Dry fruit Yogurt

Dry fruit and yogurt are both calcium rich foods. I prepared a batch of home made Greek yogurt from store bought unsweetened one and that came out so well, hence this flavoured yogurt dish came up. This is a very good food for kids especially who hate having curd/yogurt as such. It needs no external sweetener due to addition of dry fruits.

Method:

Let us have a run through of making Greek Yogurt. However that is not absolutely necessary. Curd which is milder and completely not sour, made from full fat milk is equally creamy and good to prepare this dish.

Greek Yogurt:

1. Boil required amount of full fat milk once and switch off.
2. Let it cool down till lukewarm and you can test it with your finger. You should comfortably touch it and feel the warmth. Hot milk is always a problem for proper setting of curd/yogurt.
3.  I got store bought Epigamia unsweetened natural Greek yogurt. Keep it in room temperature.
4. For 500ml milk, I used 2.5 tspn of Greek yogurt. You can increase a bit for matter of doubt.
5. Mix it thoroughly, close the vessel and leave it undisturbed in a really warm spot of kitchen.
6. After 3-4 hours, the yogurt would have been formed and has a milder taste and I prefer that sweetness for making flavoured versions.
7. You can leave around 6 hours for more acidic one. Make sure the yogurt is really thick and not shaky like a jelly. That is the expected consistency.
8. I transferred the yoghurt as such to refrigerate and make it more thicker.
9. For proper Greek yogurt consistency, you can transfer it to a colander/muslin cloth and remove the watery whey that will be formed. You can refrigerate for 1-2 hours to get thicker yoghurt that way. Use the whey in other liquid dishes or drink it as such , it is tasty and healthy.
10. I removed watery whey for only required amount of yogurt few minutes before preparation.

Dry fruit yogurt:

1. Soak 4 dates,2 prunes deseeded,1 dry fig,5 black raisins in little warm water for at least an hour.
2. After it is completely soft, blend it along with a cup of thick curd/yoghurt.
3. Make sure you remove the whey (water that will be formed as a top layer) in curd or yogurt when kept in room temperature for long. The more thicker,the more tastier it will be.
4. You can make powder of mixed nuts like almonds,pista,walnuts and cashew prior and add it as topping for the yoghurt.

Serve it cold or at room temperature.