Well Christmas and New Year is nearly wrapped up, I am a stoic believer in starting Christmas late (preferably on the 24th 
and finishing on the 12th night which by my calculation is the 6th January – 2 more days.
Life Chez Nous is of course getting back to normal, Cynan is back at school, I’m trying to get some work done and Julie is thinking about practicalities. Both Julie and myself are also getting slowly to grips with a petite regime, nothing to formal you understand at least not from my perspective. I will be trying to eat less rich food, having smaller portions and consuming more fruit and veg, but not necessarily all at the same time.
To support the regime its time to ramp up the production of yogurt something that we make through out the year partly because we can, because it tastes better and because I find it a little bit magical. My mum used to make yogurt occasionally with some absurd yogurt maker from the 70′s all lurid plastic, dodgy pots and presumably a little light-bulb hidden somewhere. Truth be told the yogurt was disgusting.
Our yogurt is lovely, thick unctuous and yummy, that’s the gourmet bit. Its also frugal, the food industry trick of turning milk into yogurt then selling it on as a high value/health/artisanal product for lots of money is only bettered by their ability to sell a litre of fresh water for more than a litre of petrol!
Yogurt Ingredients
Our recipe for making yogurt is simplicity itself you need;
- 500ml whole milk
- 25g or a good sprinkling of powdered milk
- A small pot of natural live yogurt
- A thermos flask
Add the powdered milk to the whole milk in a pan, or just give it a good sprinkle, which is what I do, it is not strictly necessary to add powdered milk, but the powder helps make a thicker yogurt more like one bought from a shop. Stir and heat the mixture up to blood heat, that is so the milk feels slightly warm when you dip your finger in. Stir in a pot of live yogurt. Decant everything to the thermos and leave overnight (or all day). You will then have a large bowl of thick tasty yogurt.
You can flavour your yogurt with fruit, jam, etc. My favourite is to cover a little pot of yogurt with a thin layer of sugar then flash under a hot grill to create a caramel topping, if I can not be bothered I add a couple of nuts and stir in some honey.
Hold 2 or 3 tablespoons of yogurt back to make your next batch, this works 3 or 4 times but eventually it gets rather thin and watery and you should invest in a new pot of live yogurt. You can use the thinner yogurt to make Lassi, just add in a mango and some sugar to taste and blitz in a mixer.
A bowl of finished yogurt
Do remember to clean the thermos flask quickly and well, dried on milky stuff is a nightmare to shift, and not healthy if left. That’s it, give it a go and it’s great fun to make with kids and afterwards they can have something not full of sugar, preservatives, gum or E numbers.
