Head Over Meals: Greek Yogurt & Cream Cheese

Welcome to the first edition of Head Over Meals. The part of the blog where I write about kitchen hacks and being a foodie. So without further ado, Head Over Meals with Heather.

Unless you are independently wealthy or just can't cook at all, preparing and cooking food is a normal part of life. Most recipes are written in locations where all the ingredients needed are readily available. A normal part of expat life is to research for an ingredient that can be used for a substitute on recipes. The variety of items available in my local stores are very limited. If you find yourself in this situation, my suggestion is to look for "Paleo 30," simple recipes, or recipes from the Great Depression era on your search engine of choice.

Yogurt is one of the few dairy items I can consume. My absolute favorite yogurt is Greek yogurt. The Greek yogurt available where I live does not taste like Greek yogurt from my passport country. Making yogurt from scratch requires items not available, plus it is too much effort needed in order to pull that off. After doing some research I found a super simple "recipe" in order to make Greek yogurt from regular yogurt (which is available here).

My motto in life is K.I.S.S., Keep It Simple Stupid. You can change the last S to suit your needs, like Sweetie or Sister, but Stupid works for me. I found an extremely easy "recipe" to process yogurt into Greek yogurt. All you have to do is drain the whey from the yogurt overnight in the fridge. It is literally that simple.

Cream cheese is also a favorite of mine. I came across a random Instagram video about how a restaurant makes cream cheese that I had to try. Let the whey drain from yogurt in the fridge for five days. It couldn't possibly be that simple, so I had to give it a try (for an actual recipe, click here).

Step 1: Gather together:

a large container that has a lid
a colander that can fit inside that container
trivet or small glasses. The purpose of this item is to raise the colander to give the whey somewhere to drain. I use this metal trivet with tall legs.
cheese cloth or another fabric to strain the yogurt in. I use a clean white cotton t-shirt of my husbands (don't forget to ask permission first). I cut it in half (front and back side of shirt).
You obviously also need yogurt.

Step 2: Assemble the items.

Place the trivet in the bottom of the container.
Place colander on top of the trivet.
Cover colander with cloth.

Step 3:

Pour yogurt into the cloth. If spoons can't fit into your yogurt container to get all of it out, centrifugal motion is your friend. Put the lid on the yogurt container and make sure it is secure. Hold onto the bottom of the container with your hand. Extend your arm in front and swing behind you. Try pouring the yogurt again and be amazed that science is awesome and you just did a small shoulder workout.

Step 4:

Cover the colandar with the lid and fold the excess cloth on top. Empty out a space for your experiment to fit in your fridge.

Step 5: Decision Time: Greek yogurt, Cream Cheese or Both

For Greek Yogurt: 24 hours later... If you only want Greek yogurt, STOP now. Your experiment is complete, scoop your new, creamy yogurt into a container and store in the fridge.

For Cream Cheese: Forget about the yogurt for 5 days. The majority of the whey will drain out after the first day, you can use the whey for other experiments or pour it down the drain. After 5 long days of waiting, scoop into a container and enjoy.

For Both: You need to do some mental math on how much Greek yogurt you want and how much cream cheese. Personally, I do 75% to Greek yogurt and 25% to cream cheese. With 2 liters of yogurt, it yields about 8 oz. of cream cheese.

After 24 hours, scoop out how much Greek yogurt you decide to keep. Pour out the whey or use it for other experiments. Put the lid back on the colandar, and forget about it for 4 more days.