Rue Rebecca and Cheddar Rolls

Rebecca is part of maintainence staff in our apartment building (well, at least she is for one more day).
More importantly, Rebecca is a wonderful woman.

In a world of increasingly distant and distracted "hellos" and "good mornings", Rebecca was the one person in my life who said it like she meant it. She looks you straight in the eye, and smiles, and says - "Good morning, how are you?" rolling her R's as she does it.

On mornings when I look particularly disheveled as I trudge down to the lobby to bring up the Times, Rebecca asks, "Whats wrong? Are you okay?" I mumble ... "tired" ... "was writing"..."too cold"... "drank too much coffee yesterday, couldn't sleep"... And yet, strangely enough whatever the cause for my exhaustion, once I had told her I felt better. The fact that she cared enough to asked me, made it all better.

For a year now, Rebecca has meant so much to me, and yet my interaction with her was always limited to warm smiles and three word sentences. That is until last week, when I saw someone else where Rebecca ought to be.
I panicked. "Where is Rebecca?" I asked our door staff. "Rebecca is leaving us. This is G.., she is replacing her."

My heart sank, "Oh."
"Well, is she still here? When is her last day?" I asked.

"Next Wednesday, I think"

To cut a long story short, in the interest of getting to the parts that matter, I found Rebecca and asked her home for a cup of coffee before she left.

Anticipating her visit today, I spent yesterday mulling over recipes to find the perfect cake to bake her. Yet, this morning, although I looked forward to her visit... I couldn't bring myself to bake a cake. It felt too sad for cake.
So when she did get here, all I could offer her was almonds, amaretto cookies, and cream crackers. I did however open up a treasured tin of coffee from Cafe Du Monde. This seemed as good an occasion as any.

And for the first time in a year of knowing her, we talked; and with ease, like we have had a hundred conversations before. We talked about our lives, families, and plans for the future.

Simba took a particular liking to her, and attempted climbing on her shoulders to catch a quick nap.  She told me the most wonderful story about her mother's cat Minino, who has found personal body guards in her mothers dogs! The two dogs apparently adore the little kitty to bits. So much, that they don't allow anyone to pet the cat. They bark and pounce if you so much as advance towards their precious keep.

You can't help but love her stories and especially for the way she tells them. The affection and pain evident in her eyes as she recounts the experiences of her life.

Gosh... I'll miss her so much, and its some respite that I did manage to tell her all that - about how much her smile and greetings meant to me, how much I would miss her, how delighted I was that she now had new opportunities to explore new things.

And happy as I am that she's moving on to what I pray will be nicer places and more fulfilling labors, I cannot help but rue the resignation of Rebecca.

After she left, I sat for a minutes and looked at our empty coffee cups. In a way I do understand that her leaving is what made it possible for me to get to know her. Else, we would have lived our lives, feeling our quiet affection towards each other, but never saying more than hello, and asking each other (albeit with genuine concern) "How are you?"

Later, I felt this unexplainable desire to knead something... so I baked these cheddar rolls. Some sort of self-soothing mechanism for me apparently.

Cheddar Rolls: Makes 8

(This recipe has been adapted from here)

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Instant yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter (melted) - 2 tbsp
Cheddar cheese(shredded) - 1/2 cup 
Water (warm) - 1 cup

What to do with it: 
1. Combine the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a bowl and mix with your hands. 
2. Add cheese and mix again. 
3. Add water and butter and knead till the dough comes together. 
4. Turn the dough onto a cold surface (like a marble slab or the kitchen counter) and knead with your hands for about 5 minutes. 
5. Divide them into eight rolls and set them aside to rise. This might take up to one hour.
6. Bake in an over preheated to 375 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes.

Paneer

Paneer is curd cheese. Very popular in India, especially amongst vegetarians for its high protein content.
It's fat levels are pretty high too... after all, it is Cheese we're talking about here!
One of life's greatest indulgences, to be enjoyed in moderation. (Although my definition of moderation depends on how good the cheese is, if you get my meaning)

Making Paneer at home is easy as pie.
You can do it while reading a good book.
Not a fascinatingly good book of course.
Definitely not the kind of book that would make you oblivious to your hair being on fire.
We are talking about boiling milk here, a task if entered into lightly and without enough attention will warrant lots of unpleasant mopping.
Not to forget all the crying... over spilled milk.

Alright, I'll stop... but hear me out on the science of Paneer cheese making before you get started.

The Brief Chemistry of Paneer

 

When you get down to brass-tacks, cheese is nothing but milk fats and milk protein.

The process of cheese-making involves coagulating (or curdling) milk to separate the curds from the whey, a process which requires the presence of an acid. The source and introduction of the acid is one of the many factors which determines which cheese we make. After all, milk is milk. Sure, it could come from different animals, and there would be a variation in their specific taste. But the milk of a single cow, can yield a diverse variety of cheese. Each one distinctly different tasting from the next.

I love milk, but I revere cheese.

Cheese is an art. Cheese is a delicacy we dedicate stores to, put on marble pedestals and celebrate. Well, some of us do anyway.

Getting back to the point, of all the wondrous ways to make cheese in the world, Paneer is made by Heat-Acid Precipitation. 

So we start with adding heat. When the proteins in milk are heated, especially whey protein, it gets denatured. Which means it’s complex protein structure, sort of unfolds itself leaving it exposed to anything that might be in its environment. This is when we add the acid (in my case the acidic yogurt) which causes the milk to curdle, or rather causes the whey proteins to coagulate. An added advantage of making Paneer is that this process of heat-acid precipitation, causes the casein protein to filter out with the whey. Casein is a large component of cow’s milk which means the cheese yield is greater than in cheese made by other methods. More importantly, casein is rich in essential amino acids, calcium, and phosphorus.

Here is my primary reference.

Alright then, let's roll up our sleeves. This is how we do it.

Take about half a gallon of WHOLE milk and a cup of fresh yogurt.
Okay fine!!! If you don't have fresh yogurt use the juice of half a lemon or lime or even 2 tbps of white vinegar.

I have fresh yogurt, so that's how I'm going to do it.

Oh yeah, about the can being shy of half a gallon, I think the husband, being unaware that this milk was destined for greater things used it for a cup of coffee or two.




Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan...

Add yogurt...

Let the whole merry mixture toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble...

... you will notice the curd separate from the whey.

When the whey turns clearer, turn off the heat and let it stay for about a minute. 

There is no great purpose for doing this, except that it's really very hot. 

You could use these minutes to set up a cheesecloth in a strainer. Make some arrangement for collecting the whey too. It too has great potential, let's not let it drain away. 

Strain and hang over sink. Let gravity work the whey out of it's system and help the Paneer really come together.

In case you're wondering... that's a small ball of Paneer hanging from a hook hung on the cabinet above my kitchen sink. 

And what do our labors yield...

About that much... of deliciousness. 

Why is it yellow? I added half a tsp of turmeric right after adding the yogurt to the milk. 

You don't have to do this... I just like my paneer yellow. 

Wrap in cling-foil and refrigerate till you're ready to use it. If it's going to be longer than 4 days - refrigerate it for a day, slice it into bite sized pieces, then freeze it.