Thursday, November 12, 2009

Milk Foam UPDATE #2

I followed the directions. The results were meh. Microwaved milk ≠ steamed milk. This took a lot of effort and two extra dirty dishes, so I'm sticking with plain cold milk. I like it to cool down my coffee anyway.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Milk Foam UPDATE

Last night I posted this tutorial on how to make milk foam for your morning beverage of choice.

The results were a disaster! My milk barely foamed. It also squirted milk all over my microwave. And counter. And walls. It took a ton of effort for only middling results. And you know why? Because I didn't read the directions correctly and microwaved my milk with the lid on. Always follow the recipe, kids!

Take 2 tomorrow morning.

Monday, November 9, 2009

How to Make Milk Foam (Without a Frother or a Machine!)

Just read about this over at The Kitchn, and I'm gonna try it tomorrow morning! Though I'll go more lowbrow than a mason jar and use a trusty Magic Bullet cup.



1. Find a jar with a lid and fill it with as much milk as you normally like in your coffee (or other hot beverage!). The milk should fill the jar no more than half way to allow room for the foam.

2. Shake the jar with the lid on
as hard as you can until the milk has become frothy and doubled in size. This takes us about 30 seconds.

3. Take the lid off and microwave
for another 30 seconds. The foam will rise to the top of the milk and the heat from the microwave will help stabilize it.

4. Pour the milk into your coffee
using a spoon to hold back the foam. Then scoop the foam on top!

We first heard about this technique in Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking, but didn't believe it would work until we tried it. Now we're hooked and make a little warm milk and foam every morning while our coffee is brewing. We usually use 2% milk, but cream and half-and-half make even better foam!

Recipe and photo from The Kitchn.


Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Pear (Apple) Recipe

Ingredients and instructions are probably not necessary, but let’s stick with tradition.




Ingredients
French or Italian loaf bread, sliced
Bacon, cooked
Bartlett pear
Sharp white cheddar cheese (high quality)
Butter, softened and spreadable

Instructions
1. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium high heat. Layer your sandwich - bread slice, cheese, pear slices, bacon, bread slice. Spread butter over the top of the sandwich. Place the sandwich top side down (butter side down) on the hot pan. Butter the exposed side of the sandwich. Let cook for a minute and then use a metal spatula to turn the sandwich over to its other side.
2 While you are toasting the sandwich on the remaining side, press down on the sandwich with a spatula. Alternatively, you can mimic a panini press (albeit without the ridges) by heating a smaller cast iron pan on a separate burner. Use the weight of this pan to press down on the sandwich from above. The sandwich is done when the sides are toasted and the cheese is melted. Cut in half and serve
recipe from Simply Recipes

Notes
I don’t really like pears, so I made mine with granny smith apples. I bet pineapple would be good too.