Beyond Greek Yogurt.

Greek yogurt isn't magic.  It is yogurt, put through a cheese cloth to take off an extra measure of whey.  There is no more miracle to it than that. Yogurt is ridiculously easy to make.  You should try - especially if you have access to raw milk... but even if you don't.  Pasteurized milk will not culture quite so densely, and you'll have a result of drinking yogurt (still SO good for you,) but if you're turning it into Greek yogurt, then it's no worry anyway, as you'll strain away much of the whey and remain with a nice thick yogurt with nothing added that you didn't put there yourself.

But my mother-in-law (she may not have been the first) accidentally left her straining yogurt overnight, and discovered that if you drain off ALL of the whey, you are left with the consistency of (and VERY close flavor to) cream cheese.  I make roughly 3 liters of yogurt a week, use it for smoothies and sorbets, in cakes and add it to much of my cooking.  But for nearly a year I've been turning most batches into this light, pure cheese.  I can make a meal out of this soft cheese and a salted avocado, or by using it like a sour cream beside a kale and coconut quesadilla... I'm addicted, actually.  Heated, it thickens and the flavor deepens, and is quite cheesy, almost like a smooth feta.

I didn't google to see who else on the planet is using fully-strained yogurt as a passable soft-cheese, nor do I know the fat and caloric content of a big dollop on the side of EVERYTHING.  I do know that I feel great, that it tastes amazing, and that you should try it.

 I guess you could buy yourself a big tub of plain yogurt to give it a try - or just buy yourself a few ounces of plain yogurt  as a starter, get a great big ol' jug of milk, and make a bunch on your own. I use a sterile washcloth rather than a cheesecloth, because I'm impatient, and it strains faster.  

It will look like this at first, and you can stop a few hours in if all you want is Greek.

But overnight (8 - 10 hours,) all the whey will strain away, and the cheese will pull in on itself, away from the sides of the cloth... And you'll find this goodness waiting for you.

 With honey and almonds.  Mixed with fresh pesto in homemade gorditas or over penne.  Smeared on paprika breaded chicken in white wine and red peppers... I've used it all of these ways and am in love.  You should try!  And enjoy.

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"Go To" Naan. And Go, NOW!

Our family eats curry a few times a week.  Not only because we are mad about Indian food, but also because it is easy.  Like a slow-cooker meal, you get it going and it very nearly cooks itself.  My favorite butter chicken dish is a recipe I'll share someday (if I can part with the secret,) but all curries double their deliciousness when paired with heaps of coconut rice, and are shoveled into your open and drooling mouth on some buttery, homemade naan.

For years I used a honey sweetened flat-bread recipe that was delicious, but not authentic.  I was won over by this yogurt based naan, a pakistani recipe passed along by my friend Kristin, who grew up in Pakistan, and it is simply the best.  I've adapted it, just a bit, over time.

1 1/4 cup very warm whole milk
2 tbsp. oil, or ghee
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 egg, beaten
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. yeast
(if you love garlic naan, add about 2 tbsp. of pressed garlic to the mixture as well.)

Add all these ingredients in the order shown, and kneed immediately before the milk cools.

Because this is a wet dough, it is difficult to mix by hand, and adding too much flour to the kneeding process will weigh down the dough, and ruin the lift of the bread.  I find it's best to use a mixer with a dough hook, or the kneeding function on a bread maker.

After you have mixed the ingredients thoroughly and kneeded the dough for 10 -15 minutes, place it in a greased bowl and allow to raise, 1 hour, then pinch it off into 12 equal portions.  Grease a cookie sheet amply with oil, then use fingers to press the portions into flat patties, about 1/6 inch thick, and 6-7 inches in diameter.

Allow the patties to raise again for about a half hour as you preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Naan is usually cooked in a ceramic, cylindrical oven called a tandoori.  The oven is heated with coals until it is incredibly hot, and the naan is slapped against the side to immediately cook, which happens very quickly.  Keep an eye on things, but your naan should brown up in about 7-8 minutes per batch.

Butter each piece while hot.  Then pile on your coconut gravy or palak sauce, paneer or makhani.  And do it sooooon. So good.

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Grandma Mae's Crunch Bar (aka. "Cracker Toffee.")

