Easy and Nutritious Homemade Yogurt

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authentic recipes, breakfast, Dairy products, Homemade yogurt, How to, laban recipes, middle eastern recipes, step by step, Yoghurt, Yogurt, yogurt recipes, Yogurt starter, اللبن, عمل اللبن بالمنزل

Yogurt or Yoghurt, or Laban (arabic name mostly known in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine), or may be Zabadi (Egyptian version) is all refers to what is called the “Wonder Food”.

Yogurt, for long time ago, has formed an essential part in the diet of most middle eastern household. Making yogurt from scratch is regular activity and tradition, and until todays, even if it is easy to find at stores.

Yogurt simply is fermented milk which varies in taste, texture, and appearance depending on the specific bacterial culture used in fermenting, and the type of milk used. That’s why it considered naturally sour.

Making Yogurt

Making yogurt from scratch is easy and economic, only two ingredients are needed to make yogurt: milk and starter (yogurt culture)

Starter -Yogurt from previous homemade batch can be used as starter, it must have the active bacteria known as Lactobacillus acidophilus (some store type yogurt doesn’t have the active culture, it made by adding gelatin and starch as thickening agent, so try to avoid these type when choosing the starter to make yogurt).

Milk–Yogurt can be made with any animal milk (cow, goat, sheep), and nowadays there is the none dairy product milk that is using the soy milk to make the yogurt.

The cow’s milk is the most commonly used to make yogurt, it’s considered medium in thickness and flavor according to the other types of milk, also cows milk yogurt can be made with any level of fat content–whole, 2%, 1% or skim. Whole milk will always yield a better overall taste (richer) and texture (thicker) than lower fat versions.

In middle east, the sheep milk is widely used, it’s considered more sweet than cow’s milk, it is more thicker because the fat content is higher and more nutritious as Vitamins A, E, D, and K are found in milk fat.

The goat milk is the less in thickness and flavor than cows milk, more soar too, it has more water content compared to fat and protein.

temperature - The process of making yogurt require a suitable certain temp between 110-120 f for the milk to activate the bacteria and set it to work, also maintain the same warm temp for the whole incubation period to help ferment the milk.

Incubation Methods - Yogurt need between 8-10 hours to ferment in warm temp, this process called incubation. There are many methods that can be used to achieve the constant warm incubation temp that insure a thick yogurt:

I normally use the oven to incubate my yogurt, after adding the starter wrap the bowl with clean cloth and put it in the oven, preheat the oven to 5 min and then turned it off and let the starter do the magic. To keep the yogurt in constant warm temp I turn the light of the oven on and preheat the oven every 3-4 hours and turn it off.

It is very important too to keep the yogurt from any disturbing during the process.

Sometimes I use a cooler filled with warm water to incubate the yogurt especially if making the yogurt over night, the cooler will keep the water temp suitable enough to keep the yogurt warm to ferment.

Other methods found over the net is by using:
A food dehydrator
A crock pot
A heating pad

Health and Nutrition:

Yogurt is more nutritious than milk, a cup of yogurt a day keeps the digestive system healthy as it is utilized by the body as twice as fast as milk. No wonder it is called a natural antibiotic.

Yogurt is an excellent source of:
Probiotics (great for digestion and immunity)
Protein (content varies from batch to batch)
Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium (great for bone and teeth strength and overall health)
vitamins A, B, D, and E (for skin health)

Uses  

In middle eastern cuisine, yogurt is used in everything from appetizers to salads to drinks. It’s customary to place on the table a bowl of fresh yogurt. It’s eaten on it’s own or spoon it over salads  like Roasted Eggplant with Pomegranate and Yogurt or dishes of cooked vegetables or grains, mixed with herbs to make thick sauces like Mint and Cucumber Yogurt Dip.
Cooked yogurt is very well known as many dishes use it as cooking liquid or sauce like Cauliflower and Beef stew with Yogurt Sauce.
It’s also used to make the yogurt cheese, a middle eastern well known thickened yogurt dip, and yogurt cheese balls (the recipe comming later).

I love the way my yogurt always turned out! Nice thick and creamy, smooth, sweet and tangy. It’s really magic.

I used whole milk, and add some cream for more fat content, heated it and brought it to about 115 f, added my starter yogurt (usually Dannon-plain) wraped it with towel and put it in preheated oven then turned it off with the light turned on. Every 2-3 hours reheated the oven for 5 min and turned it off.

Let the yogurt set and incubate from 8-10 hours depends how sour you like the yogurt, also long incubation make yogurt more thick texture and more sour. Then put in refregerator to cool and set.

