Feeding an Addiction...

Sometimes I think I have a bit of an obsessive personality, mainly when it comes to food. When I find something I like, it seems like I can't get enough of it... When I was little, I distinctly remember going through phases of food: Caesar salad, kiwis, lemon-flavored Crystal Lite, hard-boiled eggs, baked potatoes, etc. Every time I went out to dinner with my family, Caesar salad was my order. Daytime snack? A kiwi of course. And when I started cooking a bit for myself, what was my daily choice for breakfast? Two hard-boiled eggs. The latter could very well have been the source of my sky-high cholesterol as a 12-year old, but I just couldn't get enough of those eggs.

Whether it's because I'm a creature of habit, or just a slave to my tastebuds, there are certain foods I adore and eat with regularity. Without a doubt, one of my biggest staples these days is plain yogurt. It's part of my daily breakfast, accompanied by honey, some oats and fruit; often mixed with a spoonful of jam as a mid-day snack; and my personal favorite, a great side for a spicy serving of most Indian dishes.

My love affair with plain yogurt first began in India. It's known as dahi there, and is the key ingredient for lassi, a kind of yogurt-shake that comes in both sweet and salty variations. The market near my old flat in Delhi had a dairy vendor, Mother Dairy, and each morning I would trot over to the market to hail an autorickshaw, and to pick up a 10 rupee take-away lassi for my ride in to the office. Up until this point, all my encounters with yogurt had been of the sweet kind, but in India I discovered it's amazing savory side. Yogurt was used to marinate meat, was the basis of raita (a side-dish of thinned yogurt with a mixture of spices and shredded carrot/cucumber/onion), and could be mixed with spicy green cilantro chutney and eaten with a curry. It was love at first bite for my tastebuds, and the rest is history.

Here in Cambodia, dairy is almost non-existent in local cuisine. Some children enjoy ice cream, but it appears that milk and yogurt are not commonly consumed. I've located a few sources of yogurt in the city, made directly by the source. Given that each small container can cost anywhere between $.50-1.75, my yogurt habit was really starting to add up. I had heard rumors that making yogurt was actually pretty straight forward, and so I thought I'd give it a go.

An old roommate in India had experimented with yogurt fabrication a couple times, but she had the advantage of an "auntie advisory board," a group of female relatives with decades of yogurt-making experience, and sage advice passed on from generations before. But not one to be discouraged, I had Google.

In my background research on yogurt preparation, I discovered some fun facts:

- The word "yogurt" is Turkish in origin, meaning to thicken or coagulate.

- Analysis of one strain of yogurt bacteria indicates that the first yogurt may have been created on the surface of a plant! And historians have found mention of yogurt as early as 500 BC, where it's combination with honey was referred to as "the food of the gods." I second that sentiment.

- One blog post compared making yogurt to making wine; each batch will taste slightly different from those that came before and those that come after, as the final product is a result of "infinite possibilities" of mixing milk, time, bacteria and climate.

- It's really all about the bacteria, also known as "active cultures." Some bacteria result in faster fermentation, and others are a bit slower. The faster the fermentation process, the more whey (the watery part at the top of a yogurt container) produced. Whereas slow bacteria results in a denser yogurt that incorporates the whey.

- Yogurt is pretty awesome for you. In addition being a great source of calcium, vitamin B-12, and protein, fresh yogurt fills your digestive tract with "good bacteria," potentially promoting immunity and healthy digestion.

So how did it go? Surprisingly well. My recipe basically involved bringing one liter of fresh milk just to a boil, letting it cool, stirring in 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt with active cultures, and then letting it sit in a warm place to ferment. I forgot to let the boiled milk cool before adding the yogurt, and worried I had inadvertently killed the cultures. But after 8 hours of sitting in my hot apartment, my warm milk turned into a giant vat of yogurt. Success!

This morning, I took a jar of my fresh yogurt, with a dollop of honey and oats, in for breakfast at work. Deeeeeelicious!