cheesecake

One thing I always forget when I’m making cheesecake is that you’re supposed to leave the eggs out until they reach room temperature. You don’t want to use eggs straight out of the refrigerator.

I’ll be like screaming "Why won’t my cheesecake set?!?" And it’s because I sabotaged myself way at the first step.

That said, I do like cheesecake.

rice cooker/multicooker

I ordered a new rice cooker, though this one is more of a multicooker. Which I chose because it makes yogurt.

I like Greek yogurt, so just that right there is delicious.

But if you strain out all the whey, you can make "yogurt cheese," which is about the consistency of cream cheese. And you can spread it on your bagels like cream cheese or use it in wraps and spread on cakes as frosting. There’s even recipes to use it instead of cream cheese when making cheesecake.

It’s healthier. More protein rich. And it’s super easy to make. (I’ll share some videos on Patreon.)

So I chose my new rice cooker because it–

• makes yogurt
• comes with a silicone lid so the pot of leftover rice can go into the refrigerator
• can make 12 cups of cooked rice at a time
• comes with a steamer basket
• has a cake button
• can sauté foods before simmering them
• has a soup button

We’re feeding extra people at the house, so I needed a bigger rice cooker. And also I love watching rice cooker recipe videos on YouTube. So I was already thinking about getting a bigger rice cooker.

It’s just that when making the choice, it was right after I watched a video where someone used the "Greek Cake" yogurt maker to make Greek yogurt cheese. And I am obsessed with the look of that brand of yogurt cheese maker–it creates round cakelike yogurt cheese wheels that you cut into cake slices. Perfect wedges of yogurt cheese you can use as-is or transfer to storage containers.

And I’m sad that the "Greek Cake" yogurt maker isn’t available in my country. I feel like we’re being left out.

But I have a tofu press, and I’m pretty sure I can use it to make yogurt cheese.

Like, I don’t have the money to buy gadgets I might hate and never use again after trying them once.

I want to make yogurt, but I don’t know if I’m going to like it enough or do it enough to justify buying an actual yogurt machine. (Though the Bear brand yogurt maker is chef’s kiss because it makes yogurt, Greek yogurt, cheese, and fruit wine.)

So I think the rice cooker/multicooker is a good choice for me.

I can make rice with it, and yogurt, and I chose the big enough cup size that I can do a bunch of the rice cooker recipes that I’ve watched but couldn’t do with my smaller rice cooker.

And yeah, I’m totally trying to justify the purchase in my own mind.

I’m like "Well, I can use the rice cooker to make rice and all those rice cooker recipes I’ve been watching. And I can use it to steam stuff and make soups and stews. And when I make my yogurt, I can use some of the yogurt to make yogurt cheese, and then I’ll use all that whey to kickstart lacto-fermentation!

Because I have two gallon-sized fermentation jars with airlocks.

And probiotics are good for gut health

And everyone needs more fiber in their diet, and fermenting vegetables is a good way to get people to eat more fiber. Because fermented vegetables are delicious.

lacto-fermentation

Making fermented vegetables is super easy.

You just need a brine made of non-iodized salt and water, and the raw vegetables you want to ferment. That’s it.

1. Wash your vegetables without using soap as you want to keep the beneficial bacteria, then chop them into the size you want and put them in clean dry jars.
2. Dissolve non-iodized salt in water to make a brine, then pour the brine into the jars, completely covering the vegetables. Leave some headspace at the top of the jar to avoid it bubbling over.
3. Either use a jar with a fermentation airlock, or use a regular jar and cover it with a bit of cheesecloth or put the lid on loosely.
4. Put your jar in a cool dark place or on your countertop out of direct sunlight and let it work.
5. Occasionally open the jar and press your vegetables down so they remain completely covered by the brine. You can mix and add more brine if necessary.
6. The airlock and cheesecloth options should let the gases release themselves, but if you’ve just used the regular lid you’re going to want to open it to "burp" the gases.

You can ferment your vegetables from 2 days to 4 weeks depending on the type and size of them and how sour you want them to be. But on average it’s about a week fermenting at 70-to-75-degrees Fahrenheit. (In the winter, countertop fermentation is okay at my house, but in the summer I have to find a "cool" shady spot.) Though if you want to go "low and slow" you can put your jars somewhere that’s like 50-degrees Fahrenheit and ferment your vegetables for as long as 6 months. In old Korea, they would bury the kimchi pots and they could have kimchi all year. Nowadays there are fermentation fridges you can buy.

There are recipes online for fermenting all kinds of vegetables. Though the best advice I’ve seen is to mix "smelly" vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts with less smelly ones so you don’t have to deal with the smell of fermented broccoli farts escaping your fermentation jars.

And like, if you turn regular yogurt into Greek yogurt or into yogurt cheese, you can save that whey and add a few spoonfuls to your fermentation jars when you add the brine.

Just remember that whey contains lactose.

So if you’re a little bit lactose-intolerant, you can probably eat your Greek yogurt and yogurt cheese with no problem because the whey has been squeezed out, but eating the whey itself might give you diarrhea.

If you can’t ingest the whey, you can still use it for other things:

• Dogs will eat it and think it’s great.
• You can use it as a toner for your skin, giving yourself dairymaid skin.
• You can add it to your bathwater like a milk bath without wasting a ton of milk.
• You can use it as the conditioner part of your no-poo hair routine in place of apple cider vinegar.

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Anyways, I’ve got a new rice cooker coming and I’m pretty excited about it.

My mind is full of the dreams of what I’m going to do with my new machine. Not just feeding my family, but opening a door leading to a whole other realm of possibilities.

And I still have my old smaller rice cooker, so I can use it to make side dishes and cakes and oatmeal and whatever while my new bigger machine is making rice or steaming fish or making yogurt.

I think I made a good purchasing choice. Like, there’s going to be tariffs and manufacturing shortages really hitting in the next year or so.

I wanted to buy a chest freezer, but my dad wouldn’t let me because "There’s no place to put it." But I really think we should have gotten one because our refrigerator is going to die at some point and when that happens I’m going to be the one desperately cooking everything in the fridge and freezer while other people scramble around trying to get a new refrigerator. And it’s going to be a total stress-filled mess that makes my stomach all acidy just to think about.

But that’s future-me’s problem.

Current me is waiting for my new rice cooker to arrive. Desperately hoping that I’m going to love it as much as I want to love it.

Please let me love it.

~Harper Kingsley

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