A Cooking Lesson

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I made this lovely raita tonight. But my first attempt did not go well. What happened? Well, first I burnt some rice. Then I ruined some vegetables by overcooking them. And what did I learn from this?

Two wrongs don't make a raita.

Comments

  1. Daniel8:54 PM

    Two questions:

    1. You looked up a raita recipe and deliberately screwed it up so you could use that one, didn't you?

    2. What the hell is raita?

    ReplyDelete
  2. gcallah9:04 PM

    1) Actually, I simply fabricated a story to go with the joke.

    2) Mine above is yogurt (that I also made myself!), cucumbers, one jalapeno, mint, and salt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:09 PM

    Looks a little too soupy. How was the texture?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:15 PM

    And, yes. I do get the joke.

    ReplyDelete
  5. gcallah9:17 PM

    Yes, Joseph, you are right. The homemade yogurt was already thin, and then when I blended in the mint it frothed up a bit.

    But we had it on rice, so no big deal.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:21 PM

    Whoa, you made the yogurt, too? Let me guess, you used reduced fat milk?

    ReplyDelete
  7. gcallah1:23 AM

    Two percent, Joseph.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous1:09 AM

    Hmm? Homemade yogurt tends to be a bit thinner than store bought, but two percent is plenty fatty substrate to give a good texture. Sure, you can use skim, but I find that it gives a soupy texture. I prefer whole milk. The starter shouldn't be a problem, so maybe it was your incubation period.

    I usually will let it incubate for at least 8 hours at 100-110º, it gets thicker the longer you let it incubate, but I've never gone past 18 hours (it gets too sour for my liking). After that I will refrigerate it. If it is still too soupy, refrigeration allows the whey to rise to the top so that you can pour some of it off.

    Also, when I heat and incubate the yogurt I always do it in Mason jars partially submerged in water (this is especially important when sterilizing the milk so that you don't burn it). I have a slow-cooker that goes down to 100º, so this is what I use to incubate (I used to use a heating pad before I got the slow-cooker).

    I personally prefer Greek yogurt, because it is thicker and creamier. The only difference in process is that you strain ALL of the whey out of the yogurt. It's awesome, though.

    ReplyDelete

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