Grilled cheese might be simple, but there are some very exciting variations on the theme. Depending on how well equipped your kitchen is, your grilled cheese experience can take you down one of the following three paths.

Any bread and any cheese will do. Just make sure you have enough to feed yourself and any jealous roommates.

Stove top: Just like mom used to make it. A pan, a little bit of nonstick cooking spray and maybe a little butter, and you are in business.

Panini press: It might be an expensive piece for your kitchen, but you will thank yourself time and again for the investment. Panini presses produce restaurant-quality grilled cheese faster than the old-fashioned way, and you get the cool grill lines!

Blowtorch: It isn’t efficient, but it sure is fun. Making a grilled cheese sandwich with a creme brulee torch is an experience that you won’t soon forget.

The grilled cheese sandwich is really just the jumping-off point for making many gourmet sandwiches. A personal favorite is the bacon-fried grilled cheese. Start by cooking bacon in a pan, leaving the extra grease in the pan instead of nonstick cooking spray, and be sure to put your cooked bacon back into the sandwich afterward for extra flavor.

Fry up some bacon first, add it to your sandwich, then grill the sandwich in the bacon fat for extra flavor.

Oh, and if you’re lactose-intolerant like me, don’t forget your lactaid pill.

Happy National Grilled Cheese Day!

The post Make the perfect sandwich for National Grilled Cheese Day appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Impress your friends at brunch or wow your sleepover guests with your cooking skills. Creating the perfect omelet takes nothing more than eggs and a little confidence. Omelets allow for some of the most exquisite combinations of flavors — both savory and sweet — making them a wonderful addition to any aspiring student chef’s repertoire.

Crafting the perfect omelet starts with mastering the flip, so get to it. Grab a dozen eggs, and get cracking.

Contact Andrew Steinsapir at asteinsapir@dailycal.org.

The post How to: Make (and flip) an omelet appeared first on The Daily Californian.

If you’re going on a long trip, make sure to think about preserving some perishable foods like vegetables, fruits and meat. Bring a cooler that you can fill with ice along the way, especially if you’re camping in an arid environment like the desert.

Make sure to incorporate essential nutrients into your diet — protein-rich food like nuts and beans, as well as fruits like oranges and apples to provide vitamins and minerals.

Whole grains cooked ahead of time, like brown rice and quinoa, help as a foundation for any meal during the trip. Throw some cheese and veggies on top for dinner, or mix in honey and dried fruit for a sweeter, heartier breakfast.

Remember to bring the forgettables — cooking oil, salt, pepper, brown sugar, honey and spices (seal in jars or bottles and label) are essential to bring if you plan to cook during your trip. Aluminum foil is also extremely helpful for packing lunches and roasting veggies in the fire. And don’t forget utensils, knives, plates, cups, spatulas, napkins and small pots and pans.

Play it smart. Plan meals that utilize the freshest, most perishable ingredients — like salads, vegetable wraps and eggs — at the beginning of your trip. Save meals like soup, beans and oats for the latter end of the adventure, as these stay good longer.

Here are some easy ideas for camping meals and snacks:

Oatmeal: If you have a camp stove, boil water and mix in oats for a simple breakfast staple. Top with raisins, dried cranberries, nuts, granola, ground flax or milk to liven up your rustic meal.
Quick cooking grains: Couscous, minute rice, quinoa and polenta are all easy to boil and pair well with other ingredients.
Beans: Pre-cook beans like black beans, chickpeas, or kidney beans for a hearty chili or as a side. Or bring a can.
Cheese: Hard cheeses like parmesan, Swiss and cheddar stay good longer than softer cheeses and taste great in wraps, burritos, sandwiches and chili.
Pita bread and tortillas: Make a quick veggie wrap with hummus and raw veggies, or add some cheese to make a quesadilla.
Dried pasta and sauce: This makes for an easy yet delicious meal in your home or in the mountains. You could also make a pasta salad beforehand dressed with olive oil and veggies.
Eggs: If you have a safe place in which to transport eggs, bring them for a tasty breakfast scramble or add them to breakfast burritos.
Jerky: Beef, turkey, bison or tofu will stay good and provide much-needed protein.
Sturdy vegetables: Carrots, cabbage, bell peppers and cucumbers all travel well. Bring potatoes or sweet potatoes to roast in a campfire. Just poke the potato with a fork, wrap in foil and place in the fire, rotating until soft in the middle.
Sturdy fruits: Apples, oranges and grapefruits hold up just as well. Good for take-along snacks.
Nuts: Almonds, cashews, walnuts and peanuts are among your many choices. Eat them alone or add them into a trail mix.
Dried fruit: Raisins, cranberries, cherries, mango and figs are all delicious and packed with energy.
Granola and cereal: Hearty and filling cereals that are low in sugar keep you satisfied and energetic for long treks. Make some homemade granola to snack on or eat for breakfast.
Granola bars: Pack some energy-dense bars that are low in sugar and high in protein, like Clif Bars, Larabars or homemade granola bars.
Pancake mix: Bring some “just add water” mix or make your own to bring along.
Chocolate-covered anything: Coated nuts, espresso beans and dried fruit serve as instant desserts or snacks.
Condiments: Bring sauces like mustard and ketchup in small containers or single-serving packets.
Tea and hot chocolate packets: Just add hot water and enjoy by the fire.
Coffee: If you need your morning coffee, even in the woods, bring instant coffee or make some rustic campfire coffee.
S’mores: Obviously. Graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows. Bring wire hangers to fashion into campfire sticks.
Trail mix: There are plenty of store-bought mixes, but try making your own with this recipe.

