Homemade Paneer (Indian Cheese)

Maybe I am crazy -- I don't know. I've finalized the menu for Chip's Indian birthday feast. So, here goes...

Appetizer/Cheese Plate: Roquefort, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Savannah Bee Tupelo honey with raw honeycomb, red Bartlett pears, toasted walnuts, crackers.

Dinner: Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, basmati rice, Naan

Dessert: German Chocolate cake (purchased at Crazy Cat Bakers) decorated with candy corn and candles (by me)

Today, I made the paneer for the saag paneer and the chicken tikka. I've heard you can buy paneer at the Indian grocery store or maybe Fresh Market, but I didn't feel like driving all the way out there. The recipe did not look that difficult, so I gave it a try.

First, I had to heat one gallon of whole milk to a boil.

Milk very quickly boils over if you aren't watching it, so I had to watch it like a hawk and stir it to keep the bottom from scorching. As soon as the milk came to a boil, I took it off the heat and added 1/4 cup of white vinegar. The curds (solids) immediately began to separate from the whey (liquids).I let it cool for a few minutes while I lined a colander with cheesecloth. I actually couldn't find cheesecloth at Kroger, but Chip found some in the paint aisle at Home Depot.

I placed the cheesecloth-lined colander in the sink and slowly poured in the hot curds and whey, making sure the whey did not pool in the bottom of the sink.I lightly salted the top of the cheese curds, wrapped them in the excess cloth, and let them sit in the sink for about an hour while they cooled and drained.
Later, I placed another heavy pot on top of the cheese and put two 10-pound weights in it. This helped press out all of the whey so that I had a firm cheese that could be cubed.

I let the cheese drain under the press for about 4 hours. I think with the 20-pounds I had on top of it, 4 hours was a bit too long. The cheese was firmer than I would have liked it to be.Unfortunately, this is the point at which I forgot to continue to take photos. To finish the cheese, I cubed it, sauteed it in a little bit of canola oil, and let it drain and cool on a paper towel. Now my beautiful homemade paneer is in the refrigerator, just waiting to be eaten in some yummy saag on Wednesday night.

I also marinated and grilled the chicken for the Chicken Tikka Masala last night. Our house smelled amazing as it grilled on the grill pan.

Yum!!

Chip has band practice tonight, so I'll be busy cooking and getting ready for the party. Tonight, I am making the masala sauce for the Chicken Tikka Masala and making and refrigerating the bread dough for the naan. More photos to come!

Birthday Dinner

My husband's birthday is October 13th, and I'm beginning to plan the birthday dinner party for him and his family. There will be six of us, and when I cook for six or more people on a weeknight, I generally like to do a one-pot meal (like gumbo, or chicken stew, etc) that I can possibly make ahead. For Chip's birthday dinner, I'm thinking about making Indian food.

I have a few go-to Indian dishes that I make regularly. I really like these Chicken Kebabs with Cilantro-Mint Chutney. I have two tomato-based chicken curry dishes that I go back and forth on, both from the All Recipes website: Indian Chicken Curry II and Fragrant Chicken Curry. Both are good, but neither of them really blow my socks off. So, I thought I'd ask you guys! Do you have a "blow-your-socks-off" chicken curry recipe that you can recommend?

So far, I am leaning towards this Chicken Tikka Masala recipe that was featured on one of my most favorite blogs, Posie Gets Cozy. It is by no means a healthy recipe (see that butter? that heavy cream?), so I probably won't be adding it to my regular rotation, but it might be good for a special occasion.

Chip's family all love Indian food and aren't scared of spicy dishes at all, so bring on the curry recipe recommendations!

Chicago!

A few weeks ago Chip found out that he had to go to the Chicago area for a work meeting on Monday. I'd been wanting to go to Chicago for quite some time. I'd never been but heard great things about the city. We decided to fly in Friday night, then I would head back home Sunday afternoon. Like all our trips, our focus was on eating!

Friday night we hit up Blackbird for a late dinner. In 2004 Blackbird Chef Paul Kahan won the Best Chef: Midwest James Beard award. I'd read about this restaurant in Food + Wine and was really looking forward to having dinner there.

