How to make: Homemade Greek Yogurt

The ultimate good for you "snack", can be really expensive.  Especially if you're going for Greek yogurt, those things are usually $1.50 or more each!  Last summer I decided to try to make my own yogurt, and to my surprise it was insanely easy.  In a nutshell:  Heat some milk, let it cool, mix in a starter, let it incubate, strain.  DONE.  And did you know that the only difference between Greek yogurt and regular yogurt is that you strain the "whey" out of it?  WHO KNEW?!  Also, once you've made one batch of yogurt, you can keep using your own yogurt as the starter. It's a sort of self-perpetuating cycle of deliciousness.

A couple of disclaimers:

1. You cannot use "ultra-pasteurized" milk to make yogurt.  Ultra pasteurized milk has literally all the bacteria removed.  Yogurt making is dependent upon bacteria to create the texture and the finished product.  If you use ultra-pasteurized milk, you will not get yogurt.  Regular pasteurized milk is ok.  I just use the regular old milk from the grocery store.
2. You can use organic milk, just not the ultra-pasteurized kind.
3. The fresher the milk, the fresher the yogurt and the longer it will last, so make sure you've got the freshest milk possible
4. Make sure that the starter you get from the store (it's just a regular yogurt) is labeled that it contains live active cultures.  If you use a yogurt starter with no active cultures, you will not get yogurt.
5. You're going to need some sort of method to strain the yogurt.  A bouillon strainer is great for this process, but they are expensive and I don't have one.  I typically use a regular strainer lined with 2-4 layers of cheesecloth.  You can also just JUST cheesecloth, clipped to the side of the bowl.  We'll get to that.

So gather your ingredients and utensils, and let's do this!

Homemade Greek Yogurt
Yield:  2 cups of yogurt

4 cups of milk (or a half gallon)
2-3 tbsp plain Greek yogurt

Utensils:
Thermometer
Strainer + Cheesecloth
Double boiler or thick bottomed pan
Whisk
Extra bowl

Start by pouring the milk into your pan.  Just to let you know, you don't have to use a pan this big.

Heat over medium heat until you reach 180 degrees F, whisking and stirring the entire time so the milk doesn't burn.  Use your thermometer to do this.

When the milk has reached 180 degrees, remove from heat and pour into another bowl.  Leave on the counter and let cool to 105-115 degrees.

Ok, for your starter, again, make sure that your yogurt has live active cultures.  It's best to use plain, unsweetened green yogurt as your starter, but I was lazy and got this regular Yoplait instead.  It still worked, but not as good as it could have.  (Notice where it says "active cultures")  When your milk reaches about 105-115 degrees, mix in 2-3 tbsp yogurt.  Make sure you don't add more than that, it could make your yogurt too tart.  Cover your yogurt with a towel.

Now, you need to incubate your yogurt.  If you can set your oven to 100 degrees, that works great.  Yogurt will incubate successfully at temperatures between 85°F and 100°F, although the lower temperatures will take a longer time. Temperatures higher than 100°F will result in a yogurt that looks curdled with an uneven texture.  My oven does not have a digital setting and the lowest setting is 200 degrees.  But the pilot light provides enough warmth to incubate my yogurt, so I'll turn on the oven for about 5 minutes, turn it off, and it's enough to incubate for 8 hours.

You can start checking the consistency of the yogurt at 5-6 hours, and it should start to harden.  Typically yogurt incubation should be around 7 hours, but it can incubate for longer.  Try to not incubate for over 8 hours, because the yogurt will become tart.  After incubation, here's the yogurt!  At this stage, you can finish, if you simply want regular yogurt.  If you want Greek yogurt, you'll need to strain it.

Here's the method I use to strain my yogurt.  A regular strainer with a couple layers of cheesecloth.  Make sure to dampen the cheesecloth before use.

Pour your yogurt in, cover with your towel and move to the refrigerator.

After a few hours, here is the result!  You can see the whey at the bottom of the bowl.

A closer look at the whey.  Some people use this to cook with, but I haven't ever.  Discard if you have no use for it.

Empty the yogurt into a storage container.

Here we go!  We are left with roughly two cups of yogurt.  Sweeten with honey or sugar if you want.  You can even use jam as your sweetener.  I enjoy fresh berries in mine.

Enjoy!  If you liked this, please let me know in the comments!

