2009 November

Yuletide Spiced Brandy Liqueur

November 29, 2009 by Rebecca 2 Comments

It’s time to get cozy.

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The air has progressed past crisp to chilly and will soon be downright cold. The leaves have finally given up their tenuous grasp on the trees and -with one final gust of nearly winter wind- fallen to insulate the grass and ground against the coming snow.

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Thanksgiving and the feast have come and gone and we’re still snacking and feeding on the almost-more-anticipated-than-the-meal-itself leftovers. A warm potato wheat roll dunked in hot turkey gravy is just the thing to bring warmth back to icy fingers after playing outside.

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There’s a bustle and hustle going on almost everywhere. Crowds have pushed at store doors on ‘Black Friday’ with people rushing to snap up those spectacular deals they were promised. Malls and stores are teeming with holiday shoppers.

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The deer are treading lightly and making midnight mass crossings on the backroads and highways alike, trying to elude the daylight and its attendant hunters. My mighty hunter husband spends each morning and evening out in our back field bundled from nose to toes in fleecy camouflage with his head and chest sporting blaze orange.

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The kids are wired from the excitement of the season; parties, gifts, friends, food. They’re constantly discussing, formulating, planning, creating, and playing. Gifts for bosom buddies are made and given with care and anticipation.

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And I am finding the little pockets of quiet. The hush. The moment of silence when everything else falls away and I am left alone to admire the hawk circling the silver clouds in the late autumn sky and watch my husband making his way back to our yard and home through the tall dried weedtops.

When the timing is just right -the evening hunting is over, the kids are working on their presents, dinner is bubbling away on the stovetop, the dogs are napping- I throw a log on the fire, a blanket around my shoulders, and meet The Evil Genius out on the porch with two small glasses of Yultide Spiced Brandy Liqueur.

This gentle restorative or lightly orange and spice flavored brandy warms you enough to make you feel equal to a return to the rush. Serve this at a gala holiday event, an intimate gathering of friends, or in your own pockets of quiet. Whether basking in the glow of your loved ones or relaxing by the light of the fire in the woodstove, take a little sip. Just one. Then breathe.

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And remember it’s Christmas time.

Pour this brown elixir into a beautiful bottle and wrap with a ribbon -satin, velvet or raffia- to make a one-of-a-kind culinary gift for the lovers of food and drink in your life.

For a printer-friendly, photo free version of this recipe, click here!

Yuletide Spiced Brandy Liqueur

Adapted from the Christmas Spiced Brandy recipe in “Classic Liqueurs” by Cheryl Long and Heather Kibbey

Ingredients:

The zest of half of a tangerine (Only use the colored part of the peel. Avoid the white pith.)
4 broken cinnamon sticks
2 whole allspice berries
2 whole cloves
2 juniper berries
a 2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated (or 2 Tablespoons dried ginger pieces)
2 black peppercorns
1 scraping fresh grated nutmeg
2 cups brandy
1/2 cup raw (turbinado or demerara sugar)
1/2 cup water

Add tangerine peel, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, juniper, ginger root, peppercorns, and nutmeg to a clean and dry quart or half gallon mason jar with a tight fitting lid.

Pour brandy over spices and zest.

Shake the jar and put in a cool, dark place for fourteen days. Be sure to shake the jar every other day.

On the fourteenth day, combine the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool, covered, to room temperature.

While syrup cools, arrange a fine mesh sieve (or colander lined with cheesecloth) over a bowl or clean pan. Shake brandy one more time and then pour through the sieve. Set the spices aside* or discard them. Transfer the strained liqueur liquid to a clean jar that you can use to further age and store the liqueur.

*You can discard the spices or you can put them in a small saucepan with water over low heat to make your kitchen smell wonderful.

When the sugar syrup is cooled, pour it into the jar with the liqueur liquid. Tightly fix on the lid and shake to combine. Return to the cool, dark storage area for an additional seven days to mellow. It only improves with age, but it is ready to serve at this point.

