How to make trahana from scratch at home
Ingredients
- 1 kg of pasteurized natural pot set yoghurt, see notes1
- 1 ½ tbs salt
- 400 g kibbled wheat, cleaned of any impurities, see notes 2
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, see notes 3
Instructions
-
The first step is to allow the yoghurt to ferment for a week. Let the bucket of yoghurt rest at room temperature (outside of the fridge) with no direct sunlight hitting it. I tend to leave it inside the house on the kitchen bench. Once you open the bucket of yoghurt you’ll notice that the yoghurt would have curdled, which is what is supposed to happen. So don’t panic!
-
After the week has passed, use a large pot to softly bring the yoghurt with the salt to a soft boil. Lower the heat and add the wheat, while stirring until everything is well combined. At this point pour the lemon juice slowly into the mixture, only if you need to. Please read the blog above before pouring the lemon juice. It is all dependent on the type of yoghurt you use and the way you like to eat trahana.
-
Continue to stir regularly until the liquid is absorbed. This may take anywhere between 15-20min. You will know the mixture is ready to be taken off the heat if you add a wooden spoon standing in the middle of the pot and doesn’t fall to the side.
-
Once you take the pot off the heat cover it with a towel followed by the lid. Set aside for 3-4 hours until it cools down.
-
Then grab some of the mixture and roll it into long flattened logs using your hands. If the mixture is too dry use a bit of milk or water on your hands to help you roll it. I formed 12 logs each weighing 100g. That will then assist you when making the actual soup to know how much to use each time (see notes 4).
-
Freeze the trahana logs in sealed freezer bags to use when you need. Read more about the storage options in the blog post above. A recipe of how to make the soup using this homemade trahana is linked here!
Recipe Notes
1. Traditionally goat’s or sheep’s yoghurt is used but you can make it with cow’s yoghurt if the first two are not accessible. Check the start of the blog under the heading “Type of yoghurt used” for more details.
2. You can substitute the kibbled wheat with medium/coarse bulgur depending on what you can source. Check the start of the blog under the heading “Bulgur or Kibbled wheat” for more details.
3. For a more sour soup you add lemon juice into the goat's/sheep's and normal cow's yoghurt. It gives it an even more tangy flavour in comparison to the mixture without lemon juice. Although the yoghurt was fermenting for a week. This was the case with the Procal and goat's/sheep yoghurt. But if you choose to use the Sahara Persian natural pot set, I found that the lemon juice was not necessary.
4. The amount of trahana you make using 1kg of yoghurt is enough to then make the actual soup twice for four people, based on my calculations and methods. Hence if you want to enjoy this soup more than twice then you should at least double the amount of this recipe.