The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern_ Knockout Dishes With Down-Home Flavor - Matt Lee [24]
2 While the eggs cook, slice each roasted pepper into 12 strips about ⅓ inch wide. Place the peppers in a small bowl, add the olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper, and toss until evenly combined.
3 Cut the country ham into strips about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long. To assemble each cocktail egg, lay a strip of country ham flat on a cutting board, then lay an egg quarter and a strip of roasted pepper across one end of the strip and roll that end of the ham up and over the egg, continuing to roll it until it forms a small parcel. Place the eggs on a platter and serve.
COUNTRY HAM AND FRESH CHEESE ROLLED UP IN BLANCHED COLLARDS
BUTTERMILK FRESH CHEESE AND 11 DELICIOUS THINGS TO DO WITH IT
makes one 6-ounce round, enough for 4 as a snack, with crackers • TIME: 10 minutes cooking, 20 minutes cooling
If you can boil water, you can make this buttermilk cheese—kin to Italian ricotta and Mexican queso fresco—which has become as much a part of our southern kitchen as cornbread or grits. It could not be easier to prepare: just heat a quart of milk with a cup and a half of buttermilk and any salt or dried seasonings, and when the curds have separated from the whey, pour the whole slosh through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth to drain off the whey. Serve the cheese immediately, warm and soft, like ricotta, with a drizzle of olive oil, some sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper, or let it cool down and firm up a bit. That’s all!
We think it’s even more versatile than butter or cream cheese. You can spread it on cornbread and top it with a drizzle of honey or sorghum syrup. Make tomato sandwiches with it at the height of summer. Wrap little morsels up with country ham in collard-green wrappers to make deliciously creamy-salty hors d’oeuvre parcels. Crumble the cheese into all manner of salads and side dishes—see the garnish ideas in the Hot Sides chapter—to give them a mellow-flavored richness.
1 quart whole milk
1½ cups whole or lowfat buttermilk
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 Line a colander or a medium strainer with a triple layer of cheesecloth that’s 12 inches square. Set the colander in the sink. (If you plan to preserve the whey for poaching liquid or Whey Sorbet, place the colander in a baking dish.)
2 Combine the milk, buttermilk, and salt in a large heavy-bottomed pot, and heat over medium-high heat until the mixture has separated into white curds and translucent whey, about 8 minutes. (If using lowfat buttermilk, separation occurs at about 180°F, and the curds will clump together readily; if using whole buttermilk, separation occurs closer to the boiling point, about 212°F, and the curds are finer-grained. When using whole buttermilk, let the pot of curds and whey stand off the heat for about 3 minutes after separation, so the curds cling tighter and facilitate the straining step.)
3 Ladle the contents of the pot into the cheesecloth-lined colander. Once the whey has drained (1 to 2 minutes), lift the corners of the cheesecloth and gather them together. Gently twist the gathered cloth over the cheese to press any excess whey out of it.
4 You can unwrap the cheese at this point and serve it immediately; or you can leave the cheese to drain further and cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes, before serving it. To serve a firmer cheese later, transfer the cheese, in its cloth, to a small flat-bottomed plate or pie pan and let stand in the refrigerator until cool, about 10 minutes. Then unwrap the cheese, gently invert it onto the plate, and discard the cloth. Tent the cheese with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator until 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve it, but not more than 2 days.
NOTE The whey that’s a by-product of making buttermilk fresh cheese is a perfectly seasoned, silky poaching liquid for cooking up some exceptionally