Make Your Own Yogurt

While visiting India, I enjoyed homemade yogurt in different dishes. Some of my favorites were vegetables, yogurt, and spices mixed in a raita, curd rice served to aid digestion after a spicy meal, and shrikhand, saffron flavored sweetened strained yogurt, similar to Greek yogurt.

I started making my own yogurt after receiving an EasiYo yogurt maker from my aunt as a Christmas present.

EasiYo

The EasiYo yogurt maker is a thermal carafe with a container for yogurt that fits inside it. The space around the container is filled with boiling water to help the yogurt set. The yogurt maker came with powdered, instant yogurt mix. I enjoyed the initial packages. Since refills were not easily available, I adopted the following yogurt making technique using fresh milk, powdered milk, and a tablespoon of store bought yogurt with active cultures.

If you do not have an EasiYo, you can substitute an insulated water jug. As a test, I made two cups, a half batch of the following yogurt recipe, in my daughter's half-gallon Rubbermaid water cooler that she used for band practice. I put an empty, 8 ounce plastic yogurt cup in the bottom of the cooler topped with a one quart glass canning jar containing the heated milk and yogurt. I added boiling water, closed the container, and let it set.

Yogurt Culture

To start my yogurt the first time, I use a tablespoon of store bought yogurt with active cultures. Then the next time, I use a tablespoon of my old yogurt in the new batch. I also keep a tablespoon frozen. If I use all my yogurt or have a yogurt flop, I can thaw this tablespoon and use it for a new batch.

Dry Milk

Especially when using low-fat milk, the yogurt I made was thin; so I started adding dry milk to get a thicker result. I use instant nonfat dry milk from Aldi or Wal-Mart.

Sweet Yogurt

I usually make plain yogurt. For sweet yogurt, add sugar to room temperature milk before putting it to set. Try a half-cup sugar to 4 cups milk for a slightly sweet yogurt.

Boiling Milk

Be careful when you boil the milk to make the yogurt. When it gets hots, the milk rises very quickly. If you are not careful, the hot milk can easily spill over unto the stove and is a mess to clean up. After cleaning a sticky, milky stove a couple of times, I learned it is easier to watch the pot when heating milk than cleanup after it boils over.

I use a heavy 2 quart stainless steel pot that I have reserved for milk and sweets to heat milk for yogurt. Although I thought I cleaned my pots well, I had problems with funny tastes in my yogurt before I reserved a pot for this use.

The worst part of making yogurt is cleaning the dirty pot. I soak the pot and scrub it with steel wool and AJAX to get it clean.

Yogurt Flops

Occasionally yogurt fails to set because either the milk was not heated well enough or was too hot when the yogurt was added. If this happens, you can use the milk in pancakes or quiche.

Ingredients

4	Cups	Milk, 2% or whole
1/2	Cup	Dried Milk
1	Tbsp	Yogurt with active cultures
1/2	Cup	Sugar, optional

Directions

1. Using a hand held blender, blend dry milk and 1 cup milk together.
2. In a heavy pan on high heat, heat all the milk until it boils. Watch carefully to prevent it boiling over. You should see tiny bubbles forming around the edge of the pan. After this happens, the milk will rise quickly. Immediately, turn heat to low. If needed, lift pan from burner to prevent milk from boiling over.
3. Heat milk on low for 1 minute.
4. Allow milk to cool to room temperature. In container or jar, mix yogurt and milk. If desired, add sugar. Put container or jar in EasiYo or insulated container and surround with boiling water. Let sit for 8 hours. Store set yogurt in refrigerator.

Indian Cabbage with Coconut

I made this dish last night. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook once you have the vegetables chopped. Your dad says that green beans are often cooked in a similar way.

Coconut

When I was growing up, the only type of coconut I knew was Baker's sweetened shredded coconut that was used on cakes and in baked sweets. Since I did not like the sweetness and texture of this product, I thought I did not like coconut.

Since meeting your dad, I have enjoyed eating fresh and dried coconut in Indian dishes. One of the kitchen tools your grandparents brought us when they visited from India was a coconut grater.

I use dry, desiccated, powdered coconut in this recipe. You can buy this coconut at the local Ingles near the chocolate chips and other baking supplies; however, you get about twice the amount for the same cost at an Indian grocery or HMart. 

Ingredients

4	Cups	Cabbage, finely chopped
½		Onion, large, finely chopped
1		Hot pepper, serrano or jalapeño, finely chopped
2	Tbsp	Vegetable oil
¼	Cup	Coconut, dry powdered
1	Tsp	Salt
1/8 - ¼	Tsp	Cayenne pepper
1	Tbsp	Cilantro leaves, chopped

Directions

1. Heat oil on high. When hot, add onions. Cook until onion edges start to brown, about 3 minutes.
2. Turn heat down slightly. Add cabbage, hot pepper, coconut, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir to mix. Cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is slightly soft.
3. Serve topped with chopped cilantro leaves.

For beans, add water in step 2, cover your pot, and slightly steam the beans. 

Indian Tomato Chutney

This is one of our favorite condiments. We use it like ketchup and dip roasted potatoes in it. I also serve it on the side with rice and lentils (i.e., dal) for a little zing. Since my kids do not like mayonnaise, they use it on their cheddar cheese sandwiches and with cream cheese on a bagel. My kids do not share their dad’s appetite for peanut butter and tomato chutney sandwiches and were surprised when he packed them for their school lunch. This recipe is based the “Tomato Chutney” recipe in Vasantha Moorthy’s The Vegetarian Menu Cookbook, a cookbook your dad brought back from one of his trips to India.

One of the things I love about growing vegetables is the opportunity to try new recipes. To avoid wasting produce, I try different ways to preserve vegetables. I first made this recipe when we had a surplus of fresh garden tomatoes. It has since become a family standard, and we usually have a jar in the refrigerator. My son has a jar in his dorm fridge, too. During the summer, I make and freeze plenty of chutney. Although I have not tried yet, I think you could can this chutney. You can buy black mustard seeds at an Indian grocery store.

Since it highlights our Indian-American heritage, this is one of the recipes we contributed to your great aunt’s 70^th birthday cookbook. We have also shared jars of this chutney with our family friends. It is a particular favorite of one of my daughter’s friends.

Ingredients

2 1/3	Pounds	Tomatoes, peeled
6		Green Chilies (Thai, Serrano or jalapeno), silt
2	Tsp	Cayenne pepper
½	Tsp	Turmeric
2/3	Cup	Vegetable oil
2/3	Cup	Vinegar
1 ½	Tbsp	Salt
1/3	Cup	Sugar
6	Cloves	Garlic
1”	Piece	Ginger
1	Tbsp	Cumin Seeds
½	Tbsp	Mustard Seeds, black preferred

Directions

1. Using a knife, make an “X” on the bottom of each tomato. Heat water until boiling in a small pot. With a slotted spoon, put each tomato in boiling water for 10 seconds. When tomatoes are cool, peel, remove stem area, and cut small tomatoes into 8 pieces and large ones into 16 pieces. Set aside in a bowl.
2. Using a hand-held bender grind garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and vinegar together.
3. Heat the oil. Fry hot peppers for 1 minute. Then, slowly add ground spice mixture. Be careful since the paste splatters. Fry paste until oil surfaces.
4. Add the tomatoes and any accumulated juices. Cook until tomatoes turn soft.
5. Add the salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, and turmeric, and cook a few minutes.
6. Simmer stirring constantly until thick gravy is formed. Taste and adjust spices if necessary. I usually get your dad to taste for me. Optional, remove pepper skins from chutney.
7. Pour in a clean jar and store in the fridge or freezer.

Half Wheat Pancakes

To make our food healthier, I limit the amount of white flour I use. While I have not completely switched to whole grains, I have had success swapping part of the wheat flour for part of the white flour in many of our recipes. Our pancake recipe is based on the “Sour Milk Pancakes” recipe in Joy of Cooking Vol. 2 but uses ½ wheat and ½ white flour.

It is important to cook the pancakes at the correct temperature. It took me a long time to figure out that pancakes cook best at slightly over medium heat (between the 1^st and 2^nd of the 3 dots between medium and high) on our Maytag stove. Before this I cooked them at too high or too low temperatures, and the outside would burn before the inside was cooked.

Maytag Stove

When I was growing up Maytag was know for its dependable washers and dryers. You can check out the link http://www.characterweb.com/maytag.html to read about the Maytag company and see a vintage Maytag commercial.

However, I recommend you avoid purchasing a Maytag stove. I am dissatisfied with our Maytag gas stove, model MGR4452BDW, that we bought in 2005. The power boost burner on this gas stove works great! I had problems boiling water to cook pasta with our previous stove, and the Maytag does this well. However, the metal strip on the bottom of the oven door is rusting. It is unreasonable to use a material that rusts on a kitchen appliance that will need cleaning.

