Slow Food Fast

I’m always, always late to the table, I know it. Yes, it is sort of too late to do much more than give you the link to my Slow Food Fast Thanksgiving guide from a few years ago plus the few new ones from last year, and recommend “Thanksgiving” in the search box if you’re stuck for microwaveable but good ideas.

Last year was the first on-our-own-but-Zooming-it Thanksgiving and this is our second, and Chanukah starts Sunday evening. Maybe I’ll have something exciting and original by then.

Despite all that, I do have a few things I’ve been meaning to share but haven’t had time to post. The past few months seem to have sped up on me because my daughter’s aiming to graduate early this year, and because I’ve been helping host the still mostly-online Jewish Book Festival for our region and that means interviewing authors–some really eminent ones–for our local Federation magazine and moderating online for two of the events. So my “skill set,” both technical and staging, has had to rev up in a big way…

But Thanksgiving…I am doing most or at least some of the same menu I put together for “just us” last year–artichokes in the microwave, wild rice pilaf, salmon, broccoli, salad, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and maybe some mushroom caps. All of it is good and almost all, everything but the salad, is microwaveable at least for part of it, and there will be good leftovers for lunch this weekend. So–not much new.

The things I did last year that I didn’t manage to post include a relatively quick whole wheat olive-rosemary faux-sourdough bread, which came out really well and I’m doing again, and the cheese plate à deux that manages to be interesting without breaking the bank…

These things may not come in time for today, depending where you are and how impatient or well-stocked, but they could come in handy in the next few weeks.

Whole wheat rapid faux sourdough with mix-ins

I usually keep a bowl of dough in the fridge for things like pita and calzone and it lasts me about a week. I’ve done proper sourdough rye and kornbroyt with medium success, and a yogurt-based 3-hour “faux” sourdough that wasn’t too bad, but lately I’ve decided that I can get a decent mildly sourdough flavor simpler and nondairy by just stirring a capful of apple cider vinegar into the flour as I’m making a regular yeast dough.

For this whole wheat bread, I’m doing a smaller ball of dough than my usual salad bowl worth–I want it quicker and it’s really just for this, so. I took a chunk of the regular dough since I had some in the fridge, maybe a heaping tablespoon or so, softened and pulled it apart with a fork in half a cup of warm water, sprinkled on about a cup each of whole wheat and regular bread/AP flour, less than half a teaspoon of salt, and a small capful of cider vinegar, and started stirring. I heated up another half a coffee mug of water a few seconds in the microwave, just to “finger-warm,” and added just enough to the bowl to get it to make a reasonable dough, kneaded it until smooth, drizzled on olive oil, covered the bowl and set it in a colander over a stockpot filled with hot tap water–and put a lid over it to shut out light. Hopefully it’s rising as we speak.

You can go a couple of different ways with mix-ins. Last year I chopped some Greek olives and minced a sprig or two of rosemary from the bush in the backyard, and when the dough was risen, I rolled it out into a rectangle and sprinkled everything on, rolled it up, let it rise again covered for 40 minutes or so while I heated the oven to 420F, and then threw a mugful of water into the oven and baked the bread for about an hour–it was a bigger loaf than I’m doing today, so I expect this one to take less time.

This year I’ll probably do the same but throw in a few chopped walnuts and maybe hot-soaked raisins as well. You could do raisins instead of olives if you prefer, nuts or no nuts, or just rosemary and thyme or sage if you want an herb bread.

Cheese plate with slight microwave assist (because, of course…)

The Ralph’s/Kroger in my neighborhood put in a fancy cheese counter two years ago, trying to rival Whole Foods and more or less doing a decent job of it. The Ralph’s cheeses are all stocked by Murray’s, which is headquartered in (I think?) the Hudson Valley in New York.

Now, that of course doesn’t sound incredibly affordable and the regular prices aren’t terrible but they’re still $10-25 a pound, which is a lot. However, the cheese counter always has a few “under $5” baskets out to attract those of us who don’t have champagne budgets or big parties to stock but are still sort of cheese freakish.

