I have successfully populated yoghurt cultures! I brought 3 spoonfuls of King Island yoghurt and a scant cup of full cream milk to temperature in a small pot with half a vanilla pod thrown in for good measure, switched off the heat and let it sit at room temp while I scurried off to another day at the office. 30 hours later (when I remembered..) I checked the mixture and voila! It had magically thickened. It was surprisingly creamy and did not exhibit the acute sourness I had so anticipated after my slight memory lapse. It is currently being housed in the refrigerator while we brainstorm ideas to transport it to a quaint little place down south called MY STOMACH.
Anyway, I've been on a jam making mission lately. Don't ask me why, there's nothing terribly exciting about it. I'm just waiting for these urges to stop and stop they will.. Any day now.. Last week aside from apple & blackberry jam I also made a raspberry marmalade and yesterday a black cherry jelly. It's a jelly because I added extra pectin to set it and left the fruit in relatively chunky pieces rather than wizzing it all up for a uniform texture.
When blanching peel I find the easiest method is to heat up a large amount of water in the kettle and with the peel in a bowl, pour over just enough to cover and let it sit for a minute. Then I tip out the liquid and repeat with boiling water sometimes up to 6 or 7 times until the liquid no longer becomes bitter.
Raspberry Marmalade
920 g navel orangesRemove orange rind with vegetable peeler (100 g).
215 g water
210 g frozen raspberries, thawed
385 g castor sugar
2 star anise
12 g jamsetta
Cut into 1 cm wide strips and julienne.
Blanch peel 4 times and strain.
Chop up the orange flesh (445 g), keeping seeds aside.
Simmer seeds with 215 g water for 15 - 20 mins.
Strain, reserving pectin liquid.
Simmer rind, flesh and pectin liquid in a small pot for 20 minutes.
Add raspberries, sugar, star anise and jamsetta.
Simmer, stirring ocassionally until it reaches 105ºC.
Store in a sterile hermetic jar.
Black Cherry Jelly
270 g cherries, pitted and halvedSimmer cherries, water, acid and vanilla in a small pot for 20 mins.
160 g water
2 g citric acid
1/2 vanilla pod
220 g castor sugar
18 g jamsetta
Add sugar and jamsetta and bring to 105ºC.
Store in a sterile hermetic jar.
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Congratulations on the yoghurt. I make it fairly often and I find the starter yoghurt has a big effect on the flavour. I tend to use Jalna, but I should give the King Island a go. Vanilla bean sounds yum too!
ReplyDeletei've only used jalna once for my yoghurt cheesecake. it's quite sharp and tangy isn't it? i find king island more mellow oh and i just love the texture! i've read that you should use the original starter after 5 times. do you do it? do you think it makes a big difference?
ReplyDeleteI normally use the original starter, but mainly because I eat up all the yoghurt and forget to save some for new starter. I guess if you use your own yoghurt as starter the balance of bacteria could vary if one strain was growing faster than the others. That might make it taste different over time, but not necessarily in a bad way.
ReplyDeleteHow cool! And love the sound of that raspberry marmalade! Is that it on the left of the first picture, or is that the cherry jelly?
ReplyDeletethat's the raspberry marmalade in the first picture. you'd know if it was the cherry jelly because the cake would be mouldy :P
ReplyDelete