National Peanut Butter Day

My tribute to National Peanut Butter day: Excess peanut butter consumption and a nice Peanut Butter Slice recipe. Not sure how legit this day is, feels like national Peanut Butter day everyday...

DIY: Greek Yogurt

After yesterday's success, I moved onto my next milk project: Yogurt making, in particular Greek Yogurt making. Turns out, the only difference between regular yogurt and the Greek variety is the yogurt has been strained, removing excess whey. In actual fact you can turn any yogurt into the Greek Yogurt.

Again, milk, thermometer and some active bacteria (aka, yogurt).

Heat milk to 85 Degrees, then cool to 40 before mixing in yogurt.

Incubate at 40 degrees.

8 hours later, yogurt.

Make it "Greek" - Strain in the fridge for 3 hours.

Greek yogurt! 

The biggest concern is making sure everything is sterilised as to make sure you're cultivating only the good bacteria. The batch turned out exceptional! A lot better than store bought Greek yogurt. Economy wise, it manufactured approximately 700-800 grams out of the 1.5 litre milk (this varies on how thick you want the final product) taking almost 11 hours.

DIY: Cottage Cheese

Way back when I was working in London, my boss at the time came in with some home made cheese. "It's not difficult, just takes a little patience a bit of time. Cottage cheese is the easiest, you don't need anything!". Investigation proved that cottage cheese and in fact most soft cheese are quite simple to make. Here goes.

Some local pasteurised, homogeneous milk, white vinegar and a thermometer.

Heat milk to 85 degrees Celsius, splash in the vinegar.

After a few moments the milk starts to separate into curds and whey.

Separate using cheese cloth, or in my case a soup bag.

Voila, whey and Cottage Cheese

Breakdown as follows. 1 litre (20 HKD) worth of milk made approximately 300 grams of curds. Time wise, it probably took around 30 minutes. Definitely more economical, but not by a lot.

DIY: Wholewheat Bagels

Masterchef

"Do you cook often?"

Yes I do. It should be noted that my culinary gamut consists of 3 staples: the durable stir fry, odd curry and trusty pasta. Occasionally the weekend inspires me to research a recipe and cook something up; for the most part I'm rarely bothered. Produce doesn't keep so well here with vegetables having a shelf life of a couple of days and majority of my meat being kept in the freezer. The chore of having to cook for one person and manage ingredients proves more troublesome and more often than not I find myself in a Chinatown or Soho eating out.

My latest kitchen adventure was inspired by a fellow country man, or in this case woman. Most conversations with Malaysians often converge onto the topic of food. Soon enough we were exchanging our favourite dishes and desserts from back home. Strangely enough, the topic of Fried Dace with Black Beans came up and I was pleased to find that we weren't the only family to enjoy seafood from a can. After much excitement it was suggested that I try the following recipe. The description screams Frankenstein meal but this stomach-churning description left me in a curious state. It sounded so disgusting it had to be nice.

Fried Dace and Black Bean Pasta Recipe


Serves 1

Ingredients:
1/2 onion
1 Glove of Garlic
1 Chunk of Ginger
1/2 tin of Fried Dace in Black bean
Spring Onions for garnish
100 grams of pasta/spaghetti
1 tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon of Dark Soy
Splash of Fish oil
Pepper


Method:
1. Boil the pasta until cooked. Drain.
2. Chop vegetables
3. Throw everything into a pan. Fry.
4. Enjoy*


* This is optional.