First, we no longer let it “yoge” in the oven. After forgetting that it’s in there and baking it once too often, we’ve started culturing it in the microwave. This works great!

Second, we’ve been whisking in the culture once the milk cools to 130 degrees, rather than 120 degrees. This seems to result in a creamier . . . → Read More: Yogurt Update]]> Since we first posted our yogurt recipe (really more of a method), we’ve made a few changes.

First, we no longer let it “yoge” in the oven. After forgetting that it’s in there and baking it once too often, we’ve started culturing it in the microwave. This works great!

Second, we’ve been whisking in the culture once the milk cools to 130 degrees, rather than 120 degrees. This seems to result in a creamier yogurt. I’m not sure why, but it might be because the temperature is kept slightly higher while culturing.

Third, after we melted the lid of our regular yogurt container (see comment number one), we switched to using a quart jar. It works really well, except that you have to start with 3-3/4 cups of milk, rather than an even 4, so that the jar doesn’t overflow.

I hope you’ve at least given the yogurt thing a try. If you need an extra push in that direction, read this short NPR article, which includes a couple of yummy sounding recipes in addition to the author’s own yogurt method. Happy culturing!

This meal was not really local at all, but instead of hiding our non-local . . . → Read More: The Doldrums]]> If local food folks call winter the “Dark Days”, I’m going to call spring the “Doldrums”. Stagnation, indeed! Watch out, strawberries and lettuce! I’m going to snap you up in a couple of weeks. For now, I’m thankful to have several places to by fresh, quality food, and for the skills and time to cook, so I won’t complain too much.

This meal was not really local at all, but instead of hiding our non-local eating and then forgetting to post this recipe later, I’m just going to post it now. I hope you forgive me once you try it. It’s easy peasy and delish, combining several of my favorite things – greens, soft-cooked eggs, yogurt, and butter. Mmmmmmmm! It does take a little more time than your usual egg dish (roughly 30 minutes), because the eggs bake in the oven, but you can just set a timer and then go on with your business.

Look at those yolks!! We only took one photo, because the yogurt and butter totally covered the eggs and greens making for a pretty unappetizing picture. Yummy yummy in my tummy, though!

This recipe is minimally adapted from Plenty to use ingredients we generally have on hand.

Baked Eggs with Arugula and Yogurt

Makes 2 servings

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. I used our 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add the arugula (and maybe spinach) and a pinch of salt and saute for 5-10 minutes or until the greens wilt and there’s a puddle of liquid in the pan.
3. Transfer the greens to a small oven-proof dish using tongs to squeeze some of the water out. Leave that puddle of liquid behind on the pan. Create 2-4 divots in the greens and crack an egg into each. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until the whites are white (not clear). The baking time will depend on the size of your eggs.
4. While the eggs are baking, mix the yogurt and finely minced garlic together with a pinch of salt. Although I don’t love my garlic press, this is a good time to bring it out, so that there aren’t any large pieces of garlic. A good knife job will work just as well, though.
5. After the yogurt is mixed up, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the dried chiles, sweet paprika, sage (which I cut with a kitchen scissor right into the pan), and a pinch of salt. Let it all fry for a minute or two, then turn off the heat.
6. Once the eggs are cooked to your liking, remove them from the oven and divide among two plates or bowls. Top with the yogurt and drizzle with the butter sauce. Dig in with a spoon, fork, or generous slice of crusty bread.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers . . . → Read More: How to Make a Winter Smoothie with Local Ingredients]]> In the winter, I usually crave hot breakfasts. Oatmeal with applesauce and peanut butter, eggs of all sorts, or pancakes. Recently, I haven’t been eating particularly well, so I’ve been trying to get a little “insurance” at breakfast to make up for the Pad Thai at lunch and burger, fries, and a shake at dinner. Yep. That was yesterday.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers up the healthy taste and if the green color bothers you, just avert your eyes. This has become my go-to recipe, but you can make some tweaks if it’s not sweet enough for you. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup or use a whole peach/banana instead of half.

