Valerie's Yoghurt & Yoghurt Cheese

[cathy79]

CarolineW - thanks for all the information on starters.  Talk about one comprehensive thread  .

[ThermomixBlogger]

Hi everyone!

Here in North America, we have a product easily found in the Health Food Stores... it's a starter powder in a 'sachet' or envelope. I wouldn't be surprised if it's available where you live too... Here's a link for more info:

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enCA328CA328&resnum=0&q=yogourmet+starter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=erAMS6qQAYH8sQPS0LCdAw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQrQQwAA

( phew -- that's a long one! )

Also, in our family we put the yogurt in the oven to incubate over night. Best way is to simply let it incubate from the heat of the oven light left on. Perfectly ready for breakfast! Thermoserve works great for this, but several smaller glass containers work equally well. Just remember to cover your glass jars with a lid, or plastic wrap, as this helps keep in the heat for slower, better incubation.

Also, we sometimes add a teaspoon of proofed gelatin powder for a more solid and and more healthy (for bone health) yogurt.

I have it on my calendar to try a revolutionary new starter method later this week. Will keep you posted. If it works, that is. Oh alright, I'll report back if it doesn't work too. We can all learn from my mistakes   

Cheers!
TMB

[judydawn]

I asked in the health food shop if they had starters for yoghurt but they didn't TMB so I bought the Jalna one that CB79 & JulieO came up with.  The 5 hours sitting time has just expired and with trepidation I opened the lid of the thermosaver and yay, it is nice and thick.  Funny thing is I don't really like natural yoghurt but wanted to prove to myself that I could make it from scratch.  I have spent most of the afternoon printing off recipes and ideas to use natural yoghurt in and will be doing things like Lamb & Yoghurt pasta bake, Chicken Korma, beef pilaf, chicken souvlaki wraps, smoothies, cakes.  Oh, lots of lovely things all needing to be converted though so as I make things I'll post them under a new topic 'Recipes using plain yoghurt'.
Can anyone tell me how long this batch of yoghurt will stay fresh - 2 litres is a lot of yoghurt 

[Nay-nay]

I have asked Valerie on her blog if you could add sweetener like sugar or honey or fruit before you set it and she said it would not set if you did it before but could do it after.  How does Jalna do it?? It is suppose to be "pot set"

[judydawn]

Maybe the fruity yoghurts by Jalna aren't pot set - I didn't check them out Nay Nay.  Some ideas I found today for fruit yoghurt are

Stir in fresh or frozen fruit and a dash of vanilla extract or a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

Pina Colada yoghurt - 1/8 cup crushed pineapple and a dash of coconut essence into 1/2 cup plain yoghurt.

Drain a can of fruit - blend and add to the yoghurt

Put in a blender with fresh fruit and lots of ice to make a smoothie.

Mix with granola and eat as a snack.

And the 2 I like - coat a chicken in yoghurt and apricot jam mixed together and bake or grill OR
                        coat a chicken in yoghurt and fried onions and roast it.

Make tzazki

These are just a few ideas I found plus lots of recipes so I have plenty to choose from and will start with the more simple things then move onto making the yoghurt cheese down the track sometime.

[Meagan]

JD I also remember seeing a segment on Ophra where they made 'fried chicken but it was yooghurt coated then coated in bread crumbs and baked

We use natural yoghurt for everything here. eating, mixing up with bircher muesli and soaking overnight, on baked potatoes with cheese on tacos as an alternative to sour cream, in curry instead of coconut milk, wix it with berries and freeze it in icypole makers for my son to have

[CarolineW]

Can anyone tell me how long this batch of yoghurt will stay fresh - 2 litres is a lot of yoghurt 

    That's why I halve everything and make 1 lt unless I'm making cheese   

In scientific, accurate terms - it lasts a 'very long time' in the fridge   

I have never known it to go off, even when it's sat in the fridge for several weeks.  But I couldn't tell you exactly how long it's sat there happily at its longest - time all blurs and runs together for me.  Sorry.

You can also freeze it quite happily in portions ready to use as starter next time you want to make yogurt / cheese.

