First things first – the yogurt I made last night tastes great, but it was still warm from the oven light and I am not really a fan of warm yogurt. My hope is that a stint in the fridge will help it thicken up a bit more, but since I don’t use pectin in yogurt like the commercial brands, it’s likely going to be a bit looser than what y’all are used to if you buy it. I didn’t go exactly with Kim’s recipe, but instead combined hers with a few others for Vietnamese yogurt and I think I’ve got a winner:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whole milk – heated almost to boiling
1/2 cup water – heated almost to boiling
1 1/4 cup whole milk – cold
1 c live culture plain yogurt
Whisk the condensed milk with the hot milk and hot water until it’s homogenous, then add the cold milk and the yogurt. Pour into clean containers, and incubate (keep in a warm place such as your oven with the light left on) for at least 6 hours (until it thickens up and is tart to your taste). Refrigerate promptly to avoid spoilage.
A few notes: I will use MUCH less plain yogurt next time, probably to the tune of a tablespoon or two, instead of a cup. And I wouldn’t use any water at all, and instead use straight milk, if not a little half and half or cream.
Now, on to the confession:
I don’t know if anyone here has guessed as to the depths of my obsession with bread, but well, I’m a lost soul when it comes to the staff of life. I love international cuisine simply because dining internationally allows me to try out all of the different breads of the world. Flat breads (tortillas, chapatti, pita), leavened quick breads (cornbread, biscuits), yeasted breads (challah, honey whole wheat, bagels), dessert-y breads (brioche, cinnamon rolls), breads that are entirely unleavened and crisp like crackers (matzoh)… Yeah, I’m kind of a maniac like that. I haven’t met one yet that I haven’t liked, with the exception of most types of rye – too bitter.
Knowing this about me, my husband (who is NOT an adventurous diner) caters to my whims and has been known to stop at a moment’s notice when I see a region whose bread I have not yet sampled (for instance, Ethiopian injera). And sometimes he’ll actually order something – often he will hold his breath and try not to breathe too deeply inside said establishment. To his credit, he at least goes inside with me. (laughing) The thing is, bread is the most basic of foods, as culturally diverse as the people who eat it. Every society in the world has some sort of bread, built from the grains available to each specific population, even if by American standards it might not seem like bread at all. But to be frank, the nutritionally bankrupt white fluff that most Americans call “bread” wouldn’t be recognized by many others in the world as bread anyway.
My family are some dyed-in-the-wool bread fanatics. In the summertime, we eat light when it’s too hot to cook. Often a loaf of French bread gets toasted in olive oil and butter, before it’s topped with fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, sea salt and more olive oil. Without the bread, it’s just salad. Or we’ll grill individual pizzas with homemade grilled naan as the crust. Without the naan, the toppings would just fall through the grill. We make biscuits for strawberry shortcake, but we’ll turn around and use those same biscuits for country gravy, too. And in the cold dark of winter, what good is a bowl of soup without some piping hot bread to soak up all the extra liquid in the bowl? Bread rarely gets wasted – leftovers end up as pudding, croutons or even stuffing at Thanksgiving. Whatever we don’t eat, my chickens certainly enjoy!
Last night after the gym we went out for dinner to our favorite Greek place. And I have to tell you, while I love a good gyros, I would be just as happy with a pile of warm pita in front of me, perhaps with a drizzle of olive oil on a plate to the side. That said, every time he orders for us, he always orders a few extra pita wedges just for me. He knows he can have pretty much everything else off my plate, so long as I have plenty of bread to occupy me. And biting into those chewy-soft pitas, I am always slightly in awe of how old this food is. Not the specific pitas on my plate, but the creation of them in the first place, all the way back to when some ingenious cook decided to mix finely ground grain with water and maybe some oil and cook it on a griddle. Maybe it was even a hot stone – I wasn’t there so I can’t say. 🙂 But still, it amazes me.
When you think about it, most of the food I really adore is ancient in nature, rooted deeply in history. I’m not fond of highly processed anything, though in this day of constant rushing, I can see why that sort of thing is popular. For me, I’ll keep on enjoying the old, slow way for just about everything.
First off I would like to say wonderful blog! I had a quick question in
which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to find out how you
center yourself and clear your head prior to writing. I’ve had a hard time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out there. I truly do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually wasted simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or tips? Thank you!
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have truly enjoyed surfing around your
blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!