Consuming milk indirectly

Drinking a glass of milk every day is not in our  Malay culture.

Usually, mothers in our culture will stop giving milk to baby gradually as weaning commenced. And as we have grown up we rarely drink milk as it is.  

However,  I  like to make a cup of hot coffee with milk in it. The proportion between the coffee and the milk is 1:3.

Sometimes, I will add brown sugar in it but most of the time I would not do that.

For me, the sweetness coming from the milk inside is better to taste. Thus, the milky the coffee the better. 

Occasionally, I would make a cup of Milo by adding full cream milk in it.

The taste is less sweet comparatively using the condensed milk. Local Kopitiam, cafe and eateries usually make the Milo using condensed milk.

Reminiscing when I was young, my family used to travel to the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia.

Whenever, we reached Perak, one of the states in the northern peninsula,  my father usually will stop by at a local milk parlour. 

It sells a locally made milk and at the time there have four flavours which are the original, chocolate, strawberry and corn.

It was stored in a small bottle capped with blue lid as far as I remember. Now, they have added two more flavours in their menu which is dates and banana. 

The price 

There is a huge price difference if we bought the milk in hypermarket than in the local grocery store.

For a box of milk in hypermarket usually will cost us about RM8. It is considered an expensive and luxury item.

I do not concern about the brand but the price. My target price is from RM4.50 to RM4.90. Anything that reaches RM5 and above I would not buy. There is milk selling at RM8.90. It is not rational. After all, it is only milk. 

There are many local brands of milk at the grocery store to choose from. It is expensive but I have a benchmark on what price I should pay. 

Eventhough, our country does not produce milk at a large scale, we still considered ourselves as avid users of dairy products.

Many things in our households are made from milk. To name a few, we always keep yoghurt, butter, cheese and occasionally ice cream whenever we feel that we are having sweet tooth. 

Warm milk ease sleeping

Once I am having trouble with sleeping, a friend of mine make a cup of warm milk. She mentions this will help you to fall asleep. I could not remember how my sleep goes after that but I woke up fresh the next day afterwards. 

From that day onwards, it becomes my nature to have a glass of warm milk whenever I have difficulty falling asleep. 

As I am writing these, I wondered whether there is scientific evidence that could explain it.

Having a scroll on Google Scholar had landed me to research that was conducted in the year 1970.

According to the study, a glass containing 350 ml of warm milk before bed does help in reducing the movement during sleep.

The conclusion of the study does surprise me, it stated that drinking hot milk might help in vasodilation of the blood vessels in the feet making it easy to fall asleep. 

Between full cream and low fat 

There are three types of milk as mentioned in the packaging can be found at the shelves.  There is low-fat milk, full cream milk and fresh milk.

I always choose full cream milk.

In choosing milk I prefer full cream milk as it is tasty in making coffee with the coffee machine for breakfast.

For me, the low-fat milk is like watery milk and not creamy. I only buy the low-fat milk if I do not have any option.

Anyhow, I managed to find the full cream milk at the bakery store within my budget.

As for the fresh milk, it is not as good as full cream milk and it is not always my choice. 

Milk in the cooking

Despite the high prices here in our country,  milk scores a major point as a cooking ingredient too. 

The recent cooking that I made using milk is pancake. Browsing through the internet to find a suitable and easy pancake recipe to be made.

I made the recipe from the AllRecipes website.

To make it, I put two cups of wheat flour, one egg, 2 cups of milk and a pinch of salts. Then whisk all the ingredients together.

To better it taste, I had cooked the batter with a slice of butter. The fragrance that coming from it was satisfying enough and does make me feel full before eating it. 

Other than that, we also make used of the milk occasionally to make tastier rice. Nasi Briyani and Nasi Minyak for instance. This two type of rice is usually being prepared at the wedding occasion and being served to the guest and bride. 

In order to cook the Nasi Briyani,  I used basmati rice and add the milk to water within 1:1 ratio.

Firstly, heat ghee in the pot and sauté sliced onions, garlic, cumin seed, fennel seed, cinnamon, chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and a fresh tomato slice. 

Then add in milk, basmati rice and equivalent water. Mix well and put in yoghurt and cut pandan leaves. Cover the pot and cook.

In conclusion, a glass of milk not only for bedtime is also can be used for making a nice cup of coffee.