Wednesday, October 28, 2009

O Bliss! O Joy!

O, Quark, Quark!

I made my dear husband very happy on Sunday with some quark, which, in case you didn't bother to click the link up there, is basically just yogurt cheese, NOT  "elementary particles and fundamental constituents of matter," as you might think.

Ever since he graduated from college and spent about a year in Munich and touring Europe, he has been a quark lover.  After many years, we found a place to buy it---Harry's Farmer's Market, which is now owned by Whole Foods---but it's rather expensive and Harry's is out of my way, as a rule.

So, a couple of weeks ago I discovered this wonderful method for making yogurt in a crockpot, which I've done twice now.  I love it!  It's so easy and yummy, and let's not forget----cheap!  Dh figured that if I could make yogurt, I could make quark, so he found this Down-to-Earth blog full of great stuff as well as instructions!  I can't believe she posted those instructions just days before dh did his search.

If making yogurt in a crockpot is easy, making quark out of it is super-easy.  Just as she says, you drain the whey out of it using cheesecloth.  We were out of cheesecloth (for about 5 years), so we used the old coffee filter method.  I lined my mesh strainer with a filter, added yogurt, and then put a couple more filters on top with a weight to press the whey out of the yogurt.  We put it in the fridge overnight, and in the morning---voila!

Dh ate it on toast; I ate it on a spoon.  And it was wonderful.  I like it much better than the yogurt, which is pretty amazing.  The quark is smooth and creamy with that tartness that characterizes yogurt, but not quite so much.  I think a lot of the tartness is lost in the whey.  I didn't want to waste all those great pro-biotics so I used the whey in a chocolate smoothie.  It was different, let me tell you, but still tasty.  Next time, I think I'll save it for pancakes.

We haven't taken any pictures, or added any flavorings yet.  We love it just fine plain.   I'll probably make some more for this weekend since our yogurt recipe makes 2 quarts of yogurt and we're hard-pressed to finish it all in a timely fashion.  Making the quark will be a very pleasant way to use the yogurt faster!

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This is my first time participating in Kelly's Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival.  Click that link if you want to see some more ways to incorporate Real Food into your diet!  I made some more "real food" yesterday, inspired by my sick child, so maybe I'll post about it next week.

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Sara! I have six kids too, and am in year 19 of our homeschooling adventure.

    I've heard yogurt cheese called a lot of things, but never Quark! I love it, it's a great word!

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  2. Very interesting. I love Greek yogurt, which is probably halfway between yogurt and quark. What do you use the quark for, beside eating straight up?

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  3. I love this mixed with a little honey and chopped walnuts, then spread on a homemade bagel. YUM! It's also a great substitute for sour cream and cream cheese in recipes.

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