Buttermilk 

Using buttermilk produces fluffy pancakes. If you do not have buttermilk, you can mix 2 tablespoons plain yogurt in 1 cup milk or use soured milk, mix 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in 1 cup of room temperature milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. Making pancakes is a great way to use up milk that is starting to spoil.

Ingredients

1	Cup	White flour
1	Cup	Wheat flour
2	Tsp	Sugar
1	Tsp	Salt
1 ½	Tsp	Baking powder
1	Tsp	Baking soda
2		Eggs, beaten
2	Cup	Buttermilk
1	Tbsp	Vegetable oil

Directions

1. Using a large metal mesh strainer, sift together white flour, wheat flour, sugar, salt, baking power, and baking soda.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, buttermilk, and oil.
3. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix well. I like to use a manual egg beater for mixing. I, also, use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
4. Heat a non-stick griddle until medium hot. Pour about ¼ cup of batter for each pancake onto griddle. I cook 3 pancakes at a time.
5. Heat until bubbles appear and edges are firm. Then flip. You will need to practice to know when it is time to flip.
6. Cook on second side until done. I like to make a slash in the middle of my first pancakes to make sure they are completely cooked inside.
7. Pancakes are best served immediately after cooking. To serve later, layer pancakes between towels to keep them from getting soggy.

Spicy Chex Mix

My son likes to make spicy chex mix as Christmas gifts for family and friends. He first made it for an assignment for his middle school family & consumer science course. Since it is one of his favorites, my daughter has baked it to send to her brother in a college care package.

Food Timeline

When my son was in 5^th grade, we checked the website http://www.foodtimeline.org/ to get a snack idea for the traditional 5^th grade 50s party. We learned that the chex mix recipe originated in this period and sent in our version as a treat. We used the same site to find a recipe for my daughter’s Brownie Girl Scout decade meal potluck. Since Bisquick appeared in the 1930s, we made cheeseburger pie as our contribution. This helped my daughter earn her Brownie Girl Scouts through the Years Try-It. You can find the recipe at http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/impossibly-easy-cheeseburger-pie/8c78aa78-c368-40fa-8a88-1654640c7525. Of course, this was before my daughter became a vegetarian.

Our Version

Our recipe is based on one we found in a make your own Christmas gifts book. Be careful. Depending on your peppers, it can be pretty spicy. We usually make two batches at a time since it does not last long in our house.  Sometimes we substitute Wheat Chex and/or Crispix for the Corn and Rice Chex and Cheez-Its for the Goldfish crackers. For a special treat, we replace some or all of the peanuts with cashews. My son adds extra cayenne pepper for a fiery version. For a school fundraiser, our recipe was published in A Taste of Norcross High School: Healthy Lifestyle 2010 Edition.

Ingredients

3	Tbsp	Butter, melted
3	Tbsp	Margarine, melted
2	Tsp	Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
½	Tsp	Oregano, dried
1	Tsp	Cumin, powdered
½	Tsp	Salt
2	Cloves	Garlic
1/3	Cup	Pickled jalapeño pepper slices, drained
3	Cups	Corn Chex cereal
3	Cups	Rice Chex cereal
3	Cups	Goldfish snack crackers
2	Cups	Peanuts, salted dry roasted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250°.
2.  Place nuts, crackers, and cereal in a large roasting pan.
3. Using a hand-head blender, blend jalapeño pepper slices, garlic, melted butter, melted margarine, and spices.
4. Slowly, pour spice mixture over cereal mixture. Toss gently with rubber spatula until well coated.
5.  Bake 1¼ hours, stirring every 15 minutes.
6. Spread on towels to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Three Ways to Cook Rice

Rice

Since both your dad and I ate a lot of rice when we were growing up, rice is a staple in our kitchen. Your Indian grandparents served your dad rice and dal (e.g., lentils) many times a week. I loved red bean and rice Mondays even when the school cafeteria served it for lunch and Grandma cooked them for dinner. When I went to college at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, rice and brown gravy were available in the school cafeteria every day at lunch and dinner. When your uncle went to the University of Colorado at Boulder, potatoes were more common and rice was served only a couple of times a semester.

