I remember once making yogurt in a vaccuum flask. The flavour and texture of fresh yogurt is superb. It was really easy to make but I've lost the instructions. Can anyone help?

Hello

To make yoghurt, you need a 'starter' or 'jaman', as it is known in North India. You can buy any natural yoghurt that says 'live culture'.

Boil 1 litre milk and let it cool down to hand warm. Add 1 tbs. starter culture, stir it in well and keep it in a warm place/thermos flask, until set. This may take 6-8 hours.

Mamta

The Yogurt recipe is great.

It works every time.

What do you recommend adding to the yogurt to make interesting meals?

So far I have mixed it with tandoori powder, added chicken pieces and then left for several hours to marinade before cooking in oven.

I have also made a quick raitha by adding mint sauce.

I know I should be using more basic ingredients but Iam a humble male in need of some simple ideas to start me cooking.

Hello Bob

See a list of Raitas here: Raita Selection

Drinks; 1. Lassi yoghurt drink

2. Savoury Lassi

Fruit yoghurt

You can also make smoothies with fruit and yoghurt.

Mamta

Can you use half fat milk as we have cholterstol problems?

Hello Libby

I am sorry to hear that you have high cholesterol. However, do not panic. With good diet and statins, it is not too hard to bring down.

Yes, you can make yoghurt from half fat or even very low fat skimmed milk, red top milk in UK. I almost always make yoghurt from skimmed milk these days. If I need it thicker, than I make it either with semi-skimmed milk (green top in UK) or add a couple of tablespoons of skimmed milk powder to the boiled milk. To make skimmed milk yoghurt thicker, this is what you do; let it set fully. At this point, it will have a layer of clear...ish liquid/whey on top. Gently tilt the pot and pour it out. If this is difficult, ?lift off? the liquid from the top with a spoon. What you are left with is a thick, skimmed milk yoghurt.

Mamta

I'm so delighted to have found this site as I've been a curry addict for over 50 years. Now living in France after over 40 years in Australia I was dismayed to find that Indian food hasn't been that popular here but I think it may now be slowly changing! However, I've always found Ferns curry pastes to be excellent in preference to Pataks which I find too oily but have up til now had to rely on friends returning from the U.K. to bring them back for me so you can imagine my delight when I read about spicesofindia. It is possible to get the raw spices here which is a help.

I love traawling through the recipes and trying new tastes. One thing I would like to ask though is my husband suffers greatly from reflux and curry affects him badly. Would putting a little aseofida in the initial cooking help this problem?

Hello Libby

Welcome to our site.

I am sorry to hear that your husband has Reflux and has difficulty in eating curry. I will suggest a few things for him;

Try not to use ready-made pastes/curry mixes. Though nice, they can have too much oil or too many ?hot? spices.

Use only moderate amounts of fresh spices and do not add chillies and garam masala until you have taken his portion out. Garam mean ?hot? and it contains a lot of black peppers. Some people can not tolerate black peppers.

Make sure that he has some natural yogurt with or after his meal. You can also add it to your curries, just like one would add double cream, towards the end.

Addition of ginger, asafoetida and cumin does help a little with digestion but can not reduce heart burn from very hot food.

Last of all, do bear in mind that Indians also suffer from heart burn and manage it quite well by reducing hot spices:-)!

Hope this helps.

Mamta

PS I had a sample pack from this company, before we allowed them to have their name here, and it was quite nice. May I request that you buy the spices from Spices of India via the link on our site. This gives us a very small remuneration that helps us to cover the running costs of this website. Thanks.

Mamta