Strained Yogurt and Labneh

We’ve been making our own yogurt for a while now, and while most of the time we eat it as it comes, there’s plenty more you can do to make it something a little bit different.

A few years ago, in our pre-Sidney days, we travelled to Jordan and Israel. It was an incredible holiday and we saw so many extraordinary places. One of the things we remember most fondly is the food, particularly the hummus, falafel and labneh that we treated ourselves to daily.

I’m a big fan of eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern breakfasts; give me a plate of labneh or goats’ cheese, salty olives, a boiled egg and a flatbread and I’m a happy lady. In Jordan, in particular, the labneh was creamy, smooth, and there they sprinkle it with za’atar – a genius spice mix with wild thyme, marjoram, oregano, sesame seeds, salt, and sometimes sumac, that they also serve in little paper wraps with loaves of soft bread in Jerusalem – and drizzle it with olive oil to make the perfect dip for flatbread.

You can buy labneh here from specialist shops, but it’s actually very easy to make with runny yogurt (even better if it’s homemade). You simply season the yogurt with a little salt – start with ¼–½ teaspoon for 500g yogurt and adjust up or down to your taste the next time around – and then strain it through a cloth for several hours to drain away the whey (I use one of Sidney's old muslins). You’re left with a thick yogurt that looks just like cream cheese – a light straining will give you a smooth yogurt perfect for dipping, a longer strain results in a firmer yogurt that can be spread on bread or rolled into balls and stored in oil to use later in salads, tagines or just slathered on toast. It’s exactly the same principle for Greek yogurt, but you don’t need to strain it for quite as long, or salt it.

For labneh balls, you can season your oil with all sorts of delicious things. Traditionally it’s just plain olive oil, which gives you the option of adding flavourings later, depending on what you're making. This is quite handy for fussy young eaters because they won’t be put off by anything unusual. You can, of course, leave out the salt if you prefer.

For flavourings try bay leaves, peppercorns and herbs such as oregano or rosemary. You can add a couple of peeled garlic cloves and lemon slices or chopped chilli. To this pot I added lemon balm and rosemary from the garden, with a few peppercorns and flakes of dried oregano. As the balls are quite delicate it helps to pour in the oil gradually, covering each layer before adding the next. Simply leave the jar in the fridge for a couple of days to let the flavours take hold, then spoon out your labneh balls whenever you need them.

Another option is to serve them as canapés. Roll them in sesame seeds, crushed pink peppercorns or chopped herbs and they won’t make too much of a mess. You can also flavour them with harissa for a spicier version, or honey for something sweet. Replace the salt with a little sugar and/or fruit purée and you can make sweet versions that can be rolled in chopped nuts or grated dark chocolate.

And don’t forget to use the whey strained from the yogurt. You’ll be amazed how much you’re left with and it’s magical, protein-rich stuff. I use it to replace the water for pancakes or bread; it makes them lighter and fluffier and that much better for you. Or I add it to stocks and soups, or to Sidney’s meals if they need a little thinning out, for the added flavour and protein. Remember there’s salt in the whey if you’ve made labneh. You can also freeze it.

Smooth Labneh will keep in the fridge for up to a couple of weeks. Here I've seasoned ours with za'atar and drizzled it with olive oil. Labneh balls in properly sterilised jars should last at least 6 months and up to a year. It might seem like too much effort to make yogurt or labneh into balls, but it really is worth it. It doesn't take much time and you'll have a pot of delicious soft cheese to dip into whenever you need an additional creamy element for a pasta dish, something simple to spread on pancakes, or a cooling counter to a hot curry.

Homemade Yogurt

We eat a lot of yogurt. Sidney and his dad eat some after every meal (currently mixed with a little apple compote), and I join them more often than not. Plus we ate Bircher muesli with yogurt every morning for most of the summer. We used to buy Greek yogurt from the supermarket, which is delicious but not often organic, and I’d read so much about how easy it is to make it at home that we decided to give it a try.

Yogurt is just milk and culture. It’s nothing more complicated than that. There are lots and lots of methods for making it at home, but the key to all of them is temperature. You need to heat your milk to 80˚C and then cool it to around 45˚C, at which point you add a spoonful of yogurt. Then you’re done.

What’s tricky is maintaining the temperature for long enough to set the milk. Heating the yogurt kills off any bad bacteria and changes the protein structure so that it sets firm rather than splitting, plus it gives a richer flavour. You need to cool it because if it’s too hot it will kill the active cultures that make it yogurt. You want to maintain a temperature of between 43˚C and 35˚C long enough for the proteins to multiply and set the yogurt.

