Look what they done to my song ma
Look what they done to my song
Well it’s the only thing
That I could do half right
And it’s turning out all wrong ma
Look what they done to my song
The words to this song by the singer-songwriter Melanie popped into my head as I was shopping for ingredients for this week’s recipe. For those of you too young to remember, Melanie was a folk-pop singer-songwriter popular back in the 60s and 70s. The lyrics of this song referred to the “harmful exploitation” of her art that she experienced from record companies. Ironically, this song about exploitation later ended up being exploited for use in commercials for Lifebuoy Soap (“Look what they’ve done to my Lifebuoy”), by Ramada Inn (“Look what they’ve done to Ramada”) and for Oatmeal Crisp Cereal (“Look what they’ve done to my oatmeal”).
As I surveyed the supermarket’s dairy section, a sense of cynicism came over me. “Look what they’ve done to my yogurt ma!” Yogurt products occupied a significant portion of dairy shelf space. It looked more like the dessert aisle. If you’ve perused the dairy section lately, you know how many options there are to sift through, including such atrocities as Yoplait Disney’s Lion King Cotton Candy Kids Yogurt and YoCrunch Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt with OREO cookies.
Real yogurt is a nutritious fermented food produced by culturing milk or cream with a bacterial culture containing lactic acid-producing bacteria. Its benefit to gut health has been well documented. Yogurt has been part of the human diet for over 7,000 years.
In its pure, unsweetened form, yogurt was too tart for the average American palate, so the food industry loaded it up with sugar and artificial flavorings and marketed it to well-meaning parents and their sugar-addicted children. I cringe when I think of all the children sucking on GoGurt tubes in their car seats on their way to school, fueling tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.
When I was a college freshman in 1971, I was introduced to yogurt by a classmate whose last name was Gaymont. He was the grandson of Stephen Gaymont, a Hungarian bacteriologist who introduced yogurt to the United States in the 1940s. Despite yogurt’s widespread popularity in Europe and the Middle East, Dr. Gaymont’s Yogurt and Dannon Yogurt were the only yogurts available in the United States, and just beginning to show up in grocery stores. Sales were sluggish until American palates were appeased by the addition of fruit preserves and sugar to this otherwise “healthy” product.
Over the years, yogurt for the American market has gone through an evolution that reflected prevailing dietary trends (and misconceptions). After sugary, fruity yogurts established their foothold, nonfat yogurts emerged because fat was being blamed for health problems. When low-carb, high-protein became the trend, Greek yogurt began to dominate the market. When dairy started to become vilified, plant-based yogurts emerged. After high-fat ketogenic diets became the fad, full-fat yogurts, such as Siggi’s triple-cream, became popular.
My favorite yogurt product is labneh and, until recently, it was mostly unheard of and only available from Middle Eastern grocers. Labneh is a thick yogurt with a texture like cream cheese. It originated in the Levant region thousands of years ago. Labneh is made by draining the whey off yogurt. It can be spread on toast with fruit preserves, used as a dip on a mezze platter, or spread on the bottom of a plate and topped with fresh herbs and grilled vegetables. It can also be formed into little balls, coated in minced or dried herbs and preserved in olive oil.
Labneh isn’t yet widely available in the U.S. but, fortunately, it is super-easy to make at home. All you need is plain whole-milk yogurt, a little salt and a means of straining off the whey: either a nut milk bag or cheesecloth. If you don’t have a nut milk bag, I highly encourage you to invest in one. I use Ellie’s Best Nut Milk Bags. They can be found online for under $15. Made of BPA-free food-grade nylon mesh, they effectively strain without getting clogged. They clean up quickly and can be used for many other tasks, such as straining stocks and making cold-brew coffee. I don’t own a juicer, but with a good high-power blender and a nut milk bag, I can easily make pulp-free juices.
Homemade labneh
Makes about 1½ cups
Ingredients
1 32-oz. container of plain whole-milk yogurt
¾ teaspoon salt
Also needed: cheesecloth or nut milk bag.
Preparation
Thoroughly stir the salt into the yogurt.
Transfer the salted yogurt into a nut milk bag and hang it over a bowl.
Alternately, line a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth that extends about three inches beyond the rim. Place the colander over a bowl. Transfer the salted yogurt into the lined colander, gather up the edges, and tie off the cheesecloth with some string. Place a weight on top of the yogurt. I use a round cake pan weighed down with a can of beans. Move things around in your fridge to create space for your yogurt to drain. You’ll need the space for about three days.
After three days, transfer the labneh into a bowl, and whisk until smooth. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. Save the whey that has drained from the yogurt in a separate container and refrigerate.
Marinated labneh balls
Labneh balls originated as a way of preserving yogurt and making it portable for desert nomads. Enjoy these labneh balls on pita or serve as part of a cheese platter.
Ingredients
Labneh from the previous recipe
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
Spices and flavorings of choice: smoked paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, finely chopped chives, or za’atar (See note below.)
Preparation
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Lightly oil your hands and spoon 2 tablespoons of the labneh into the palm of one hand and form into a ball. Place the balls on a damp towel on a tray or plate. Chill in the refrigerator to firm up.
When firm, remove from refrigerator and roll in dry spices if using. Place the balls into a small jar and cover with the oil. Add the thyme sprigs and marinate overnight before using. The labneh balls can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 months if totally submerged in the oil.
Note: Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend made from wild thyme, sumac, salt, and sesame seeds.
This article appears in Repurposing MacMurray Hall.
