Yogurt with mangoes and peaches

We somehow ended up with South African peaches (marked down for quick sale) and Mexican honey mangoes in the fruit bowl today.  They provided a divine excuse to taste test our yogurt experiment.

My mom always made yogurt when I was a kid, but we're spoiled by good yogurt in the shops and have never quite got around to making our own.  This week, however, we were down to our last few spoonfuls, and, inspired by a Nigel Slater account, decided to have a go at replenishing our supplies, rather than popping across the road to Scotmid.

Our first go used a couple of tablespoons of Yeo Valley as starter.  It was okay, but a bit bland.  So then we tried Pakeeza, which turned out a little sour, but not much flavour.  Best of all so far was a little tub of 'Loch Arthur' which we bought specially for starter.  So, no money saved there. But it was really nice and made for yogurt that was just about right in terms of flavour and texture.

The preferred method so far is 500 ml whole fat milk, warmed for about 2 min in the microwave, until it reaches 46C.  Then stir in 3 tablespoons milk powder, and 2 generous tablespoons of starter.  Then, I sit it on a hot mat, and under a tea-cosy, in a warmed up (but turned off) oven.  Next morning, Voila! pop the yogurt in the fridge, and slice the mangoes.

Mangoes have started to appear...

Mango is without doubt our most popular chutney, if you measure popularity in terms of requests for the recipe (not to mention how quickly we run out).  It's actually a tremendously simple recipe from Delia, which we have hardly tweaked at all as it turns out so well.  

We usually make it in June when all the halaal shops have big boxes of Pakistani honey mangoes  but have had surprisingly good results with mangoes from Peru in February.  But this year, we've found honey mangoes from Mexico in the shops in May!

We always use a very dark muscovado sugar, in place of the light brown sugar that Delia recommends, which may be why some of our testers refuse to believe that we've not added tamarind. It's all those requests for the recipe that made me start the blog - as a place to share and reflect on our favourite recipes. 

This is shaping up to be a fabulous mango season - enjoy!