How to make: Homemade Hummus

Hey guys?  Is anyone going to any Christmas parties this season?  This week at my internship we are having a Christmas party/potluck in the middle of the day, which I am excited for!  It's better than working, right?  Everyone signed up for something to bring, and I have the PERFECT thing!  Homemade hummus!  Everyone likes hummus, it's so easy to make yourself, and it's REALLY delicious when you make it yourself.  In addition, you can make it any flavor you want depending on what you add to it.  Really, the only investment you'll have to make is a jar of Tahini which might go for something like $6-$8, but it will last you a long time and many, many batches of hummus!  Tahini, if you don't know, is simply ground up sesame seeds, and is integral to the flavor of the hummus.

Gather your ingredients...

Homemade Hummus adapted from about.com
1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
paprika


Begin by separating the chickpeas from the canned liquid, but make sure you save the liquid!
Put the chickpeas in a food processor.

Now add 1/4 cup of the reserved liquid:

The recipe calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons of tahini, but I just eyeball it by taking a couple heaping spoonfuls of the stuff.

I like to use fresh lemon juice for my hummus.  Add as much as you want to taste, something like 3-5 tablespoons.

To avoid a raw garlic "burn" or "this hummus is way too garlicky" response from your taste buds, you can saute your garlic in a little olive oil for about 1 minute, being careful to not let it burn.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (or regular):

1 tablespoon of olive oil:

The garlic that has finished sauteing by now:

And now mix until smooth and creamy!  Make sure you taste it in case you want to add more lemon juice, or salt for taste or olive oil for texture.

Here's the finished product!  I like to eat my hummus with chopped veggies or Stacy's Pita Chips.

Oh dang!  Things are getting crazy now, I just added paprika!  Yum.

This recipe is really a straightforward hummus recipe, but you could add anything you wanted to this to play with the flavors.  Some ideas:

• Add some roasted red peppers
• Add a few tablespoons of chopped cilantro and two tablespoons of minced jalapeno
• Add chopped carrots
• Add a handful of spinach for extra vitamins and flavor!

You can pretty much add anything you can think of!  Maybe I'll try it out and post it on here.  Tell me what you think about this, and don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow @QuinnStitch

How to make: Chicken Bean Stew with Biscuits

It's December 3rd, but the temperature is somewhere in the 60's today in Chicago.  I'm not complaining, because I really dislike being cold, but I really hope we get a real winter this year!  I'd especially like a little snow for the holidays.  Not enough to impede my travel (to Michigan), but just enough to make it festive.  January and February we better get a bunch of snow!  Well, even though it's not that cold, I was in the mood to make one of my favorite wintery dinners last night, Chicken Stew with biscuits.

Gather your ingredients:

Chicken Bean Stew
4 cups chicken stock
1 15oz can of white/northern beans, drained
1 cup of cooked chicken, shredded or in chunks
1 carrot, chopped
1 ½ to 2 cups of fresh spinach, lightly chopped
(plus any other veggies you may have or want to add)
salt & pepper to taste

to thicken stew:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water (or more)


Biscuits
(preheat oven to 450°)
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp Cream of Tarter
3/4 cup butter or 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening
1 cup milk or 1¼ cups buttermilk


You can get your soup started and work on the biscuits while it's cooking.  Let's start with the biscuit recipe here, though:

Begin by combining all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Cut butter into pieces and add to the dry mixture.

Use a pastry cutter to cut the fat into the flour, until the butter/shortening is about pea-sized.

Make a well in the dough and add the milk all at once.

 Use a fork to mix until just combined.  You might have to fight with it a little, but try not to over-mix.

Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface:

Pat or roll down until the dough is 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick

 Cut out your biscuits with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass, or whatever you have around!

Bake for 10-12 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

Yessss!

Now on to the stew:

I went ahead and defrosted some of my chicken stock that I had in my freezer.  When it was liquid again, I added the chicken, beans, and the chopped carrot.

Simmer, covered for about 20-30 minutes until the carrots are cooked. (you can work on your biscuits at this point!)  When the carrots are cooked, it's time to thicken the stew.  Combine the flour and water in a separate bowl until all the flour bits are completely dissolved.  Add more water if needed.

Turn up the heat on the stew to medium - medium/hot, so you have a nice boil.  Slowly add the flour/water mixture while stirring constantly.  Keep stirring while the stew thickens.

At this point, turn off the heat.  Add the spinach to the stew and stir until the spinach is cooked.

And you're done!  I like to but a biscuit in the bottom of my bowl and ladle the stew on top of it:

Or eat it on the side!

Or you can eat the biscuits by themselves with jam or honey.
Now cue the BEAUTY SHOTS!

Just look at that, it's perfect!

You don't even really need to make the stew.  The biscuits are good by themselves.  My husband ate about 7 of them in a row AFTER dinner!  If you like biscuits, or have a rival recipe, follow me on Facebook and Twitter and let me know!

Follow @QuinnStitch