Horchata (cinnamon) yogurt: Make your own

A while back I shared a homemade vanilla yogurt recipe in Wednesday's Food & Dining section and have tweaked my recipe in honor of Cinco de Mayo. It's a Latin American inspired cinnamon-flavored treat I have dubbed, "Horchata" yogurt.

My husband grew up drinking horchata, a rice milk spiced with vanilla and cinnamon that is popular in Latin America. It sounds a little odd if you're not from a culture that pairs milk with cinnamon but during the years I lived in California, I developed a love for this drink.

The smooth, creamy horchata I enjoyed on the other coast is not so readily available on this one. I've experimented with making it from scratch with mixed results. (If you're interested I think this recipe is tasty as long as it sits in the fridge overnight to smooth out the taste).

But then I had a brainstorm the other day when I found I was running low on vanilla powder to make my weekly supply of yogurt. I decided to throw some cinnamon in and give an horchata-inspired yogurt a try.

The yogurt was thick and creamy with a strong, but not overpowering, flavor of cinnamon. It isn't the most attractive yogurt because a bit of cinnamon floats to the top white the majority sank to the bottom of the jar. But the entire quart jar had a cinnamon-spiced taste that my husband and the kids loved.

Here's the homade horchata yogurt recipe if you want to try it yourself  If you've never made your own yogurt before you can check out this story that offers tips on the process.

HOMEMADE HORCHATA YOGURT
1 gallon of milk
¾ cup of sugar
¾ cup of dry milk
1 tablespoon of Madagascar vanilla bean powder (found at a natural food store)
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon of plain active-culture yogurt
Candy thermometer
Mason jars with lids

Heat the milk in a large pot on medium high heat. Do not set the heat on high, as it could scald the bottom of the pan. Attach your candy thermometer to the side of the pot to monitor the milk's temperature. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat when the temperature reaches 180 degrees. Depending on your stove top, this can take 20 to 30 minutes. When the temperature climbs to 150 degrees, keep a close eye on the milk, as the jump to 180 degrees happens quickly. It is important not to allow the milk to boil.

Once at 180 degrees, submerge the bottom of your pot in a pan with cold water and ice cubes to cool the milk quickly. Add sugar, dry milk, vanilla bean powder and cinnamon and stir well. The mixture needs to cool until it is 110 degrees, so keep the thermometer in the pan to monitor.

At 110 degrees, add the plain yogurt.

Mix the yogurt starter well before pouring into your mason jars. Place jars in a pot of warm water so that the water is just below the top of the jar. Then put the pot in the oven.

Set your oven at 110 degrees to incubate. This process can take 6 to 8 hours, depending on your taste preference. I prefer removing mine at the 6-hour mark to put in my refrigerator.

Recipe makes about 5 quarts of yogurt.

Summit fare

We do a lot of hiking in the spring. Part of the appeal at this time of year is the cool weather, views, exercise and quality family time but it’s also the sub sandwiches. As things happen with kids, you do something once or twice that meets with the kids’ approval and you suddenly find you’ve started a “family tradition.” 

Eating lunch near the summit of Caribou Mountain in the 

Caribou-Speckled Wilderness area of the White Mountain National Forest in Maine.

This has been the case with eating subs at the summit of our mountain climbs. It’s the incentive the kids tell me they need to hike the bigger mountains. Since I want to enjoy the hike as well, I accommodate their request for lunch.

 

I can’t seem to replicate the bread or the specific condiments of a store-made sub at home so it’s lucky for the kids the Subway shop near my house is open early in the morning.

 

We’ve had a few logistics to work out with our sub pick-up before a hike and appreciate our local shop having helpful employees who agree to wrap them to fit in our insulated lunch packs. We need a foot-long to be stacked side-by-side before being wrapped to make things fit correctly.

 

The kids joked last weekend while at the summit of Caribou Mountain that they could do a commercial for eating subs on various Maine mountains. 

I figure as long as they continue to happily climb mountains with me so we can chat and reconnect after a busy week, I can buy them a sub to eat at the summit.  And really, if that’s all it takes to get the kids to agree to do a 7-mile hike up a mountain with a nearly 2,000-foot elevation gain (that would be Caribou Mountain), then I can make a sandwich purchase for them.

The summit of Caribou Mountain was a 7-mile, nearly 2,000-foot elevation gain (according to my GPS unit - you can check out the specs of our hike on everytrail.com). This hike tested our fitness level but a tasty lunch at the summit and plenty of water and snack breaks along the way made the reward of the views at the top worth the effort.

The kids ate subs at the summit of Sabattus Mountain in Lovell last month. That was an easy 1.5 mile hike with about a 500-foot elevation gain. You can find an interactive map with photos of this particular hike, along with our review in the Outdoors section of PressHerald.com
 

For the love of popcorn, it must be genetics

I like popcorn and prefer to make it in my Whirley Pop popper on my stove top. But my dad? He is a true popcorn connoisseur and has made his nearly daily supply (60+ years) on his stove top with a regular pot. He has his favorite type of popping corn and oil and his own method for melting and drizzling on butter and adding salt. It's a ritual kind of cooking for him.

I inherited dad's love of popcorn but I don't make (or eat) it all the time. When I do, I enjoy butter on top but also like seasonings and lower fat choices as well. That's why I decided to pick up a bag of Little Lads herbal popcorn a couple of months ago at a local farm stand.

Little Lads has just enough salt and tang, along with some tasty spices, that really appeals to me. I thought when I mentioned trying this herbal version to my popcorn-loving dad, he would turn up his nose at the idea. I've only ever seen him eat popcorn with butter and salt. He surprised me though.
"I'd be willing to give it a try. I am a versatile popcorn person."