Ultimate Trek Mix Recipe
1 cup almonds or slivered almonds
¾ cup walnuts or walnut pieces
¾ cup shelled pistachios
½ cup coconut flakes
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried cherries or raisins
½ cup shelled pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
¾ cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
Mix everything together and munch.

Contact Christina Lubarsky at clubarsky@dailycal.org.

The post Treats for spring break campers appeared first on The Daily Californian.

My favorite mug cake recipe comes from made from scratch. This recipe works well because it doesn’t include eggs. Many mug cake recipes will call for an egg, but that’s a bit excessive, considering one would normally use about two eggs to make a whole batch of cupcakes. Eggs, when microwaved, also have a tendency to overcook, which would give the cake an undesirable spongelike texture.

The mise en place, or setup, for this cake is, well, a piece of cake. All you need is a microwavable coffee mug, some measuring spoons and a few ingredients:

All of the dry ingredients go right into your mug. No muss, no fuss.

Dry Ingredients
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
A pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients
2 tbsp. milk (regular, almond, soy, etc.)
1 tbsp. oil (a neutral-flavor oil such as canola or vegetable)

First, mix the dry ingredients in your mug. Then add the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.

This is where you can get creative — you can add chocolate chips, nuts, really anything you want, but what is truly delicious is a dollop of peanut butter, caramel or Nutella in the middle so that you have a gooey, molten center to dig into.

Now you’re ready to bake. Pop the mug into the microwave on high for one minute. If it looks like it needs a bit more time, do so in five-second increments. When it’s done, let it cool and enjoy.

Contact Aaron Kitchin at akitchin@dailycal.org.

The post Fixing the rainy day blues: One-minute chocolate cake appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Savory and sweet caramelized onions are a welcome addition to almost every dish graced with their presence. While caramelized onions may transform a haphazard meal into something more gourmet, they suffer from the most evil of sins — preparation time.

Classically caramelizing onions can take somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes, something that, as dorm-dwellers and apartment autochthons, we do not have time for. However, with a few little tweaks and a little bit of chemistry, you can cut that time in half in three simple steps.

1. Portioning: It’s easy to go overboard, so make sure you use a pan large enough that your onions only form one layer instead of having pieces piled on top of one another. This will mean that your onions will need less stirring.

2. Surface area: Cutting your onions into smaller pieces will increase the rate at which they caramelize. This means that you can spend less time sweating over that hot stove.

3. Chemistry: Caramelizing onions makes use of two different groups of chemical reactions. Don’t worry, you don’t need to put on a lab coat and goggles to make this work. Just add some vinegar (balsamic is a good choice) to your onions after they have become clear, and enjoy better living through chemistry.

The post How to: Caramelize onions appeared first on The Daily Californian.

If you’re not a vegan or strictly lactose intolerant, then dairy could be a big part of your everyday life. Think about all of the permutations of milk that you enjoy: yogurt, sour cream, butter, soft cheese, hard cheese, white cheese, bleu cheese, buttermilk, heavy cream, whipping cream, cream cheese, yogurt cheese, kefir, cottage cheese, goat’s cheese and sheep’s cheese — all from milk, one ingredient in one color of soft ivory whiteness.

Thankfully for me and other lactose intolerant dairy-lovers, many of these dairy products, like cheese and yogurt, are significantly more easily digested, as much of the lactose drains into the whey as the fatty curds separate to make cheese. In addition, bacterial cultures found in yogurt and cheese help out by feasting on belly-aching lactose sugars, while promoting healthy bacterial activity in the colon.

