Turmeric & Spice Milk: Golden Milk

As you likely already know, heating milk can be difficult, as it often sticks or even burns, and then cleaning the pan is not the least bit fun, unless you have some sort of self-hatred complex. I probably looked at 15 recipes for this drink, and many recommended using a heavy bottomed pan, as well as stirring constantly. Some cooks suggest that you add a small amount of water to the empty heavy bottomed pan, before adding the milk, and to heat the milk over low heat.

Some suggest this milk before bedtime to help you sleep, but I drank some a little while ago and I experienced no such ... zzzz, zzzz, zzz

 

Ingredients (2 servings or 3 small servings):

 

2 cups milk (or almond milk)

2 inch piece fresh ginger, grated

1 inch piece peeled fresh turmeric, grated (or 1 teaspoon ground turmeric)

2 inch cinnamon stick

2 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons honey

 

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat all of the ingredients, except the honey and the butter, over low heat, stirring or whisking constantly. When the milk is steaming, but not boiling, remove it from the heat and cover it; let it steep for about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the butter and honey, stir until the butter is melted and the honey is dissolved, and both are distributed through the milk. Strain into cups or into heat-proof glasses. You can sprinkle a little ground cinnamon, ground cardamom or ground turmeric on top.

 

I put a little ground cardamon on top ...

WORD HISTORY:

Cue-There is more than one word in English of this spelling, but this is the noun most commonly used in acting, and meaning, "a signal by words or action by one actor that another actor is to appear or perform in some way." This word is actually a bit of a mystery, although one explanation seems to make sense; that is, it is the phonetic spelling of the letter "Q" (mid 1500s?) from the Latin adverb "quando," which means "when," as the letter "Q" was often written on the scripts of performers to indicate when they were to appear, and/or, speak. "Quando" is related to quite a number of words, like "quote" (initially a verb), a Latin word borrowed from French, but with Latin influence, and to a number of "question words" like "when," "where," "who," "what," all from the Germanic roots of English, but related to the Latin word via the Indo European root "kwi/kwo." The verb form "cue" meaning "to give someone a prompt or signal to perform" is from the 1920s. (Note: The other forms of "cue" are not related.)      

Indian Almond Milk: Badam Milk (Badam Doodh)

This is an Indian/Pakistani almond milk drink. The only tough part, if you want to call it tough, is removing the skins from the almonds. If that's the toughest thing you ever experience in life, you'll have had a great life. Saffron is a very expensive spice and coloring additive for food made from the crocus plant and it is labor intensive to produce; thus, you are likely to pay $15 to $25 for a small jar or vial of the spice, which is appropriately golden colored. Saffron is easily available in spice shops, many supermarkets, and in many shops specializing in food products from the Mediterranean area, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Of course, it is available online.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings): 

 

32 ounces (1 quart) milk

40 almonds

2 tablespoons sugar 

1 tablespoon honey 

a good pinch of saffron threads (or 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

a small amount of saffron or turmeric to garnish each serving 

 

Put the almonds into a bowl and cover them with some hot water. Let sit for about 30 minutes, then drain the almonds. The skins should come off very easily and the almonds will be much softer too, which should help to smooth them when ground. Add the peeled almonds to a blender, then add about 1/3 cup milk and blend until like a smooth paste (add a little more milk if too thick). Heat the remaining milk, along with the sugar, honey, ground cardamom and either saffron or turmeric. Put the milk over medium heat until it approaches boiling, then reduce the heat to low, add the almond mixture, and keep stirring, you don't want the milk to burn or stick, which will give it a scorched taste. Once the milk begins to simmer, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove. Drink it warm or refrigerate it for several hours until chilled. You can strain the milk to remove any somewhat larger bits of almond. You can garnish each serving with a couple of saffron threads or a small sprinkle of ground turmeric.   

WORD HISTORY:

Denim-This word was originally used for a type of heavy woolen and silk fabric that was produced in Nîmes, with the name taken from the short French phrase "de Nîmes," meaning "from Nîmes," and the original fabric was called "serge de Nîmes." "Nîmes" goes back to the Roman name of the city, "Nemausus," which was taken from one of the Gaulish dialects of southern Gaul (now France) along the Mediterranean Sea. "Nemausus" was taken from the name of a god or spirit worshipped by the local ancient Gaulish tribe; thus, possibly meant to signify a "sanctified place." Seemingly circa 1700, the production process shifted more to the use of cotton, and by the 1840s American cloth producers were making the fabric as twilled cotton (often dyed blue) and simply called it "denim," a consolidation of "de Nîmes."     

