Homemade Plain Yogurt

When I first moved out to Boulder seven years ago, my mom gave me her old Salton yogurt maker and I definitely dabbled in making homemade yogurt for a few weeks.  But, it really only lasted a few weeks because the bottom line is it is MUCH easier (read: more convenient) to go to Whole Foods and buy yogurt than to make it at home.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately in my spare time and saw a couple on plastic and, besides freaking me out, made me think about how I don’t actually use much plastic at home since I generally try to avoid it.  Yogurt, however, is always sold in plastic and, being that I have a brand new yogurt maker (I replaced my mom’s old one… though I can’t remember why), I decided from now on my yogurt would be served in little glass jars and I’d be that much less responsible for the ridiculous amount of plastic we toss out (or down-cycle).

It’s so easy… ANYONE could do this. Just takes a little time.

Step 1- Bring milk (I used 2%) to just under a boil.

Step 2- Let it cool to the right temperature- 108-112 degrees Fahrenheit- I have a special yogurt thermometer that lets me know when the milk is in the right temperature range to add the starter.

Step 3- Dissolve 5 grams of yogurt starter in a little of the warm milk. Then add that to all of the milk and mix well.

What’s yogurt starter? Well, it’s freeze-dried skim milk powder, sucrose, ascorbic acid, and lactic bacteria. I bought Yógourmet brand in the dairy section at Whole Foods.

Step 4- Pour the milk mixture into glass yogurt jars (they come with the yogurt maker) and then incubate them for at least 4 hours.  I let mine sit there for 7 hours.

I have a Salton brand yogurt maker I bought at Bed Bath & Beyond. It essentially keeps the milk and lactic bacteria mixture at a warm temperature so it thickens into yogurt.

When it is thick enough for you, turn off the yogurt maker and remove the jars.  I like to let mine sit until they reach room temperature before stacking them in the fridge. When you’re in the mood for yogurt, you have seven individual servings, all in nice glass jars rather than plastic.

We’ll see how long I keep this up.

Home Brewed Kombucha Kit by Kombucha Brooklyn

I’m a huge fan of Kombucha. Ever since my first sip of the effervescent fermented tea beverage I have craved it almost every day.  The problem for me is it’s pricey- $3 per bottle unless you find it on sale for $2.50- so I “justify” buying it occasionally as it really helps rehydrate me after Bikram yoga (which I practice at least 4 times per week). I can’t, however, justify $12-$15 per week on this stuff because my money doesn’t grow on trees.

But, now I have a new supply of my favorite bubbly beverage- I’m making it myself.  Food52 ran an offer last month on a kombucha home brew kit from Kombucha Brooklyn, so I bought one. I followed the instructions exactly and here’s a glimpse of my first batch.

You can see the original SCOBY- Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast- on the bottom of the jar and the new one that formed floating on the top. It’s like a science experiment… and it’s kind of weird, but I heart my SCOBY.

Kombucha Brooklyn sends you everything you need to start home brewing Kombucha, including your first SCOBY. The kit I bought came with this big jar for fermenting (including the cloth cover for the top), tea, sugar, and a temperature strip so you can be sure you’re fermenting within the optimal temperature range.

I don’t have air conditioning, so I checked on my ‘bucha every day to be sure it wasn’t cooking. After two weeks, I tasted my first batch and loved it. Here’s a photo of how much Kombucha I brewed-  I filled 2 amber bottles (provided by Kombucha Brooklyn) and a little more than 2 cups.

Then I started batch 2 using both the original and the new SCOBY, 1.5 cups of my first batch of bucha, and the tea and sugar mixture.

The box of supplies has directions on it which are easy to follow, and Kombucha Brooklyn has a great website with flavoring ideas, questions and answers, and a shop for more bucha brewing supplies. I’m a big fan now and think you should check them out. They supply a tea blend and cane sugar, which I’m going to use at least for my first three batches.  I’ll have to decide whether or not to continue buying my tea mail-order after that, but for now, it’s a great starter kit.

I decided to leave my first batch unflavored, so stay tuned for batch #2, because I’ll definitely get a little more creative with that. Happy brewing!

Green Bean and Purple Potato Salad

I love stopping by the Black Cat Farmstand at the Boulder Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings to see what Chef/Farmer Eric Skokan is harvesting. I’ve been getting into the habit of letting him suggest I try something, and then I ask him how I’m going to prepare it. He almost effortlessly rattles off a recipe to highlight something seasonal, and I rush home inspired to try it. This past week I bought his first harvest of green beans. They were a light green color, which leads me to believe they have some special name other than “green beans,” but for the purpose of this post, they were Black Cat Farm Green Beans. Chef Skokan suggested I blanch them, cool them off, and add them to a potato saldad in a mustard vinaigrette.  So, that’s exactly what I did. I bought a pound of local purple potatoes from the market that day and boiled them after blanching 2 big handfulls of the beans. When they were cool, I coarsely chopped them, mixed them with the green beans, and tossed them in a maple mustard vinaigrette. I let this chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving with turkey burgers and corn on the cob. A perfect summer meal. For a simple Maple Mustard Vinaigrette, whisk together:

•  2 TB Grade B Pure Vermont Maple Syrup
• 2 TB Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup Walnut Oil
• 1 TB Apple Cider Vinegar
• a splash of soy sauce

First Roasted Beets of the Season

I was thrilled last week to see beets for sale at the Black Cat Farm stand at the Boulder Farmer’s Market.  I drizzled them with olive oil, roasted them in a foil packet at 400 for 35 minutes or so, peeled them, and devoured them on their own.  Delish!