Filed Under: Beverages, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: Christmas cookies, Food gifts, frugal gifts

Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread

November 17, 2009 by Rebecca 23 Comments

I have an enduring love affair with bread. It’s not just the pure pleasure of pulling off a steaming heel of bread, slathering cold sweet cream butter over the top, sinking your teeth into the crumb and shattering the crust; although those are reasons enough to be devoted. Making bread; the process of measuring, mixing, kneading, waiting, shaping, waiting again and finally baking is -on its worst days- meditative and -on its best days- cathartic. But more wonderful than all of that put together is the delicious and painful anticipation while the bread bakes; the nutty, grainy, toasty smell of dough transforming itself into brown bread, and the impossible wait while the bread cools. I can never wait long enough.

I know very well that you should let the bread cool completely before cutting into it. I get around this problem by tearing into the hot bread with my bare hands. Throwing the bread from hand to hand until it’s cool enough rest in the palm is a skill I’ve developed out of necessity and a skill I’ve taught my family. Once the piece of bread reaches that temperature it is not long for this world. A fresh loaf of bread is shown no mercy in this home. And that is as it should be.

Bubble bread is the hard drug of the bread world; one experience with it is enough to hook you for life. There are variations enough on the theme to feed everyone’s addiction; chocolate, caramel, cinnamon, cheese, onion, dill, and on and on and on. But this particular take on bubble bread -Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread- is our family’s favorite. Rolled in, topped with and baked in garlic butter and olive oil, and aromatic with Italian herbs this bread develops a crackly crisp deep brown crust all around and keeps an incomparably tender interior. Served as is, hot from the oven, it is a savoury and rich snack. Showered with grated Romano or Parmesano cheese and surrounding a warm bowl of marinara sauce it is second to none in party food or appetizers.

There’s more to this bread than just a pretty package and head-swimmingly delicious taste. It takes advantage of the versatile Master Bread dough from the original ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. In other words, the dough is ready and waiting in the fridge for a Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread craving attack. And believe me. Once you’ve had it, those attacks will be frequent.

I have a confession to make. This bread is not low-fat or diet friendly. But sometimes, just sometimes, you have to feed the love handles and muffin tops to feed the soul. I, for one, am okay with that.

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread

Ingredients:

About half a batch of Master Bread Dough (recipe listed below)
1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
3/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon granulated dried garlic
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus an additional 1/2 teaspoon for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
optional for serving, grated hard Italian cheese (Romano, Asiago, Parmesano, etc…) and a bowl of warm marinara sauce.

As with many good foods, this recipe starts with a stick of butter. Oh butter, I love you. Why do you treat me so badly?

Unwrap butter and place in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave until the butter is fully melted. There are days I’m tempted to stop at this step and just rub the melted butter into my skin. But that might encourage cannibalism.

Stir garlic, Italian seasoning, granulated garlic, the 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper into the melted butter. Set next to you on the countertop and turn your attention to the dough.

Dust the refrigerated dough in the bucket with a generous amount of flour.

Pull dough up from the center and use a sharp knife to cut off a portion that is between the sizes of a golf ball and plum. Please excuse my floury hands, folks, there’s just no way to get around it here…

Pull the sides down and under while rotating the dough to form a smooth ball.

On a clean counter, place the dough ball, seam side down, and gently cup the dough with your hand.

Rotate it in one direction on the counter while providing gentle and steady downward pressure. This will smooth the surface of the dough ball and make it tight.

Carefully deposit the dough ball into the butter mixture and turn to coat completely.

Use a fork to transfer the dough to a 9″ x 13″ pan. My pan, she has been well used and she works hard. She has permanent stains. Please don’t hold that against me.

Repeat until you have at least four rows of three dough balls. If you want very crusty bubbles of bread, stop here. If you prefer crusty tops with softer sides, cut off and roll six more dough balls and place them in the open spaces between rows. For this batch, I opted for crusty tops and soft sides. I’m unpredictable like the wind.

Do not crowd the dough to the point where you have to squeeze or mash them to the side to fit more into the pan. Drizzle any garlic butter mixture that remains in the bowl over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt.

Allow the dough to rest while preheating the oven to 450°F (230°C or 8 Gas Mark). When oven is hot, place pan on a rimmed cookie sheet on the center rack and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the bread is deep brown. The cookie sheet is there to catch any butter that tries to escape. There will still be quite a bit of bubbling butter around the edges of the bread. This is a good thing.

Allow the pan to stand on the stovetop until the remaining butter is absorbed. Trust me. Much like the Borgs, it will be assimilated.

Serve warm, as is.

