Milk

by Mark Kurlansky

  Indian farmers still make ghee, but most urban Indians buy ghee ready-made.

  Both milk and butter are central to Hindu ritual. Traditionally, a few drops of ghee were sprinkled on rice as a purification ritual before beginning a meal. Kings were anointed with ghee, and princesses bathed in ghee. It was also used as a cosmetic to improve the complexion. Cow urine was once greatly valued and sipped during certain ceremonies, and cow dung, valued as fuel, was also smeared on the family hearth during certain purification ceremonies. The best purification material, panchagavya, was a blend of the five valuable products given by the cow—milk, urine, dung, curds, and ghee. Note that meat was not on this list.

  Early on, restrictions were placed on drinking milk. Colostrum was forbidden. It was forbidden to consume the milk of a pregnant cow or a cow in heat or a cow that was suckling its own calf or the calf of another cow. This last restriction cost the dairy farmer a great deal of milk, and is anathema to most commercial dairy farmers.

  The later religions of Buddhism and Jainism also have a special regard for milk, though the Jains, who must not kill, have to strain it through cheesecloth to make sure that there are no insects or living creatures of any kind in it. For Muslims, milk has significance as one of the special foods used to break fasts.

  The gentle, reflective-looking, and you might even say soft-spoken cow was an excellent symbol for the Hindu ideal of a gentle, reflective-looking, and soft-spoken human. In ancient times, most Indians not only refrained from eating cattle, they seldom ate meat of any kind. Between the Hindu rejection of beef and the Muslim rejection of pork, India has the most evolved vegetarian cuisine in the world. But they are far from vegan. Their food, vegetarian as well as meat dishes, often involves dairy products. In fact, despite the dairy-obsessed Dutch, Swiss, and Scandinavians, there is no cuisine that uses more dairy than Indian.

  Paneer is a simple, often homemade cheese from the Punjab region along the Pakistani border. A simple, fresh cheese, it is made by adding acid to milk, which causes it to curdle, and then draining off the whey. Paneer is often cooked with vegetables such as spinach and often served with sauces that have other dairy ingredients. Paneer Makhani, cheese in a tomato cream sauce, is a Punjabi dish that has become an Indian classic. This recipe is from the India Cookbook, a one-thousand-recipe book by the food critic and historian Pushpesh Pant, who has tried to be the Ada Boni of Indian food and define this varied cuisine. An Indian cream sauce, even by nineteenth-century French standards, is very sophisticated. Note that here butter, not ghee, is used to create a rich sautéed cheese, and then vegetable oil rather than ghee is used for the frying to avoid using too much butter:

  3 medium tomatoes, chopped

  3 ½ tablespoons butter

  10 ounces paneer cut in cubes

  4 tablespoons vegetable oil

  1 tablespoon chili powder

  2–3 teaspoons ground green cardamom

  1 teaspoon Garum Masala [a very popular spice blend that can be bought preblended. It includes cumin, ginger, cardamom, cloves and several other spices]

  2 tablespoons ginger paste

  2 tablespoons garlic paste

  1 tablespoon poppy seeds

  2 tablespoons crushed ginger

  1 bay leaf

  3–4 cloves

  2 cinnamon sticks about 1 inch long

  1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves, crushed

  1 teaspoon sugar

  ½ cup light cream

  salt

  4 tablespoons coriander (cilantro) leaves to garnish

  Blanch the tomatoes by putting them in a large heatproof bowl of boiling water for 30 seconds, then plunge them in cold water. Remove the skin and chop the flesh.

  Heat the butter in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, add the paneer and fry for about 8–10 minutes until evenly golden brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and soak in a bowl of water to keep succulent.

  Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add the tomatoes and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add all the ground spices, the ginger and garlic pastes and poppy seeds and continue frying 2–3 minutes or until the oil starts separating out. Add the bay leaf, cloves, and cinnamon and pour in 1 cup of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook over high heat for 5–7 minutes. Reduce the heat and simmer for another 3–4 minutes, or until the sauce is thick. Add the fenugreek, sugar, and cream, then stir, remove from the heat, and set aside.

  Add the paneer to the sauce, season with salt and heat before serving. Garnish with coriander leaves.

