Homemade Yogurt

This is how we make yogurt at home. It's really simple and the yogurt we get is creamy and very tasty. You need a small jar of plain yogurt to start the process. The best quality possible, of course. From that initial culture of bacteria, we could in theory produce as much yogurt as needed simply by using a small portion of each batch to inoculate the next one. In practice, it seems that this does not work if you start with a commercial yogurt, only if you use a heirloom yogurt starter culture. With commercial yogurt you get away with 5 or 6 batches of yogurt before you need to restart the process with store bought yogurt. We can't attest to this theory as we never did so many uninterrupted batches.

Here's what we need:

- 1 liter of full fat milk
- 1 plain yogurt
- 1 one liter kilner jar
- thermometer

and how you do it:

- this is an overnight process, so it's best to start it the night before you need the yogurt. Put the milk in a pan and slowly heat it to 85 degrees centigrade. Use a whisker to stir the milk so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Let the milk cool to 43 degrees centigrade either naturally or by placing the pan inside a bowl of cold water. Whisk the milk to speed up the process. Once it reaches that temperature, vigorously whisk in a couple of tablespoons of plain yogurt. Transfer the milk to the kilner jar. It may be a good idea to put some hot water in the jar beforehand to warm it up, and then throw it way before adding the milk. The idea is that you don't want the milk's temperature to considerably drop below the 43 degrees centigrade mark once it comes in contact with the jar. Close the lid and tightly wrap an old thick sweater around the jar. Place the jar inside a cabinet or some other place where it will not be disturbed. The next morning, it should look like the picture below. Put it in the fridge and enjoy it plain or mixed with honey or homemade jams!

Pizza party

Here's how we go about cooking some damn tasty pizza. It's far from perfect -- for perfection you need a much hotter oven -- but it's quite fun to do it and the result is good enough.

We make the dough with the help of a bread machine. It's not a big deal to make it by hand, but this way not only we keep the machine from gathering too much dust but it's also much cleaner to do it this way.

For the dough for two pizze (the plural of pizza), we need

• 300 g of flour
• 1/2 tsp of yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 200 ml of water

and it takes 45 minutes to make this amount of dough in the machine, so we must plan ahead. At the end of the cycle, remove the dough from the machine and tip it onto a lightly floured surface, kneed it to remove the air bubbles, and let it rest, covered with a tea towel, for about 20 minutes.

When it comes to the toppings, here's what we did this last time:

• mozzarella, one 200 g ball per pizza, minced
• 1 small tin of peeled whole tomatoes (400 g) (enough for 3-4 pizze)
• cherry tomatoes, washed, dried and cut in half
• rucola, washed and dried
• mushrooms, stems removed and sliced very thinly  (say, chestnut mushrooms)
• good quality prosciutto, thinly sliced
• cooked ham, thinly sliced (for the kids)

but in the past we have also used tuna fish (with oregano and olives), blue cheese, anchovies etc. The key is to go light on the toppings, otherwise the pizza will become soggy.

The tomato sauce is made by blending the tinned tomato with a stick blender, seasoning it with salt, pepper and olive oil. Make sure to use only the tomato and not any of the liquid. You want the tomato sauce to have very little water. Have all the topping prepped before you move on the to next step.

Heat the oven to the highest temperature possible, and do this well in advance. We do this by setting the heat to come from both the top and the bottom of the oven, and by turning on the convection.

Next, with the help of a rolling pin, your hands, extra flour and plenty of patience, roll out the pizza disks. It does not harm to let the disks rest for  a few minutes. Lightly oil the pizza pan and place the disc on it. We use a pizza pan very similar to the one bellow, and it works out ok.

With the help of a spoon, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the disk, then sprinkle on the mozzarella evenly. Add anything else except for the ham, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes and rucola. Those toppings should be added to the pizza immediately as it comes out of the oven.

Before putting the pizza in the oven, you can add a sprinkle of coarse salt, a slug of olive oil, which can be massaged in the outer crust of the pizza for a better golden look, and pepper.

Put the pizza in the oven and monitor it closely. It takes about 7 minutes for it to cook. The outer crust should be a light golden brown and the cheese should be bubbly.

The fact that the oven is never as hot as it should be results in a pizza crust that is a bit soggy. That's one of the reasons why we should go easy on the amount of toppings we put on the pizza; mushrooms, for instance, are mostly water...

Rice and Beans

Quick, tasty, healthful, and cheap! Quite simple as well, although one could imagine a few variations. This serves two, with plenty of leftovers:

- 1 cup of pinto beans, soaked overnight in cold water
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed with the back of a knife
- 1 bay leaf
- 1400 g can of whole tomatoes
- salt and pepper to taste

Start by cooking the beans: drain the beans, put them in a pressure cooker, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt and a slug of olive oil. Close the pressure cooker and place it over medium-high heat. Once the cooker reaches pressure, lower the heat to low and let it cook for 15 minutes. Reserve the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, sweat the onion, garlic and bay leave in olive oil in a large saute pan. Once soft, add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands. Slowly cook the tomatoes until a nice sauce forms. Season with salt and pepper. You may add a bit of the cooking liquid if it becomes too dry.

Add the drained beans along with some cooking liquid. Bring to a boil and them reduce to low. Let it cook slowly, being careful not to burn or to let it become dry. Once all the flavors have melt, serve at once with a green salad and white rice. Hot sauce goes quite well with this. Alternatively, add a teaspoon or so o chilli flakes when frying the onion and garlic.

Potato freaks

All shapes, but no heart shape.

Palak chana dal

This one is a keeper. The recipe was gleaned from various sources, and the amount of spices is pretty much guessed, but it sort of works.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup chana dal, picked over, rinsed, soaked for ~ 2 hours, and pressure-cooked with 1/2 tsp of turmeric and a pinch of salt for 6 minutes, cooking liquid reserved;
•  1 bunch of spinach;
•  1 small tin (400 g)  of whole tomatoes;
•  1 small onion, chopped;
•  1 1-inch chunk of ginger, peeled and finely minced;
•  3 cloves of garlic, minced;
•  1 green chile, roughly chopped;
•  1/2 tsp turmeric;
• 1 tsp garam masala;
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper;
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds;
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds;
• 1 cup basmati rice, rinsed and soaked for 1/2 hour in 2 cups of cold water.

How to cook the rice: bring to the boil 2 cups of salted water, slug of oil, two cardamom pods. Then, add the rice and carefully separate the grains with a fork.
Bring to the boil again and then simmer on low, partially covered, until all the water is absorbed. Cover the pan tightly and put it on the lowest flame possible, ideally with a flame tamer, for 10 minutes, to steam.

How to cook the dal: 

Pick and wash the bunch of spinach. Meatier varieties of spinach are best for this dish.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the cumin and mustard seeds until the mustard start to pop. Add the onions, fry until soft; add garlic and chiles, fry for a minute or two. Add the spices, the garam masala and the ginger, and fry until fragrant. In go the tomatoes and its juices, crushing the tomatoes with your hand. Let it simmer until a nice tomato sauce forms. Then, add spinach leaves, mix well, cover tightly and let it steam, stirring now and then with a wooden spoon. Once the spinach leaves have wilted, add the chana dal and mix well. You may need to add some of the cooking liquid to achieve the right consistency. Check for salt. Let it simmer gently until all the flavors have melt, stirring frequently to avoid burning the bottom of the pan.

Add a bit more of garam masala just before serving with the rice and a cucumber/tomato raita.

EDIT on 28/10/2016: This recipe is spot on, but now I'd double the amount of spices. Frozen spinach works surprisingly well.

The Naked Quince

My Wedding Day