We don’t have a fancy blender…although I really really really want one, I can’t justify the crazy price. There’s an easy technique for making a good smoothie with a normal blender. Check out this video from Good Eats – the technique info starts at about 4:22.

My blender has four speeds. I run it on the first until the vortex starts, then each higher speed for one minute. If a bubble forms, I turn off the blender, give it a little shake to encourage the “burp”, then turn the speed back up. It takes about 4 minutes of blending, but that’s enough time to put away the ingredients and make a cup of tea.

If you want to get crazy, add half an avocado to the mix. We ordered a box of them from California Avocados Direct, a responsible family farm, and were blown away.

Local Winter Smoothie

Makes 1 large smoothie

Directions

1. If you are organized and want to be like Alton Brown, prep your smoothie the night before. Put everything except the ice cubes into the blender (in order) and stash it in the fridge. In the morning, add the ice and blend, following the directions above. Make sure all the spinach/kale blends in. Sometimes a leaf or two will stick to the side. This is a great way to have a nice smoothie even on a busy morning.
2. If you, like me, are usually not that with it at bedtime, make your smoothie when you’re ready to eat it. Add all the ingredients to the blender (in order) and blend, following the directions above. It might take a little longer for the vortex to form, because the fruit is still frozen, but you can get it going by stopping the blender and smushing the spinach/kale down toward the blades. When you start up the blender again, the smoothie should start moving. It might take a couple of tries. If it’s really giving you trouble, add a little more water/juice/milk. It’ll thin out your smoothie, but usually does the trick.

In honor of International Waffle Day (March 25th), Lindsay and I made waffles for breakfast this past weekend (we’ll be out of town on the 25th). It was difficult to choose which recipe to make. I am a bit of a waffle enthusiast, and have made excellent yeast waffles, half whole-wheat waffles, hazelnut waffles, bacon brown sugar, and Liege waffles. That’s before even talking about the toppings. In the end, based on what we . . . → Read More: How to Make Local Oat Waffles]]>

In honor of International Waffle Day (March 25th), Lindsay and I made waffles for breakfast this past weekend (we’ll be out of town on the 25th). It was difficult to choose which recipe to make. I am a bit of a waffle enthusiast, and have made excellent yeast waffles, half whole-wheat waffles, hazelnut waffles, bacon brown sugar, and Liege waffles. That’s before even talking about the toppings. In the end, based on what we had on-hand and the fact that it was the most “local” recipe for posting, we decided to make oat waffles.

Local Oat Waffles

Makes 5-6 waffles

Directions

1. As Alton Brown always reminds us, in baking, it’s always preferable to measure your major dry ingredients (i.e., the flour) by weight. Variations in humidity and grind density can throw you off if you measure by volume (e.g., cups), and having too much or too little flour can have a big impact. Waffles are baked, so the raw oats and the flour listed above are by ounces by weight.

   

2. Place a saute pan over medium heat. Once it’s nice and hot hot, add the raw oats and toast them for about 5 minutes (until you can smell them getting toasty). Give them a second to cool off, and then grind them in a food processor. Pulse until you get more or less to the consistency of coarse flour.

   

3. In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients (AP flour, oat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda). Whisk until everything is combined evenly.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave. Time will vary depending on the microwave, but start with increments of 15-20 seconds. You want it melted but not dried out. Let the butter cool for a minute and beat the eggs in a medium bowl (it will need to be able to contain the buttermilk), then beat in the butter. Whisk in the buttermilk last. We did not have any buttermilk, local or otherwise, so we used 1 cups of our homemade yogurt mixed with 1 cups of low-fat milk (all from milk from Shaw Farm). It worked as a substitution, but wasn’t perfect, so get buttermilk if you can.
5. The skill in making waffles is in combing the two bowls that you now have: dry ingredients and wet ingredients. The key is to fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients using a rubber spatule. DO NOT WHISK OR ZEALOUSLY STIR. Pour the wet ingredients onto the top of the dry ingredients.

