Writers' Block
a contribution from our AWA Writers' Group members Written by Amanda Jaffe
Zen and the Art of Making Yogurt My Instant Pot was stressing me out. In the course of a month, I’d left Singapore and landed, hard, back in the United States. Like the clothes I’d left behind when we first headed to Southeast Asia, my life in America wasn’t fitting quite like it used to. So, in a moment of weakness, I’d succumbed to the promise of the Instant Pot, a life-changing pressure cooker. Surely, the power to produce miraculous soups and stupendous stews in minutes would help.
2018
It wasn’t helping. After a week, I’d managed to make rice. The Instant Pot sat recriminatingly on my kitchen counter, embodying everything that felt wrong The Instant Pot is all about pressure, an awesome force. The Earth’s pressure literally turns carbon into diamonds. Of course, that requires 725,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, while the Instant Pot operates at fifteen. But even at a pathetic fifteen psi, the Instant Pot can make literally almost anything other than diamonds. I’d approached its force with the coequal force of my determination -- devouring recipes, Googling pressure-cooking theory, studying conventional-to-pressure-cooking conversion charts. All that force had yielded was rice. But now, I’ve discovered the “yogurt” setting, that corner of the Instant Pot universe where the brute force of pressure yields to the lifegiving force of nurturing warmth. If pressure cooking captures the zeitgeist of my current life, then yogurt making represents the promise of a more zen existence. Like yin balances yang. The secret to meditation is carrying the lessons of one meditation to the next. Likewise, the key to turning milk into yogurt is yogurt. Specifically, yogurt containing active cultures. My husband fails to appreciate the simple beauty in this: “Honey, can you put yogurt with active cultures on the shopping list? I want to make yogurt.” “If you want to make yogurt, why do we need yogurt?” -- 16 18 --
“To make yogurt.” Snort. Making yogurt begins with boiling milk, then cooling it to just above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. It turns out cooling milk to a specific temperature is an excellent lesson in learning to do something right by doing it wrong – like focusing on your breathing. My process (become distracted and allow milk to get too cool; reheat milk; repeat) enlightens me. Eventually, I manage to break the cycle, add my starter yogurt, and set the Instant Pot to “Ferment.” To become yogurt, the milk-and-yogurt combination must sit quietly for eight hours at a constant temperature. It’s the meditative heart of the process, and I approach it with the wrong attitude. I feel empowered by the fact that I can say multitask-y things like, “I’m going for a walk, and I’m making yogurt.” Or, “I’m doing laundry, and I’m making yogurt.” Or even, “I’m writing about making yogurt, and I’m making yogurt.” As in a good meditation, my mind returns to the yogurt throughout the day. A new thought emerges.
My sense of empowerment is unearned. I’m not “making yogurt.” The yogurt is making itself. What I have done is create a non-pressurized, nurturing environment where active yogurt cultures can live their best yogurt-making lives. Later, as eight hours draw to a close, I wonder whether this, too, is false enlightenment. What have I done beyond flipping a switch and allowing time to pass? But sometimes a switch-flip and time is all we need. I open my Instant Pot with humility to find a calm, beautiful pot of yogurt. And, as I set some yogurt aside for next time, I realize I feel better than I have in days. The AWA Writers’ Group meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more information, send an email to writers@ awasingapore.org AWA Magazine - Mar/Apr 2021