Always save some yogurt as it can be used as the starter for your next batch.

Homemade Yogurt:

1/2 gallon whole milk
1/4 cup fresh cream (liquid whipping cream)
1/3 cup yogurt starter
Dash of salt

Place milk in heavy saucepan (not aluminum) over medium heat. Bring to about 120 f, being careful not to let milk scorch (no need to stir).

Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm. Milk is ready if you can count to ten comfortably when you immerse your little finger into the milk, about 110-115 f.

If milk is too cool return to heat and warm slightly, if too hot leave aside for a while longer to cool down. Blend yogurt starter with some warm milk, add it to the rest of warm milk, stir well.

Yogurt mixer may be left in the same pot to set. Cover with lid and a blanket. Place in a spot where mixture will not be disturbed for 8-10 hours, or until set.

Place in refrigerator to cool, taste will vary according to age of starter.

Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce: Shakshuka

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authentic food, breakfast, breakfast for dinner ideas, breakfast for lunch ideas, eggs dishes, Eggs in spicy tomato, middle eastern food, Shakshuka, tomato, tunisian food, بيض بالبندوره, شكشوكه

Forget the hassle of what’s for dinner tonight. This middle eastern comfort shakshuka, is very welcomed to be at your dinner table more often than a satisfying breakfast meal.

If you think preparing breakfast dishes for afternoon and evening meals looks oddly indulgent, then you better get out your pajamas and feel comfort to dig in.

Eating breakfast for dinner is a traditional way many middle eastern enjoy all over the levant countries, where the main course meal commonly offered at lunch time, while the dinner is usually the lightest meal.

Lunch is the meal where all the family gather around the table, which is usually consists of a choice portion of meat, chicken or fish, a portion of rice or grain, and a portion of cooked vegetables. In addition to salads and soups that sometimes offered as part of mazzi, and always accompanied with a kind of bread or pastries.

At dinner, a healthy light meals offered, usually egg dishes like shakshuka and eggah, even the basic fried egg (my kids humbled dinner), salads and soups or light appetizers, also dishes like falafel and hummus, shawarma, and light sandwiches are on the top picks.

How often do you like to eat breakfast for dinner? What’s your favorites?

Shakshuka basically is eggs cooked in spicy tomato sauce, a well known middle eastern dish that originally comes from Tunisian, Libyan and Moroccan cuisine. Usually enjoyed at supper time as well as a breakfast meal. There are more versions of shakshuka recipes, this one is the basic, where some other recipes replace the tomato sauce with other vegetables from spinach to cauliflower and fava beans to artichoke, and the potato version is one of my favorites.

Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce: Shakshuka

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 table spoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 large tomato ripened or 6 roma tomato, skin peeled, chopped or sliced
1 medium to high heat green pepper, Anaheim is perfect choice, sliced
1 teaspoon chilli sauce, optional for more heat
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon of each: cumin, cinnamon
3 large eggs

Heat the oil in large deep skillet, sauté the onion for 1 min then add the garlic, lightly fry. Add the tomato and the green pepper, season with salt and pepper, add the cumin and cinnamon, cook for about 15-20 min over low heat, check the seasoning, the sauce should be strong and piquant flavor.

Break the eggs one by one, and slide into the tomato sauce, arrange the yolk around the pan. Continue cook on low heat until the egg whites set about 7 min, you may Partially or completely Cover the skillet to let the eggs cooks very well, and it depends a bone your liking if you want the yolk to be a little watery or hard, and to prevent the sauce from spraying all around the cooking place.

Tagine of Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

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Comfort food, dawood basha, dinner meals, ground beef, Healthy meals, kids friendly, lunch meal, meatball stew, meatballs, middle eastern, Soups and Stews, tomato sauce, Turkish, vegetable meatbals

Adding vegetables to your meatballs to enhance the flavor and add a nutritional boost to your hearty comfort meal.

Getting your kids to eat their vegetable is a challengeable mission lots of moms have.
How many time I forced them to eat veggies?
How many hours spent lecturing on how veggies are good for their health and bodies?
I asked myself if there is a way to end this dilemma?
So why not to make tricks and think out of the box?

Sneaking some vegetable into their favourite food is a good way to start with.
Why not to add some cauliflower, or spinach to the meatballs! Some carrots is  good too!

Tagine of Meatballs in Tomato Sauce - a well known dish called Dawood Basha, it has been told that it’s originally from turkey and where it took it’s name – is one of the classic comfort foods that enjoyed all over the levant countries. The basic recipe is only meatballs with pine nuts fried then simmered in the oven with tomato sauce.