  Both vegetarian and meat dishes frequently had yogurt sauces. Cooking has always been the most popular use of yogurt in India. Before independence in 1947, India had about six hundred royal fiefdoms, each ruled by a maharaja or, in the case of a woman, a maharani. In the book Dining with the Maharajas, Neha Prasada compiled recipes from this aristocracy. This one comes from Kashmir in the far north. The dish is called til ande ka achar, eggs with yogurt sauce:

  Eggs, hard boiled, halved lengthwise 5

  Nepalese spice [Timur and Jimbu (these truly are from Nepal but are also popular in northern India. Timur is not a true pepper, but tastes like one. Jimbu is in the onion family and is a bit like a scallion.)] / a pinch

  Cumin seeds ½ tsp

  Whole red chilis 4

  Sesame seeds 6 tbsp

  Garlic pods [cloves] 4

  Ginger [root] 1 inch

  Salt to taste

  Yogurt 14 ounces

  Juice of lemon 2

  Mustard oil 1 tbsp

  Fenugreek seeds ½ tsp

  Green chilies 4 [the long medium-heat Indian variety]

  Turmeric powder 1 tsp

  Red chili powder ¼ tsp

  Green coriander leaves (cilantro) 1 tsp

  Arrange the eggs on a dish.

  Heat the Nepalese spices and cumin seed on a griddle.

  Heat on a griddle, but separately, whole red chilies, sesame seeds, garlic, and ginger. Remove the skin of the garlic after heating.

  Grind the above spices in a mixie [food processor or blender; a coffee grinder would also work well]. Add salt to it.

  To the yogurt add the above spice mix, salt and lemon juice. [Add the lemon juice a small amount at a time.]

  Heat the mustard oil, add the fenugreek seeds, green chilies, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and green coriander leaves: mix well. Remove and pour over the yogurt mixture.

  Pour the above mixture over the eggs.

  Though meat was often cooked in yogurt, it was sometimes cooked in fresh milk. Archana Pidathala, from the southern city of Chennai, collected the recipes of her grandmother, Nirmala Reddy, from the 1920s. This is her recipe for chicken drumsticks in a milk stew, mumagakaya palu posina kura. Chicken and lamb are the two most common meats in India, because both Hindus and Muslims eat them.

  4 young tender drumsticks

  ½ tsp salt

  1 tbsp vegetable oil

  ½ tsp mustard seeds

  4 garlic cloves peeled

  10–15 fresh curry leaves [curry trees are native to southern India and the leaves can be bought at Indian spice shops]

  1 onion finely chopped

  2 green chilies slit halfway though

  a pinch of turmeric powder

  salt to taste

  1 cup warm milk

  2–3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves to garnish

  Wash the drumsticks and lightly scrape the skin with a peeler or very sharp knife and cut into 2-inch pieces.

  Boil 3 cups of water with ½ teaspoon of salt in a large vessel. And add the drumstick pieces. Cook on medium heat for 8–10 minutes or until the drumsticks are tender, but just short of fully cooked. To check whether it’s just right, take a piece, cool slightly, press out a pod. Pop the pod into your mouth; it should be soft with a slight crunch. If cooked, drain the pieces in a colander and set aside.

  Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan over high heat until very hot. Add the mustard seeds and when they sputter, add the garlic cloves an
d curry leaves, and sauté for a minute. Add the onions, green chilies, and turmeric powder and salt, fry for 3–4 minutes.

  Once the drumsticks are cooked through, add the coriander powder and give it a stir. Now reduce the heat to low and slowly pour in the milk. Simmer on low heat for a minute, stir, and take the pan off the heat. Do not cook for longer at this stage, as the milk will curdle. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot, steamed rice.

  India also has many dairy desserts. This one, phirni, is from the Kashmir region and is included in Prasada’s Dining with the Maharajas:

  Milk 8 cups

  Green cardamom 1 tsp

  Almond slivers 24

  Semolina, soaked in enough water to cover 12 tbsp

  Sugar 9 tbsp

  Cashew nuts ½ cup

  Saffron mixed in milk ¼ tsp

  Pistachios 2 tbsp

  Boil the milk with green cardamoms. Add the almond slivers and soaked semolina; cook for twenty minutes, stirring continuously, so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

  Add the sugar and mix well.

