L'avventura di Mozzarella

While the aim of this blog is to capture all of the wonderful things to do and see around Bellingham, it has occurred to me that sometimes, “all of the wonderful things to do and see around Bellingham” will in fact take place in my apartment – or, more particularly, in my kitchen. Please be patient – I have no intentions to make this a food blog or a personal blog, but since food and me are two of my most very favorite things, it’s inevitable that they will be mentioned. And probably with great frequency.

Recently, a fabulous burger chef by the name of Joel Myrene gave me a copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle. I whipped through it in about 32 hours and I highly recommend the book to any of you who haven’t yet read it and are interested in where food comes from. There are a hundred great ideas laced through the pages, but the one I got most excited about was making homemade Mozzarella; I called my friend Crystal (who is perhaps best known for keeping a block of Tilamook cheddar in her dorm room mini-fridge and eating it like one would an apple or nectarine) and we agreed that this was an adventure we couldn't resist. I got a gallon of Edaleen 2% and some citric acid at the Bellingham Food Co-Op. Crystal found rennet tablets at the Skagit Valley Co-Op, but the hunt for liquid rennet nearly shut down our operation before it began. I made several calls, and finally tracked some down at Terra Organica. With Mr. Tug Beaumont, a very large stainless steel pot and a meat thermometer in tow, Crystal and I began on a journey – hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. Cheesemaking, after all, does seem intimidating. I’m here to tell you it shouldn’t.

Well, okay. Truthfully, it may take some practice because when I researched examples of homemade mozzarella on Google Images the next day, I was disappointed to see how measly and hard our curds were in comparison. The cheese we ended up creating was thick and rubbery (but in a good way!) and more closely resembled the halloumi cheese I was first acquainted with in 2004 when I came across this scrumptious delight from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Bites, than mozzarella. After a whole bottle of wine and approximately two hours, though, having some sort of cheese (as opposed to a stainless steel pot with a gallon of warm milk in it) was just as good as having a sack of gold. Halloumi is notorious for grilling well, and likewise, our mozzarella (mozzaroumi? hallourella?) was picture perfect atop sliced Italian peasant bread smothered with pesto and broiled for a few minutes:


Crystal made an incredible salad:

Tug provided a whole lotta cuteness:

and Bellingham was majestic at twilight: