Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Thanks! I'm ordering it today. I am so excited!

By the way, have you played with the whipped topping recipe yet?

Julie

Not yet! I got super excited about it and ordered all this molecular gastronomy stuff and then had to write my thesis :( But! it's turned in now, so that's on my agenda for this week.

In other cheese news, I've got the basic cashew cheese culturing as well as the meltable jack. they've been culturing for about 6 hours and right now the jack tastes surprisingly like Follow Your Heart, which I love, so that's awesome! I used Silk plain yogurt.

I can't wait to hear what you come up with on the topping!

Thanks for the heads-up on the yogurt you used. I was wondering which brands will taste best. I saw Whole Soy plain unsweetened at Whole Foods, but haven't tried it yet. I'm really excited to try my hand with Miyokos cheese recipes.

Julie, I love WholeSoy unsweetened. Silk Plain is still a bit sweetened. I was looking for the WholeSoy stuff when I went to whole foods the other day, but they only had Silk. I think it's working ok, but I really like WholeSoy for texture and flavor the best.

Just ordered this and I'm REALLY psyched about it!

Edit: Also, Hello Vegan MoFo material!

I made my rejuvelac from rye as well, and I wouldn't have described it as lemony - it tasted more like sauerkraut to me, and smelled kinda funky.

obTofulish: Definitely did not taste like cake.

I'm still waiting for the book to become available here, but I did make some crème fraîche/sour creme by making the basic cashew cheese except with blanched almonds and a little more liquid. I used it as the white layer in a lasagna and it was awesome. It's also really good on sandwiches. Thank you Miyoko for giving us the idea to combine nuts with rejuvelac!

So, how sour should the rejuvelac be? I made mine with quinoa, and it was definitely sprouted, but it's been sitting for a few days, and I tasted it today, and it tasted kinda like quinoa soaking water. I'm guessing I should let it sit a bit longer.

DTBK, try mixing it up a little. I dunno why, but when I made it, it didn't seem like anything was happening to it and I think the fermented-ness of it was down at the bottom because when I mixed it up it tasted lemony and then I let it sit for a little bit longer and it seemed perfect.

This book is featured on the cover of the new VegNews. There are a bunch of recipes in the article (and gorgeous photos), so maybe that will help those of you who can't get the book yet. My book arrived today, too, very excited to try the recipes. I really appreciate the author's availability this thread to answer questions.

Thanks ijdi! I'll try shaking it up when I get home, then letting it sit overnight.

I am so excited to try out some of these cheeses. I finally got the right kind of carrageenan, too. I ended up ordering mine from http://www.modernistpantry.com/ - shipping wasn't too bad, I got 100g of the kappa for less than $20.

Ok, this was on sale again on Amazon, so I snapped it up. Won't get it until next week, though. Is there anything I should pick up while I'm waiting? I have raw cashews and quinoa, that's about it. Can I get the carrageenan locally or is it something that has to be ordered online? We have a couple of brewshops in town if that's an option?

i tasted mine before i strained it after maybe 36 hours and it really tasted sorta like lemon juice. so i think you should try ijdi's advice.

xo
kittee

Oh no! Something went wrong with my brown rice and it never sprouted. It's quite warm here, so I expected it to sprout quickly. Today is the third day and still--nothing. Then, upon closer inspection, I saw mold coating the top of the rice in the jar, this morning, even though I have been rinsing it twice a day. What went wrong???

First, a disclaimer. I know very little about sprouting/rejuvelac-ing, etc. However, I've never had any problem sprouting anything, EXCEPT brown rice. Mine never sprouted, it just got all stinky and gross. I would try a different grain.

Interesting! I just got some quinoa, so I'm going to try again. A lot of people seem to have had luck with that, but now I'm scared!

Miyoko, I have a question about coconut oil. I've made a raw cashew cheese with it before and the whole thing ended up tasting like coconuts! There wasn't that much in there so I'm worried about it after looking over some the recipes in your book (like the brie, which I want to make SO badly!). It was the kind sold at Trader Joe's, is it just the wrong product? A friend told me there are some coconut oils that don't taste coconutty, I'm not sure what to get!

Disclaimer: I have not read the book or any of the recipes so you probably shouldn't listen to me.

I'm guessing you need refined coconut oil rather than regular, virgin, extra-virgin whatever coconut oil. The refined stuff should have little or no coconut taste.

Right,miyoko says to use a refined oil to avoid a strong coconutty flavor.
I'm on day 3 of rinsing quinoa for rejuvelac,and some of it has sprouted.Is it okay to go to step two,or does most of the quinoa need those little sprout tails?

Hi, I'm new at the PPK, and since cheese was my thing before going vegan, I figure this is a good a place to jump in as any. Amazon delivered Miyoko's book a few days ago, and so far I've made my rejuvelac from brown rice (took forever!), located all the accessory ingredients like agar powder and carrageenan, and finally actually mixed up batches of both gouda and sharp cheddar yesterday. While they were beginning their culturing process, I received the latest issue of VegNews, with more great Miyoko recipes, including one for sharp cheddar which calls for using a lot more rejuvelac during the thickening process - very different than the book's recipe.

So now I'm stumped. I guess I still have time to thicken with the additional rejuvelac? While there are slight differences in the "base" recipe, I'm assuming it would still work, but since I'm a noob at this, maybe I shouldn't tempt fate.

Miyoko, if you're checking this thread, what are the different results between the book's cheddar recipe and the one in VegNews? I believe that the brie and the mozzarella recipes in the magazine are also different than the book - are these improvements from your additional recipe development since the book went to press? I want to be the best vegan cheesemaker I can be!

I'm out of town this weekend with little internet access so will be brief. You have to use refinedcoxonut oil. Spectrum makes one. The mozzarella in VegNews is an improvement - i'll post more in a blog on Monday.

Yay! I was able to order it from a Dutch webshop. My copy will arrive somewhere next week. So exited!

I now have these fearsome looking tubs of kappa carrageenan, agar agar agar agar agar agar, and soy lecithin (saw it on amazon and figured I might as well, for other random recipes) in addition to my xanthan gum and nasty organic fishygeenan. Things are about to get REAL.

Oh, I wish I had taken pictures... Sadly, my camera batter charger is nowhere to be found...

I made the mozzarella and the sharp cheddar. The mozzarella was quickly eaten with these delicious tomatoes and basil I had lying around.

Then I used the sharp cheddar to make some mac & cheese. It was glorious! I think I put a tad too much miso in the cheddar, but it was delicious. Nicely sharp, too, even though I didn't let it "age" that long after molding it. I brought the baked mac & cheese topped with garlicy bread crumbs into work and it was a hit! Even with the extra miso in the cheese! :)

I'll definitely be making more (after I make the monterey jack and air-dried gouda) and I'll put in less miso... but next time I'll make grilled cheese sandwiches!

Also, this is not a recipe in the book, but I made almond milk a week ago and tossed the solids that I strained out into a container in the freezer. I normally use them for almond ricotta anyway by adding just a smidge of salt and adding in a tablespoon or less of lemon juice... So I decided to salt and culture the pasty almond solids with a splash (about 2 teaspoons-1 tablespoon, eyeballed) of rejuvelac after I thawed them. I let it culture for about 4 hours in a warmer-than-normal-room-temperature kitchen (it was probably about 76-77 degrees F, I think). The result was DELICIOUS!!! I highly recommend trying it. I used the ricotta by baking some mini tomato, basil, garlic, almond ricotta pies. I don't have measurements, but I'll try making the ricotta again...

I ordered my copy of Artisan Vegan Cheese last week and am desperate for it to arrive! All these reviews sound very promising! :-)