In my recent quest for learning traditional and artisan food crafts, cheesemaking rose to the top of the list. Making cheese is quite foreign to the everyday consumer, but it can be extremely accessible with some time and the proper ingredients. To learn how to make my own artisan dairy products, I found the Institute of Urban Homesteading, a school for learning traditional food crafts and self-sufficiency skills, including all kinds of gardening, bee keeping, buterching, animal husbandry, mushroom cultivation, fermenting, aquaponics, pickling and brewing galore. This school is conveniently located in various residencies and community gardens scattered around Oakland and the East Bay and provides affordable classes in a small, comfortable setting.

At the intensive two-day cheesemaking course, I found myself sitting in a semicircle in a small living room, with a colorful mixture of old and young cheese enthusiasts waiting with their packets of recipes in hand. Ruby Bloom, the founder of the school, sat beside me in a floral apron, hair tousled up into a wise bun. We moved into her quaint yet spacious kitchen, circling around her central cutting board island, the center of our cheesemaking exploration. We began the day with yogurt, then moved to ricotta, queso fresco, mozzarella, and prepped for yogurt cheese and yogurt cream for the next day. The next day, we finished with fresh butter and began a brie-like cheese, learning about molds and how to approach then in a home environment.

We ended our weekend with a feast. A colorful spread of marinated vegetables, polenta pizza with fresh made mozzarella, toasted nuts, ginger beer, and of course, a spread of our very own cheese creations. I was amazed with my own ability to make these dairy products, and soon felt empowered to make my own food crafts at home. Its easy, delicious and extremely rewarding.

Yogurt is as good as any place to start this series because it is an extremely easy dairy product to make. The process only involves heating up milk, adding cultures and then incubating for a few hours. Yogurt, with its live and active cultures, works as a vehicle for essential bacteria necessary for cheesemaking, and can be used for further recipes, including cheese, butter and yogurt cheese.

You can use any type of milk for the yogurt. However, whole milk worked best for a creamy, delectable yogurt. Try to use good quality milk and starter yogurt, preferably organic, like Straus or St. Benoit yogurt (found at the Berkeley Farmers Market, Berkeley Bowl and the Berkeley Student Food Collective). In addition to high-quality milk, you also might want to buy or find a frothing thermometer to precisely measure the milk, as temperatures are very important for bacterial activity.

When I make this yogurt, I place it in my oven, turned off. It needs to be in a warm place (90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit) to incubate for at least three hours, so it is essential to find a good spot for the yogurt to set. Bloom suggests using a cooler, and filling it with hot water to create a warm water bath that stays a good constant temperature for a while. Try out some of the flavor variations to find the ones that work for you.

Homemade Yogurt
From Ruby Bloom, Institute of Urban Homesteading

Equipment
2 large pots
Thermometer (up to 220 degrees F)
Mason jars
Measuring cup
Spoon or Whisk
Small Plastic Cooler or gas oven with pilot light or electric blanket or foam cooler incubator

Ingredients
1 gallon milk
1 cup fresh plain cultured yogurt (like St. Benoit or Straus)

Thoroughly wash all equipment with soap and hot water before you begin. In one pot, heat milk on low to medium heat between 185 degrees and 195 degrees Fahrenheit. Be careful not to let it burn.

While the milk is heating, boil water and sterilize your mason jars (four 1 quart jars plus a 1 pint jar or nine 1 pint jars) by setting them in the boiling water for one to two minutes each. Pull the jars out with tongs and set them upright on a clean towel. Sterilize lids and rings as well.

Cool the milk to between 122 and 130 degrees. Gently mix one cup of the yogurt with a cup of the cooled milk. Add this mixture to the rest of the milk and stir to mix. Pour into mason jars and seal.

Incubate for three to four hours until gels. This can be done several ways. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light, it may work to set them there. You can also pour the water you sterilized the jars with into a camping or styrofoam cooler until the temperature is 130 degrees. Place the jars into the cooler and close.

Another method is to take a foam cooler or cardboard box, cut a hole in it, fit a 25 watt light bulb through and turn it upside down over your yogurt. For all methods monitor the temperature with a thermometer.

After the yogurt is incubated, remove it and place it in the refrigerator. After it cools, save one pint to start your next batch. You can do this for three or four times before the culture becomes contaminated or too weak to reuse. Once that happens, buy fresh yogurt from the store again. Yogurt will keep four to six weeks in sealed jars refrigerated.

Variations

• Vanilla yogurt — Add 2 to 3 tbsp. vanilla extract to the milk while it’s around 130 degrees F. Or add a vanilla bean, halved, into the milk while you heat it.
• Lemon yogurt — Add fresh lemon juice (1/3 to 1/2 cup) to the finished yogurt after cooled.
• Berry yogurt — Boil fresh berries, like raspberries or blackberries, in water over medium heat until reduced. Add honey and/or lemon juice to the berry mixture. Mix in with finished yogurt.
• Almond yogurt — Add 2 to 3 tbsp. almond extract to the milk while it’s around 130 degrees F.
• Maple or honey yogurt — Add 1/2 to 1 cup real maple syrup or honey to finished yogurt, depending on desired sweetness.

Contact Christina Lubarsky at clubarsky@dailycal.org.

The post Discovering dairy at home: Homemade yogurt appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Adriana worked on the ricotta while I watched in fascination and worked on the pasta. The recipe we used was adapted from Smitten Kitchen. The ingredients are easy to acquire, as ricotta is a fresher cheese than most. All you need is whole milk, cream, salt and vinegar (and some red wine, as all Italian cooks do). It makes about one hefty cup of ricotta:

3 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons white vinegar

First, pour the milk, cream and salt into a three-quart saucepan. Attach a candy thermometer (or keep one handy), and heat the mixture to 190 degrees, stirring occasionally. Once it hits 190, remove it from the heat and add the vinegar, stirring slowly a couple of times before letting it sit for five minutes.

Salt, cream, milk

Pour and heat

Stir occasionally as it reaches 190 degrees

If for some reason you are like us and have cheesecloth lying around, line a colander with it and place the colander over a bowl. Otherwise, use two paper towels. Pour the mixture (formally known as “curds and whey”) into the colander so the curds can drain. This process should take about one hour. Use this time to continue making the pasta.

Strain curds and whey in a cheesecloth-lined colander over a bowl

Pasta is really quite simple: flour, eggs, water, olive oil and salt. Many pastas don’t even have too many ingredients. We adapted ours from an Alton Brown recipe.

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

If you’re using a food processor, first combine flour and salt. Then whisk the eggs, water and oil in a measuring cup. While running the machine in pulse mode, pour the liquid into the flour mixture. If mixing by hand, do the same, but instead mix with two fingers until all the wet ingredients are incorporated. If you’re rolling by hand, knead the dough on a floured surface for eight to 10 minutes, then form it into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for one hour.

Process flour mixture with eggs, water and oil

Form dough into disc on floured surface

If you time it right, the pasta and the ricotta should be ready at the same time. When the ricotta is done, it should be tender and spreadable. You can use it right away or put it in an airtight container and into the fridge. We sauteed arugula and spinach and mixed it with our cheese to make the ravioli filling.

We added sauteed arugula and spinach to our ricotta filling

The trickier part begins now. Take the pasta disc out of the fridge and transfer it to the floured work surface. Using a rolling pin (or a wine bottle), roll out the pasta into sheets. The pasta should be about 1/8″ thick.

A wine bottle makes a surprisingly fantastic rolling pin — recycle!

Make a quick egg wash to help seal the ravioli, with one egg and equal parts water. Once you’ve rolled out your pasta, cut it into squares or circles depending on your preference. We made circular ravioli but would recommend squares so you can get the most out of your dough. Once your shapes are cut, fill the middle of the pasta with a tablespoon (heaping, if you like) of filling. Brush the perimeter with your egg wash, place another piece of pasta on top and press around to get out any air.

Assembly

This is a little too much filling — be careful so that it doesn't overflow

Press the edges of the ravioli to seal

How cute is that pasta!

Boil a half-gallon of water and season it with salt and olive oil. Once assembled, gently drop the ravioli into the pot. Cook the ravioli in batches, taking them out when they float to the top (usually after only a few minutes).

Look at all those ravioli

Meanwhile, you have time to whip up some tomato sauce. In a pan, saute a few cloves of garlic and half an onion in olive oil, add canned tomato sauce, salt, pepper and any other seasonings you like (oregano is recommended). Simmer. When the ravioli are done, add them to the sauce and stir gently so that the pasta is covered in savory sauce.

Make a sauce for your ravioli with garlic, onion, tomato and seasoning

Serve with some grated parmesan and enjoy. It’s a little bit of work, but hands-down, it will be the best ravioli you’ve ever had. The components are simple, and the ravioli will impress everyone you know.