We usually have both jasmine and basmati rice at home. We use jasmine as our every day rice and use basmati for biryani, jambalaya, and pilaf. Some of the brands of jasmine rice we use are Super Lucky Elephant, Golden Star, and Three Dragons. I buy jasmine rice at HMart, Sam’s or Costco in large bags of 15 or more pounds and pay less than $1 per pound. I store the extra in a large Tupperware container or empty plastic ice cream buckets. Royal Basmati is one brand of basmati rice we like. I buy basmati rice at either an Indian grocery, Sam’s or Costco.

The key to cooking rice is using the right proportion of water to rice. I find that 1 cup rice to 2 cups water works well for jasmine rice. For basmati, I use 1 cup rice to 2 1/2 cups water. Depending on the rice, you might need to vary these amounts, but I find these ratios work fairly consistently.

When I was growing up, your grandma boiled rice in salted water and drained it in a colander. I prefer to cook it either in a rice cooker, a pot, or pressure cooker. I usually cook 1 ½ - 2 cups of rice at a time for the four of us. This is usually more than enough for a meal, and the extra rice can be used for another dish

Rice Cooker

My first choice for cooking rice is using a rice cooker. I use a vintage Hitachi rice cooker I bought at a thrift store. It is so easy that my son has been making rice since he was eight. You put the rice and water in the cooker and switch it on. When it dings signifying the rice is ready, switch it off and wait at least 5 minutes before serving. Our rice cooker has a keep warm setting, but I prefer not to use it because I find it dries out the rice.

Pot with Lid

I use a 3 quart Revere Ware stainless steel pot with a lid to cook 1 ½ - 2 cups rice. Put the rice and water in pot, bring to a boil. When boiling, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook 11 minutes. Turn off heat and wait 5 minutes before serving.

FYI, I just found out that you can order Revere Ware replacement parts at www.reverewareparts.com

Pressure Cooker

A pressure cooker is good for cooking rice if you want it to stay warm for a while before eating it. Put bottom steam tray in cooker, add water to cover steam tray, put pan with rice and water in cooker. If desired, you can add a second pan on top of the rice pan to heat beans or vegetables while your rice cooks. Put lid and weight on cooker. Heat on high until reaching pressure when cooker whistles and weight rocks. Reduce heat to medium high and cook for 5 minutes. Allow pressure cooker to cool before opening.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

This is one of my family’s favorite birthday treats. My son loves this cake. I made it as his birthday treat for his class from kindergarten through high school. I usually send in 1½ cakes for his class of 24 students. This is enough for a nice serving for everybody and some extra for the teacher.  I also made it to celebrate my daughter’s first birthday and recently made it for her 18^th.

I copied the original recipe for “Monster Cookies” from a magazine, possibly Southern Living, when I was in college. You can omit the nuts and increase the chocolate chips to 2 cups.  For variety, substitute white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips, and use different nuts. White chocolate chips with pecans works well.

For a home party, you can serve the cake directly from the pizza pan, using a serrated bread knife to cut it. If you need remove the cake from the pizza pan, I recommend cutting a round piece of parchment paper the size of the pan. Put this parchment on top of the greased and floured pan bottom and grease and flour it also. When the cake is taken out of the oven, run a knife around the edge to loosen it. When cool, carefully invert cake onto flat surface (e.g., cookie sheet.). When sending the cake to school, I put the cake on a piece cardboard covered with aluminum foil. I then like to put this into a flat cardboard box from Sam’s or Costco. When the cake is finished, the cardboard can be thrown away. I send a large plastic serrated knife to cut the cake. 

Ingredients

½	cup	butter or margarine, softened
1	cup	brown sugar, packed
½	cup	sugar
2		eggs
2 ¼	cup	all purpose flour
1	tsp.	baking soda
½	tsp.	salt
1	tsp.	vanilla
1 ½	cup	semi sweet chocolate chips
¾	cup	nuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour the bottom and sides of a 14-inch deep-dish pizza pan. If not planning to serve the cake from the pizza pan, cover bottom with parchment circle and grease and flour it also.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter in an electric mixer.  Gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until blended.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture, mixing well.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts by hand.
5. Spoon batter into pizza pan. The dough is sticky so flour the top and press with your hands until the pizza pan bottom is evenly covered.  Alternatively use a floured pastry roller (small hand held rolling pin) to spread the batter (i.e., this works really well). Bake 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in pan. Then loosen edges and carefully remove. Brush extra flour off cake using a pastry brush. Decorate with frosting