Or top with a generous amount of freshly grated hard Italian cheese and a bowl of warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect the removal of the 4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil from the recipe. While it was delicious with the oil, there was enough variance in people’s ovens that some ovens scorched the bread or overcrisped the bottoms of the rolls with the additional fat. The removal of the fat ensures a more even result. Either way, it’s good eats, folks!

Master Bread Dough Recipe

From the book ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’. Zoë François graciously allowed me to share this recipe.

Ingredients:

6 cups lukewarm water
3 Tablespoons instant yeast
3 Tablespoons kosher salt
13 cups all-purpose flour

Mix water, yeast and salt together in the bowl of a large stand mixer or in a 10 quart food-safe container. Add flour and stir until the mixture is uniform. You don’t have to knead, but you want everything uniformly moist, without dry patches. The dough will be wet and will conform to the shape of its container.

Cover with a lid that fits well, but is not airtight and allow to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours or until the dough collapses back in on itself. You can now refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks, using the dough whenever you need it or you may use it immediately.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Breakfast Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian Tagged With: bubble bread, crusty bread, garlic bread, garlic butter, Italian bubble bread, party food

Eggnog Liqueur

November 11, 2009 by Rebecca 18 Comments

If I were to list the five foods that I thought of as being most representative of Thanksgiving and Christmas I’d wager that my list would be pretty similar to those chosen by most North Americans; cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, turkey, cookies and eggnog. And while I love each of those foods individually, my heart is devoted to eggnog. Whilst others entertain visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads I have glistening punchbowls of creamy, yellow, spice-flecked eggnog tripping the light fantastic in my brain.

I am no eggnog snob. I love it in every form; from the kid-friendly light yellow stuff in the cardboard quart at the grocery store to the adults-only, deep yellow, super thick homemade stuff laced with whipped cream. I have even enjoyed Rice Nog And Soy Nog (the key I found with those was not to think of them as a ‘real’ nog, but as a ‘nog’ product.) After much consideration -which included the consumption of indecent amounts of all sorts of eggnogs- I realized what makes me love it so; magic.

The bewitching comfort that results from the physical closeness to loved ones who you don’t always get to see as often as you’d like. The conjuring of flavors that reach so far back into our collective cultural memories. The alchemy of the holiday spirit on everything around us. Everything tastes just that much better, looks just that much more beautiful and seems just that much more meaningful.

This one is for the grown-up eggnog lovers.

Eggnog Liqueur is everything that is good about eggnog; plus a little extra kick. It is mellowed in the fridge for two weeks before you can start sipping, so do plan ahead to have this available at your holiday goings-on. And there are worse things than putting your feet up in front of the wood stove with a good book and a small glass* of Eggnog Liqueur and a bite or two of something sweet.

*Oh yes, my friends. A small glass. This is rich, velvety and smooth and goes down just a wee bit too easily.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Eggnog Liqueur

Inspired by the Advocaat recipe in the book “Classic Liqueurs” by Cheryl Long and Heather Kibbey

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups brown sugar (lightly packed) or raw sugar
1 vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 cup vodka
5 whole eggs
1 additional egg yolk
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 scraping of fresh grated nutmeg

Using the blunt edge of your knife, scrape the insides from the vanilla bean.

Have another look at the ‘guts’ of the vanilla bean. There are few things more beautiful than this… Can’t you almost smell it?

Set vanilla pod aside** and add the vanilla scrapings to the blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend for about 45 seconds on high, or until thoroughly combined and smooth.

You have frothed this up a good deal by this point. Take this into account when choosing whatever you will use to store it. Pour into a clean bottle with a tight fitting lid or a clean canning jar with a tight fitting lid.

Place in the refrigerator and allow it to mellow for at least two weeks prior to serving. The longer it ages, the smoother the flavor will be. Another little bit of magic; as it ages, it will deepen not only in flavor but in color. If you use eggs from your own chickens -or from the chickens of a generous farmer friend- the liqueur will reach an almost orange color. This is good for two months in the refrigerator. Look at my bottle after two weeks in the chill chest…

And what to do with this golden elixir? Oh. Oh me. Look at all those flecks of vanilla.

How about a scoop of whipped cream and a little dusting of fresh grated nutmeg and a little extra from me to you… I dunked my poundcake in the eggnog liqueur and whipped cream. It was heavenly.

