I love plain yogurt.
I know nobody really says that. It's like saying you love brown rice or wheat germ or some other weird health food, but I genuinely love plain yogurt. I love oatmeal, shredded wheat, and Grape Nuts, too, so maybe my food preferences in general are a little off?
My mother had Middle Eastern friends in graduate school, and they taught her to love hummus, and to put plain yogurt on rice. A Bangladeshi classmate of mine almost fell out of his cafeteria chair when he saw me do this in the college dining hall; he said he'd never seen a white person eat yogurt on rice.
I've extolled the virtues of drained yogurt here before, but I'm going to do it again. It's awesome. It's tangy and creamy and, if you mix in a little honey, it develops its own special flavor. I'd been toying with the idea of a yogurt and fruit parfait for awhile, and then this past weekend I ran across a recipe for a ricotta cheese plate topped with sliced peaches, which looked delicious, and thought maybe I should get off my duff and do something about it.
Anyway, this is what I made last night:
Fruit base:
1 nectarine (you could also use a peach, or two apricots)
Honey (I used about a teaspoon)
Spices to taste (I used cinnamon and mace)
Water
Splash of lemon juice, if needed, to clarify flavor
Yogurt
Honey
Dice the fruit. Put it in a small pan with the honey, spices, and a little water to keep it from sticking. Cook on medium, then low, until softened. It should be a little on the wet and pulpy side so it combines with the yogurt. Allow it to cool. Cool in the refrigerator if possible.
Mix yogurt with honey to taste; I used 1/3 cup yogurt and another teaspoon of honey. Beat the yogurt with a fork to make it fluffy. Mix in some of the fruit paste (I used about two tablespoons).
I don't know if this will keep, pre-mixed. I'll have to find out. It tastes great like this, though.
The honey I used was some home-grown stuff from Louisiana that had a very strong wildflower aroma. So strong, actually, that the smell of it cooking was rather unpleasant and I was afraid it would taste like yard clippings. It didn't, and I added the lemon juice to brighten the flavor, and it was fine.
I know nobody really says that. It's like saying you love brown rice or wheat germ or some other weird health food, but I genuinely love plain yogurt. I love oatmeal, shredded wheat, and Grape Nuts, too, so maybe my food preferences in general are a little off?
My mother had Middle Eastern friends in graduate school, and they taught her to love hummus, and to put plain yogurt on rice. A Bangladeshi classmate of mine almost fell out of his cafeteria chair when he saw me do this in the college dining hall; he said he'd never seen a white person eat yogurt on rice.
I've extolled the virtues of drained yogurt here before, but I'm going to do it again. It's awesome. It's tangy and creamy and, if you mix in a little honey, it develops its own special flavor. I'd been toying with the idea of a yogurt and fruit parfait for awhile, and then this past weekend I ran across a recipe for a ricotta cheese plate topped with sliced peaches, which looked delicious, and thought maybe I should get off my duff and do something about it.
Anyway, this is what I made last night:
Fruit base:
1 nectarine (you could also use a peach, or two apricots)
Honey (I used about a teaspoon)
Spices to taste (I used cinnamon and mace)
Water
Splash of lemon juice, if needed, to clarify flavor
Yogurt
Honey
Dice the fruit. Put it in a small pan with the honey, spices, and a little water to keep it from sticking. Cook on medium, then low, until softened. It should be a little on the wet and pulpy side so it combines with the yogurt. Allow it to cool. Cool in the refrigerator if possible.
Mix yogurt with honey to taste; I used 1/3 cup yogurt and another teaspoon of honey. Beat the yogurt with a fork to make it fluffy. Mix in some of the fruit paste (I used about two tablespoons).
I don't know if this will keep, pre-mixed. I'll have to find out. It tastes great like this, though.
The honey I used was some home-grown stuff from Louisiana that had a very strong wildflower aroma. So strong, actually, that the smell of it cooking was rather unpleasant and I was afraid it would taste like yard clippings. It didn't, and I added the lemon juice to brighten the flavor, and it was fine.
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