We tried several methods. First I put plastic pots in the oven, but mine isn’t sensitive enough to maintain such a low temperature consistently. Then I tried keeping jars warm in a rice cooker. That didn’t work either. I tried the oven again, this time pouring the yogurt into a terracotta pot. That worked a bit better, but it took quite a bit of effort to maintain the right temperature and the yogurt was a little thin in the middle. It was too fiddly for me to bother doing it regularly (plus there was a nasty aftertaste from the pot).

Finally I tried the simplest method I’d read about. I poured the yogurt into pots again and kept them warm in a picnic cool bag. It sounds counterintuitive, but what keeps food cool will also keep it hot. It worked perfectly and we had smooth, creamy yogurt all through the summer.

Then autumn came, the temperature dropped and our delicious yogurt refused to set. It just wasn’t warm enough in the kitchen to keep the temperature inside the cooler high enough for long enough. Plus I think the yogurt was cooling too quickly during the jarring process.

But I soon found a trick to make it work, inspired by Nigel Slater who wraps his jar in a towel with a hot water bottle. Into the cooler goes my hot water bottle to warm it up while I heat the milk. Once the jars are filled (smaller ones than I use in the summer) they go into the cool bag and I stuff the hot water bottle in the top before zipping it up and storing it in the airing cupboard for a few hours.

It’s a makeshift system, but it works, and we have a ready supply of organic yogurt that gets better and better with every generation. I reckon it takes about 20 minutes to make, then you just wait for the magic to happen. It’s that simple.

Here’s how we make it.

Homemade Yogurt

Makes 5 jam jars

2 pints organic milk (we use whole milk)

a small pot of organic live yogurt, at room temperature (the first time you make it, after that you can use a little of the previous batch)

You will need

sterilised jars (I use bigger ones in the summer, smaller in the winter)

thermometer (get one that clips to the side of your pan and adjust the height so that the tip is suspended in the milk and not touching the bottom of the pan. You’ll get a more accurate reading this way)

Pour about a centimetre of water into the base of a medium pan and bring to the boil. This will help prevent the milk sticking to the pan.

Pour in the milk and bring to 80˚C, then turn off the heat and cool to 43–45˚C. To speed up the process I fill the sink with a few inches of cold water and sit the pan in it to cool down.

As soon as the temperature hits 43–45˚C, spoon the live yogurt into the milk and give it a stir.

Quickly pour the mixture into the jars. (A wide funnel will help speed things up and lessen waste.) Transfer the sealed jars to a cool bag and leave for 5 or 6 hours to set. If your kitchen is cold you might want to store the bag in the airing cupboard with something warm inside (such as a hot water bottle, see above).

If you open your jars and find they’re only set in the middle, take the lids off and sit them in a pan of boiling water. Reheat until the yogurt reaches 43˚C and return to the cool bag. The texture might be a little grainier, but they should set all the way through.

There’s no need to buy more yogurt, simply save portions from each batch to make the next. Once your yogurt is set, scoop out a couple of tablespoons straight away and store them in a separate container ready for the next batch. You can also freeze this portion, but bring it back to room temperature before adding it to your milk.

Apple season – Low-sugar Apple Jam and all the other ways we used up our (hundreds of) cooking apples

Part of the reason I didn’t write much on here towards the end of last year was because I got hung up on a blog I was writing about cooking apples. We had a bumper crop and found so many ways to use them up, I just couldn’t find the time to write it all down. It’s far too late now, of course, but in anticipation of more apples next year, here goes.

Over the last couple of years I’ve made jars and jars of chutney using various recipes such as Beryl Wood’s simple apple and walnut recipe and my favourite, Alys Fowler’s green tomato chutney. But I still have plenty of jars in the cupboard, so this time around we were on the hunt for alternative ways to use up our glut. I don't know the variety of apples growing on our tree. I've checked against online identification charts and there are so many varieties growing in the UK, it could be anything. If anyone can identify them I'd love to know.

The first recipe we tried out, which worked brilliantly with the early windfalls, was Bircher muesli. I must confess that Seb made most of the muesli, diligently peeling and grating apples every other night to make enough muesli for the next few mornings. And it’s delicious. There’s not much to it – simply grate some cooking apples into a bowl, mix with porridge oats and yoghurt and leave overnight to soften. You can add all sorts of other ingredients to mix it up – we added raisins with the apples, banana slices and extra yoghurt in the morning. It makes a really simple but delicious summer breakfast, plus we were making our own yoghurt (more of that in another post), so all in all it worked out as a really cheap, healthy breakfast.