The Way We Were, By Necessity

There have been many changes in how we buy and keep our food over the decades of my life, although there has been a gradual return by some consumers to the use of fewer preservatives in certain foods. I thought I'd jot down a few things to let younger folks read how things were, and to perhaps give their parents and grandparents a chance to say, "Yep, that's what we did back then." It's nice to look back, at times, to things from the past, as long as we remember to return to the present and look to the future.

Back when I was a kid, bread went stale within a day or two, and it would get moldy, even faster in warm weather. Not much air conditioning back then, as not only were the air conditioning units themselves expensive, but the amount of electricity the units used could have caused a horse to drop dead, if a horse could have read the electric bill. There were supermarkets back then, but not as many as there were a little later, and they were generally not as large as those of more modern times. There were many little "mom and pop" grocery stores in most places, and in cities, there were apt to be a couple of these stores, if not more, within a short walking distance across city neighborhoods. Most had deli cases with various lunch meats (also called "cold cuts") and cheeses, which they would slice to order for you, and some even would grind meat for you, or cut up pork for pork chops. Separate butcher shops were common back then too, and you could get fresh cut meats of just about any type, as well as sausages and smoked meats. The southern part of my neighborhood had a large Polish and (western) Ukrainian population, and one family store there made their own kielbasa, which drew in people from all over. Further, depending upon your state or local area, many bars sold basic food products like bread and milk, and also that great staple food of childhood, candy! With the money value so different back then compared to now, there was a section in each candy display case with "penny candy," as the term was. Little grocery stores and bars put your candy into little brown paper bags, and if your were lucky enough to have a dime, you could get one of these small bags pretty much filled up. My paternal grandfather once gave me a DOLLAR! I was the richest kid on the block; well, for a little while, at least. Most candy bars were like about 3 cents to 5 cents. Whether you called it soda or pop, some was a nickel a bottle, but others were 6 or 7 cents. The famous Coca-Cola bottles were 6 1/2 ounces, if I remember right, but some other brands were maybe 7 or 8 ounces. Beverage companies then increased the size of the bottles to 12 ounces, and even to 16 ounces, if my memory is right, but of course, the price was a bit more. There was a penny deposit on the bottles, as they were returnable glass bottles, although again, some companies later began using non-returnable bottles. We kids would go through the neighborhood looking for discarded bottles to take in so we could get candy from the pennies we got back for returning those bottles. Maybe some of you remember, but I don't recall soda/pop in cans (12 ounces) until somewhat later, especially so in the 1970s, when their use became common.

Besides bread being sold in stores, bakery trucks came through the neighborhoods selling various kinds of bread, pies, cakes and other baked goods (ah, I guess that's why they called them bakery trucks). Customers could order special baked goods when they were produced and the driver might tell people, "Thursday, they're making apricot sweet rolls. Do you want to place an order?" They naturally could only fit so many items on a truck, so he took orders for these specialty items. Often the deliveryman would ring a bell to let people know he was in their neighborhood.

Milk was not always homogenized back then, so it separated and you had to shake the bottle before using it. Milk also spoiled within a few days, so just like with bread, trucks traveled through neighborhoods and rural areas to deliver milk and dairy products. Other trucks had produce, and the driver would yell out the various fruits and vegetables he had on sale on that day. If I remember right, there was a truck with fish, and because of religious beliefs, many people ate fish on Fridays in those times, a practice which even carried over to other folks who just got used to eating fish on Fridays, even though they didn't hold those religious beliefs. The practice was so prevalent, neighborhood bars did a banner business on Fridays by having a fish fry. And, just as you may have seen in movies about the "Old West," bars still had spittoons all around the barrooms, as tobacco chewing was still a common practice. Bars also had "back rooms" with tables where ladies and families could sit, as it wasn't considered "proper" by many people for women or children to sit in the main barroom in those days. Bars even had side or rear entrances so that ladies wouldn't have to be seen entering through the front door, which usually was on a main street, as this would likely lead to neighborhood gossip among some people, and perhaps even a condemnation to Hell by some self righteous religious zealots.      

