Yogurt, curd or dahi is sublime if prepared properly and at home. I also am from a yogurt eating culture and I almost threw up when I first ate the Dannon yogurt in this country. The gelatinous texture, the sliminess...uuffff! It was just too terrible.
I did not eat Dahi for the longest time here because without the correct culture, anytime I tried to make yogurt at home, it had the same vile taste and texture of the culture found here.
Then one day, we were invited to dinner at a fellow expats house and they served plain homemade yogurt and it was great. How did they manage to get the culture here? Well, it seems that they smuggled it in, in their babies formula bottle from back home. The hostess gave me a couple teaspoon of culture and I rushed home, stopping at a place that used to sell raw milk to buy a gallon of raw, organic whole milk. I came home, boiled the milk, letting it simmer some so that it reduced a little bit and then letting it cool till it was lukewarm. I gently stirred in the culture, put the lid back on, put the pot in a slightly warm oven with my woolen shawls wrapped around the pot. I left it overnight and checked in the morning. It was still in the milk stage. Put it back in the oven and by evening it was set. I let it sit for another night and next day it was firmly set with the water separating around the Dahi.
What do you think was the first thing I did? I ate one bowl of Dahi, then I distributed the "jaaman" (setter) culture to my friends, coworkers and neighbors and promptly made another batch. My biggest fear is that I will not set the yogurt and end up running out of culture. And so I have distributed the culture near and far making sure that someone in my circle always have homemade dahi.
My favorite yogurt was made from raw, organic milk that was boiled and simmered for a long time. WHen the milk was left to simmer it lost significant amount of moisture and got a rich condensed milk like taste. Once the milk cooled down, you could take a flat new terracotta pot, rinse very well with hot water and letting it cool and then rubbing a generous amount of yogurt culture inside the pot and let it sit for sometime. Once the milk has cooled, fold in the culture inside it and pour inside the terracotta pot. Close with a lid and let it set in a dark and warm place. The dahi sets in the pot and then the terracotta pot soaks up the extra liquid. The yogurt that is then set has most fragrant smell, rich taste of condensed milk and the nicest consistency. It is the food of Gods!
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