I’ve described in another post how Seb made our apple compote. This is still going strong as we froze a lot of it and it’s great for topping yoghurt for dessert, for porridge and muesli, and for adding to savoury meals that need a hit of something sour and sweet, like my scallop galettes. It’s super simple – just peel, core and chop a few apples and cook down in a pan with a sprinkling of sugar for a few minutes until the apples are soft. Easy as that and a great one for children because there’s plenty of fruit with only a small amount of sugar (although you can heap the sugar in if that’s your preference).

An unexpected use I found for some of the grottier apples was for sourdough starter. Between holidays and work I lost a couple of starters this year and had to start again from scratch. I usually use flour and water and feed for a few days until my starter comes to life, but this time I added a grated apple to the mix and the starter was starting to bubble a day later. It’s a much faster method than just waiting for a starter to get going by itself and it saved me plenty of flour. I know you can use raisins and various other fruit for this, so grab whatever you have to hand. It really does work.

But by far the best use of our apples last year was for Apple Jam. Particularly in the early part of the season, there’s so much pectin in the apples that they turn to jam with barely any boiling, so we often had sweet, tasty jam within 10 minutes of adding it to the pot. Later in the season it took a little longer for the jam to set, but not as long as it would do for other fruit. I’m at a loss as to why the shops aren’t full of apple jam; it was that easy and made a sweet, tasty jam that’s delicious spread on wholemeal bread with a slick of butter.

We also experimented with sugar content and found that the pound for pound, or sometimes three-quarters sugar to apples, ratios preferred by traditionalists really isn’t necessary. The sugar keeps the jam from spoiling, but as long as we sterilised our jars properly and kept them in the fridge once opened, they kept perfectly well. We still have lots of jars sitting in the cupboard waiting to be opened that haven't spoiled at all.

To sterilise your jars, wash them in hot soapy water and leave to drain dry, or run them through a hot dishwasher cycle, or fill with boiling hot water, or place in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Make sure you sterilise the lids and spoons, too.

Here’s our recipe.

Low-sugar Apple Jam

cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

preserving sugar

You will need

sterilised jars

Weigh the prepared apples and put them in a pan over a medium heat with a third of the weight of sugar (e.g. 600g apples would need 200g sugar). You can add a few cloves at this point, but we didn’t bother. (I think the cloves counter the sweetness in traditional recipes, but with the reduced sugar this wasn’t a problem for us.)

Cook down until soft and mushy, stirring often. This took anything from 5 to 15 minutes, although traditionally you would cook the apples for an hour.

Transfer to sterilised jars, seal and leave to cool.

Beryl Wood’s apple and walnut chutney recipe can be found in Let’s Preserve It, published by Square Peg.

Alys Fowler’s green tomato chutney recipe can be found in My Edible Garden, published by BBC Books.

Happy New Year and festive recipes

I can’t quite believe it’s here already, but Happy New Year! I have a good feeling about 2016.

I was a little neglectful towards the end of 2015. The thing about working at a computer for a living is that when you finish a hard day’s work, the last thing you want to do is spend more time in front of a screen writing blog posts. But Christmas provided a welcome break, and just because the writing stopped, doesn’t mean the cooking did.

So, there are more posts to come in 2016. But I’m starting small, with a recap of Christmas dinner and my recommendations for which recipes to trust next year, and which ones to avoid (because I will probably forget and make the same things again).

We celebrate two Christmases here – a French one on Christmas Eve, which consists of several courses, and a British one with one big feast on Christmas Day. I vowed this year to simplify so that I didn’t spend two days in the kitchen. I succeeded for one day, at least.

Christmas Eve menu

Aperitif – smoked salmon blinis – I like mine Polish-style after tasting them at a friend’s house a few years ago, with a dollop of horseradish rather than crème fraîche, a squeeze of lemon and a sprig of dill on top.

Starter – Coquille St Jacques from Marks and Spencer – I recommend this cheat. Plenty of scallops, a rich, creamy sauce, whipped potatoes and crunchy breadcrumbs. And you can freeze them ahead and cook them from frozen. Easy peasy.

Main – Salmon en Croute with boiled potatoes in herb butter and French beans. Salmon en croute is such as easy thing to make and the piece of fish I got from our local fishmonger, LS Mash & Sons on Atlantic Road, was so delicious it couldn’t fail to be a winner. I always buy my Christmas fish and seafood from them. It is such a simple recipe – unroll a sheet of shop-bought puff pastry and roll it out a bit, if necessary, to make sure it’s big enough to cover your fish. Take a piece of salmon side and lay it down the middle of your pastry. Mix some soft cheese with a small bunch of chopped dill, a few capers and some seasoning, then spread it all over the fish. Wrap the pastry over the salmon (I latticed mine, but you can simply wrap it up and flip it over so that it’s smooth on top) and brush with beaten egg. Bake at about 200˚C/180˚C fan/gas 6 for 20–30 minutes, until nicely browned on top. The cooking time will depend on the size of your pie and how you like your fish cooked. Mine served 6–8 and cooked for 30 minutes.