Delicious finished product

Image source: Fiona Hannigan, Daily Cal, and Adriana Vazquez

The post Make your own ravioli meal entirely from scratch appeared first on The Daily Californian.

This recipe yields a loaf of banana bread that is moist and delicious and has well-balanced flavors (read: it’s not overwhelmingly banana-y). Purists can leave out the chocolate and nuts, but these optional extras do really transform the bread from a rather traditional dish to something quite gourmet. Make it for special occasions, brunch invitations or anytime breakfast needs a little upgrade.

Ingredients:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large/3 small bananas (ripe)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tablespoons plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
½ cup chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts (optional, but highly recommended)

Directions:
Begin by buttering a 8-by-6-by-2-inch loaf pan and preheating the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas together — a fork works just fine for this.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Pour in the mashed bananas and the vanilla extract, and mix until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until they are thoroughly blended. In roughly half-cup increments, add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, stirring well after each addition. Fold in the Greek yogurt and then any nuts, chocolate chips or other extras you so desire. Mix until blended then pour into prepared pans and bake on the middle oven rack for 55-65 minutes. (Extra batter can be used to make miniature loaves or muffins; adjust baking time accordingly.)

Use a toothpick to check if the bread has fully cooked — the toothpick will come out clean when the bread is done — then set aside to cool for 10 to 20 minutes. Slice and serve warm with butter, cream cheese or your favorite topping.

Contact Jillian Wertheim at jwertheim@dailycal.org.

The post Chocolate banana bread for any occasion appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Chocolate truffles are deceivingly simple to make. In their most basic form, truffles require only two ingredients: heavy cream and chocolate. Since these are the only two ingredients, don’t skimp too much on quality, and consider using a semi-sweet to dark chocolate.

Start with a ratio of about two cups of chocolate to one cup of cream, adjusting this ratio depending on how firm you want your ganache to set. The more liquid you add, the creamier and less firm the finished truffles will be.

Heat the cream to a near-boil in a saucepan or with a microwave. Pour heated cream over the chopped chocolate and stir to melt.

Flavor options can vary as much as you want. You can infuse the cream while it’s being heated with fresh herbs and spices, or you can add powdered spices like cinnamon to the melted ganache. A little alcohol can be a nice touch, too, particularly brandy or citrus liqueurs. Dress the truffles to your heart’s content, and remember, the only rule is that it has to taste good. A dash of salt can also do wonders to heightening the sweetness and richness of your finished product.

What you have now is a chocolate ganache base. Refrigerate it for a few hours until it becomes significantly solid, then roll small portions into balls and dust them in cocoa powder or anything else you see fit such as chopped nuts or shredded coconut.

Significant other or not, homemade chocolate truffles are great for any occasion.

The post Win hearts with homemade chocolate truffles appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Gather up a few of your friends and floormates, and head down to the communal kitchen, which can be found in all of the units, but be prepared to improvise and get a little messy. For my first foray into dorm cooking, I decided to keep it simple — pizza. My friends and I decided to make a classic staple, the margherita pizza, for our first pie and experiment on the second with a pear and Gorgonzola cheese pizza.

We trekked down to the Trader Joe’s on University Avenue and picked up the necessary ingredients, which totaled to a little bit under $30, which is not bad for a meal that will feed roughly six people. Be prepared to invest in a few staples, such as olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. They’ll hike up the bill the first time around but will last. Plus, if you end up splitting whatever you make, as we did, the total turns out to be roughly $5 per person.

As it turns out, the communal kitchen in my dorm was ill-equipped for any type of cooking — there were no knives, pans, nothing. So we hauled down our personal cutlery — not exactly prime for slicing tomatoes and chopping basil — a laptop for music and an aluminum baking pan to double as our pizza pan. Not everything went exactly as planned, and we ended up making a bit of mess, but it was a ton of fun and a great way to bond with the people on my floor. And all the socializing aside, you’ll have a delicious dinner in the end.

Pear-Gorgonzola Pizza

1 bag Trader Joe’s Plain Pizza Dough
2 pears
1 small wedge of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
6 slices of provolone cheese
Balsamic Vinaigrette

Open the dough and let it sit for about 10-20 minutes. Preheat oven to about 350ºF. Slice pears into thin slices, then knead and spread dough onto baking sheet. Place provolone cheese slices evenly over the dough, and spread the crumbled the Gorgonzola cheese and pear slices on top. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette over the pizza to taste. Bake for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

The post Dorm Cooking: Easy pear and Gorgonzola pizza appeared first on The Daily Californian.