Cardamom and Tea

homemade yogurt | mesta

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There’s something precious about the way mesta (homemade yogurt) is made. You slowly simmer milk, swaddle it in a blanket right before going to sleep, and then you wake up to the most perfect breakfast. But for all its preciousness, the process is not the least bit fussy. So if you’ve never fermented anything at home, yogurt is a nice first project. It doesn’t take very long, it doesn’t require any special equipment, it’s very hard to mess up, and the results are so much more delicious than anything you can buy in a store. All you need is milk and a little bit of leftover yogurt, which we call the khumsah.

If you have a lot of friends or relatives who make their own yogurt, you should be able to track down some real khumsah, left over from the last batch of homemade yogurt. The khumsah gets passed on from friend to friend and generation to generation, so that it eventually becomes impossible to pinpoint where or when it started. But if you don’t have a homemade yogurt fanatic friend, you can always start your first batch off with a scoop of store-bought yogurt. After you make the first batch, just be sure to set a little bit of yogurt aside to make more—you’ll be on a roll and soon your friends will start showing up at your house, asking you if they can borrow a scoop.

If you’ve never tried plain homemade yogurt, you don’t know what you’ve been missing. But there are also a lot of tasty ways to dress up this humble bowl. Try out some of these serving suggestions (crowd-sourced from my friends and family), whether you’ve got homemade or store-bought:

Sweet:
Rosewater, pistachio, and honey (pictured above)
Figs, dates, honey, and cinnamon
Slivered almonds and a dollop of jam or honey
Apple, pomegranate, and slivered almonds

Savory:
Za’atar and extra virgin olive oil (above left)
Oregano, garlic powder, and extra virgin olive oil (above right, pictured with Cuban oregano)
Mint or dill, cucumber, garlic powder (a variety of jajik)
+ Add some pita chips or prakhe (stuffed grape leaves) to any savory option

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homemade yogurt | mesta

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  • Prep Time: 35 minutes
  • Total Time: 8 1/2 to 24 hours
  • Yield: 4 quarts, unstrained

Ingredients

  • 1 gallon whole milk
  • 1/4 cup yogurt with live active cultures (also known as khumsah) *

Instructions

  1. Heat the milk very carefully over medium-low heat so that it doesn’t scorch or boil over. Stir it every few minutes and keep a very close eye on it.
  2. As soon as it starts to simmer, take it off the heat and pour it into the container you’re going to store it in (either glass or ceramic). Or you can leave it in the same container you heated it in, as long as it’s a non-reactive metal and you have avoided scorching the bottom.
  3. Let it cool down a bit, checking periodically to make sure the milk doesn’t cool down too much. It should still feel warm, but should be cool enough that you can stick your finger in the milk without burning yourself. Once it’s at this point, add the khumsah to a small bowl and combine it with 1/4 c of the warm milk.
  4. Add this mixture back into the container, mix it together, and cover it with a loose-fitting lid or plastic wrap.
  5. Wrap the whole thing in a blanket. This will keep it insulated so that it keeps some of the residual heat from the milk.
  6. Store the blanketed container in the oven and put a note on the control board so no one turns it on while your yogurt is inside.
  7. Let it ferment anywhere between 8 to 24 hours, depending on how sour you want it to be. It will become more sour as it ages. 12 hours is usually perfect.
  8. Once you’re happy with the consistency, put it in the refrigerator to let it chill.
  9. Once it’s chilled, put a couple of layers of undyed paper towels or clean tea towels (washed without dryer sheets, fabric softener, or fragrance) on top to soak up some of the whey. Discard after they absorb as much liquid as they’ll hold.
  10. Enjoy the mesta as is, or hang it with cheesecloth to turn it into Greek yogurt (hung for about 4 hours) or labneh (hung for about 12 hours).

Notes

* The khumsah can be from a homemade batch of yogurt, or a scoop of store-bought yogurt.

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Cardamom Honey Baklava

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My grandmother is famous for her baklava. It’s spiced with cardamom instead of cinnamon, a very Iraqi/Syrian/Assyrian way to flavor it. But the thing that really sets her baklava apart is the 100% honey drizzle as well as her super easy technique for assembling it. There’s no complex layering and brushing involved, making this recipe perfect for everyone from first-timers to seasoned baklava experts.