When I tasted these I couldn't remember... Where in the recesses of my memory was the angel that used to make these heavenly treats? IDENTITY REVEALED: It was my very own grandma. Grandma Mae. My gram wrote me to tell me that I'm remembering these sweets from her Christmas cookie plates every year of my childhood. She sent me her recipe, which she says she, quote: "actually got from Mr. Food on Channel seven many years ago." So maybe we should credit the website I re-discovered it on, but the recipe I used last week was the EXACT recipe my Grandma copied for me out of her recipe book.  So, I'm not even going to credit Mr. Food from Channel 7 for this one. These, forever forward, are:

 Grandma Mae's Crunch Bar:

Ingredients: 

1 Column Saltines ( from 4 Pk Package)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Sticks Butter (1 cup)

12 oz. pkg. choc. chips

Heat oven 400 degrees.  Layer saltines on a foil-lined 15x10 cookie sheet.  Boil butter and sugar for 3 minutes.  Pour the melted butter/sugar over saltines,  then bake for 7 minutes (watching carefully.)  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over top.  Give them about 5 minutes to melt, then and spread into an even layer with the back of a spoon.  Now is the time to add nuts if you'd like, then cool in the refrigerator.  When completely cold, break the bar into small pieces and freeze.  

I love these more now that I know that this delicious memory comes from my own, sweet Grandma Mae.  

P.S.... If my photos don't look like I used Saltines, I didn't.  I live in Africa, and this was the best I could do.  If you ever feel like exporting Saltines to Africa, please let me know.  I'd be very grateful!

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Wheat Thins

I've been making these crackers for years. "Wheat thins" from the More with Less cookbook.  It's so hard to procure ready-made treats in these rural reaches, and since my sweet tooth is salty, these have often curbed a craving over the years.

Wheat Thins

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp. wheat germ
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. dry milk powder
6 tbsp. margarine
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp. molasses

Combine the flour, wheat germ, salt and baking powder, brown sugar and milk powder, then cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter. Add the water and molasses, then kneed a bit until your dough is smooth.

The dough will have to be rolled near to paper-thin, so I find it's easier to roll out a third of the dough on a greased sheet of foil, then transfer it to a greased cookie sheet.

Cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter...

You can bake them plain, or sprinkle on a little crushed rock-salt (for the salt tooth, perhaps.)

They are some effort, I suppose, if you can get something equally delicious from the grocery store on the corner. I cannot, and the effort - sometimes - is worth it.

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Coconut-Mango-Lime Sorbet

This recipe is our new favorite way to cleanse the palate. It's tart and light and feels so good for you (though there is some sugar involved.)

Coconut-Mango-Lime Sorbet

You'll need:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 ripe mangoes

1 coconut (or 2 cans coconut milk)

1 lime

Start by combining the water and sugar to make a simple syrup.  Bring that to a boil, and then reduce the flame to simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Next, peel and chop the mangoes.  You need between 3 and 4 cups of chopped mango when you're finished, but mangoes are expensive most places (here we currently can get about a dozen for 500 shillings, or roughly 30 cents!) so two large mangoes should get you close enough.  

Next you'll need coconut milk.  I should publish another post detailing how to get coconut milk from coconuts (which, in a nutshell, involves cracking open the coconut, grinding out the meat, blending the meat with water, and squeezing the milk through a strainer.)  Otherwise, get out your can-opener and open two tins.

Now, slice your lime into quarters.  You can see in the photo above how small our limes are in these parts.  Golf-ballish at their biggest.  I use four and slice them in half.  Throw your cut limes (peels on), syrup and coconut milk into a blender and blend for 10 seconds.  It's important that you do not blend the limes any longer than that, as the peels will begin to give the mixture a bitter flavor, while a quick spin mostly gets out the juice without all that work of squeezing.

Now send the whole lot through a fine strainer, and back into the blender.  Add the mangoes to the liquid, and blend.  This time you'll work your way up to High, and blend for a full minute or two.  You want to liquify the fruit.  You have what you need now, but you must strain the mixture one last time to remove all the fibers (which will be numerous) from the pureed mango.  Don't skip this step.  Eating pureed mango is like slurping a mouthful of hair if you don't send it through a strainer first.

