Things that shouldn’t work, but do

Three cooking adventures came out of this weekend:

1. My first attempt at making yogurt!  I’ve been planning to do this for a while, and finally got to it since we had an abundance of milk.  It’s surprisingly easy.  I used my favorite farmer’s market yogurt as a starter.  I love foods that live forever: yogurt is like sourdough in that, theoretically, you could keep making yogurt from the same initial cultures, using a few tablespoons from each batch to start the next, and could keep going forever and ever.  In practice, you’d eventually have a batch go bad, and then the chain is broken.  And the yogurt wouldn’t necessarily be the same each time; a different kind of milk, slightly different temperatures, and so forth would affect the end result.  But you’d have a dynasty of helpful little bacteria, a yogurt kingdom of sorts.  I like that.

   My yogurt came out tangy and good.  It was a bit watery, and separated while it set, so I poured off some of the liquid and when I stirred up the rest, it had about the right consistency.  It’s not as smooth as store yogurt, but neither was the parent batch.

   So, when I bring my homemade yogurt to work to eat for breakfast with the granola I made last week, does that make me the biggest hippie ever?

2. Dinner was meant to be bread, cheese, and something to round it out.  But the rounding-out turned out to steal the show.  I invented a new sauce: combine mustard, yogurt, and a little salt and pepper.  That’s it.  It sounds weird, and I was worried as I made it that it would be gross, but it was actually quite tasty.  The mustard I used had a hint of maple to it (it’s part of my last haul from Stonewall Kitchen, last time I was in New England), so that contributed to the good flavor, but I think any good mustard (or even not-so-good) would work fine.  I served it over seitan.  The only trick is not to heat the sauce too much, or the yogurt will separate out.
3. Finally, dessert.  I was good this time, and used the strawberries while they were still at their peak.  Strawberry cobbler, following my parents’ recipe.  Yum!