Blackbird is very hip, modern, and sleek. The white walls are illuminated with soft hues from hidden lighting. The effect was a brightly lit dining room with lots of energy. The food is contemporary fare creatively plated using local ingredients. To start I had the fluke tartare, made with local fluke fish (which I'd never had). It was delicious, and the dish left me wanting more. Like, a lot more because it was 9:30 PM, and I was starving. Entrees came, and I was disappointed that again the portion was so small. I was still hungry, and the entree was over $30! I had a wood-grilled sturgeon with garlic-braised snails. It was served with overly salted napa cabbage. The fish was cooked perfectly, however, and the snails were really yummy. Yep. I said it. Those snails were great!!

My dessert was yummy, but after dropping over $200 on a so-so meal, we were ready to get out of there. We walked down the road to the Girl and the Goat, Stephanie Izard's restaurant and pub. For those of you that are Top Chef fans, you'll remember that she beat out Richard Blais in a close competition in season 4.

Girl and the Goat. Love, love the lighting in here! And how cool is that bar fixture (top left)?

We LOVED the aesthetic in her restaurant. Chip described it as a warm industrial design, and I think that description fits. When we walked inside what hit us first was the aroma of the wood-burning oven from the kitchen. Delicious. Chicago is a railroad town, and the massive dark wood beams and walls throughout the restaurant reminded me of tar-stained railroad crossties. I loved every bit of it. We didn't want to leave! (These photos are a bit too dark. I would love to lighten them a bit with photoshop, but I recently rebuilt my laptop, and I can't find the photoshop disk right now. Not good at all! I really hope I find it!)

Behind the bar at Girl and the Goat

We slept wonderfully in the Westin's "heavenly beds", and Saturday morning we walked to a delicious brunch at Orange (near our hotel). After brunch we headed to Michigan Avenue to walk around a bit and try not to spend too much time shopping.

Our hotel: Westin River North

Kayakers on the Chicago River. Looks like fun!

We walked down to Navy Pier then to Millenium Park to see "The Bean" (aka Cloud Gate). We rounded out our afternoon with a late lunch a Pizano's Pizza to have Chicago-style deep dish pizza, a long visit in the Art Institute of Chicago, and a stroll through Lurie Garden in Millenium Park.

Chip and Cloud Gate

Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, overlooking Lurie Garden

A butterfly enjoys the last of the purple coneflowers

More kayakers on the river

Saturday night we tried our luck at getting a table at Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless's award-winning Mexican restaurant. We placed our names on the list at around 6:45 PM (hostess said a 2-hour wait), then headed to the riverside for drinks. We got back to Frontera around 8:15, grabbed a seat at the full bar, and had more drinks and some FABULOUS guacamole! We waited another hour for a table, and they finally sat us at a table IN THE BAR... I was a little pissed that we didn't get to sit in the dining room. Maybe that colored my food experience there, but the chicken mole just wasn't all that it was hyped to be. It was a bit cold. Maybe I just don't like mole? I probably won't ever order it again anywhere. Chip had duck and sweet potato enchiladas, and those looked really good.

Sunday morning we took an architecture river tour, and it was so cool! It was hot outside on Sunday, and we were glad we got on the 10 AM tour.

Trump Tower soars over the Wrigley Building. So different, but both are really beautiful!

Sears Tower - the tallest building in the USA

After the boat ride, we grabbed a quick lunch in the Oyster Bar at this great seafood place called Shaw's Crab House. The food there was great. I had some Conneticuit oysters on the half shell and shrimp cocktail. Mmmmm... then, I had to catch my plane back to Mississippi!

I can't wait to go back to Chicago! There was so much we missed out on because we really just did not have enough time there. Apparently there was a real 42,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth at the Field Museum and an awesome Hubble 3D movie on at IMAX. I hate to have missed out on those! When is Jackson gonna get an IMAX? I love the space and ocean movies!

Random Post

I am calling this a random post because there isn't much going on in the garden. It has been extremely hot. 102F with a heat index of 119F hot, and I wish I could say I was exaggerating. But, God is good, and we know Fall (with a capital "F") is on the way. Pre-season Monday Night Football is playing in our house tonight - Giants vs Jets. You have no idea how happy Chip was to hear the theme song. He did a little dance while he cooked dinner. Eli received a massive hit and is getting 11 stitches.

