Home & Lifestyle, Food
Brunch Spread: Labneh With Berries
Lesson time 19:05 min
Simple foods can showcase surprising contrasts. Find out how to heighten flavors as Yotam prepares pulverized berries, orange-infused oil, and labneh. Learn the art of presentation as Yotam creates this signature platter.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Labneh • Orange-Infused Oil • Berry Topping
Teaches Modern Middle Eastern Cooking
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
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[00:00:02.16] - I love berries and I love yogurt. And this is a yogurt and berry platter. [00:00:10.69] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:25.32] Normally, around the breakfast table, you'd find berries with yogurt, right? So I had to play around with that a little bit, because-- so it's just a little bit more interesting. And instead of the yogurt, I'm going to be serving labneh. Labneh is a strained yogurt, essentially. It's something that you find all around the Middle East. In Jerusalem and Palestinian restaurants, often you get a plate of labneh served as a meze with some mint, fresh or dried. And it really does sit there with the hummus, with the baba ganoush, with all the other elements. [00:00:57.49] And when you dip your first bit of pita in it and you put it in your mouth, you go like-- you wince, because it's so sharp. But then you can't stop, because you want more and more and more of that acidity, which is really what I love so much about labneh. [00:01:11.22] It's a bit like a cream cheese. So it's super creamy, it's spreadable, it's delicious. And you can use it for a million things that we'll talk about. But it's really, really lovely with berries. And I can't get enough of it. And I'm just going to show you quickly how you make labneh. And then we can make the whole dish. [00:01:35.16] So I've got here-- that's a call colander and it's lined with muslin. And if you don't have muslin, you can use any tea towel at home-- just one that you probably don't want to use again, because it becomes quite messy. And this is plain yogurt. And try to get yogurt, which is full fat, not reduced fat yogurt. Because labneh is supposed to be rich-- beautifully rich. And it's kind of creamy, so it's a bit like cream-- you really don't want to serve it with something which is low fat. That just doesn't work. [00:02:10.96] So I've got my full fat yogurt here and I added quite a lot of salt, about 3/4 of a teaspoon. And I'm just mixing it together so that the salt goes everywhere. And the salt draws the moisture out of the yogurt, so it will make it drain nicely. So you just mix it up really, really well. It's really nice to experiment with different types of yogurt when you make labneh. You can use cow, you can use goat, you can use sheep, but you can also use a mixture, which is really nice. Each one will give you a slightly different flavor. It's going to be a bit more tangy if you use sheep, slightly creamier if you use goat. It's really nice to experiment with different types of yogurt. [00:02:59.54] The salt is equally dispersed in the yogurt. And then it's just a case of getting the yogurt into the muslin. And I love the smell of fresh yogurt. The labneh is a whole different ballgame. It's just so creamy. And then you just kind of tuck it in nicely. And in order to get all that liquid out of the yogurt and make it as creamy as we want, you want to weigh it down a little bit. So you can take all those cans and put them on or anything else that you've...
About the Instructor
One of the most influential chefs working today, Yotam Ottolenghi creates dishes that layer color and flavor for maximum impact. Now the James Beard Award winner teaches you simple steps for making and mixing Middle Eastern–inspired recipes. Learn how to make generous platters—mezze and brunch spreads to homemade condiments, stunning stand-alones, and delicious vegetables—so you can entertain with ease.
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Yotam Ottolenghi
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
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