Dill Lemon Creamed Eggs with Foxhill Cheese Milk

Foxhill Cheese’s new milk has inspired me to go back to update a classic breakfast that I first cooked when I was in grade 9.  I love breakfast, always have and always will.  I was looking for something different and went through my mom's cookbook and found creamed eggs.  A basic recipe with hard boiled eggs and a white sauce served over toast.  I made it and everyone loved it.  Over the years I have made a lot of variations of this recipe using various herbs, spices, cheese and presenting the eggs different ways.  Since I am using amazing milk I decided to come up with a variation to honor this, something clean that added flavor without covering up the taste of farm fresh whole milk.  I hope you enjoy, I know I did.

Ingredients:

8 Free Range Eggs

1/4 cup Butter

1/4 cup Flour

1/2 small onion (minced)

1 clove garlic (minced)

2 Cups Whole Milk 

1/2 tsp dried mustard

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg (cream sauces love nutmeg)

3 whole sprigs of Fresh Dill

1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp Fresh Parmesan Cheese 

4 Pieced of Toast

Paprika 

Place the Eggs in a large pot and cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 6 minutes.  I prefer this recipe with slightly runny yolks, I have an aversion for dry egg yolk however if you want to cook it longer feel free.  

As soon as the eggs are started melt the butter in another pot over medium heat and add the onion and garlic, cook for about 3 minutes till they soften and then add in the flour.  Stir with a whisk and allow to cook until it turns a light carmel colour.  You want to toast the flour a bit or your white sauce will have a raw flour taste and it will dull the flavor of the herbs and spices added later.  Next add about half the milk, and whisk until smooth then add the remaining milk and the dill.  Heat until the mixture thickens, then lower the heat.  Add in the mustard, salt, white pepper and lemon juice and stir in.  Then add in the cheese and stir until smooth.  Heat for about 10 min over low heat to blend the flavors, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.  

When the eggs are done drain and place in cold water, when you can handle them peel the eggs carefully.  Take half the eggs and chop into the sauce, the yokes will be soft but will pop out of the whites just stir those in. 

To plate put the toast on your plate add some of the sauce egg mixture, take a whole pealed egg and place it in the toast, cut in half, top with a little more sauce, some fresh snipped dill and paprika.   Enjoy.

Thanks again to my local suppliers:

Milk : Foxhill Cheese House

Eggs: Shani’s Farm

Garlic:         Active Life Farm

Onion:         Noggins Corner Farm Market

Dill: Riverview Herbs

And as always thanks to the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market for giving me a place to meet all these great suppliers.

Ricotta Cheese with Fox Hill Milk

I love italian food.  Can't get enough of it.  I have already given you a recipe for a great tomato sauce, and now I will show you how to make ricotta cheese.  Ricotta is used as a filling for ravioli or other stuffed pasta, it is used in lasagna and is also fantastic for making all kinds of desserts.  You can get ricotta in the stores but trust me this is much better.  It is so soft, smooth, and creamy.  It has a clean rich flavor that can't be matched by the cheese you get at your local factory food outlet.

This recipe uses 2 L of Fox Hill milk and will yield about half a pound of ricotta.  It is very simple to do and it will be worth the effort.  If you do not use Fox Hill Milk then you will need to as about 3/4 cup of cream into the mixture to get a nice rich ricotta.  I have made this a number of times and I can tell you honestly tell you using Fox Hill’s milk results in the best ricotta that I have had.  It only makes sense as the more natural the product the better the results will be.

I will be using this cheese in several recipes I will blog later but this will go great in any recipe you have that uses ricotta cheese.  

Ingredients

2 L Unhomogenized Milk or 2 L Whole Milk and 3/4 cup cream

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp salt

Cheese Cloth (this will be required to drain the cheese)

Add the milk and salt to a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven and heat the milk to 180 degrees.  Be careful to not let the milk boil.  Make sure you put the thermometer into the milk deep enough to get an accurate reading.  When the milk is to temperature add in the lemon juice and gently stir it in one or two stirs, do not aggressively stir because you do not want the curds to be broken up.  

Turn the heat to low and allow to cook for 15 minutes longer.  Again do not let it come to a boil.  After 15 minutes turn off the pot and cover.  Allow to sit for about 30 minutes to an hour or until you see the curds formed and the liquid separating.  You will see the milk curdle when you add the lemon juice this is not what you are looking for.  You want the milk solids to really form up or the liquid will not strain off.

When this is completed line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth.  Slowly pour the mixture into the cheese cloth and allow to drain until all of the liquid has passed through.  (About 30 min to an hour).  You can then take the cheese and put it in a storage container and refrigerate or use it right away.  It will stay fresh 2 to 3 days.

Special thanks to Fox Hill Cheese House for making such a wonderful product.

Fox Hill Cheese House HAS MILK!!!!!!

I have been a big fan Fox Hill Cheese House for 4 or 5 years now.  I have an issue with commercial milk products.  Something in the processing causes me to have itching on my hands and I get stuffed up.  I thought I was reacting to dairy products which was really strange because it was never an issue for the first 30 years of my life.  Being a cheese freak I could not stop eating cheese and when I heard about Fox Hill I drove right up the next weekend for some cheese.  The first thing I noticed was that I did not react.  I decided to test it out and went back and bought some gelato and some cheese curd and consumed it all in one night (the sacrifices we make).  No reaction at all.  I was thrilled.  I have been a customer ever sense.

When I was visiting them I heard the story of how they graze, and care for their cows.  How much care they take to ensure there are no antibiotics in their milk and how they use their own milk to make their products.  The level of pride they show in their business and the food they produce shows through.  You can tell that pleasing their customers is the priority of Fox Hill.

When they came out with bottled milk I had to try it and ran down to the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market to get my bottle (ok, 3 bottles, oh yeah got 5 more...).  The milk is pasteurized so no fear there but except for that and the Vitamin D they have to put in it is unprocessed.  You have to shake it because the cream will rise to the top but when you drink it, wow, fresh cold milk, you can taste the cream and natural sugars.  It is amazing.  I had my first glass of milk & cookies for the first time in years.  It is by far the best milk I have ever had.  And no reaction at all. 

Factory milk essentially has the crap kicked out of it, they separate off all the cream using a centrifuge, high temperature pasteurize it, then pump in milk fat to the prescribed percentage, add back vitamins they destroy in the processing of the milk and homogenize the milk.  Of course this allows them to use the cream in other applications, make modified milk ingredients and allows dairies to make more profit off their raw material.  The final product is not however whole milk.  As with most things produced in factories you end up with a poor copy of the real thing.

At 3 dollars a liter the milk is cheaper than the organic milk sold in the factory food outlets and is a far superior product.   I am very excited to have this available to me and I encourage you to go try a bottle (just leave one or three for me).  If you have a chance go up to their Port Williams location and take the time to talk to them about their operation.  You will be impressed by the level of pride and commitment to quality that they have.  You will also get some of the best gelato available.  If you don't want to take the trip to the valley then visit them at the market and you can get a sample of their milk (and gelato).