  Grind the cashew nut with water in a mixie and add 6 tbsp of cashew nut paste to the above mixture.

  Add the saffron mixture and pistachios. Transfer into a dish and refrigerate. Serve cold garnished with saffron, pistachios, and almonds.

  Halwa is one of the most popular dairy desserts in India. It was originally Arab and was brought to India by the Moguls, a Muslim dynasty of Mongol origin who ruled much of India from their capital of Agra from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Arab halwa had no dairy in it. It was the Indians who made it a dairy dish. The most popular halwa, an Indian standard, is gajar halwa, or carrot halwa, which was invented in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

  It was also in the sixteenth century that the Dutch, through the use of carotene, developed the first orange carrot. Previously, carrots were either pale yellow or purple, varieties that still exist. But the orange carrot was sweeter. According to popular food mythology, the orange carrot was developed in the mid-to-late 1600s to honor King William of Orange, but in actuality, it already existed before he was born. When the orange carrot appeared in Mogul India, there was great excitement. Vegetable halwas had started to become popular, and if there is one thing Indians truly love, it’s bright, deep colors. Carrot halwa became, and has remained, a very popular dessert. This is Pushpesh Pant’s classic recipe:

  ½ cup ghee

  7 ½ ounces grated carrot

  2 ounces heavy cream

  ½ cup sugar

  2 tablespoons slivered almonds

  ½ teaspoon ground cardamom

  1 teaspoon rosewater (optional)

  ¼ cup chopped pistachios and slivered almonds to decorate

  Heat the ghee in a large heavy-based pan, add the grated carrots and bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and cook, uncovered, at a slow boil for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

  Add the cream and continue to cook, uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the sugar and almonds and continue cooking for another 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to stick to the base of the pan. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the cardamom and rosewater, if using. Serve decorated with chopped pistachios and slivered almonds.

  The earliest known mention of kulfi is in the Ain-i-Akbari, a 1590 book on the administration of the sixteenth-century Mogul emperor Akbari. It gave a recipe for kulfi that called for a mass of khoa, a handmade concentrated milk. Condensed milk came later; today the milk is simply concentrated in the cooking process. Chopped pistachios and essence of kesar (saffron) are added. The mixture was frozen in a metal cone and sealed with wheat dough. The metal cone itself, the kulfi, was a word of Persian origin. Heavy cream, sugar, corn starch, cardamom, and sometimes dried fruit were also added. It is still prepared this way, still frozen in a metal cone, and sold on the street by kulfiwalas.

  The British tended to sneer at kulfi and brought in machines to make European ice cream, but kulfi has always been popular with Indians. It is one of the oldest forms of ice cream. Though numerous writers point toward making it with condensed milk, most modern recipes specify fresh milk. The trick is to concentrate the milk. Here is Pant’s modern kulfi recipe, a basic recipe to which various ingredients such as cardamom, mangoes, pistachios, or dried fruit can be added. The conical kulfi molds are easy to find in specialty shops or online:

  3 ½ pints whole milk

  ¾ cup sugar

  ⅓ cup ground almonds

  A few drops kewra water [a fragrant extract made from the male flower of the panderus plant, commonly used in cooking in northern India and in Arab countries and sometimes used in perfume]

  Bring the milk to a boil in a large, heavy-based pan. Then reduce the heat and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for 45 minutes until the milk is reduced to less than half its volume. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the ground almonds and kewra water and allow to cool.

  When the milk mixture is cool pour it into kulfi molds, leaving about 1 inch at the top for the frozen kulfi to expand. Seal firmly with lids and freeze for about 8–10 hours, or until frozen.

  To serve, hold the cones under tepid water briefly, then remove the lid from the mold. Run a sharp knife around the inside edge and slip out the kulfi onto a plate. Kulfi must be served semi-frozen and not soft like ice cream.

  Though khoa, which is boiled-down milk solids, is not used in kulfi anymore, it is still made and has many uses. Indian cooks give a great deal of attention to the different densities of boiled milk. (Nineteenth-century Americans, such as Rufus Estes, who had the recipe for a baked milk dish, also paid attention to boiled milk.) Milk boiled to half its volume is panapaka; to one third, leyapaka; to one sixth, gutipaka; and to one eighth, sharkarpaka, or khoa. South Americans boil down sweetened condensed milk to make dulce de leche. Condensed milk is a shortcut for making reduced milks because it is already panapaka.

