Cheese of La Mancha

Earlier I talked about the increased calcium and protein in sheep's milk cheese. Given that here in Minneapolis we are lucky enough to have lots of cheese producers, I take for granted that artisinal sheep's cheese isn't found around every corner. I headed over to my local grocery which has a pretty awsome cheese counter very much in part to its cheesemonger Liz.  I asked her for a readily available sheep's milk cheese and she suggested Manchego. According to wikipedia "Manchego is produced in La Mancha and is made only from the whole milk of Manchega sheep. The rich, semi-firm product is aged in natural caves for three to six months, imparting a zest and exuberant flavor".  I find it great just eaten straight up or with the wonderful apples that are coming in with the fall.

1 ounce of Manchego packs 7 grams of protein, 30% of your daily calcium and 120 calories.  Not a food for those just starting out but if you are trying to get the all important protein and calcium into your diet with some great flavor its worth a shot.

I have marinated cheese before but hadn't made a crack at Manchego, here is a recipe I found that looks promising from grouprecipies.com.  I made a few adjustments to the recipe including correcting the authors misstatement that Manchego is goat cheese.  Simply cube the cheese with the rind on and  combine the remaining ingredients.  Mix the cheese with the marinade and allow to sit overnight.  Garnish with herbs and Viola! 
Adding some olives would also be wonderful. 

5 oz Manchego
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 tarragon sprigs, chopped
3 thyme sprigs, chopped
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
olive oil (extra-virgin, or otherwise)

Cracker Backer II

First, I have to say I am in love with my new Kitchen Aid.  Wow, to think I have been mixing by hand all this time.  Apparently some good deals can be had on refurbished models on Amazon.  Check it out if you have been lusting after one.  

My local flour miller was out of graham flour so we will have to save the cashew butter graham until next week.  This week I bring you olive oil crackers.  I based this recipe on a few different ones I found researching books and the web.  The formula is pretty flexible but in my tests I found the type of flour used did make the baking time vary but more on that later.  Olive oil and flax are a good source of good fats with flax bringing omega 3 to the party. 

A word on flour and oil for this recipe.  I used spelt, semolina, millet, and brown rice flour in various combination.   I was attempting to find a good balance of texture, protein and nutrition.  You could make these crackers entirely with whole wheat flour if you chose to.  You could also use a starch like tapioca or almond flour if you are trying to go gluten free.  The millet flour contains no gluten. You can find all of these at your local Whole Foods or co-op or at most megamarts.  The oil flavor really does come through so use good oil.  This is a good time to bust out a flavored oil you like as well.  I used both good olive oil and a blood orange infused avocado oil in my tests. 

A word on this whole recent surge in gluten free.  If you are worried about being gluten intollerant, do not diagnose yourself, go and see a medical professional.  Sorry, it's a bit of a rant, every celeb these days is magically gluten intolerant, its the new carb free it seems.  Nutrition on these is ball park given the size you choose to cut your crackers and what type of flour you choose to use.  It works out to be 1g of protein per cracker with 40 calories for a 10g cracker. 

You will need:

1 c spelt  flour
1/2 c millet flour
1/2 c semolina
1/4 c flax meal
1 T salt
1/4 c warm water
2 T olive oil
1 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 450

Mix flax and warm water together and let stand for at least 15 minutes.  It will look kind of like peanut butter when it is ready.  You can increase the amount of flax up to 1/2 cup by adding the additional flax meal to the dry ingredients. Once the flax has hydrated add your flours and salt and mix to combine.  Add all the wet ingredients and mix until the dough begins to look like gravel.  Need together to form a ball in the bowl and cover with a barely damp towel for 20 minutes to allow the ingredients to hydrate.  If your dough is not coming together add more water 1/2 tablespoon at a time.  If it is too sticky add more of your main flour.

Its cracker making time.  Divide the dough into thirds.  The easiest way to do this is to use a silicone baking mat, if you don't have one you can use parchment paper or plastic wrap.   Place your dough on the mat or parchment and dust your your rolling pin with semolina.  If you are using parchment paper place a second piece of paper on top of your dough to prevent sticking and omit flouring your pin.  Work the dough until it is at least 1/8 inch in thickness.  What this works out to is work the dough until you think it is thin enough then roll over it a few more times.  See the photo notes for details.  At this point you can use a cutter and make cute shaps or simly randomly break your dough up and place on  one of the pieces of parchment and bake.  The jury is out on whether docking these crackers makes a lick of difference.  I think it improves texture by keeping the cracker flat, tasters didn't notice. 

Bake your crackers for 10 minutes in the middle rack of your oven at 450.  I have a convection oven so I lowered my temp to 400. Ovens vary, so check after 8 minutes as your mileage may vary.  Crackers are done when they are golden and crispy. 

Variations on the theme:

In batch two I used semolina as my main flour and augmented with brown rice and millet flour.  As an oil I used a blood orange infused avacado oil.  I used a smoked salt for half of the salt content.  These changes resulted in a cracker that was more crisp than the first version and cooked more quickly, in my oven it was only 8 minutes. 

You can add seeds as I did in batch one or add whatever kind of flavoring you might like, like tandori spice or garlic.

Preliminary tasters said that batch one was a good basic cracker but they really liked the orange flavor of batch two.  They would have also like more salt, smoked or otherwise on top of the cracker.

Photo Notes:

 Silicone mat and rolling pin

Work the dough in thirds

Parchment meets dough

I am a Cracker Backer

When I was a teenager when all the other girls were at the mall, I was at home with a borrowed cookbook making bread. I ate my last bagel a week before surgery and had heard all the stories, no bagels after bypass. Well it is true, bread is hard for some to digest and is a space waster after bypass. Out goes bread and enter my love of crackers. They also provide crunch which is a great reminder to chew. I have tried every spelt, quinoa and whole grain cracker I can get my paws on in the name of crunch and finding a source of protein. Are you not the queen of meat you might be thinking, meat is protein.
I am the QoM, but only so much will go in and isn't that really the point of bypass to eat less? Imagine if you will the following scene (cue monster movie sound track, the part just before Godzilla takes out Tokyo) In comes my dietitian with the protein drink recommendations. She has accessorized these recommendations with a look of horror when I tell her I have tried most of them and I hate them. Muscle Milk, blech. How about the 15 others on this list, double blech. The only one I can tolerate is Click, which manages to do the smart thing and cover up the whey taste with coffee. I have, I tell her found a high protein cracker I like but it has seeds. Wrong thing to say. It seems there are two camps in post WLS circles. There is the camp who says eat nuts and seeds in moderation because they are a great source of protein and then my dietitian's camp who says don't because of the fat content and in a slightly veiled manner goes on to say basically that fat people clearly couldn't eat just a few nuts so we tell them to skip them all together.
As the picture clearly shows I have continued to eat high fiber and high protein crackers but I thought, I could do this myself and supplement my protein intake and up the flavor at the same time. So I present you cracker experiment number one.

The Garlic Chickpea and Flax Cracker
The recipe has been adapted from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen Blog gluten free chickpea cracker

You will need:
1 cup chickpea flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder*
1/4 cup of milled flax seed
1 T of olive oil
1/4 cup of water
For the garlic cracker substitute roasted garlic oil for the olive oil and add 6 cloves of finely chopped garlic or to taste.
This cracker makes a great vehichle for any type of seed you may want to press into the dough in addition to adding spices to the mix for added flavor.

Preheat oven to 350

Combine dry ingredients and mix to combine. If you are making a garlic cracker add the garlic at this time. Add oil and half of the water. Continue working the dough and adding water until it forms a ball. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes to allow all the ingredients to hydrate.

Dust work surface with chickpea flour and coat rolling pin. Cut dough into thirds and roll out each ball to a thickness of 1/8 inch or thinner if possible. Test batches showed that thicker crackers baked up crisp but had a denseness that tasters did not care for. Cut the dough into shapes, squares or a dodecahedron if you like and poke each square with a fork to keep from puffing. I broke the dough once rolled into random shapes which also worked well. You can also press the flax into the top of the crackers before baking for added texture.
Place on baking tray and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Tips and Tricks:

I like to use a linen or tea towel to roll my dough out on. It keeps the flour in place and makes for easy clean up.
Docking the dough, by poking it with a fork was helpful but not essential as I learned when making crackers and gabbing with my neighbor Peat.
* Use Rumford or similar aluminum free baking powder. The other type of double action powder will give your crackers a weird metallic taste.

Photo Notes: