Yogurt cheese

After years of wanting to make yogurt cheese, I finally did, and it's good. Now I'll have to try mixing in some flavorings.

I suspended a sieve above a bowl, inserted a coffee filter and put a big blob of yogurt on top. The whole assembly went into the refrigerator. By the next day, the yogurt's liquid had drained away, leaving a soft, spreadable cheese with a nice, slight tang. Easy.

I like drained yoghurt at breakfast time - a scoop with fruit and honey. The firm texture is what I like: I think runny yoghurt is disgusting.

Yoghurt cheese, known throughout the Middle East as Labane is a breakfast staple as well as a staple offering in mixed mezes served throughout the region. Most traditional way to serve it is with nothing more than a bit of olive oil and coarsely ground pepper served over. Also fine are sprinkling over with olive oil and a bit of sumac (the spice, not the poison leaves) or with za'atar (you can buy some good mixtures outside of the Middle-East, best perhaps being from The Spices of Ilana.

And, of course, to be served with green olives, ideally of the spicy Syrian variety (soori). If you buy those outside of the Mid-East no problem but remove them from the jar, saving the liquids, and give each a blow with the flat of a heavy knife to split them open, return to the jar to let the liquids penetrate.

Best
Rogov

P.S. Like most in the region, when I make labane I use not a coffee filter but a muslin cloth.

[Jenise]

The firm texture is what I like: I think runny yoghurt is disgusting.

You and I have a lot in common.

The firm texture is what I like: I think runny yoghurt is disgusting.

You and I have a lot in common.

You guys have got to give up on that Swiss style yoghurt. Forget yoghurt cheese (labane) for the moment and focus entirely on yoghurt, and imagine yourself in Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria or Israel where yoghurt comes from the drinkable to the almost rock-solid, the best of course made not from the milk of cows but from that of sheep or goats and delicious in any texture. Think for example of the yoghurt joints that line every street of every village of Greece where you can buy yoghurt so thick that if you remove it from its container it will hold its shape for at least a month before it starts to "fall". In the same places though think of those pure liquids, so white and delicious that are ladled fresh from the farmer's jug in which it arrived into a glass cup for you to drink from.

Forgot about those fruit-flavored abominations but don't forget about fruits, but simply add whatever fresh fruityou want to your yoghurt. Or, for that matter, with granola.

And after the yoghurt of course, hot mint tea. And after the hot mint tea of course, a double espresso, perhaps macchiato but never, never with milk or cream added and stirred in.

Blessings on those in the Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli mountains that make such yoghurts and blessings in turn on their sheep and goats. May they live long and happy free-range lives.

Best
Rogov