The Best Yogurt Homemade

The perfect yogurt should be thick and creamy. There should be a definite tang that works well in both savory and sweet dishes.Where to get this kind?At home. The best kind is the artesenal, straight from your kitchen sort. All it takes is a starter and your favorite brand of milk.

Priya Krishna, grew up with  perfectly made and cultured yogurt and made it the subject of an article for today's New York Times Food section. Yogurt is a big part of the Indian cooking tradition and most immigrants bring over a starter culture when they move to the States.It's used in a variety of different dishes,mostly savory.It is a staple of South Asia because it holds up so well.It's in the cooking of every section of the area, from the vegetable heavy foods of Gujarat to the light gravies and biryanis of Sindhi food in Pakistan. Yogurts are never store bought. They're made at home without all the fancy yogurt makers. The most important part is the culture.It's two bacterias, lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.Their function is to ferment the lactose or milk sugar to produce lactic acid.The increase in this reduce the milk's pH and causes the milk to clot or form a soft gel. It can be bought at Amazon and Wal-Mart however these won't make for a good tasting yogurt. The starters have to be taken off other starters, whether from family or friends in the community. It does cement bonds in the Indian community.

Is the milk just as important. That can vary. Some swear by certain brands, some don't care, as they just place special emphasis on the culture.Ms Krishna supplies a recipe from her cookbook,Indian-ish (Howard Mifflin Publishers 2019)that she wrote with Ritu Krishna All it takes is four cups of organic whole milk and 1/4 cup of full fat yogurt with live active cultures. She recommends checking the ingredient list  however if you know someone with an active culture then definitely ask them for  some.First add 1/4 inch of water at the bottom of a Dutch oven. This will prevent the milk from sticking when cooked. The milk is almost boiled and then cooled until it goes down to 135 degrees F. As the milk cools, smear the bottom of a one quart lidded glass container with the starter yogurt.Ms.Krishna suggests a dab , not smearing the whole bottom. When the milk has cooled to the proper temperature  whisk in the remaining yogurt. Stir until completely mixed and then pour into the container. Leave the lid on loosely to allow the air to escape.. Place the jar in an unheated oven with the oven light on for one hour. You can tell when it's done when it jiggles like Jello.Some batches can take up to five hours to set. It  will last for four to six weeks.

The best yogurt is the one straight from the kitchen. Make it to day and then experience its' tart , creamy lushness. It's an easy cook

Apple Update

Is there anything more perfect than an apple.It's not only sweet and delicious  but full of vitamins and antioxidants. Unfortunately there are some people who don't think that way . They want to alter and genetically change it? Why? Because after millennia of being accepted the way it is , scientists want it to improve it.

This was the subject of an article in today's New York Times Business section. The piece written by Andrew Pollack tells of scientists want to create an apple that doesn't spoil. Doing this requires genetic modification. On one level it would be perfect. People usually buy only one or two apples nowadays for fear of buying several will result in rotten fruit. An apple that keeps its'' freshness means more shoppers will buy more of the fruit, Since apple sales have fallen in the past few years this is a boon to the industry.

Yet it raises the question of genetic alteration. Despite this(and let's face it every kind of food stuff either gets stale or turns brown) the apple is fine left alone. Alter the fruit does change its' taste. it loses that sweet mellowness that makes it tasty. The same is becoming true with corn. There are now varieties of corn that have had their gene sequence rearranged. It results in a super maize however it also makes for a relatively tasteless ear. This is also happening with some strains of squash and tomatoes. These supposedly have a stronger flavor plus more antioxidants in them. I'd like to taste test them to believe these claims.

Should we allow our food to be tampered with? Personally no. I think our fruits and veggies are fine the way they are. I prefer my apples. at 2.0 not 9.0