A week of firsts

For a week that I felt singularly uninspired and did not make it to the Wednesday farmers’ market, it proved a good week food-wise. I made my first black bean burger based on this recipe sent by a friend of mine. I changed it slightly by substituting the 4 scallions for one small onion, doubling the garlic, replacing the oregano for za’atar (no oregano in the house! the shame!), and the red pepper flakes with 1tsp ancho chili powder and 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder. Oh, and I used two 19oz cans of beans – one of black beans and one of adzuki beans. The result? VERY yummy bean burgers that will definitely be repeated. Below you see the burgers ready to go into the fridge for about 15 mins to set.

And my light lunch that day:

But my real achievement happened today. I tried making cheese for the first time! Inspired by Mark Bittman’s very simple recipe, I got so excited that immediately made a mistake. The recipe calls for only three ingredients: milk, buttermilk, and a bit of salt. All you have to do is bring the milk to near-boiling point, pour in the buttermilk to curdle it and an optional bit of salt. What did I do? I mixed the milk, buttermilk & salt before bringing it to the stove. I thought it was a loss for sure, but then when it got near boiling point I simply added a bit more buttermilk and a splash of vinegar. Luckily it curdled and I was able to proceed with the recipe, which involved much twisting of the curds wrapped tightly in cheesecloth. I don’t think I twisted enough as the result was not nearly as dry or hard as it was supposed to be but it was very nice – silky and smooth like really good ricotta cheese. I enjoyed it as one does it Catalonia: with a bit of honey and walnuts.

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