Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Yogurt!

An eye surgeon here on island writes a column for the local paper which has become a favorite read. His subject usually centers around healthy living and last Friday it was on yogurt.

Although my children absolutely loooove yogurt, I was never a big fan until I visited Thailand. My favorite breakfast there was muesli with fruit and yogurt. The way the menus read make it sound as if the yogurt is a condiment, but in reality (which means, of course, my way of speaking), it's yogurt (like a cup or two) on top of a little fresh fruit and sprinkled with muesli. I was hooked! I don't buy the fruited yogurt anymore, just plain. We eat it on fresh oranges, peaches (when available), burritos, tacos, potatoes, in smoothies, and we most recently discovered it's wonderful on Grammie Haskins' peanut butter cookies (which are the world's BEST p.b. cookies with or without the yogurt!).

Dr. Khorram was right, prices here on island are expensive, so I was considering buying a yogurt maker. I have looked at recipes before, but they seemed so particular about times, temperatures, etc. that a machine just seemed easier. Many thanks to Dr. Khorram for his wonderful column and sharing his memories of his grandmother making yogurt--I love the "homely" way and it is so easy! Here's what I do: first, wash a pot and spoon in hot soapy water, rinse and dry. Pour 1 liter of milk (I just use skim milk which is what we always buy) in the pot and bring to a boil over low heat. While it's heating up, I follow Dr. K's suggestion and add some full cream powdered milk, but that's optional. The Indian restaurant in town makes their own yogurt and it's thinner and sharper than the storebought. Casey wants to get a little from them to make a batch because he really likes the sharper taste. When it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, skim off the skin from the top of the milk, and let cool until the outside of the pot feels only slightly warm. When cool, stir in a couple of tablespoons of yogurt, cover, and place in the oven with just the oven light on as per Dr. K's suggestion. Eight hours later, VOILA! Yogurt. . . yum!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to have a yogurt making machine back home. The yogurt came out tasting okay buy it wasn't as thick as the stuff you buy. I don't know what I did wrong or maybe it wasn't wrong. I don't know.
Yogurt on musli is the only cereal based breakfast here. everything else (no matter what it is) is called cornflakes (in English). Wierd!

ML said...

I add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of powdered milk and that seems to make it thicker and creamier. My problem is that I'm finding 1 liter of milk into yogurt only makes it through 1 breakfast in this family!

Anonymous said...

maybe using a thinker milk (like whole) would fix that problem. i bet it would! OH YEAH! MAL JUST TOLD MUM HOW TO FIX A RECIPE!!! WHO ROCKS ***DOES A LITTLE DANCE*** anyway - yeah. that sounds like fun mum. i'm glad you're having so much fun making yogurt for you family WITHOUT ME THERE.

ML said...

Uhhh...it was Auntie who had the thin yogurt, not me...remember dear, "All ways are MY ways!!!"

ML said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ML said...

And exactly what is "thinker" milk anyway?:)

Anonymous said...

Actually putting powdered milk in the yogurt wouldn't really be 'real' yogurt would it? I mean the farmers yogurt here is super thick. A spoon easily stands up in it. What they make is so called 'natural' yogurt so that would leave out any added products, right? Maybe Mal is right and they use whole milk since it is a farm. Some whole milk is really thick as well. You couldn't buy that kind of farmers milk in a store.
I remember the Dow's milk was super creamy as well. That was like half cream.