December 18, 2009
by Elias Shams
One of my fellow Washingtonians suggested an awesome idea that I should have thought of it myself – sharing my cooking skills with other Washingtonians and of course the rest of the world. Those of you who don’t know me, I am a good cook. Thanks to my fat Mamma who taught me how and what to cook before she shipped me to 
DC 23 years ago. This is her when she was a babe 
. I have been making most of my own food from scratch which has contributed significantly to my good health and weight
Considering our crappy economy, I think you’ll will find my cooking beneficial – both in terms of health and saving more money in your pocket. Here is the first one:
How to make Yogurt or Labneh (strained yogurt)
Stuff you need:
. One 32 Oz Yogurt
. One Gallon of Milk
. A pot
. A bag made out of cloth. Can’t find one, use one of your spare pillow cases
Instruction:
1. Pour the gallon of milk in the Pot and heat it up on stove for a bout 20-30 minutes on medium till it starts boiling. Once you see it boiling, let it boil for 5 minutes
Important Note: during the heating process, make sure to stir the milk once every 5 minutes so the milk doesn’t burn and get stuck to the bottom of the pot. If the milk does burn a little bit like it is shown in this picture, no a big deal do. Just let it be.
2. Once the milk boiled for 5 minutes, take the pot off the stove, pour it into another pot, and let it cool off. Not too cool though. It should reach to the point till the milk is still warmer than room temperature. You can check it out by sticking your finger into it. It might take an hour to an hour an half for the milk to cool off, depending on the room temperature.
3. Add the half or all of the 32 oz yogurt to the already cooled off milk in the pot, and stir it till the yogurt is dissolved in the milk.
4. Put the top of the pot back on and wrap the pot up with a blanket so it stays warm. Keep it warm for minimum 4 hours. I usually wrap it up with the blanket and stuff it in the oven. Obviously, no need to turn on the oven. I just do this so it stays warm. It might help to warm up the oven first before stuffing the wrapped pot into the oven. Make sure the oven does not get hot at all. Just keep it warp and then turn it off before you put the pot in there.
5. Take the blanket off the pot and put the pot in the in the refrigerator for one or two hours
6. At this point, your yogurt is ready, but you will see some yellowish water on top of it. Depending on how watery you want your yogurt, you can just stir it so the 
water on top becomes part of the yogurt or dump the yogurt into the bag and start squeezing the water out of it. Again, if you want your yogurt harder, simply squeeze the bag more for longer period of time like it’s shown in the picture.
7. Empty the strained yogurt into a container; add salt and paper and it is ready.
So, again, the more you get water out of your yogurt, the harder the yogurt will become.
Bone Appetit
Hard to believe it was a few hours after this memorable video with my little monkey a year ago today when I was ambushed by cancer that took me near the death experience. And, a few short days later, the doc just poured it on me…”Elias, the chance that the chemo works is 50/50″. In deed, time flies fast.
Elias Shams
Kamran Abdi
Tatiana Sorabi
