Yes, I am going to write a whole blog post on that milk. I spend so much time devoted to the frothy, white liquid I thought it was only right.
Every night I have to determine the amount of milk I would like for the following day. I pull off the appropriate amount of tickets and tuck them into the door and add a bag to collect them. In the morning the milk man and a boy collect my tickets and deposit the milk in the bag. Usually this happens prior to my waking. So when I finally drag myself out of bed, I open the door to find a bag of milk in bags and my newspaper. I carry my bundle to the kitchen and begin my morning burden.
This milk has been pasteurized but because nothing in India is a sure deal, everyone boils it as well. There is a great art to boiling milk and the first step down this path is DO NOT WALK AWAY. Traditionally when a family moves into a new home there is a house warming puja done and to end this puja the woman of the house boils milk and lets it overflow. The same way the milk flows, goodness will flow into the house. Well, I gotta tell ya, there should be a whole lot of goodness going on in our place. Flip will call me from the potty and I think if I run I can make it. Or Star screams bloody murder and when I come running she has a hair tie stuck in her hair. And just to take the blame off my sweet muffins, occasionally I will put the milk on and walk away for a quick errand only to hear that very delicate sound of the milk hissing along the sides of the pot as it creeps up. I have learned to be nimble. I run over whisk it off the stove and immediately blow on the foam. 2 out of 5 times I am successful. The rest of the time Srinivas, the cook just curses me when he sees my stove top.
In fact this blowing technique is part of the art. In the beginning I chose too small of a pot and all kinds of mess ensued. Then I learned to choose the bigger pot. But then I had the larger pot and 2 packets of milk. The milk would begin boiling and I knew it had to boil for some time to kill all the potential dangerous microbes, but how to keep it boiling? I tried stirring it but this takes so much time and effort, not to mention a clean, long spoon. Being on limited funds, we have only purchased limited cooking supplies so there was never a guarantee a clean spoon was available. Then I learned not to keep the flame on low because it causes the milk to collect and burn the bottom of the pan. So now, I bring it to boil on a medium flame and turn it to a low flame when it boils. And I blow on the foam. As soon as it appears you give it a good gust of wind to break it up. And stay there. One time is not enough, you must keep a constant watch ready to blow on the milk at a moment's notice. (Yes, I am admitting I BLOW MY MILK, have your giggle and now get your minds out the gutter!)
After the milk boils for 3-4 minutes now I must undertake the process of cooling the milk. There are many ways to do this. Of course leaving it for a while works, but most of the time I have Flip beside me begging for milk and cereal so that is not an option. Many Indian mothers arise early in the morning and boil their milk in preparation for the young, but I am American. I sleep in as long as my kids will let me. Option 2 includes putting some milk into a smaller container and holding the bottom of the container in cool water. Option 3 is to pour the hot milk back and forth between 2 cups until it cools. This takes talent and practice to not spill and to hold the stainless steel cup just right so you don't burn your finger pads onto the cup. Flip loves this as it makes the milk foam up and she can eat the bubbles. Option 4 is put it in the freezer. Option 5 is add ice cubes. Makes you just want to reach for that jug of cold milk in your fridge right now. Not to drink it but to just daydream about how easy it is to make your kid a bowl of cereal in the morning. Don't rub it in!
And now comes the straining. The milk is not homogenized so once it cools there is a layer of fat on top. So if in India and someone gives you a nice not cup of coffee or tea, drink it down. If you leave it to cool, you will have to decide what to do with the film on top. Do you close your eyes and slurp it down? Do you try to remove it with a strainer or spoon? That often requires getting up from the spot I have just plopped myself. So I have worked out a way to take a sip from one side so that gravity brings the film to the side of the cup and sticks there. Then I turn my cup to the other side and gently sip from the fat-film-free side. Yes, I am always a Southern Belle with the most impeccable manners. That is until the film breaks apart and a bit lands on my lip and my daughters start laughing at me.
Flip has a HUGE aversion to this fat. She can point out the tiny piece in her bowl of cereal and will turn down chocolate milk in a heartbeat if it has sat too long and succumbed to the fat-film. So timing the heating, the cooling, and the straining perfectly with her attention span is quite impossible these days. Often she declares she wants cereal but by the time it is ready she is in the next room screaming because Marvel has told her she can not use the IPad, so the film comes and then I have to spend 5 minutes picking out the pieces of fat from her corn flakes.
Then a couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to meet our upstairs neighbors who happen to have one of the only organic dairy farms in India.
http://www.oxygenacres.com
This guy was a software engineer in the US for 15 years before returning home to Mysore with his wife and 3 kids. When they arrived there was a huge scandal that broke loose about milk, very similar to this one that just happened a couple of days ago.
In an attempt to make more profits some distributors diluted their milk with non-dairy items including caustic acid and washing powder. The software engineer decided since he had a farm, he should get a cow to provide milk for his family. Soon friends asked if they could have fresh milk as well and his farm has grown and grown. We visited the farm last weekend and it was fabulous. They grow organic grasses on the farm as well as algae to feed the cattle. The rest of the feed they import and do their best to use organic products. Here is a photo of the girls feeding the cows some of those organic grasses.
The farm uses the cow poop to turn into methane gas and run their generator off of it. They are completely off the grid. We signed up as quickly as possible. Even though we now get our milk from "happy cows" I still have devote a portion of my day to milk, but it seems to be a bit easier now. I have to purchase 2 liters a day, that's the minimum. I boil it all at once in our one giant pot, cool it, skim it and pour it into a pitcher that we put in the fridge for easy access cold milk. The girls are much happier with this milk, not only is it cold like they like but it tastes so much better.
There are little things like Oxygen Acres that make our time in India so much nicer.
