Making a mother yogurt starter from dried tamarind and dried chili pepper.
Some of you know of my interest in making a yogurt starter without starter bacteria or a prior container of yogurt. I was able to do this with fresh stems from red chili peppers and have been wanting to try another method someone posted about.
They said their mother-in-law used to use a dried tamarind and a dried chili pepper to start the starter.
I tried this last evening and I can say that it seems to work. I have Generation Zero and tonight I will be making Generation 1.
The final product is firm and thick like Greek yogurt. It has an aroma of the musky tamarind. The dried chili pepper has stained it a bit.
The tamarind came from one of our local asian chains -- H-Mart. The dried chili is a cascabel from Penzey's. Because the chili package warned that the seeds were quite hot, I removed them.
I have a slide show here