**Take your scraped vanilla bean pod and put it in a jar with a couple cups of plain sugar. Put a tight lid on it and stick it in a dark place. In a week you’ll have vanilla sugar. As you use it up and start running low, just add additional sugar and shake the jar. Voila! Never ending vanilla sugar!

Filed Under: Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca Tagged With: Beverages, liqueur, liquor, party

Spanakopita Dip

November 8, 2009 by Rebecca 14 Comments

When is a dip not just a dip? When it’s something transcendental. When it’s born to be a superstar. When it’s… Spanakopita Dip. (And that is NOT anticlimactic. It isn’t. Let me expound.)

Spanakopita Dip is the dip that can do it all. A meal-of-a-dip full of spinach, studded with feta cheese, garlic, onions and various herbs and spices it is wonderful at topping chips, crackers and veggie sticks. But it doesn’t stop there. With very little effort, a bit of phyllo dough, and some olive oil, it can be transformed into a beautiful and flavor-packed amuse bouche or finger food. (With just a little more tinkering, it can be made into actual, honest-to-goodness spanakopita. But more on this in a future post.) No magic required!

This falls into that coveted family of recipes that take little to no know-how or work yet still impress the most finicky, jaded food snobs. Spanakopita Dip starts with the same simple, five minute batch of the Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip that I featured on Friday. Here’s the skinny* on three of Spanakopita Dip’s many talents.

*And yes, it is indeed skinny. For details, see Friday’s post.

Dip it. Dunk it. Eat it on a spoon. But for the love of Pete, wherever he may be, don’t use some weak little chip. Use a ridged or kettle-cooked chip or a sturdy carrot stick or a broccoli florette. This is a serious dip. It will crush the milquetoast chip dust in the yellow bags.
Scoop it into crisp, brown phyllo cups. Sure, you can buy these in the store, but for the same price you can make twice as many and they’ll be four times as good!
It improves your health, so eat as much as you want. That creamy, decadent mouth feel from the dip is pure Greek yogurt, baby! And eating yogurt improves your ability to digest all the food you eat. Not only that, it’s crammed full of spinach. That equals iron, calcium, anti-oxidants, folate, niacin, and Vitamins A, C and B6, among other goodies, so dig in!

I’m giving you a two-fer here today. First is the Spanakopita Dip recipe. Left by itself it can make you very, very happy. My dear friend Melissa would be a happy girl left alone with a bowl of this and a spoon. But below the recipe for the dip is what you can do to dress it up into a stunning and savoury amuse bouche or finger food for Thanksgiving and Christmas buffets and parties. ‘Tis the season, after all. (Nobody needs to know just how very good this is for you unless you want to tell them. Your secret is safe with me!)

For photo-free, printer-friendly versions of these recipes, click here!

Spanakopita Dip

Ingredients:

1 (17.6 ounce) container Greek yogurt
1 pound frozen chopped spinach (thawed and lightly squeezed to remove excess moisture.)
1/3 cup feta cheese crumbles (You can increase or decrease this according to taste.)
2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes)
2 Tablespoons dry minced onion flakes
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

As in the Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip, begin by combining yogurt with spinach and all other ingredients in a large bowl.

Now see this? This is fresh nutmeg. It’s my friend. My close, close friend. If you do not have fresh nutmeg don’t substitute the ground stuff in jars here. It just wouldn’t be right. If you don’t have the fresh nutmeg, just skip the nutmeg all together in this case. Trust me.

Stir well until evenly combined.

Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour prior to serving. Serve with sturdy chips, crackers, vegetable sticks or spread on bread.

This, alone, is a wonderful reason to look forward to your weekday lunches or football viewing snacks. But we’re coming upon the most wonderful time of the year, folks. In just a couple weeks you’re going to need more bang. You’re going to need more bling. You’re going to need to make Mini Spanakopita Phyllo Cups.

Mini Spanakopita Phyllo Cups

Don’t fear the phyllo. It’s not as scary as you might think. Just proceed carefully, don’t freak out if it tears a bit (you’re laying it after all) and have a little patience. Your rewards will be great!
Ingredients:

One batch Spanakopita Dip
5 sheets thawed phyllo dough
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375F. Unwrap phyllo dough, taking care not to tear the dough.