Cheese – we got a selection of British cheeses and served it with homemade bread. The French in-laws are surprisingly complimentary about British cheese. Particular favourites were the Cornish Yarg and an incredible Welsh goats’ cheese that I’ll have to go and find again, because it deserves a recommendation.

Pudding – Mince pies and cream – not exactly French, but they can be made in advance and they’re light enough to enjoy after a big meal. I use Delia Smith’s mincemeat from Delia’s Happy Christmas (I had a jar leftover from last year) and Paul Hollywood’s pastry. It’s extremely buttery and light, but a nightmare to roll out. The trick is to refrigerate for at least 20 minutes and roll in small batches between sheets of clingfilm, leaving the rest in the fridge. Fiddly, but the only way I could get them to work.

Christmas Day menu

Dinner – Roast goose, layered vegetable pie, roast potatoes, boiled sprouts with herb butter, glazed honey carrots and parsnips and braised red cabbage. Here I failed entirely in my quest to simplify and spent 4 hours in the kitchen, but it was still delicious, and not as late as dinner last year, which is an improvement. I followed recipes for everything except the sprouts, and some worked better than others.

Gordon Ramsay’s roast goose – this was a delicious recipe that I would definitely use again. The breast was the best part, covered in a juicy layer of fat and crisp skin that was mouthwateringly good. I let the bird cook a little longer than suggested so that it cooked enough for most guests, but if I did it again I’d probably cook for the recommended 20 minutes per kilo for slightly juicier meat.

Anna Jones’s Festive Layered Pie – I’ve been hooked on Anna’s book A Modern Way to Eat ever since I got it in the summer. Her vegetarian eggs benedict is a wonderful, wonderful thing. This pie was for my mum, mainly, but it was big enough for all of us to have a slice, with plenty left over, and it was a sensation. It’s layers of vegetables, each roasted separately with different herbs and zests, inside a rich, herby pastry. Each of the combinations is so perfectly matched that they would all make great side dishes in their own right (parsnips with orange zest and sage are a revelation), but layered in a pie they were a really indulgent treat. The recipe list includes thyme for the pastry, which isn’t included in the method, so I’m not sure if she intended to keep it or not, but I added it and we all thought the pastry was amazing. I actually made the pie the weekend ahead and froze it before cooking. Then I cooked it from frozen on Christmas Day, adding half an hour or so to the cooking time (a little tip I learnt from pie supremo Marika Gauci).

I use Jamie Oliver’s method for my roast potatoes and they always go down well.

I used this recipe for glazed carrots and parsnips, which were okay, but not amazing. I found them a little too vinegary for my taste, but I boiled them first and finished them off in the oven, so that’s probably where I went wrong.

And this is the recipe I used for braised cabbage. Again, a little too vinegary for me, but a good counter to the richness of the goose. We have tons left, so I recommend using have a cabbage rather than a whole one. Although you can freeze braised cabbage and you can also freeze shredded cabbage before it’s cooked. I have some in freezer bags ready to whip out for stir fries and Sunday roasts.

Pudding – Delia’s Christmas Cake. I made this before I went away in mid-November and fed it with a half a bottle of brandy – perhaps I’ll lay of the booze a bit next year. I top mine with nuts rather than marzipan and icing and it’s just as delicious warmed up and served with double cream. I’ve made this cake a few times and it’s always a winner, although I’m also partial to Nigella’s Italian Christmas Cake, which you can make much closer to Christmas and which is so moreish, it never lasts long.

The Leftovers

As always, the leftovers were almost as good as the main event. I stir fried the goose with noodles, vegetables and teriyaki sauce, then boiled down the carcass with all the vegetables trimmings to make a healthy and heartwarming soup. I had a poussin in the freezer that needed to be eaten so I roasted that and added it to the soup with more noodles and mixed vegetables. We still have a little left over so I’m going to use it as stock to cook rice. We also had steak left over from an earlier meal and I used that for a rich tomato sauce with pasta. It went down a treat with the little man. Never throw anything away!

So that’s our festive feasting. We ate too much, of course, but what’s January for if not for fixing the festive damage.

Happy 2016!