And sometimes they’re actually big wedges, 6-8 ounces, that are nearing their sell-by date, or maybe they’re just not moving, so they discount and you can get a major bargain on things like Humboldt Fog or Cambozola, a stilton, or an aged goatsmilk cheddar or asiago-style cheese like Ewephoria. (Of course, occasionally you can find seriously discounted Limburger going for 75 cents a tightly-wrapped chunk, because they really, really want you to take it off their hands).

Between that and the selection at Trader Joe’s, you can pick out a decent foursome of pretty good and interesting cheeses for under $20. It’s too much for two people to eat at one go (I certainly hope!) but it tastes nice and it’s fun once in a while. And although I did once pick up the small block of Limburger when I saw it (at 75 cents, it was worth trying once despite its reputation, and it actually wasn’t too bad after the initial slap-in-the-nose impression) I’d say don’t choose it for a holiday cheese plate…

But the other things you can do to fill out a cheese plate inexpensively, besides the obvious–dried fruit, olives, good bread or crackers, sliced crisp apples or pears, nuts…involve cheap cheese transmogrification ideas like DIY huntsman. I was never entirely satisfied with the original results for the huntsman and I ended up making a few refinements–yes, using…the microwave.

DIY Huntsman cheese, 2.0…

Not only should you leave the cheddar and bleu (regular store brands or at least decent but cheap) out on the counter to warm up before you slice them, but once you stack them, you don’t have to weight them down to get them to stick together in a block (which didn’t work that well anyway). Instead, stack them on a microwaveable salad plate or the like, starting and ending with cheddar, and microwave maybe 15 seconds–and 15 only–at say, 30 to 50 percent power, and then press the stack together gently. If it’s not enough and things are still crumbly, do another 10-15 seconds, as needed, but you just want the surfaces of the stacked layers barely softened so it all sticks together without smearing or melting. Then wrap the block tight and refrigerate it.

Lighter riffs on a cheese ball

The microwave also comes in handy in brief bursts if you want to make a lower-fat cheese ball using Greek yogurt instead of butter or cream cheese. This isn’t most people’s objective for a party cheese ball, I realize, but it works and it’s pretty good–and why throw extra bland fats at a cheese situation if you don’t have to? Butter and cream cheese are there for bulk, but they really dilute the flavor of the cheddar or swiss. Greek yogurt has its own tang that blends well with hard cheeses as it turns them into spreads.

The only problem is that when you grate cheddar and mix it into Greek yogurt, you get shreds-in-yogurt, not a smooth blend. Sort of like pimiento cheese, but less greasy. So–microwave to the rescue, again. And again, very, very sparingly. You want to just barely soften the cheese shreds without heating them and you don’t want to heat up the yogurt or it’ll break.

Finely grate a couple of ounces of extra-sharp supermarket cheddar or swiss cheese into a microwaveable bowl or mug, depending on the quantity, dollop on about the same eyeballed amount of nonfat plain milk-and-cultures-only Greek yogurt, stir well, and microwave 10-15 seconds, stir. It should blend smoothly. If it’s a little looser than you want right out of the microwave, grate in a little more cheese, stir very well. Refrigerate and it should solidify properly into a knife-worthy spread.

Good options: Doll it up with some crumbled thyme or marjoram, a teaspoon of white wine for either cheddar or swiss (red wine or port will turn it an awful gray, unfortunately), a tiny dab of spicy brown mustard for the cheddar version or a dab of minced garlic or chives for either, and you’ve pretty well got it. Scoop it into a small crock or, if it’s moldable once it’s chilled, form it into a ball, sprinkle on toasted nuts or chopped parsley or smoked paprika (sparingly)–whatever, wrap and chill.

Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels, bon appétit, mangia bene, b’te’avon and eat nice!

Filed under: appetizers, baking, breads, cooking, Dairy, holiday cooking, Microwave tricks, Revised recipes | Tagged: food, holiday cooking, recipes |