The culture of yoghurt
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What a wonder food yoghurt is. It tenderises meats and keeps them moist (add a tablespoon next time you make meatballs). It can be eaten as a sweet or in savoury dishes, as a dip, a drink, or on its own. Refreshing and cooling, it is the perfect foil to spicy foods, or it can be blended with banana and honey to make an instant smoothie meal-on-the-run.
The thicker Greek-style yoghurt is best for adding flavouring, as in chopped fresh herbs, crushed garlic or grated cucumber. The thinner and more acidic variety is better for marinating. You can make your own yoghurt at home easily enough, and we grew up with an oddly sweet/sour-smelling culture living in our hot water cupboard, each spoonful offering some treasure from whatever fruit puree we had added, and ending in a slight tang. Nothing has ever tasted quite the same since.
A pottle of yoghurt is another great way to get your kids to eat protein. Just make sure it’s real yoghurt you are buying, and not the heavily sweetened custard disguised in look-alike yoghurt containers.
It’s delicious as an ice cream, as a dollop atop a bowl of pumpkin soup, or as the fastest sauce for roast chicken. For this, mix unsweetened yoghurt with crushed garlic, a sprinkle of sea salt and some fresh mint. Allow the flavours to meld for an hour and serve with roast chicken and a fresh herby tomato salad.
Some of the best desserts are made in minutes using yoghurt. Place chopped seasonal fresh fruit into a dish. Cover with an ample layer of thick yoghurt and sprinkle liberally with brown sugar. Place in the fridge for an hour and as the sugar slowly melts into the yoghurt it creates a toffee-tasting crust. Better than a crème brulee!
Fold equal quantities of thick plain yoghurt through softly whipped cream. Add a sweetened seasonal fruit puree of your choice (rhubarb, fejioa, berry, quince) and swirl through so you can see streaks of puree. Serve in pretty glasses with a crisp biscuit on the side. Very elegant.
Ambrosia still has its place, and kids love it! Mix equal quantities of thick yoghurt with softly whipped cream. Fold into this any of the following: chopped marshmallows, chopped Mars bars, berries, sliced banana, grated chocolate, toasted nuts, and crushed meringues.
Yoghurt is one of the world’s oldest foods, and it’s not hard to imagine why it was quickly recognised for its keeping qualities—so much longer than fresh milk. If yoghurt is allowed to drain through muslin for 24 hours (removing the whey), the resulting cheese can then be salted and rolled into small balls called labneh, or lebne. They are then rolled in fresh herbs and paprika and placed into a clean jar and covered with olive oil, where they will keep for a year or longer. This food was a necessity to the people of Lebanon. Three or four hundred kilos of lebne was not an exceptional intake for one family, and eaten morning, noon and night that’s hardly surprising.
Moroccan and Indian food wouldn’t work the same way without a dollop of pure, white, clean-tasting yoghurt. It’s a great addition to almost any vegetarian dish too. Add some tahini to yoghurt and serve it next to lamb chops or grilled eggplant, spiced chickpeas, chilli or stewed lentils.
Gay Bilson wrote in her book, Digressions on Food, that she once glanced towards the night store heater one cool afternoon and saw four bowls sitting close to the warmth as though “the heater were mother and the bowls her children…one bowl held a fermenting sourdough starter, another two bowls each held sourdough loaves beginning their first rise, and the fourth bowl held the yoghurt…an image of a family group, cosy at fermenting peace”. I realised how much I wanted those four bowls too, and how they represented all that is important in life. Nurturing. Care. Taking time and allowing nature to do its bit, unhindered. Being self-sufficient and taking pride in each task. Being humble.
Barbecued lamb marinated in yoghurt
Rump of lamb (or use any lamb suitable to BBQ)
Tenderise the meat by rubbing it with the juice of two lemons and a bunch of chopped thyme. Leave for a few hours in the fridge
Into a blender put the following:
250g yoghurt
Fresh chilli to taste
Bunch of fresh coriander
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of both turmeric and ground cumin
Blend together and rub the marinade all over the meat. Return to the fridge overnight.
When ready to serve, BBQ the lamb until done to your liking. Squeeze some more lemon juice over and allow to rest before slicing. Serve with tzatziki. This is a simple mix of plain yoghurt combined with grated cucumber (squeeze in your hands to remove extra juice), a squeeze of lemon, some chopped fresh mint and a pinch of sea salt.
Fiona Feasey