Regarding how to use it, we love it with nuts and honey, also with jam stirred through.  And this may sound obvious, but have you considered making the cheese with some of it?  It's really nice, and knowing you you'd have fun going to town with the different ways you could flavour it 

In the new recipe book I've just got from UK Thermomix, there's a recipe for making fruit yogurt.  You basically make a compote and then continue on adding the milk and yogurt culture to it, then ferment.  I haven't tried it out yet to know how well it works / what the texture is like.  But I'll report back on it.  So don't get rid of all of this batch - make sure you keep some back (frozen if necessary) just in case it makes really nice fruit yogurt.

[judydawn]

Thanks for that information CarolynW, I wondered if you could freeze portions for starters. I have so many recipes for things to do with this first 2 litres and will get around to the yoghurt cheese next time.  I'll keep a list of things I do and when my 2 litres has all been used, I will post a thread detailing everything I've made and the recipes.  I just had a strawberry smoothie for breakfast. Starting off with the more simple ideas.  I like the idea of that recipe you mentioned for fruit yoghurt so will be interested to see how you go with that one.

[cathy79]

So far we have simple, traditional uses for our yoghurt.  I am wanting to try some of the chicken dishes.

I mix in homemade yoghurt (strawberry) usually as my DD's always had bought strawberry yoghurt.  As a real treat, I mix in some "Brownie Milk" and they have chocolate yoghurt.  Only need a little bit so that it is barely chocolate.

Woops, that should say I mix in homemade jam (strawberry).  No I don't mix yoghurt into my yoghurt.

[Gralke]

In one of the summer official bimby magazines was a wonderfull recipe for a kiddies yoghurt - Banana, orange juice and marie biscuits - I made it last week and it was really nice and sweet (I am a sweet tooth) and I have made also their coconut (sweet) yoghurt. If anyone is interested, I can post the recipes.
p.s. I went to the official opening of the Algarve Vorwerk shop - quite interesting, they had 3 bimbys in use but made some boring things (in my opinion): they made the varoma bread in one, lemonade to serve in the second and showed how to shred shrimp and chicken for salads in the 3rd bimby. I was expecting to see them make real food so now have to wait until the cooking courses start to satisfy my curiosity.
Cheers

[CarolineW]

Yes please, Barbara 

[Gralke]

Here it is then:
Banana, Orange and Marie cookies Yogurt
80grs cookies
200grs banana
juice of half an orange
80grs sugar
1000grs milk
50grs milk powder
1 natural yogurt

Place cookies in TM and programme 10seconds, speed 9. Reserve
Place banana, orange juice and sugar and programme 5 seconds speed 5 and then 8 minutes, Varoma temperature, speed 1.
Let cool - remove TM from main machine so that this mixture cools quicker
Add 500grs milk, milk powder and the crushed cookies and programme 1 minute, speed 7.
Add remainder milk, yogurt and programme 4 minutes temperature50º speed 4.
When finished cover Bimby with a blanket to retain the heat or proceed as you would usually (I now use a yogurt maker bought for 20 euros) and let the mixture become firm, maybe 8 to 10 hours.

[Gralke]

Raspberry Yogurt
200grs frozen raspberries (or fresh I would assume)
80grs sugar
1000grs milk
1 natural yogurt
Place raspberries in main unit with the sugar and programme 8min/Varoma/Speed 2
Remove unit from main machine so that the mixture cools quicker
add milk, yogurt and programme 4 minutes/50º/speed 4
Proceed as usual from hereon

[Gralke]

Coconut yogurt (delicious)

100g  dessicated coconut
1000g  Milk
80g sugar
1 natural yogurt

Place coconut in tm and process for 15 seconds on speed 9
add 500grs milk and process for 2 minutes speed 9
add remainder ingredients and process 4min/50º/speed 4
Proceed as usual from hereon

[Thermomixer]

Thanks Barbara.  I have posted each of them under a separate thread for ease of finding later.

Was there a big Bimby convention over there recently?  Some Australians went over.