YOGURT CHEESE - 'LABANEE', IN ARABIC

Yogurt Cheese - 'Labanee', in Arabic image

This recipe provides a great non-fat replacement for sour cream or cream cheese. It will easily keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. We usually make a big batch and use it for a lot of different things, topping for baked potatoes along with the other usual goodies; as a base for dips or creamy salad dressings, something to enhance a gravy or sauce, just as you would use sour cream or cream cheese. We always have some in the refrigerator!

Provided by Toby Jermain

Categories Lebanese

Time P1D

Yield 2-4 cups, depending on thickness

Number Of Ingredients 3

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Ingredients

2 quarts yogurt (Non-fat, low-fat, or full-fat are all OK. Pick a brand with a minimal amount of gelatin, pectin, or)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
extra virgin olive oil (very optional)

Steps:

Although the original recipe doesn’t call for non-fat yogurt, non-fat works fine.
Some recipes almost demand a little fat to smooth their texture on the tongue.
This can be provided by beating a little bit of mayonnaise or olive oil into the non-fat yogurt cheese.
It’s still fat, but at least it’s cholesterol free fat.
If you are skinny and don’t have to worry about dietary fat, you can use low-fat or whole-milk yogurt, and then you won’t have to worry about adding oil.
Bring 2 quarts of yogurt to room temperature, and stir thoroughly to smooth and break up all lumps.
Optionally, you can add ½ Tsp salt (original recipe, we usually don’t, because we use this for so many different things).
Line a colander with a couple of dampened paper towels or a clean, dampened, loose weave cotton towel.
Pour yogurt into the colander, cover with another paper towel or plastic wrap.
Place in the sink, or in a bowl which is small enough to hold the colander away from its bottom.
Let drain for about 8 hours for sour cream consistency or for 24 hours for cream cheese consistency; the longer it drains, the thicker it gets.
If you are a real freak, you can refrigerate the yogurt while it drains, but it’s not really necessary.
Yogurt is a living organism; it is cultured in warmth, and it thrives on it (within reason).
Draining will normally reduce the yogurt by about half for sour cream consistency, or by about two-thirds for cream cheese consistency.
We normally go all the way to cream cheese consistency and mix in a little low-fat milk if we need it thinner.