   Then, in one fluid motion, use the spatula to cut a line down the middle of the bowl and turn your wrist to bring the bottom contents of one-half of the bowl to the top. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn and do it again. Repeat until most of the pockets of dry flour are gone.

   Don’t overdo it,though. You do not want a perfectly consistent mixture. There will still be a few pockets of dry ingredients as well as lumps in the batter. That’s fine. The risk here is over-mixing, so err on the side of lumpy (see below). Turn on your waffle iron and let the batter rest in the bowl for 5 minutes. Also take you maple syrup out of the fridge so that it can get a little warmed up.

   

6. Make your waffles according to your waffle iron’s instructions. Measuring the amount of batter for each waffle is the hard part, and each waffle iron is different, so I can’t help you. I have a large ladle that I know more or less matches the batter volume of one waffle, so that’s a big help.



]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2012/03/19/how-to-make-local-oat-waffles/feed/ 0 http://eatlocal365.com/2012/01/22/yogurt-fail/ http://eatlocal365.com/2012/01/22/yogurt-fail/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:42:47 +0000 Erik http://eatlocal365.com/?p=4949

Well, we’ve finally done it. We’ve been making our own yogurt for almost three years now. You need to let it sit out for eight hours to culture at room temperature. However, during the colder months the ambient air is a bit chilly, so we wrap it in a kitchen towel and put in in the (cold) oven. The yogurt itself is still 120 degrees when it goes in, and it will retain this . . . → Read More: Yogurt Fail!]]>

Well, we’ve finally done it. We’ve been making our own yogurt for almost three years now. You need to let it sit out for eight hours to culture at room temperature. However, during the colder months the ambient air is a bit chilly, so we wrap it in a kitchen towel and put in in the (cold) oven. The yogurt itself is still 120 degrees when it goes in, and it will retain this heat much better in the oven than sitting out. This gives the culturing process a bit of a boost.

Today we put it in the oven at 11am and completely forgot until we needed to put our dinner in the oven, which we had already pre-heated! We cooked the yogurt, and melted the plastic lid of the jar to our kitchen towel. Epic fail!

We always said that we would be open on this blog and post warts and all. Lesson learned: when we put yogurt in the oven, we need to put a post-it on the temperature controls so that we can’t possibly make this error again. Instead, we’ll find a new error to make next time.

]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2012/01/22/yogurt-fail/feed/ 3 http://eatlocal365.com/2010/10/25/how-to-make-all-natural-yogurt-at-home/ http://eatlocal365.com/2010/10/25/how-to-make-all-natural-yogurt-at-home/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:26:36 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=7 How to make yogurt. This post is going to make some of you categorize us as hippies. I’m okay with that, because I know we’re right. But you should really give it a try once before ruling it out!!
It tastes better! Really!! Homemade yogurt is much smoother than the commercial stuff, because the culturing process is slower. It’s also mellower, at least the way we make it. If you like really tangy yogurt, you . . . → Read More: How to Make All-Natural Yogurt at Home]]> How to make yogurt. This post is going to make some of you categorize us as hippies. I’m okay with that, because I know we’re right. But you should really give it a try once before ruling it out!!
1. It tastes better! Really!! Homemade yogurt is much smoother than the commercial stuff, because the culturing process is slower. It’s also mellower, at least the way we make it. If you like really tangy yogurt, you can let it culture longer.
2. We eat yogurt almost every day for breakfast and like knowing exactly what goes into it.
3. It’s cheaper than commercial yogurt made with local milk from grass-fed cows. We make about a quart a week, which costs us $4.
4. The dairy reclaims the bottle and we use the same glass container all the time, so there’s very little waste, especially compared to plastic single-serving tubs.
5. It’s kind of a fun little science project every week or so.

