The Yoghurt Trials and other Dairy Adventures

I read an article today titled '12 Things you Should Eliminate from your Fridge'.  Apart from some obvious suggestions such as ditch your sugar filled tomato sauce and soft drinks, the author claimed we should rid our diets entirely of all dairy foods. Naturally, she went on to elaborate with a whole host of reasons emphasizing why all dairy is such a poor food choice. HA! Imagine! I can't. Oh how we relish in our full fat creamy NZ butter here (which we cook with on a daily basis - poohoo to those nasty veggie oils). And what would home-made pancakes be without lashings of cream? Or crackers without a thickly spread layer of home-made labneh? Who could honestly contemplate eating a taco or baked spud without a generous mountain of grated cheese plonked on top??? And pasta without Parmesan???? Give up dairy!!!!!! Not likely. For us, it's here to stay. Let me tell you about the dairy related experiments I've been dabbling in of late...

I've been intrigued with the idea of making yoghurt from scratch for a while now, but I always felt it was out of my depth. Our family has been using the EasiYo system to make yogurt on a weekly basis since coming to reside on Norfolk. The availability of fresh yoghurt here is limited and not to mention quite expensive. We have been reasonably satisfied with both the EasiYo Greek and Natural Yoghurt mixes, but I've always been bothered by the fact that they contain a soy based emulsifier. My friend Heather recently steered me towards a great Australian website that sells everything from cheese making kits through to cultures for making home-made salami and vinegars. Of course, they sell yoghurt cultures too. We decided to order some together and give it a go. Heather had heard from a friend that it was possible to make almond milk yoghurt and coconut milk yoghurt. I've been making both almond and coconut milk all year and love them both. This sounded too good to be true.  I know I always harp on about how much I hate cooking and spending time in the kitchen, but the lure of making things from scratch seems to be winning me over these days. I'm becoming addicted to that satisfying feeling... "I MADE it MYSELF". (Cue superhero music...) It makes me feel all powerful hee hee hee!

Oops, digressing a little. Well, our live culture arrived in the post a few weeks ago, but I didn't jump in straight away due to feeling a bit overwhelmed by the VERY specific instructions. After Heather divvied out my share, I promptly stored my portion in the freezer (as suggested) until I could fully get my head around the actuality of putting the complicated process into practice. This "thing" (culture) living in my freezer is alive after all. What if my actions caused it to become contaminated? It sat untouched in the freezer for over a week when I finally told myself to stop being such a scaredy cat. It's just bacteria after all!

Despite my original intention to attempt making a non dairy yoghurt, I decided to make my first batch with cows milk. I figured it would be best to try making the real deal first, just to familiarize myself with the how-to. I'm pleased I did. Let's face it, almond milk and coconut milk were never really destined for a metamorphosis into yoghurt!

For my first try I purchased some fresh cows milk from Foodies (our supermarket here). Fresh milk costs a bomb on Norfolk as it has to be flown in once a week from New Zealand. Most islanders buy UHT instead. It's possible to make yoghurt from UHT, but I wanted to be a bit more authentic, even if just once. But I have to say, knowing how much I'd spent buying a litre of fresh milk only added to the trepidation I was feeling -  I just didn't want to stuff it up!

It turns out the whole process isn't particularly tricky, it just takes some patience and a watchful eye.  I won't take you through every step of the process - that might put you to sleep. But I'm pleased to report my first batch of yoghurt turned out fine. I wouldn't say the flavour was exactly as I like, it was very milky and mild (Ben and I prefer a sharp tart yogurt, you know, the kind that sucks your face in!). Harry and Till (who don't appreciate suck face causing yoghurt) thought it was the best ever tasting yoghurt!

Since that first try, I've made two more successful batches (and tried a different technique that involved using the slow cooker). Recently, we were lucky enough to find ourselves in possession of 3 litres of fresh local cows milk. We witnessed the cow being milked too (see pic above), a skill I hope to acquire one day. You can't get fresher than that - talk about liquid gold! Our fridge was starting to groan under the weight of all this white creamy goodness so I had to start thinking outside of the square. I turned some of it into labneh (a yogurt cheese of middle eastern origin that is SUPER simple to make) and some found it's way into our ice cream making machine to end up as blueberry and honey frozen yoghurt....deeelicious! As a side note, um, we bought 24 kilos of raw local honey just the other day. Honey anyone?

Yoghurt making is fabulous! And I now appreciate what an art it is. But if I'm honest, I don't think I'll add yoghurt making to the list of things we do here on a weekly basis (might have to stick with the EasiYo). At the end of the day, fresh milk is just too expensive and local milk hard to come by. I can make almond and coconut milk economically so I still hope to try the yoghurt making process with these non dairy alternatives.  I'll let you know if I'm successful. In the meantime, have a go at making a batch yourself. If I can do it, anyone can! And if making your own yoghurt sounds too strenuous, at least make some lebneh. Here's a link to give you some encouragement. It's SO easy and once you make it, you'll never buy the supermarket versions again!

Happy dairy eating everyone (unless you are allergic of course).