Lay one sheet of phyllo dough out on a cutting board. Brush lightly with olive oil.

Carefully lay another sheet of phyllo dough over the first and repeat with olive oil and remaining phyllo dough.

Using a 2 ¾” round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut through the layered phyllo dough.

Gently press the layered phyllo dough rounds, olive oil side down, in mini-muffin tin cups.

Place on the center rack in the oven. Remove the pan after it has baked for five minutes. Press the center down, carefully, if it is beginning to puff up.

Place pan back in the oven and bake for five more minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Remember that the cups will continue to brown a bit as they cool. Transfer cups to a rack and cool completely.

Spoon about two teaspoons of the Spanakopita Dip into each cup and serve. The phyllo cups will remain crisp at room temperature for about three hours at room temperature. Now sit back and watch them disappear. You can do this because you ate fifteen in the kitchen before you took them out to the table.

I hope you remembered to check your teeth for spinach…

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Snacks, Vegetarian Tagged With: amuse bouche, buffet, Christmas, feta cheese, finger food, greek yogurt, holiday food, party food, Thanksgiving

Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip

November 6, 2009 by Rebecca 14 Comments

This is the cook’s time of year -the holiday season; the time when we pull out all the stops in our culinary repertoires. This is when cooks everywhere extend themselves to create the most spectacular and succulent savories and sweets that they can possibly turn out of their kitchen. It is time to ‘wow’ your family and friends with beautiful, memorable repasts. Crisp skinned turkey fresh from the oven. Buttermilk cornbread stuffing redolent with sage, cranberries, and pecans. Festive platters and buffet tables covered with bite-sized morsels and finger foods. Velvety pumpkin pie smothered with sinful piles of brandy-laced whipped cream. Crystal punch bowls brimming with that generations-old recipe for lemon shrub or mulled wine or spiced cider or homemade eggnog. This is what we wait for and plan for through the rest of the year. And how am I starting out the holiday season here on Foodie With Family? What show-stopper am I sharing with you to impress you and all your friends and family?

Dip.

Yes, dip.

Okay. Admittedly that doesn’t sound really exciting. But don’t go! I promise this is worth it. Consider this. Isn’t dip at every party whether fancy or casual? And it’s usually an afterthought. Grab the little green tub from the dairy section of the grocery store. You know, the stuff right by the sour cream. If you follow my line of logic (For me this passes for logic.) that makes dip -the most neglected item in the holiday food arsenal- the perfect place to start.

A couple basic pantry items and a tub of Greek yogurt (glorious Greek yogurt) are all it takes to make over the humble dip into ‘that dish’: the recipe everyone asks for the day of, the week after and months beyond the party.

Keep it simple like today’s recipe.

Or add a few extra special ingredients to transform it yet again (Like the recipe I’ll be posting on Sunday for Spanakopita Dip, but I’m getting ahead of myself.) Either way, you end up with a unique dip that is superior to anything you can buy from a store.

If you haven’t yet experienced Greek yogurt in all its glory, this is a great time to start. Greek yogurt has been strained, meaning extra whey has been removed from it, making it extra thick, smooth and creamy. This thickness is what makes it the perfect stand-in for the usual suspects in dip recipes; sour cream and mayonnaise. Why swap out the traditional ingredients? There are two very good and very different reasons.

Mayonnaise* is a common offender in food poisoning cases. When mayonnaise is present and is held at room temperature for long periods of time, it is a perfect breeding ground for food borne pathogens such as e. coli, salmonella and other nasties. That means dip made with Greek yogurt can sit out at room temperature safely much longer than dips made with mayonnaise.
Unlike mayonnaise and sour cream, Greek yogurt is good for you! Higher in protein and lower in both calories and saturated fat than mayonnaise and sour cream**, Greek yogurt has the added benefit of being a live and active cultured product. In other words, it’s good for your digestive tract. When you replace mayo and sour cream with yogurt you get all the good things that yogurt can do for you. You keep the creamy, silky, substantial feel of mayonnaise and sour cream with none of the bad stuff (saturated fat, calories, etc…) that come with them.

