From Boat to Bowl: Milk and Yoghurt.

We can get milk here, and we can also then make yoghurt. But there are rather a lot of steps in the whole process.

1) Fetch the milk from the ferry.
There is a ferry that comes to the jetty in town at 9am and 12noon most days. The ferry comes across from a neighbouring peninsula on the lake. You can go there with your containers, and buy fresh milk for 1000 shillings/litre (34p).

2) Bring your container home.
No, this is not washing-up liquid, but the 5 litre containers are perfect for collecting milk (after a thorough rinse out of course!).

3) Pasturise your milk.
The milk has not been pasturised yet, so this is a very important step. I wasn’t totally sure how to do this, there are so many methods out there. I used to bring it to the boil and then simmer for 5-10 minutes. But a colleague told me that all that is required is to bring the milk to 72C for 15 seconds, so now I just bring it to boiling point and then leave it to cool.

4) Skim off the cream.
Here, when we say we drink “skimmed” milk, we mean literally that: that we have skimmed the cream off the top. None of this 1% fat nonsense you get in the UK! 🙂
I save my cream in a container in the freezer, and then use it in cooking when I have enough.

5) Strain the milk.
When the milk has cooled enough you can pour it into your desired containers to go into the fridge or freezer. However, straining through a sieve is strongly recommended… ants seem to be fans of a creamy death of drowning in boiled milk…

6) Mix in the yoghurt starter.
If you’re making yoghurt from your milk, you let it cool to blood temperature (until you can hold your finger in it for 10 seconds without it hurting!). Then you stir into it some yoghurt from your previous batch; I use about a tablespoon for a litre. Then you wrap up your containers and leave them for at least 24 hours.

7) Make your cats happy.
My cats like milk day – lots of yummy licking afterwards!

8) Enjoy!
Yoghurt, fruit and oats is my standard breakfast.

Tuesday is my milk day. From getting home at 7pm and starting boiling the milk, I usually finish the cleaning up around 9pm.

Whenever I’m in the UK I like to treat myself to some of the different flavours of yoghurt available at the supermarkets, but sometimes the choice available is a bit overwhelming!