Every night I have to determine the amount of milk I would like for the following day. I pull off the appropriate amount of tickets and tuck them into the door and add a bag to collect them. In the morning the milk man and a boy collect my tickets and deposit the milk in the bag. Usually this happens prior to my waking. So when I finally drag myself out of bed, I open the door to find a bag of milk in bags and my newspaper. I carry my bundle to the kitchen and begin my morning burden.
This milk has been pasteurized but because nothing in India is a sure deal, everyone boils it as well. There is a great art to boiling milk and the first step down this path is DO NOT WALK AWAY. Traditionally when a family moves into a new home there is a house warming puja done and to end this puja the woman of the house boils milk and lets it overflow. The same way the milk flows, goodness will flow into the house. Well, I gotta tell ya, there should be a whole lot of goodness going on in our place. Flip will call me from the potty and I think if I run I can make it. Or Star screams bloody murder and when I come running she has a hair tie stuck in her hair. And just to take the blame off my sweet muffins, occasionally I will put the milk on and walk away for a quick errand only to hear that very delicate sound of the milk hissing along the sides of the pot as it creeps up. I have learned to be nimble. I run over whisk it off the stove and immediately blow on the foam. 2 out of 5 times I am successful. The rest of the time Srinivas, the cook just curses me when he sees my stove top.
In fact this blowing technique is part of the art. In the beginning I chose too small of a pot and all kinds of mess ensued. Then I learned to choose the bigger pot. But then I had the larger pot and 2 packets of milk. The milk would begin boiling and I knew it had to boil for some time to kill all the potential dangerous microbes, but how to keep it boiling? I tried stirring it but this takes so much time and effort, not to mention a clean, long spoon. Being on limited funds, we have only purchased limited cooking supplies so there was never a guarantee a clean spoon was available. Then I learned not to keep the flame on low because it causes the milk to collect and burn the bottom of the pan. So now, I bring it to boil on a medium flame and turn it to a low flame when it boils. And I blow on the foam. As soon as it appears you give it a good gust of wind to break it up. And stay there. One time is not enough, you must keep a constant watch ready to blow on the milk at a moment's notice. (Yes, I am admitting I BLOW MY MILK, have your giggle and now get your minds out the gutter!)
After the milk boils for 3-4 minutes now I must undertake the process of cooling the milk. There are many ways to do this. Of course leaving it for a while works, but most of the time I have Flip beside me begging for milk and cereal so that is not an option. Many Indian mothers arise early in the morning and boil their milk in preparation for the young, but I am American. I sleep in as long as my kids will let me. Option 2 includes putting some milk into a smaller container and holding the bottom of the container in cool water. Option 3 is to pour the hot milk back and forth between 2 cups until it cools. This takes talent and practice to not spill and to hold the stainless steel cup just right so you don't burn your finger pads onto the cup. Flip loves this as it makes the milk foam up and she can eat the bubbles. Option 4 is put it in the freezer. Option 5 is add ice cubes. Makes you just want to reach for that jug of cold milk in your fridge right now. Not to drink it but to just daydream about how easy it is to make your kid a bowl of cereal in the morning. Don't rub it in!
And now comes the straining. The milk is not homogenized so once it cools there is a layer of fat on top. So if in India and someone gives you a nice not cup of coffee or tea, drink it down. If you leave it to cool, you will have to decide what to do with the film on top. Do you close your eyes and slurp it down? Do you try to remove it with a strainer or spoon? That often requires getting up from the spot I have just plopped myself. So I have worked out a way to take a sip from one side so that gravity brings the film to the side of the cup and sticks there. Then I turn my cup to the other side and gently sip from the fat-film-free side. Yes, I am always a Southern Belle with the most impeccable manners. That is until the film breaks apart and a bit lands on my lip and my daughters start laughing at me.
Flip has a HUGE aversion to this fat. She can point out the tiny piece in her bowl of cereal and will turn down chocolate milk in a heartbeat if it has sat too long and succumbed to the fat-film. So timing the heating, the cooling, and the straining perfectly with her attention span is quite impossible these days. Often she declares she wants cereal but by the time it is ready she is in the next room screaming because Marvel has told her she can not use the IPad, so the film comes and then I have to spend 5 minutes picking out the pieces of fat from her corn flakes.
Then a couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to meet our upstairs neighbors who happen to have one of the only organic dairy farms in India.
http://www.oxygenacres.com
This guy was a software engineer in the US for 15 years before returning home to Mysore with his wife and 3 kids. When they arrived there was a huge scandal that broke loose about milk, very similar to this one that just happened a couple of days ago.
In an attempt to make more profits some distributors diluted their milk with non-dairy items including caustic acid and washing powder. The software engineer decided since he had a farm, he should get a cow to provide milk for his family. Soon friends asked if they could have fresh milk as well and his farm has grown and grown. We visited the farm last weekend and it was fabulous. They grow organic grasses on the farm as well as algae to feed the cattle. The rest of the feed they import and do their best to use organic products. Here is a photo of the girls feeding the cows some of those organic grasses.
The farm uses the cow poop to turn into methane gas and run their generator off of it. They are completely off the grid. We signed up as quickly as possible. Even though we now get our milk from "happy cows" I still have devote a portion of my day to milk, but it seems to be a bit easier now. I have to purchase 2 liters a day, that's the minimum. I boil it all at once in our one giant pot, cool it, skim it and pour it into a pitcher that we put in the fridge for easy access cold milk. The girls are much happier with this milk, not only is it cold like they like but it tastes so much better.
There are little things like Oxygen Acres that make our time in India so much nicer.
glad you found the organic place!
ReplyDeleteand, glad to see you have some chores during the day, thought you were gonna come back to america with a real shocker that you have to cook and clean again :-) between this and basil, you'll be able to jump right back in :)