Jump to the recipe (which includes a video guide on how to slice it!), or read on for a bit more info on what makes this cardamom honey baklava super easy and unique.

The easiest baklava layering method (ever)

Instead of tediously layering filo sheet, butter, filo sheet, butter, and so on (forever!), my grandmother has a better idea:

Thwack half the stack of filo dough onto a greased sheet pan. Top with the filling. Throw that other half of filo dough on top. Then, slice through all that raw dough and filling, as if you were about to serve it. Sounds crazy so far, I know, but bear with me.

Next, we drizzle on clarified butter. Since we sliced through the baklava, that clarified butter seeps into every layer, and continues to do so as the baklava bakes. Eventually, it magically finds its way between each filo layer, leaving them shatteringly crisp and buttery, all with absolutely zero brushing!

The easiest baklava syrup: honey!

My family are firm believers that honey makes for the absolute tastiest baklava. It has so much more flavor than a simple syrup. And it’s already the perfect viscosity/sugar concentration for baklava. So if you don’t own a thermometer and/or you’re not super comfortable making syrup, there is no guesswork and no going wrong.

It’s important to drizzle on the syrup on as soon as the baklava comes out of the oven. If you wait a couple minutes, the baklava will cool too much, and the honey will not penetrate the layers enough. This can sometimes cause the pieces not to stick together enough. The other culprit for pieces that do not stick together is cutting them too large. If you cut your pieces too large, the butter and the honey will not be able to penetrate to the center of each piece.

Otherwise, this honey baklava is incredibly straightforward and so delicious. Hope you enjoy it as much as my family has for the last several decades!

More baklava

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Cardamom Honey Baklava

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  • Prep Time: 35 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 1/2 hours
  • Yield: approximately 3 to 6 dozen pieces (depending on how you slice them)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks / 8 ounces) butter*, plus an extra tablespoon for greasing
  • 16 ounces walnuts, about 4 cups medium-chopped
  • 5 ounces powdered sugar, about 1 cup
  • 2 tablespoons ground cardamom
  • 16-ounce container of filo dough sheets (do not open until the recipe tells you to)
  • 2 cups honey (1.5 lb)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  2. Use the extra tablespoon of butter to grease a 12″ x 16″ rimmed sheet pan.
  3. Melt the 2 sticks of butter.
  4. While the butter is melting, combine chopped walnuts, powdered sugar, and cardamom, and set aside.
  5. Once the butter has melted, get a fine mesh strainer ready (if you don’t have a mesh strainer, spoon the foam off the top of the butter) and then open the filo dough container.
  6. Place half of the filo dough on the sheet pan.
  7. Spread the chopped walnut mixture evenly over the filo dough.
  8. Place the rest of the filo dough on top of the walnut mixture.
  9. Cut the baklava into diamonds by slicing straight across in one direction, then diagonally in the other direction (see photos above). It’s best to work with a very sharp or serrated knife so that you don’t tear, stretch, or dishevel the filo. It’s alright if a few of the pieces go a little awry, but you want everything to stay pretty lined up.
  10. Pour the butter through the sieve to capture the foam, slowly drizzling it evenly all over the baklava.
  11. Cook the baklava in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes**, until it has lightly browned. (Start checking after 15 minutes of baking).
  12. As soon as it comes out of the oven, immediately pour the honey evenly over the top.
  13. Immediately top with ground pistachios.
  14. Let it sit until it comes to room temperature, at least one hour.
  15. Cut through the same lines you made before baking and serve.

Notes

* You can use either salted or unsalted butter. My mom and grandmother use unsalted, but I use salted. If you like your baked goods well-seasoned, salted works great.

** 20 to 30 minutes results in very traditional lightly browned baklava, but you can let it bake for up to another 10 minutes if you prefer yours to be more golden brown. Just keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Note: If you have any leftover baklava, you can freeze it and turn it into baklava frozen yogurt. To store, keep in the refrigerator for about 1 week or the freezer for about 3 months. For more baklava, also feel free to check out my recipe for vegan baklava.

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Note: This was the first blog post I ever wrote about a recipe that is very near to my heart. I wanted to rewrite the post to be more straightforward for people looking for a recipe for honey baklava, but I wanted to save the original post somewhere. You can find the original post here now!