Adventures in fermentation

No, not beer or wine... can you guess? Maybe pictures will help:

Yogurt! I wanted to try my hand at making my own soy yogurt. So, a yogurt maker was purchased (see Jim, there was still one piece of kitchen equipment we didn't have!) :-D

Of course, I knew nothing of making yogurt, so I needed a recipe. I decided to use one from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog. (Scalding the materials beforehand was fun. So fun that I also scalded my right hand for good measure. Can't be too careful with bacteria, after all...) >-O

The only problem with using this recipe was this: I couldn't find Agar powder! Central Market used to have it in their bulk section, but apparently it's been hard to keep in stock lately. They have it in their Asian foods section, but it's not pure (it has sugar in it). I tried several other stores, to no avail. Of course, I could order it online, but I was sure hoping to make the first batch this weekend (see "patience, lack of " below). So, off I went in search of another thickening agent.

Eventually decided to use cornstarch. After all, the Whole Soy & Co. yogurt I used as a starter was thickened with cornstarch, so it must work, right? So I consulted Chef Internet to see how much to use, and went from there. Very nervous-making, all of this experimentation. I am a recipe-follower, after all. Just give me a recipe that works, and I'm golden. :-)

So, it's happily fermenting away as we speak. It's SO hard not to peek under the cover, not to mention waiting 9 whole hours before I test it. But I'm determined to wait until 5 PM before tasting it.

You'll hear all about it next time!