Feb 11, 2009

Arabic Breakfast : how to make yogurt from milk and turn it into Labaneh

Labaneh is one of the most delicious Arabic light-breakfast dishes , its basically yogurt minus the water in it ! its creamy,a bit salty,a bit sour just the right amount ,and its eaten usually in the morning ,with pita bread (or toast) ,slices of tomato and cucumber ,and of course the cherry on the top of cake : olive oil.


To make Labaneh (for one person) ,you're gonna need one liter of whole (full fat) milk (to turn the milk into yogurt 1st) and two or 3 table spoons of yogurt . here is how its done :
Boil the milk in a pot on the stove and keep stirring at all times,or else the fat will be burned and stick on the bottom of the pot you're using,add third cup of water to it, after it boiled ,turn off the stove and leave it to cool off a bit,just until its warm (not cold) take some of the milk in a small bowel, add to it the two or 3 spoons of yogurt, mix it together well ,and then add the mixture to the rest of the milk in the pot and mix it well . cover the pot,and then wrap the whole thing in a blanket or couple of towels,leave it outside (in room temperature) for 6-7 hours ,and DON'T open it before 6 hours has passed (at least).when its time ,you open the pot and you have yogurt . taraaaaa.

Now you get a piece of cotton cloth ,a pillow case would be fine,or like in my case when i didn't find a cotton white (white so the colors won't dissolve) pillow case,i got a white t-shirt and tied the sleeves ..be creative !so add the yogurt in the pillow case,and make sure you have a bowl underneath to collect the drained water .tie it up,and hang it with a string or something,you can do this outside,inside,or even in the fridge , for one liter it should take like 10 hours and you have all the water out and your Labaneh is ready, if you're making more than that,then leave it for 24 hrs or something, you can keep checking on it .

take it out,add some salt,some thyme if you wish,and indulge ! here is a pic of what came out with me (1st time!)

Labaneh served with tomato, cucumber and olive oil<br />


6 comments:

Em Ommar said...

حتى هون شرير
لبنه

لبنه ياللي ما تخاف من يوم شتوه
عيوووط

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!
I have to add my thoughts on this...i just do not understand why you added water to the liter of milk while boiling it!! the idea of making labaneh is getting rid of the extra water and you added more so this will take more time to get rid of and it will not affect the flavor at all...so next time, and trust me on this one, DO NOT add any water to the milk!
the process of adding the yogurt to the milk in a bowl first then adding the whole thing to it is called "tampering" which is warming up a cold ingredient before adding it to a warm pot full of whatever.
but i have to admit, your labaneh looks great...you can add some dry mint to it and mix it up or fresh mint works great eaten next to it. where is the zaytoon?
Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Naser,
I have a much easier way:
Go to the store and buy a container of laban, bring it home and using the same T-shirt you used, put laban inside the sleeve and let it drip as you said..that is it..and as summer said, add zeitoun, dry mint w basleh bayda looool

Instead of making labneh with the milk, I suggest that you drink it with a nice chocolate chip cookie w sa7tein :)

NasEr said...

Um Omar ,hello welcome ot my blog 1st,
laish sherreer ?you don't have Labaneh where you're ?there u go make it its easy :p
--
Summer
Your thoughts are welcomed and were anticipated as a matter of fact :D.
I don't know wuts with the extra water,i read an explanation but i 4got (i told u i have no sense of cooking :s),bas 5alas next time i won't be adding any wala yhemmek :).
and my Labaneh to my surprise was so good,olives are in the foodLand and the FoodLand is far away and I'm so eager to eat my Labaneh so to hell with everything else i just wanted to indulgeeee :d
next time when i make it for my foreign friends i'm bringing some za3tar and olives so they can experience it to the fullest ;).
--
Noura ,Yogurt here is hella expensive,i made a feasibility study already,yogurt 3ala tool maaaaa betwaffe :D. Basaleh with Labaneh ?:s basal a5dar i think goes well with it no?
and no i dnt wanna save my milk,Thai drink milk like crazy w 3adoone,n its been 13 months since my last Labaneh breakfast ,5alle el chocolate chip for later :D

Anonymous said...

Wow, it looks delicious. Wallah betla3 mennak :P And I love how you actually took time to decorate it :D

Good for you, you make me proud ... lol

Unknown said...

thanx a lot monsieur...i would appreciate it if u would next time explain the recipe of magdoos and m5allal :hat:

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