Ice cream and popsicle trucks were around back then, a business which continues to this day. Some trucks only sold frozen products like popsicles, ice cream sandwiches or fudge bars, but others sold ice cream cones, sundaes, milkshakes and banana splits, with the ice cream dispensed right in front of the customers from machines inside the trucks. Of course, you could also go to a pharmacy, often simply referred to in the U.S. as, "drug stores," to get some ice cream, as they had "soda fountains" in those days. Oh, and they too had candy display cases with penny candy and candy bars. We had a food truck, actually more of a van or RV from more recent times, run by "Harold," a man in our neighborhood. I can't remember everything, but I believe he sold many early morning items like: doughnuts, pastries, coffee, tea and hot chocolate, and he may well have sold sandwiches and lunch items too, I just can't remember. Of course, this part of the food business has really expanded in more recent times, as trucks selling all sorts of fresh, refrigerated or frozen products are big business nowadays, with many specialty foods now being sold, including pizza, a food item that was growing in popularity when I was a kid, but at that time, pizza shops hadn't sprung up on many street corners, as yet, but they were around, just not in anywhere near the numbers we have today; and off hand, I don't recall any national pizza chains at that time; at least, not in my area. Certainly pizza's popularity stemmed from soldiers who had served in World War Two in Italy, which gave Italian-Americans a good way to go into business, especially in cities with Italian neighborhoods, particularly in the eastern half of the U.S. But it didn't take long for the popular, delicious and easily eaten food to spread all over the country.

As the years passed, more and more supermarkets were opened all over, putting a bit of a crimp in some family owned grocery stores and butcher shops. Preservatives were added to many foods, air conditioning and refrigeration became more widely used, and the need for things such as milk and bread delivery declined to the point where most were just unnecessary, although some hung on for awhile, and some might still be in existence in places? Improved roads and highways made rural deliveries largely unnecessary too, and I'm not sure the last time I heard, "Peaches, onions, cabbage on sale today," yelled out by a driver on a produce truck. Changes happen, often they creep up on us, and we eventually accept them, however grudgingly, but it sure can be nice to think back on the way we were, but then we need to move on. 

WORD HISTORY:
Spit-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this form is closely related to "spew" and goes back to Indo European "spyu," which meant "to spit, to discharge fluid from the mouth," but its exact history is a bit cloudy. The Indo European form gave its Old Germanic offspring "spitjanan," ^ seemingly a parallel development with the ancestor of "spew," as it had the same meaning, but it was not as commonly used. This either gave Old English, or the West Germanic dialects that later came to form Old English (Anglo-Saxon), but while still on the Continent, both "spæten"and "spittan," dialectal differences, although as noted under the original Old Germanic form, these forms were also not as common in usage as the ancestor of "spew." The Old English forms then melded to become "speten/spitten," before the modern form. The noun came from the verb circa 1300. Danish and Norwegian have "spytte" (to spit, Danish noun "spyt" and Norwegian noun "spytt"), Swedish has "spotta" (perhaps a dialectal "spetta?" and the noun "spott"), Icelandic has "spýta" (both verb and noun form).

^ It's possible that this was rather a form developed in the North Germanic branch of Old Germanic, or perhaps a survivor from Old Germanic in the North Germanic branch. It is unclear, but forms are only found in modern North Germanic, with the exception of English, which is West Germanic. The West Germanic dialects of what are today northern Germany and the Netherlands, as well as southwestern Denmark, had much contact with North Germanic speakers, which remained true, even after many of these West Germanic speakers migrated to Briton and founded England. As a guess, I would lean to a borrowing from North Germanic after the Anglo-Saxons were in Briton, which might account for the more sporadic use of the word compared to the ancestor of "spew," which was the common word among the West Germanic dialects/languages for "to spit." If "spit" had been borrowed while Ango-Saxon was still on the Continent, it begs the question, "Where are forms in Low German and/or Frisian," as they likely would have borrowed it too, but I found no forms of such, not even from centuries ago. Low German and Frisian are both the closest relatives of English, and they were especially close (linguistically and geographically) when the Anglo-Saxons were still on the Continent.