*There are differences in the level of risk between commercial and homemade mayonnaise. Commercial mayonnaise often is acidic and salty enough to hold down bacterial growth. Homemade mayonnaise can vary greatly in the acid and salt levels and is usually made with raw egg. Food borne illnesses occuring after eating items made with commercial mayonnaise are most likely to be caused by the ingredients mixed into the mayonnaise rather than the mayonnaise itself. Don’t misunderstand me, I’ll carry on eating homemade mayonnaise because I have a healthy immune system and it tastes so danged good. Just be aware that this is reality. For more information on food borne illnesses related to mayonnaise, you can click here.

**Yes. There are some sour creams that contain probiotic cultures, but it’s not a given. You have to read your labels!

Being so healthy and so easy to pull together makes this dip a cinch for last minute party preparations and for snack attacks. So go on; indulge! Dunk your chips and vegetable sticks with wild abandon! It’s good for you!

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip

Looking for a quick and inexpensive hostess or host gift for a party? Put the dry ingredients for this dip into a little resealable plastic bag. Neatly print the instructions for the dip on a note card and attach the card and a little wooden spoon to the bag with ribbon or raffia. This is great by itself or with a tub of Greek yogurt to accompany it!

Ingredients:

1 (17.6 ounce) container Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes)
1 Tablespoon dry minced onion flakes
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
½ teaspoon paprika

Open your container of Greek yogurt. If yours is like the kind I buy, you’ll find a little piece of parchment laying on top of the yogurt. You’re going to want to get rid of that. I forgot it once before making smoothies with Greek yogurt. Blended parchment doesn’t taste so good.

Buh-bye, parchment.

Now add the yogurt, along with the remaining ingredients to a bowl and mix until smooth.

Refrigerate for an hour prior to serving. Serve with vegetable sticks, chips, crackers or bread.

Store leftovers in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

I realize there is, all of a sudden, a lot of food photographed in my hands by the window. We’re talking about Late Fall and Winter in the Southern Tier of New York. I believe we have about 427 minutes of sunlight these days and that’ll get shorter before it gets longer. I’m sorry, but a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do.

On Sunday, we’ll dress up this basic dip and turn it into spectacular Spanakopita Dip. More dip? Oh yes. But this one’s different; Spanakopita Dip is not just for dipping…

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Snacks, Vegetarian

Vietnamese Yogurt

November 3, 2009 by Rebecca 23 Comments

Hey! We have a giveaway this week. Details are after the recipe. Stick with me, it’s worthwhile and will make your upcoming holiday baking projects sing!

We are currently in Week Three of a full-immersion ‘get-to-know-influenza’ unit study of our homeschool. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. We like to space things out around here -move at a leisurely pace- and we subscribe to rugged individualism, so we’ve each started our full-body look at the flu at a distinctly different time. This is also great for our math studies. Check out the following word problem we composed:

If each person in a family of seven begins a sickness of two-weeks’ duration at a rate of one every fourth day, how long will that family be stuck at home? (And I’m not answering it for you. If I did, what kind of self-respecting homeschool mom would I be?)

So the stomachs (there’s part of this unit’s anatomy study) around here have been craving mild, easy-to-prepare* food. Our normal super-spicy fare swimming in hot sauce has been off the table, quite literally, for the past couple weeks. We’ve been turning to simple comfort food; steamed rice, mild fruit, soups, and stews (Liam, since a babe in arms, has held the immovable conviction that beef stew cures everything. So stew is de rigeur when anyone in our household is ill, even if they refuse to eat it.) And new to the sickbay rotation is Vietnamese Yogurt.

*Well, my stomach has anyway. The rest of the stomachs don’t care how difficult something is to prepare so long as it’s mild. Since I’m the one wielding the tongs, spatulas and whisks, I get to add the easy-to-prepare dictum.

I first read about Vietnamese Yogurt in a post by Todd of White on Rice Couple (two of the blogosphere’s sweetest sweeties ever to be sweet) a couple months ago. Intrigued by the promise of a silky, sweeter-than-its-Western-counterpart yogurt, I decided to give it a go. Since the recipe calls for pantry staples, it was simple to whip it up on a whim. Todd promised in no uncertain terms that it was easy, and boy howdy it was. I raided the cupboard and grabbed a bunch of small glasses (read: jelly jars. What? You use real glasses?). The kids hovered, as they are wont to do, over me as I mixed up the yogurt, peppering me with questions; “Hey! What’s that for?”, “Can I just dip my finger in that sweetened condensed milk?”, “Can I just drink that sweetened condensed milk?”, “Can I at least lick the empty can of sweetened condensed milk?”, “What are you making, Mom?”, “Do I have to eat that stuff?”, “You do know I don’t like yogurt, right?”, etc… So this was the environment in which I made my first batch of Vietnamese Yogurt. If I could do it in the midst of this household’s chaos, anyone could. Next came the hard part. The waiting.

