Monday, November 16, 2009

Roast rabbit and homemade yoghurt


As a family on a journey to self sustainability we are always trying to find new things to make ourselves instead of having to buy. So on Friday night we attempted our first batch of homemade yoghurt. It is actually so easy to make (see recipe below) that we don’t know why we didn’t attempt it sooner.
• All you do is get as much natural unpasteurised full cream milk as you want to make into yoghurt – we used 2 litres. Place a pot on the stove with water in it, then place another smaller pot inside that pot to make a double boiler or water jacket effect, to prevent the milk from burning.
• Pour the milk into the top pot and heat it to 85˚C or until the milk begins to froth.
• Then cool the milk to 43˚C in a water bath so it cools evenly.
• Then add 2 table spoons of store bought plain yoghurt with live cultures to your milk.
• Pour the milk into clean, sterile containers and cover each tightly with a lid.
• You now need to keep the yoghurt warm and still in order to encourage bacteria growth for the next 6-8 hours (38˚C is optimal). We did this by keeping our yoghurt on our hot plate on very low overnight, but you could also place it in a cooler box with a big blanket over it over night. The longer you leave it beyond 7 hours the tangier it gets.
• In the morning place the yoghurt in the fridge and enjoy with your favourite flavourings or over cereal etc. Within the next 2 weeks.
• Just remember to keep some of your first batch as starter for your second batch.
We are happy to have found something else that we can make ourselves in a healthy, cost effective way.
Another first for Friday was that we slaughtered our first rabbit and ate it. It may sound goring to you but all over the world people eat rabbit as part of their meat diet. We had too many male rabbits and they have been fighting over mating rights to females for the past few weeks so we decided to put the underdog out of his misery and let the dominant male and his girls enjoy their happy family on their own.
As the meat can be quite tough I found a recipe where you first marinade the meat in olive oil and fresh herbs over night before frying the pieces and then placing them in a roasting pan and baking them for an additional hour and a half. The meat was tender and flavourful, even though it will take a while for us to get used to.
It never ceases to amaze me how we do not acknowledge that the meat in the shops was actually a live animal once and that someone else just killed and cleaned it for us. Seeing the process from live animal to your plate gives you a greater appreciation for the meat, as the process of killing, cleaning and cooking involved some things we don’t often even consider. I am glad that our family is coming closer to the origins of our food, so we can enjoy a healthy understanding of the circle of life.

1 comment:

  1. Great post Jo! Very exciting stuff. You guys are closer to self-sustainability than you might think!

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