Once you do it, you will say - WOW!!!

Homemade Yogurt - Simple Crock Pot Technique

Ingredients

• 1/2 Gallon Milk (I use pasteurized whole milk from the store - but do NOT use UHT pasteurized milk)

• Nonfat powdered milk (1/2 cup per quart of milk)

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used a small container of Greek Yogurt) - this is the starter - all of my subsequent batches have been children of the prior batch

Instructions

1. Place milk in Crock Pot and place temperature on High.

2. While milk is heating - stir in 1/2 cup powdered nonfat milk for each quart of milk. NOTE: This is to make a thicker, creamier version of yogurt with more protein.

3. Heat milk until it reaches 180 - 185 Degrees F. Hold that temperature for 20 - 30 mins. NOTE: Bringing the milk to temperature slower and holding it there helps develop a thicker, creamier, more European style yogurt.

4. When milk has heated at 180 - 185 Degrees F temperature for 20 - 30 mins shut off the crockpot.

5. When milk has cooled to 130 Degrees F, remove your yogurt culture from the refrigerator and put it in a glass bowl and let it come to room temperature (this is an important step - you don't want to shock the culture in the yogurt too much - remember - "respect the culture").

6. When milk has cooled to 120 Degrees F, remove 1 cup of the heated milk by ladling into the glass bowl with the culture. Gently stir the milk and the yogurt together - the goal is to bring the culture up to temperature and to incorporate the milk / culture mixture loosely together. Once you have lightly mixed them together, pour the milk / culture mixture back into the crock pot and gently stir.

7. Now for the magic - place the lid back on the crock pot and take 3 - 4 large towels and put your crock pot to bed - put the covered crock in a room temperature spot in the kitchen and do NOT remove the top to peak for 10 - 12 hours (I usually leave it there for 11 hours). I have heard that peaking can produce results that aren't as good.

As Always - Bon Appetit!!!

Best Regards,

TheITGourmet

Don't make a mis-steak! TheITGourmet's Bone-In Ribeye Steaks

It still feels like Summer these days, so why not take advantage of the nice weather outside and use the grill (okay okay - I never really needed that as an excuse to grill outside either!). When I first met Aileen, she rarely ate red meat and she usually only ate steak when we went out to dinner. After tasting my steaks on the grill, I converted her over - now she never orders steak when we go out for a meal. Ingredients

• McCormick's (TM) Non-Seasoned Meat Tenderizer

• McCormick's (TM) Montreal Steak Seasoning

• Lawry’s (TM) Season Salt

• Bone-In Rib-Eye Steak (cut to 1 1/2" thick)

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

In my opinion, the main key to a delicious steak is a good cut of meat from your local butcher - but another key is making sure the steak is brought to room temperature prior to cooking.

Directions

1. Allow the meat come to room temperature prior to you cooking it.

2. About fifteen to twenty minutes prior to grilling, sprinkle each side of the steak liberally (but not heavily) with the meat tenderizer and with each of the steak seasonings.

3. Bring your grill up to temperature - I use the “three second rule” (https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/grilling/grill-temperature).

4. Grill the steak to your preference (I prefer somewhere between med-rare and med - i.e., light to very pink, but not bloody) - somewhere around 7 - 8 minutes per side (http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/the_finger_test_to_check_the_doneness_of_meat/)

5. After grilling - remove from grill and liberally drizzle with olive oil and let rest 5 - 10 mins before slicing and serving.

If you'd like to make your own Montreal Steak Seasoning, here is a recipe for that too: Montreal Steak Seasoning Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns

• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds

• 2 teaspoons dill seeds

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Put into a spice mill and coarsely crush and mix together. As Always, Bon AppetIT!

The I.T. Gourmet @TheITGourmet

SOUP'S On!!! Pistou Soup

V, V, GF

There's perhaps no better way to kick off the recipes on TheITGourmet Blog site than with this soup recipe. Given that we are now in Fall and all of the ingredients that make up this soup are coming into season, this is the perfect "tummy warmer". The amazing thing about this soup recipe is that it is ALL vegetarian (actually vegan). I hope you are as astounded as me by the richness and depth of flavor that you find when you first cook this soup and serve it to your family and friends.