I’ve gone my whole life thinking yogurt is one. thing. only. And don’t get me wrong, I like yogurt. In fact, I make what I think of as ‘regular’ yogurt a couple times a month. And it’s a bit of a production. But what a revelation this particular yogurt was. It was not tangy and sour enough to make my tongue curl back up in my mouth like parchment the way many Western yogurts did; It was mild and gently tart and sweet and totally set my mental picture of yogurt on its ear. If you’ve never had Vietnamese Yogurt before let me clue you in on one of it’s more interesting differences. While it’s totally spoon-able (that is, you can eat it top to bottom with a spoon) it’s also imminently slurp-able (in other words, you could pop a straw in there and drink it down.) It’s almost like a short-cut to a yogurt smoothie. Not to be ignored is the fact that every single one of my kids love it. Even the three inveterate yogurt haters can’t get enough of it. The fact that I found a simple-to-make, inexpensive yogurt that all of my kids like in time to be really grateful for the fringe benefits* yogurt offers is nothing short of a miracle.

*Healthy bacteria for the gut, improved digestion, etc…

For a photo-free, printer friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Vietnamese Yogurt

This recipe is my take on the original White On Rice Couple recipe. The ingredients and ratios are all theirs but I played a bit with the method. Because I’m incorrigible. I should also mention that this recipe doubles and triples beautifully!

Ingredients:

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups water (It should be hot enough that a great deal of steam is coming from the surface of the water, but it should not be boiling.)
1 1/4 cups cold milk (Using cold milk helps bring down the temperature of the mixture to just the right point to encourage the yogurt to set nicely.)
1 cup plain yogurt (This can be any plain or vanilla yogurt you can get at the grocery store. Plain is preferable, but vanilla stands in nicely. Just as good a quality yogurt as you can find.)

Optional for serving:

Assorted toppings: jam, fresh fruit, syrups, granola… Whatever floats your boat!

Prepare a water bath for the yogurt by adding about two inches of water to a wide, deep pot (for example, a canning pot, pasta pot, soup pot, etc…) Place the pan over high heat and bring the water to a temperature where a great deal of steam is pouring from the surface of the water but it is not boiling. Place a tight fitting lid on the pan and turn off the heat. Put a separate kettle of water on over medium heat on another burner. While that heats, prepare the yogurt as follows.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and water until thoroughly combined. And don’t take any guff from that can of sweetened condensed milk. Use brute force to open it if necessary.

Whisk in the cold milk. Set aside.

Measure the cup of yogurt into a medium sized mixing bowl. Gently whisk in a ladle full of the warm milk/water/condensed milk mixture until smooth. Repeat with two more ladles of milk. When it is completely smooth, pour into the remaining hot milk and whisk gently until smooth. Position a fine-mesh strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth over another bowl and pour the liquid through the strainer. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to press any lumps through the strainer. This guarantees a silky finished yogurt. If you don’t mind a few lumps you can skip this step.

Pour the prepared yogurt into clean and empty jelly or baby food jars or into small drinking glasses. If using 8 ounce jars, this will fill about five or six jars. It is helpful to use jars or cups of a uniform height since you will be putting them in a water bath. Do not put lids on the jars. Why the paper towel covers you might ask? We’re not just fighting the flu around here, we’re also fighting cluster flies. If you have them, you are probably cringing right now. If you don’t have them, let’s just say you don’t want them in/near/on your yogurt.

Remove the lid from the pan of hot water, steam should still be coming from the surface of the water, but not quite as vigorously. If there is no steam, reheat the water slightly. Transfer the pan of hot water to a heat-proof surface. Arrange the jars in the hot water. Yes, that is most of a double-batch down there. Remember I’m feeding a family of seven. Little batches are a pointless tease. And this proves that I know, from experience, that the recipe doubles and even triples beautifully.