I've been away from home a lot recently - for work - in Dallas. I feel like my gardens have suffered because of it.

I haven't had a chance to fertilize my tomatoes, so they have been prolific but small. I would generally like to apply Garden-Ville's Sea Tea once a week, but I haven't been doing it that regularly. We've been eating the tiny tomatoes in salads. If you remember, I planted my cucumbers later in the season. This decision ended up being a great one because the vine borer moth was gone, and it's babies didn't suck the life out of my cucumbers. I'll be harvesting my first cucumber this week!

If I sound negative, then it's because of all this darn heat and how busy I've been at work! I had to work all day Saturday (second Saturday in a row), but thankfully on Sunday I got some down time. I had a chance to take a walk in the early morning before it got too hot. Then I watered my coleus, vinca, and petunia containers. As I was moving the foliage out of the way of the hose, a mean ol' red wasp popped me on my left ring finger. It hurt like hell, and it still itches like crazy. Cortizone 10 has been my best friend lately.

Lastly, I am going to rant about a product I saw an ad for this week: Kleenex Hand Towels. Paper towels for your bathroom at home. Made from 100% virgin trees.

Do you know anyone who has ever gotten sick from drying her hands on a cotton bathroom hand towel? No? Me either. Is it really that difficult to wash and fold a load of clean hand towels anyway? That are probably only as costly as these disposable paper towels? Then why do we need paper towels in our home bathrooms? I know they are trying to take the cleanliness angle to market this product, but rest assured it is the obscenely lazy that will buy it.

I briefly bought in to the Swiffer craze a few years ago, but when it broke in two (because I had to press down so hard on it to pick up grime), I bought a real, NOT disposable mop. I am still embarrassed about ever buying one of those stupid disposable Swiffers. These days I use a bucket, hot water, eco-friendly soap, and a real mop to clean my floors, and it works better than any disposable mop ever did. Hot, almost boiling water works wonders on grime. The "disposable" trend drives me nuts. Do families really need to eat off paper plates every night? Believe me, there are people who do this. Do we really need paper napkins with every meal? Or styrofoam cups?

I try to be conscious of the disposable things I buy. To-go food is the worst offender in my house. Thankfully, many plastic containers can be recycled.

To my few readers: please, let's show companies out there that we aren't interested in buying more disposable products. Instead of buying cheap disposable crap, why not invest in an effective product that will last? Washing and reusing may not be the easiest option, but it is better for our planet.

Veggie Garden Update

The vine borer moth and its wiggly offspring must be done wreaking havoc on my cucurbits this season. Since my last post, I have not seen any new eggs on my winter squash or my cucumbers. I am so relieved. I may plant a few new yellow squash and zucchini seeds this evening to see if I have better luck now.

What is producing now? I have Roma tomatoes but some of them have developed just a touch of blossom-end rot. I plan to go get some Rot Stop tonight to keep it from spreading. One of the tomato plants my grandmother gave me is still steadily putting on fruit. The birds are pecking at the green tomatoes, so quite a few of them have been damaged. I have a few yellow and mini-orange bell peppers, too, and those look good so far. I have one red bell pepper, but it has developed a sunspot this week.

It has been ridiculously hot. Temperatures are in the 100s with heat index readings between 105F and 113F. I am going out of town again this week, so I really must remind Chip to water! It is so important for my vegetables to have a steady water source in this heat.

Vine Borers Win

What happens when you go out of town for a few days and can't fight the vine borers? The vine borers win.
Gnarled vines.
Shriveled fruit.


I pulled up the summer squash and zucchini vines yesterday. Poo. And now, the vine borer moth is laying eggs on my cucumber vines. I saw her yesterday by my cukes, and I freaked out. Sure enough, there were vine borer eggs all over my cucumbers. I picked them off and smooshed them, one by one. I've got to kill that moth. As soon as this rain lets up, I am going to sit outside by my cucumber vines with a mason jar, a fly swatter, and a stiff drink. I mean business.

I have 4 winter butternut squash 'Autumn Glow' planted now. Butternut squash is supposed to be more resistant to vine borers. I sure hope so!