One recipe at a time

With my new attitude of embracing my life in Japan, I have decided to be less defeated.  If I struggle getting my hands on something, I will make the best of the situation.  For example, I love Greek yogurt.  It is something I've always enjoyed.  It can be found here, but it is expensive and usually contains a lot of sugar.  Sour cream on the other hand, cannot be found.  I've searched and searched to no avail.

In the past, I have whined about this.  But now, I am doing something about it.  My best friend told me about a recipe on This Old Gal's blog.

I grabbed 4 quarts of organic milk at the grocery store and a small container of plain yogurt that only contained milk and enzymes.  The milk was spendy at ¥529 per quart, making the total ¥2,116 or $19.50.  It was expensive for a gallon of yogurt, but when it is worth it, it is worth it!  I took them home and roped my son into helping make yogurt.  This basically means he got to pour the milk in the Instant Pot and hit the yogurt button twice.  Then we waited.

The milk came up to 180°F, then we cooled it to 90°F.  At that point we added a 1/4 cup of yogurt.  It was then time to hit the yogurt button on the Instant Pot again and let it be for 10 hours.  We timed it right to let it cook overnight.

In the morning, we put in outside in the cold for 6 hours.  Next my son scooped out the yogurt into a strainer lined with a kitchen towel.  His favorite part was listening to the whey drip down into the bowl the strainer was resting on.  After two hours of sitting and dripping, the yogurt was done.

I left about 2 cups still straining for another couple hours to make yogurt with a sour cream consistency.

We quickly dived in and ate the most delicious yogurt I've had in a very long time.  My husband preferred to drizzle honey on his.  My son chose to dip strawberries in his bowl of yogurt.  After a couple of bites of the plain goodness, I tossed a big spoonful of my persimmon butter in it.

Everyone agreed that it was super delicious.  And I couldn't be happier to know that not only can I get amazing Greek yogurt and sour cream, I can make it myself and know exactly what is in it.