For the love of pete, make your own cheese curds.

How to make cheese curds:

1. Heat 2 gallons of milk to 96F and add 1/2 tsp of calcium chloride.

2. Add 1 packet of thermophilic culture and let this ripen for 30 minutes.

3. Then add 1/2 tsp rennet and stir gently for 30 seconds.
The milk will begin to gel in 6-10 minutes, and will be fully set and ready to cut in 18 -25 minutes.

4. When firm, cut the curds into 3/4 inch cubes and stir 5 minutes.

5. Then begin to cook the curds to 116F slowly over the next 30 minutes (starting out at 2F every 5 minutes and then increasing the heating rate as the curds dry out). (Open a nice white wine now, pour yourself a glass)

6. Continue to stir the curds for the next 30-60 min at 116F to increase firmness. (top-off you glass of wine at this point)

7. Drain in cheese cloth and bundle by tightening the cloth.
Press with a weight of 1 gallon of water (aprox. 8 lbs) and let set 1-3 hours. (yep, time to open the next bottle. You are not going anywhere tonight anyway)

8. Now break the curds into small bite size pieces and toss with a bit of salt (to your taste). They are ready to eat. They can be stored in a covered glass container or a ziploc bag.

NOTE: If you have a pH meter (you really should), the end of step 5 should be pH6.4 and step 7 pH5.3.

Pretty straight forward.

ATT Phone Service Problems - 14Feb11

Please note, our incoming phone lines are working intermittently. Oddly they can work perfectly, or not at all.

If you are contacting us for a catering order please email us at: catering@zhmarketcafe.com

AT&T is not our friend. The automated AT&T "customer service" system, the one that you actually never get to speak to a real human being, claims that a service tech. will be here to fix this problem by 6PM on Tuesday.

Thank you for your consideration and Happy Saint Valentine's Day.

Z&H Catering

An area that we do not talk about very much, but has become a big part of our reality is catering. Z&H does a lot of lunch and meeting catering, the most popular catering of this type are our Sandwich Platters and Bag Lunches. Groups range from a handful of folks to over three hundred.

A growing area for us is custom catering, we have done everything you can imagine from fancy holiday parties to a wedding for 150 folks. We like to craft menus to suit each particular event; this has turned into a great outlet for our creativity.

If you ever find yourself in need of delicious and thoughtful catering please consider Z&H for your event.

Something different on a snowy morning....

How about a Kimchi-egg sandwich on Saturday morning? with bacon perhaps? 20 inches of snow and a Kimchi-egg sandwich sounds about right. Break the back of winter.

Z&H Cheese Tasting at 47th Street...

Join us for a freewheeling cheese tasting from 1 to 3 on Saturday with Kamala (our awesome cheese maven); we will be sampling L'Amuse, Ossau Iraty, and Delice De Bourgogne. And for the first time in Hyde Park, Vegan Caviar from Aqua-Gourmet. Even though it is vegan, it is fantastic.

January 17, 2011

“...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

-Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963

Vegetarian Caviar...

Yes and it is delicious. Aqua Gourmet vegetarian caviar is produced in Canada, using a variety of seaweed as the primary ingredient. This caviar is made strictly form plant extract to create a 100% vegetarian product. Kelp offers not only an authentic caviar taste, but also incredible health benefits, all at a great price. We have three varieties: Sturgeon, Salmon, and Spicy Chili. They each offer a taste and versatility to the table. Great for appetizers, salads, a fancy pizza offering and baked seafood, or haw about this recipe...

Z&H Kelp Caviar Eggs

The Stuff:
4 hard-boiled eggs
4 tablespoons of Kelp Caviar
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
3 tablespoons of mayonnaise or sour cream
freshly ground black pepper to taste

The Skinny:
Shell the eggs, cut them in half, and remove the yolks. Mash the yolks well and mix with mayonnaise, two tablespoons of Kelp Caviar, chopped parsley, and ground black pepper. Put this mix in the egg halfs, and serve it as a salad course. Easy.