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At Kefi on the Upper West Side, chef Michael Psilakis has been making homemade yogurt since he was a little boy.

“Every time I think about yogurt, it really brings me back home,” says Psilakis. “Especially with my mother, I remember being probably about five, six years old, and I think it was just to kind of get me out of her feet. She would sit me on a counter, there was four of us, and I was the oldest, so she would pick me up and put me on the counter, and she would have me help her making different things. One of the things I really remember us making together was yogurt.”

Greek yogurt is usually a blend of goat and cow's milk that’s been strained overnight to make it extra thick. Psilakis has been surprising his diners with the tangy, super fresh stuff for years.

“When I first started cooking Greek food here in New York City about ten years ago, I would bring out yogurt and people would eat it and be amazed by it,” says Psilakis. “They couldn't believe it.”

Served with fresh fruit, honey, and salted seeds, real yogurt is decadence, not diet food. Since this is Eat Drink Local Week, it’s worth trying to make it at home.

“It really is just a process of using really good milk and then taking a little bit of care,” says Psilakis.

To make yogurt, Psilakis mixes regular milk with goat’s milk from Coach Farms upstate and brings that to a boil. When it cools to 110 degrees, he pours in a little bit of yogurt mixed with milk. Then he waits.

“Believe it or not, we're just gonna put it in an oven,” says Psilakis. “We're not gonna turn it on, we're just gonna put it in the oven. It's gonna keep it at 105 to 110 degrees, and that's going to allow the organisms to start to actually process and become yogurt.”

It’s easy! For more detailed instructions, visit EdibleManhattan.com.