Gauteng Smallholder October 2015 | Page 51

other dried fruit. Only slightly more complitwelve hours in a cool place, until you are left with a small cated to make is fresh yoghurt, which can also be patty of milk solids in the made without any chemicals cloth. or equipment. To the milk solids add salt to taste and mix it in well with a Heat a litre of milk until the fork. Now add herbs or spices first shimmer of boiling is seen. On the Highveld this of your choice to make a will mean the milk has simple, cheap yet delicious o reached about 95 C, effecflavoured cottage cheese. tively killing off any harmful Caraway seed works well, as bacteria in the milk that may does coarsely-ground black spoil the finished product. pepper or chili flakes for a cheese with bite. Or try garlic Some swear by the addition of a couple of spoons of and chives. For a dessert cheese add a handful of finely powdered milk to make the yoghurt richer and creamier, chopped seedless raisins or but if you use a good, fresh full cream milk this is unnecessary. Allow the milk to cool to lukewarm. This can be speeded up by placing the saucepan into a sink full of cold water. To the milk add a generous dessert-spoon-ful of unflavoured natural yoghurt which Baby’s bottle-warmer cum yoghurtyou will have bought from maker From page 48 IN THE KITCHEN your supermarket. Look for Greek or Bulgarian yoghurts for the purpose. Blend this in well using a whisk till the added yoghurt has dissolved completely. Decant this mixture into a bowl, cover it and allow it to stand for six to twelve hours in a warm place. Overnight in a gently-cooling oven after dinner has been cooked is ideal. In summer, when even night-time temperatures are in the 20s one can get away with leaving the bowl on one's counter-top. Or, invest in a baby’s bottlewarmer which will double as a yoghurt-maker. By morning the cultures in the mixture will have worked their magic and the milk will have solidified into yoghurt. It will still, however, contain a large volume of whey, which will separate out over time. To speed up the process, in turn making what has become known as Greek yoghurt (of which no self-respecting BOTTLES From page 48 frequently) mistaken by illiterate workers and children as containing drinkable substances, with disastrous and often fatal results. In this regard the sale by retailers of paraffin in cold drink bottles, while convenient and cheap, results in many poisonings and deaths eac