Use the kettle to add enough water, if necessary, to come about 4/5 of the way up the sides of the jars. Todd recommends using a funnel to add the extra water to direct it away from splashing into the yogurt cups. I agree wholeheartedly! Lay a bath towel over the pot in such a way that it covers the top of the pot but does not fall down into the yogurt or water. Now the hard part is done. All that remains is to let the water return to room temperature. In my house this takes about four or five hours. You may have to adjust this time slightly depending on how warm your climate (or thermostat) is at the time you make it.

When the water is room temperature, the yogurt should be set (in other words, it may wiggle like a firm jelly when gently shaken, but it won’t be a liquid.) Transfer the jars from the pot to a tea towel.

If using jars, you can screw or clamp on lids. If using cups, cover lightly with plastic wrap. Either way, refrigerate for two hours or more before eating. Around these parts, we like them with a dollop of homemade blueberry jam.

…Or strawberry jam.

Don’t forget to try it with a fistful of fresh fruit sometime; peach slices, crushed or cubed pineapple, pomegranate arils, and mango cubes are all wonderful compliments to the velvety texture of the yogurt. (Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it’s also really good with a healthy spoonful of dulce de leche [yes, I am aware of the irony inherent in that statement] on top for dessert.)

Now, I promised a giveaway and I have a real humdinger of one to share with you. But first, a quick story. A few months ago, one of my Record-Eagle readers, Amy Martin, contacted me to share her recipe for chocolate syrup (which is delicious, by the bye) and some fellow-harried-mom stories. We exchanged a few emails back and forth and in one of them she mentioned that she made and sold hard-to-find vanilla products. She has graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway of a gift pack of the more popular items she sells on her Etsy site. (and if you can browse her Etsy site without becoming famished then you’re a stronger beast than I am.) Can you even imagine a better time of year to get a box full of vanilla goodies? Look at what that temptress Amy is giving to one lucky Foodie With Family reader:

These images all come from Amy’s Etsy shop, SoVanilla.

2 ounces of Ground Bourbon Vanilla. Imagine this baked into some pots de creme or a pound cake. Pure heaven.

15 (count ‘em FIFTEEN!) Bourbon plus 5 (like fifteen wasn’t generous enough) Tahitian Vanilla Beans. Make your own vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. The possibilities are almost limitless.

A bottle of Vanilla Bean Syrup. Drizzle that over some oatmeal with a handful of dried cherries (or just straight into your mouth) and tell me the world doesn’t like a better place.

And finally…

A package of BourbonVanilla Bean and Pecan Granola. Oh yes. Now you see the tie-in to my recipe? If you sprinkle a fistful of this crisp and full-bodied vanilla granola over the top of a serving of silky smooth Vietnamese Yogurt you will think you’ve died and gone to heaven. The kicker is that it’s great for you! Healthy and decadent tasting? That’s a recipe for success.

So, what do you need to do to win this generous package? In Amy’s words:

So Vanilla Giveaway Rules!

The Details:

Simply find the answers to the three questions below by going to the following links: Sovanilla.etsy.com and amyecotarian.wordpress.com. One name will be drawn from all correct answers for the grand prize: A package including 2 ounces of ground bourbon vanilla, 15 Bourbon and 5 Tahitian vanilla beans, a bottle of vanilla syrup and a package of Vanilla Bean and Pecan Granola.

3 other people who have correctly answered the questions will be randomly drawn to receive 3 Bourbon Vanilla Beans. (Rebecca here. I just had to emphasize this. Three other folks are going to receive a prize, too. I’m only terribly jealous that I can’t enter my own giveaway.)

The Questions:

From my blog: amyecotarian.wordpress.com

From the post “Pickled Pink! And Other Things of the Summer”

What wildlife did Amy have to rescue and relocate this summer?

From my Esty Shop: sovanilla.etsy.com

What’s the “fishy” name for the vanilla seeds inside a vanilla pod?

And the last one:

What is one interesting thing you learned from either the blog, Confessions of an Everyday Ecotarian or the So Vanilla shop that you didn’t know before?

Now for my details. This contest is open until Friday of this week, November 6th, 2009. You have until 12 noon, EST on Friday to enter. The grand prize winner and the three other vanilla bean package winners will be announced by 8 PM, EST on Friday. Good luck folks. This is some great stuff!

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Camping Food, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Recipes, Vegetarian