Now, 18-20 minutes in your ice-cream maker, plus another 5 or 6 hours in the freezer and there you have it.  Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over-top if you so choose.  And if you don't have an ice-cream maker, you can just pour the whole lot into popsicle molds and you'll be just as happy.  

So good.  

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Chili Honey-glazed Shrimp

 

Chili Honey-Glazed Shrimp

Mix together: 

1 tbsp. vegetable oil 

1 tbsp. honey 

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. chili powder (African/Indian)* - decrease to 1/4 or 1/2 tsp. if you don't love the spice.  

Pour marinade over one pound of peeled shrimp (tails on, or off - does't matter) Marinate for at least 2 hours before putting on skewers to be grilled. 

Then grill and be merry. 

 *Don't use American chili powder for this recipe. What you want is HEAT, so if you do not have ground red chilies - use cayenne, but increase to 1 tsp.

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Swahili Mishkaki

Mishkaki is a Swahili street food - beef kabobs grilled as you wait, hands in pockets or chewing the fat with other hubbies out for some post-dinner MEAT, sipping cold sugarcane juice or having a bowl of hot urojo (mango soup.)

We've been living here in Pemba, Zanzibar, for nearly four years now, and have only recently discovered the VERY simple secret (mostly because we were busy chasing the more complicated wives-tales including boiled tamarind, limes, chilies...)

Here's the simple, delicious truth - and worth a try next time you grill, even for the Americans and Europeans in our midst.

Swahili Mishkaki

-Chop 2 lbs. of lean steak into small bites

Mix together:
-1/4 cup minced ginger
-2 cloves minced garlic
-1 tbsp. oil -2 tsp. salt
-3 tbsp. soy sauce (for the purist, go ahead and increase the salt and omit the soy sauce, but I found that this small addition added a whole bunch of the right sort of flavor.)

Marinate the beef in the mixture over night, giving it a stir once or twice, then skewer and grill.

This is Mishkaki, and it's just plain The Best.  It does not, surprisingly, have a very strong ginger taste (in case you're opposed) but the ginger does work some tenderizing and flavorful magic.   Tamu Kabisa... Utterly delicious:) Pin It Now!

Coconut Lime Soup (Thai - Tom Kah Gai)

TOM KAH GAI
Thai Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup

3 cups coconut milk
3 cups chicken broth (I just cook down a carcass)
1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into small chunks
One carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
Juice and grated peel of 1 lime (or if you're working with the little limes we get here in Africa, better go with 6!)
One 4" piece of lemon grass, cut into very thin (1/16") slices on the diagonal
One 1-inch piece fresh, grated ginger
Hot chili peppers to taste -- preferably Thai birds (we use habaneros here, 6 - deseeded.)
Salt to taste (and don't stop until it's delicious.)

Pour the lime juice on the chicken and let stand while you prepare the rest of the soup (unless you have cooked down a carcass, then the meat will already be in the broth, and you can just add the lime to the rest.) In a medium saucepan, place the coconut milk, lemon grass, grated lime peel, ginger, and chilies. (If you're scared of spice, add the chilies later; The earlier you add them, the hotter the resulting dish.) Bring the coconut milk to a simmer.
When the soup is simmering, add the lime-soaked chicken pieces and stir to distribute them. Reduce the heat so the soup stays just below a boil and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or till the chicken pieces are cooked through and the carrot is tender. Remove from heat and warn guests to let the chilies float, but unless they're brave or crazy, not to actually eat them.  This soup is an Experience.

I make this soup once a week, at least, because coconuts and chilies and limes and ginger are all abundant and insanely cheap, and because I can't get chicken off-the-bone (and therefore make a lot of stock with the carcasses from the whole birds.)  I could live on this soup if I didn't have a family who expected pizza and pastas and peanut butter sandwiches... Pin It Now!

Richest Bean Dip.

Make this.  Eat it warm out of the skillet and be happy.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked kidney beans (or black, which I did not have) 
1/2 cup salsa (I used my recipe from the post below)
1 cup granted cheddar cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder 
2 teaspoons cilantro
salt to taste

Cook down the beans until very tender, drain and set aside.  Saute onion and garlic in butter then add beans, salsa, cheese and cream to the skillet.  Add remaining spices, and simmer together for 10 minutes or more, until thick and delicious looking - then mash a bit.  Savor.  Be merry. Pin It Now!