  Here is Pant’s recipe for making khoa from 3½ pints of whole milk:

  Put the milk in a kadhai [a pot for making khoa], wok, or deep, heavy-based pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring after every five minutes, until the milk is reduced by half. Stirring constantly and continually scraping in the dried layer of milk that sticks to the sides of the pan, continue to cook until reduced to a mash potato consistency. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool. When cool this paste can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It can also be dried and stored as a solid: spoon the paste onto a clean piece of muslin (cheesecloth), then place in the sink, weigh down with something heavy and leave to drain for about 1 hour. The resulting solid should be stored in the refrigerator and can be grated or crumbled as required.

  From Mahmudabad, once one of India’s largest feudal estates, in the north near Agra, comes a dish made with lamb and small balls of khoa. Khoa is also used to make a number of milk candies. When heavily sugared, it becomes burfi; and if cardamom is added, it becomes pedas. Milk candies are extremely popular in India and Sri Lanka.

  Milk candies are not unique to India. The British have toffee, butterscotch, and cream caramels. In New Orleans, pralines are made with milk, cream, sugar, and pecans. In the Philippines, there are milk bars that are often made with condensed milk, and pastillas de leche, which are made with buffalo milk.

  This is a recipe for a milk sweet called kalakand, from the northern state of Rajasthan, near Pakistan:

  Ghee for greasing

  2 ¼ pounds khoa, grated

  1 cup sugar

  1 tablespoon unsalted pistachio nuts, blanched and slivered

  Grease a large baking sheet with ghee.

  Heat the khoa in a kildhai [or a kadhai] or large, heavy-based pan, then bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a flat spoon for five minutes. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

  Transf
er immediately to the greased tray and level with a spatula. Sprinkle the pistachios over the top and thump the tray on a table or on the floor to remove any air pockets. Leave it in a cool place to set for 15 minutes, then cut into pieces.

  Bengal, which straddles India and Bangladesh, is known for its milk sweets. Traditionally, a Bengali meal always ends with candy made from milk, and it is often served at weddings. Some Bengali candies are made from layered sar, the skins taken from the top of boiled milk.

  Bengal is also known for its very old ritualistic drinks. Among them is madhuparka—a blend of ghee, curd, milk, honey, and sugar—which is offered to a student leaving to study with a guru, to a guest upon her or his arrival, to a seven-months-pregnant woman, to a bridegroom arriving at a wedding, and at the birth of a child or most any other important event.

  Today, pasteurized milk is widely available and easy to find in any neighborhood “milk bar,” which is a small dairy store. But throughout most of Indian history, a glass of safe, fresh milk to drink was a luxury item that only the wealthy could afford. And yet there have always been many milk-based drinks in India. Buttermilk was and still is extremely popular. I was invited to a cocktail party in Chennai, and at the last minute, the state government announced a dry day. Unable to serve cocktails at this elegant event at the city’s best hotel, women draped in a dazzling array of shimmering saris served buttermilk in handsome earthenware glasses.

  Lassi is another popular drink. Of Punjabi origin, the word “lassi” simply signifies yogurt mixed with water to make it drinkable. If a little sugar, pepper, and cumin are added, it is a namkin lassi, a salty lassi. Additional seasonings such as ginger, pistachios, blanched almonds, and green chilies make it a lassi masalewal, a spicy lassi. If just cardamom, rosewater, and saffron are added, it is a meethi lassi, or sweet lassi. Mangoes can be added to make a mango lassi, and strawberries to make a strawberry lassi. There are many lassis.

  In the early twentieth century, the British promoted tea with milk and sugar as a way to get Indians to buy more black tea. To the Indians, tea with milk and sugar demanded the addition of spices. The most famous versions of these drinks are from the state of Gujurat in the far northwest, a state associated with Gandhi because it was his base during his years of political activism. Elaichi ki chai is tea with cardamom, sugar, and milk. But the most famous black tea drink, and one popular throughout India, is masala chai. “Chai,” meaning tea, comes from a Chinese word by way of Persia. The word “tea” also comes from a Chinese word, but by way of the British.