Nothing Better Than a comfort hearty meal to enjoy in weekdays also to gather the whole family at weekends, baking the meatballs instead of frying make it light and fresh, adding the vegetable to the meatballs was a great idea to boost up more nutrient to the meal. Any vegetable available is very welcome, I tried to add spinach, cauliflower, and carrots. Make sure to shred or chop them very fine so they can mix in easily with the ground meat.  The vegetable wasn’t noticeable though, it’s all blended in with the herbs and spices that added to make it more flavorful, tender, and juicy. For a bonus, I like to add potato to the stew, since the original recipe can be served along with mashed potato instead of the rice.

Serve with rice pilaf.

 

Tagine of Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

To make the meatballs:

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1/4 cup chopped cauliflower
1/4 cup minced parsley
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon of each: dried coriander, cinnamon, all spice
1 tablespoon olive oil

For the tomato sauce:

4-5 ripened tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 garlic Cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste

To make the stew:

2-3 potato cut into medium cubes
Cooked rice pilaf to serve

Preheat the oven to 400 f.
In a bowl, mix the ground beef lump with the vegetable add the onion, parsley, spices and oil, and work with your hands, don’t over mix. Roll into a small ball the size of walnuts.
Arrange the meatball in an oven tray, bake for 15-20 min until little browned.

Meanwhile, cut the tomato, add onion, garlic and liquidate them in the blender. Add spiced, herbs, and tomato paste, blend in. Put the sauce in a pot on low heat to simmer and thicken.

Fry or bake the potato with a little oil, add to the simmering tomato sauce along with baked meatballs and don’t forgot to add the meat juices, it adds more flavor to the stew.

Adjust the seasoning and continue simmering for 15-20 more minutes.
Serve along with rice pilaf. You may add some toasted pine nut on top.

Roasted Red Pepper & Eggplant Dip

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appetizers, dips, dips middle eastern, eggplant, mazzi, olives, red pepper, roasted eggplant, roasted red pepper, spread

This dip has all the sharp, slightly sweet and sour, with smoky flavor to kick-start a passionate Levantine feast.

When I need to be reminded that life is wonderful, I eat eggplant. It’s smoky sweet flavor, smooth yielding flesh, and sneakily seductive flavor make it of the nature’s most decent vegetable. In levant’ markets, the eggplants come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the regular kind, elongated and uniform in size; to zebra_streaked on the outside and pure white on the inside; baby eggplants; globe eggplants; and the baladi, a local heirloom variety that is wide, flat, and resembles an open fan.
Good eggplants should be light in weight, with not many seeds inside, and have a tight, shiny skin.

This dip is my favorite. It’s one of many humble eggplant dishes that makes a large portion of the middle eastern mazzi table assortment. For some who are not familiar with this type of dinning; It’s an assortment of appealing appetizers, which consist of a colorful medley of dips, spreads, and salads, and might include a few turnover like pastries. Fresh breads are their essential accompaniment.

To Roast the Eggplant: Prick the eggplant in a few places with a pointed knife to prevent from exploding. Turn them under a preheated broiler on a sheet of foil on an oven tray, or turn them over the flame of a gas burner or a barbecue, until the skin is charred all over and they feel very soft. Alternatively, place them on a sheet of foil on an oven tray and roast them in the hottest oven for 45 – 55 minutes, until they are very soft. When cool enough to handle, peel the eggplants ( you can do this under cool running water), drop the flesh into a strainer, and chop it with a knife, then mash it with a fork, letting their juices escape, or for an easy quick way just pop them with other ingredient into the food processor.

 

Roasted Red Pepper & Eggplant Dip

 

1 large eggplant (1 1/2 pounds)
2 medium size red pepper
Olive oil
1/4 cup green olives or black, pitted and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1\4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt & black pepper
Toasted pita triangles, for serving

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Place the whole eggplant on the pan, prick with a fork in several places, and rub with olive oil, roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the eggplant is very soft when pierced with a knife. On the same sheet line the red pepper and Roast for 15-20 min. Put the pepper in plastic bag, this will make it easy to peel the skin. Set the eggplant aside to cool. Halve the eggplant, peel, and discard the skin. Place the eggplant, peppers, and olives in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour into a mixing bowl.

Add the garlic to the eggplant mixture, the parsley, pine nuts, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to develop. Taste for seasonings and serve at room temperature with toasted pita triangles.