Pistou Soup (Serves 8 – 10)

Ingredients (For the Soup)

• 4 Small Leeks - split lengthwise and diced into ½” pieces (Note: Remove tops and bottoms – use the white portion only)

• 1 Large White Onion – peeled, cut in half, and sliced into 1/8” slices

• 1 lb Cranberry Beans – split with beans removed (Note: If you can’t find Cranberry Beans, Aileen and I have made a good soup by substituting 2 - 12oz cans of Progresso Cannelloni beans, drained)

• 1 lbs Italian Green Beans – washed and cut into small 1” pieces (If you can't find Italian Green Beans, regular Green Beans can be substituted

• 4 Carrots (Medium – Large) – peeled, split in 2 lengthwise and diced into ½” pieces

• 3 Tomatoes (Medium – Large Round) - boiled for 5 minutes, skinned, cored, and roughly chopped

• 2 Stalks Celery - split in 2 lengthwise and diced into ½” pieces (Note: Chop the leafy part of the stalk too – there is extra flavor there!!!)

• 3 small zucchinis, ends cut off, cut into 3 or 4 lengthwise and diced into ½” pieces ½ bag Vermicelli Noodles (fat ones)

• 4 Large (or 6 medium) russet potatoes cut into ½” cubes (Note: It is important that you use a potato that will fall apart when it cooks – I have done some research and experimentation and russets are a good starchy potato that tend to fall apart when boiling.

Ingredients (For the Pistou - i.e., pesto)

• 1 Large Bunch of Basil – (I would approximate 1 ½ to 2 cups of washed, loosely packed basil leaves – we used small leaf basil)

• 10 Cloves of Garlic (halved and thinly sliced)

• ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• ½ cup Gruyere or Parmesan Reggiano Cheese Grated

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

Notes: A key to this dish is having all of the ingredients prepared and cut before hand (i.e., in cooking terms – mis en place) with each ingredient cut into the same size relative to one another so that they cook evenly and are pleasing to the mouth (mouth feel).

Another key to this dish is to never allow the pistou to actually cook in the soup stock. It is very important that the pistou be added to the base soup at the last possible moment when the soup has been fully cooked and is ready to be served. The flavor of the pistou will infuse with the stock while it is being served and put on the table.

This recipe is a REAL DEAL French recipe that was learned on our first trip to Provence (a story unto itself). To "Mon Chef" - one more "petit bon bon S'il vous plaît!!!" - we shall share another when we meet again in heaven one day!

We often make this soup and serve it without the pistou.

Instructions (for the Vegetable Soup)

1. On top of the stove, heat a large casserole or stockpot. Coat the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of olive oil. When pan and oil are hot, place the leeks and sliced onions (making sure to separate the pieces) and sauté the vegetables. Sweat the vegetables and cook them until not quite transparent (do not brown). Make sure the pan contains enough oil and the vegetables are not dry.

2. After leeks and onions have begun to turn slightly transparent, add the beans (both types), carrots, zucchini, and celery to the casserole and briefly sauté. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and raise the flame to medium high and cover. Note: If using canned cannelloni beans, you should wait until the soup is almost completely cooked prior to adding the white beans to the stockpot.

3. Put in the potatoes and tomatoes and season with a small handful of salt (I would suggest 3 slightly rounded tablespoons). Add enough water so that all vegetables are covered and the mixture is a consistency of a slightly thick soup. Raise the flame to high until the stock boils. Once stock mixture is vigorously boiling, reduce the flame to a high simmer. Cook the stock mixture for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes.

While the stock is cooking, you can begin to work on the Pistou (pesto) - see below.

Instructions (for the Pistou)

1. In a mortar and pestle, combine the garlic and basil leaves, and three (3) large pinches of salt (when Aileen and I made our pistou, we don’t have a mortal and pestle, so we used the blender – alright, it was not exactly the same result, but it was close and it was pretty darn good nonetheless – and a lot less energy involved).

2. Pound the garlic, basil, and salt together until the Basil and garlic are in small pieces. While pounding slowly add the ½ cup of olive oil in small amounts until fully blended during the pounding process.

Serving

When soup stock has fully cooked turn off the flame (you will know the soup is fully done when the potatoes have basically fallen apart and become one with the soup – it’s a neat reaction that occurs – the potatoes actually flavor and thicken the soup all at the same time). At this moment, the soup is done and is ready to serve. Add the pistou and rapidly stir the soup to mix and to allow the pistou to infuse its flavor into the stock. Check the soup for seasoning and readjust to taste. Serve the soup immediately while it is piping hot.

As always - Bon Appetit!!!

Best Regards,

TheITGourmet