Instant Love

I'm not going to lie, readers: I normally prefer slow food to fast food. Take beans, for instance. Dry beans soaked overnight and then simmered are SO much better than their canned brethren in terms of nutrition, texture, cost, weight (hey, I'm biking these things from the store), and flavor. Sure, sometimes I do grab a can of garbanzos for convenience, but my preference is to invest in the long game. Anything claiming to be "instant" or "quick and easy" is likely to elicit an eye roll from me at best, and sometimes outright scorn.

Well. This December, my favorite cousin, Sonia, gave me an InstantPot for my birthday. (Sorry to all of you other cousins out there reading this, I love you, too.) I'd been hearing about these contraptions of convenience for many months, not only from Sonia but also from interns and parents at my school. Rave reviews all around. I was, of course, very suspicious. Also, I harbor a lifelong fear of kitchen gadgets that might explode and destroy part of my person or house. Pressure cookers fall into this category. (If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you may recall me cowering behind my friend Mike the first time we used his pressure canner back in 2010.)

Well, yesterday morning I woke up hours before my alarm (again). Annoyed to be up before sunrise, I did what any normal foodie would do. I made granola. Also, I was looking for a way to use up 4 cups of oats and not make many dozens of oatmeal cookies since I don't eat a lot of cookies and I am not getting nearly as much exercise as I am used to. Plus, I still have half of a pineapple cake my landlady made me taking up the valuable fridge real estate, so it couldn't be anything requiring refrigeration. But I digress.

Last night, I got to thinking: what goes well with granola? Yogurt! And I am pretty much stuck in my house all day and night, so why not make the yogurt, too? [Cue the sidelong glance across the room at the InstantPot.]

The booklet it came with had a yogurt recipe, but it was a little vague. I don't want to screw up and waste a half gallon of milk nor do I want to blow myself up by accident. (See above,) I looked online for reassurance and wouldn't you know that everyone makes their yogurt differently, and has very emphatic instructions about how to make it the best way. Also, everyone had different opinions on how and when to remove the lid, in some cases while the InstantPot was on(!), so I ended up using my best judgement after all and just going for it. Here is how I made my batch, that came out to almost 4 full pint jars:

Instant Pot Yogurt

• 2 quarts whole milk
• 1 large spoonful of plain yogurt of your choice
• Sprinkle of sugar

Pour milk into a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the stove off immediately and let milk cool to 110-120F.

Whisk in your scoop of yogurt and sugar. This is your yogurt "starter." (Honestly, some recipes called for 1/2 cup yogurt to 1 quart of milk; other recipes called for 2 Tablespoons of yogurt to 1/2 gallon of milk. People!!) I added just a bit of sugar because I am a homebrewer and when you have a yeast starter for making beer you always sprinkle in a little sugar. Not a cupful, you sugar fiends, just a sprinkle to keep the healthy bacteria in your yogurt happy. It;s still meant to be a tart yogurt.

Divide your milk/yogurt mixture among 4 pint jars, but do not put on the lids. Put filled jars into Instant Pot's inner, metal bowl, then add a cup or two of water to create your water bath for the jars. Just so we are clear here, though the jars are uncovered, the water does not go into the jars, it goes into the metal inner pot of the Instant Pot. Try not to spill water into the jars.

Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, then choose the Yogurt function. It should flash 8:00 (meaning 8 hours). Press Start. The timer will start counting up. Your yogurt will be done in 8+ hours. I made mine overnight, removed my freshly made jars of yogurt, put a lid on each, and popped them in the fridge. After tasting it, of course.

I ate a couple of mounded spoonfuls right out of the first jar, and then stirred a bit of it into my breakfast borscht -- what, I've been cooking a lot. Delish!!

I think I will stir it into some of that cinnamonny, cardamommy granola from yesterday for my snack later. Yeah, I know, it'll take up some of that precious fridge real estate, but you know what: it's worth it. And it basically takes up the same amount of space as the milk bottle did.

(Don't have an InstaPot? Don't fret. You can also make yogurt with a space heater, blanket, and cutting board like this.)