That wasn't the reply I expected and he was happy to have the opportunity to expound on the wonders of popcorn.

"Well, you have to go a long way to beat out Orville."

As in Orville Redenbacher. In my father's world he is the "true king of popcorn."

The reason?

"The texture of the corn matters. You get a lot more volume with Orville because every one of his kernels pop when you cook it. You don't get those little hard kernels. With Orville you get 100% popped."

This is a man who has spent his entire life making, and eating, popcorn. I have no reason to doubt he has analyzed the minutia of this food product during his 65 years of life.

"It involves science, Wen. I put a lot of years in to this. You have to listen to your father."

I agreed to quote him in this blog to confirm I was indeed listening.

A while back I suggested that dad try "white" popcorn because I thought he'd like the softer, lighter taste.

"I really like the white because I don't need to add butter all the time."

He rarely eats his popcorn without some melted (real) butter drizzled on top.


"I found kettle corn very disappointing though."

As dad has reminded me many times before, he doesn't like mixing his "sweet" with his "salty."

Dad talked for several more minutes about all the redeeming qualities of popcorn and reminded me of his meal-eating tendencies (which used to drive my mom (his ex-wife) a little crazy).

"Some days I don't eat supper. I just have a bowl of popcorn. You can make a meal out of it. You know, like when you go to the movies and eat popcorn. You're not hungry afterward."

I chuckled because I have been a witness to many (many, many) evenings of popcorn dinners.

In wrapping up this conversation dad accused me of putting popcorn in his brain.

"All this talk of popcorn has me craving it now. I am going to have to make some for breakfast I think."

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I had a bag of popcorn after this conversation (at about 10 a.m.).

It must be a genetics thing.

Well at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Making kombucha

My husband and I have been experimenting with making the fermented tea-based drink, kombucha. A friend recently offered me a scoby (the mushroom-like culture) because she's a fan of making it. I enthusiastically accepted it, along with her instructions on how to make it. My latest trial was a really tasty batch that my 16-year-old daughter documented through the fermentation process.

My co-worker Avery just wrote about the Urban Farm Fermentory now selling this drink commercially in Maine. Right now it is considered alcoholic per Maine's guidelines for selling it but kombucha has a very long history for its health benefits (and none of it related to anyone getting drunk on the small amount of alcohol it develops as a result of its fermentation process).


My daughter decided to learn more about the science of kombucha and being a photography enthusiast, opted to document her daily observations of the fermentation process with her camera.

It was fascinating.

The scoby floats around in the tea (I brewed black tea before adding the scoby) for a few days while the fermentation process first gets started.

You aren't supposed to have the jar in direct sunlight, which we did not. But my daughter did put it in front of a window for better lighting for her brief photo sessions.

Near the end of the fermentation process, about 8 days for this particular batch, the scoby floats to the top and sort of forms a light seal at the top of the jar. This helps develop the final product's effervescence because when it's done it does taste like there is carbonation in it.

I believe because this kid spent 8 days observing and photographing this batch of kombucha, she wanted to taste it. We used a straw to gently move the scoby aside and take a sip in the middle of the jar.

 

G. declared this batch tasty, despite how "disgusting" the scoby looked. Her sister concurred.

We prefer our kombucha to be a little more sweet than the commercial brand we tried from Urban Farm. But that's the great thing about learning to make your own, you can make it to your liking. Our homemade batches have simply been made with black tea but we will be experimenting with herbal flavors soon.

 

Comments from the Almeida peanut gallery (kids):

 

"It looks disgusting! Are you really going to drink that? (she braves a taste) Oh, I guess it does taste good."

 

"It has a tang you feel at the back of your throat."

 

"I'm surprised it tastes like soda (meaning it tasted carbonated)."

 

"This is totally weird, but it's good!"

Soup is easy to make in bulk, can offer good fiber boost too

A popular meal at my house is soup. It’s easy to make in large quantities and ensures there are always leftovers to freeze for future lunches. This makes my life a lot easier during my busy work week. Needless to say, I make a lot of soup.

I have been looking recently to expand my soup making horizons to find a recipe that packs a bigger fiber punch by incorporating beans. I found one using lima beans and leeks that I adapted to appeal to my family’s love of potato leek soup.

The use of an emersion blender (a hand-held blender you submerge to blend directly in a pan) is the key to this recipe. It smoothly blends ingredients in to a rich, creamy base that is very potato-like. That was the selling point for my kids. The soup didn’t look like it had beans in it.

I will admit my kids don’t love this recipe nearly as much as my usual potato-based soup, but they said it tastes OK and they eat it. That’s a big success in my book. The fiber content of this lima bean leek soup is significantly higher and, it has a lower carbohydrate count than its potato counterpart.

Here’s the recipe in case you want to see if it will appeal to your family’s taste buds.

LIMA BEAN AND LEEK SOUP

4-5 bacon slices (cubed ham also offers a nice flavor if you don’t have bacon)
2 large leeks, chopped
4 cups fresh baby lima beans (parboiled or soaked overnight)
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon until crisp and remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 tablespoon of the drippings. Crumble bacon and set aside.

Add leeks to drippings in pan and cook until tender.

Stir in beans, broth, and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes or until beans are tender.

Use an emersion blender and blend mixture in pan until smooth. Or, pour half the mixture at a time in a blender to blend.

Ladle in to bowls (or single serving freezer containers) and add a small handful of bacon crumbles to each.