Thickened Feijoa or Strawberry Yoghurt
Serves 6 for dessert or for a brunch treat
This is otherwise known as Food of the Gods! Make this the day before a special dinner or brunch and keep in the fridge.
Here my father Gerald tells the story of his famous yoghurt:
"When we were living an alternative lifestyle we had a house cow with plenty of milk. Every two days we had a bucket of separated milk in which I put a canister of natural unsweetened yoghurt as a starter, and then up in the hot water cupboard. Next day I had a bucket of yoghurt. But now I simply make my yoghurt out of a packet from the supermarket. It works well for this recipe too. I transform ordinary yoghurt into the ‘Food of the Gods’ using the following method. I can practically live on this food!"
The method
All you need is 1 litre of plain unsweetened yoghurt
First we need to remove the sour whey from the yoghurt overnight. By doing this the yoghurt becomes naturally sweeter, creamier, and thicker.
Take a sieve and fit over a bowl. Line the sieve with a large muslin cloth, or any other porous well washed cloth square. Pour the yoghurt into the cloth lined sieve. Fold the corners of the cloth over the yoghurt and leave it overnight.
Put the thick nearly crumbly yoghurt in another bowl. If desired add a sweetener e.g. honey, dehydrated cane juice, xylitol or nothing.
Using a little hand mixer, stick blender or wooden spoon, beat into a nice smooth consistency. Add frozen strawberries and allow to thaw, or add some cold stewed feijoas or other stewed fruit. Stir it very little as to keep pure pockets of fruit flavour.
Enjoyed on it’s own this is simply bliss! In times of extreme decadence one could always mix in whipped cream to taste!
Note: Once separated from the yoghurt the whey has very good nutritional values and can also be used in baking and other recipes.
Gerald explains his special method of stewing fruit
Right through the year I buy fruit when it is season and beautifully ripe.
I stewthe fruit and then put in little bags and freeze.
To prevent burning I first grease the bottom of the pot with a tiny bit of butter or oil then pour in just one cm of water. On top goes the prepared fruit. Stew on the lowest temperature setting. Depending on the fruit I sometimes drain some of the juices, the juice goes into the fridge and makes wonderful fruit juice.
The flavours in my freezer to mix into my special yoghurt are currently: Tamarillos, Rhubarb, Kiwifruit + Lemon, Feijoa (one of my favourites), Apple sauce with cinnamon, and Apricots. Berries I don’t stew, but freeze them whole and put them frozen in the yoghurt.