Now that we’ve convinced you to DIY, please don’t go buy an expensive yogurt maker. You only need a few pieces of equipment, all of them multi-taskers:

• Heavy-bottomed pot with lid (at least 1 quart capacity)
• Digital thermometer*
• 1-quart glass jar
• Funnel (optional, but helpful)
• Hand- or dishtowel

* A digital thermometer is really nice for this, because you can set the alarm to go off at a specific temperature, rather than sitting by the stove. We have one like this. Any thermometer will work, though.

The logic behind this process is to heat the milk enough to kill any bad bacteria and then let it cool down enough to encourage the good bacteria in the yogurt starter to thrive. It’s important to note that it will never turn out the same way twice, because there are so many variables – what the cow ate, how quickly the milk warms up and cools down, how warm it stays while culturing. Sometimes there’s a little whey, sometimes it’s thicker, sometimes it’s thinner, but it’s always tasty.

Ingredients:

1 quart (32 ounces or 4 cups) whole or low-fat milk
2 tablespoons yogurt as a starter (either from a previous batch or store-bought with live, active cultures)

Directions:

1. Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed pan, set up the thermometer, and set the alarm to 180 degrees (if you can). We thread the probe through the wires of a binder clip attached to the slide of the pan. Make sure the probe doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan. Heat (covered) over a low flame until the alarm goes off (or the temperature reaches 180 degrees). This usually takes about 15 minutes.



2. While the milk is heating, measure out the starter and leave it on the counter to come to warm up. The good bacteria aren’t “hungry” when they’re cold.
3. Once the milk reaches 180 degrees, take it off the heat and take the lid off. The milk might have a skin on it, but that’s fine. You can just whisk it away later. Allow milk to cool down to 120 degrees. It could take up to an hour, depending on the temperature of your room. We usually set an timer for 15 minute increments, so that we don’t forget we’re making yogurt.
4. While the milk cools, wash a 1-quart glass jar and lid and get out a towel.
5. Once the milk reaches 120 degrees, whisk in the starter, trying to eliminate any clumps.



6. Carefully pour the milk mixture into the glass jar (a canning funnel is really helpful here), wrap the jar in the towel, and set it somewhere warm for 6-10 hours before refrigerating. The amount of culturing time depends on how you like your yogurt. We usually let it sit for 7-8 hours. It will be mellower and thinner, if you leave it for a shorter time. It will be tangier and thicker, if you leave it for longer. Because there aren’t any preservatives, it will also get tangier as it sits in the refrigerator, so we usually err on the early side. Most of the year, we just leave the jar out on the counter away from any drafts or breezes. If our apartment is chilly, we heat our oven on the lowest setting (140 degrees for our oven) for 15 minutes and let the yogurt culture in the oven with the door closed and the heat off. I’ve also heard of people using heating pads, which we might try this winter.



Notes:

• I suppose you could use skim milk, but not for your first try. We’ve found that skim makes pretty thin yogurt.
• We always save the last bit of yogurt as the starter for the next batch. If you have more than two tablespoons left or aren’t planning on making another batch right away, save it by freezing 1-tablespoon portions in an ice cube tray. Then just take two out to thaw while you’re heating up the milk next time. You could also give it to a friend who wants to start making yogurt and get a nerdy thrill from passing along your yogurt strain.
• I have read that slower heating and cooling creates a silkier yogurt, so be patient, if you can.
• Try not to jostle the yogurt too much while it’s “yoging”, because it will disrupt curd formation, leading to a watery final product.
• If you’re a fan of Greek yogurt, let the yogurt strain through a coffee filter in the refrigerator until it’s as thick as you’d like it.
• If you like your yogurt sweet or flavored, try adding (local) honey or jam.
• Yogurt isn’t just for breakfast! Use it in baked goods as a substitute for sour cream or buttermilk. It also makes a good marinade.
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