Deli- Milk -Shake

Deli-Milk-Shake

·  It was most difficult time for me when I had to make my children aged 8 1nd 12 yrs. eat Lauki (Bottle guard) sabji. They always wanted me to make Koftas of Lauki. Though I had no difficulty in slogging in kitchen for my family yet how many times one make and eat Koftas. So to make sure this cooling and healthy summer vegetable is eaten without much of ado and get maximum benefit of it I came up with a brilliant idea of making shake and passing it off as Pista milk shake with few pieces of pistachios sprinkled on the top of the shake. The Pistachios  made it look absolutely authentic and they lapped it up. But then came the end of honeymoon with Lauki. My daughter who is elder by 4 yrs. to her brother returned earlier than expected from evening games time and saw what I was doing and then onwards refused to have that shake. Reason? There is Lauki in it!
      I fail to understand this fixation of not wanting to eat Lauki once they grow up.

Well years later I gave it to my daughter-in-law and after she said it is yummy ija  (term for mother in our language), I told her the ingredients and she just could not believe. This shake is very cooling and perfect for summers. It helps reduce acidity and is perfect drink for person suffering with sun stroke as it is light to digest, cooling to whole system, nourishing and yet easy to digest.

One precaution when you make it sure kids are not around. They will love it till they are not told it has Lauki, it does not take to be Einstien to guess the rest :) 

Preparation Time: 10 min

Making Time: 15 min
Servings: Makes approx. 300 ml Shake

Ingredients Required for Making Deli-Milk-Shake:

• 100 gm Tender Green Lauki (Bottle gourd)
• 250 ml. Full cream milk
• 5-10 pistachios
• 1 Teaspoon Green Cardamom Powder
• 5 Teaspoon Sugar powder /to taste
• 10-15 ml. Water

Directions For Making Deli-Milk-Shake:

• Wash the bottle gourd and cut the 1 inch part with stalk and little from the lower end.
• Cut into two halves and if there are seeds in the bottle gourd then remove the soft portion with seeds.
• Grate the gourd and place it in a thick bottom container.
• Add
• Water
• 2 Teaspoon sugar
• Mix nicely
• Cook on low flame with continuous stirring till the gourd shreds change color and are cooked soft.
• Cover and let it cool.
• When the cooked gourd is cooled pulse it in a mixer-grinder to make absolutely smooth paste.
• Add
• Chilled milk
• Cardamom powder
• Sugar powder
• Churn nicely to get a uniform light green milk shake.
• Pour the mixture in glasses and top it with finely cut pistachio pieces.
• Serve this chilled milk shake and pass it off as Pistachio shake to children as well as elders. Believe me until unless they are told they will not be able to find the ingredients used to make this wonderful shake.

Deli-Milk-Shake

Enjoy this cooling, healthy milk shake this summer.

Tips:

• Make sure there are no seeds and pulp when you grate the bottle gourd.
• Do not worry about the change in color as it may turn little dark on grating. Faster it goes for cooking lesser will be the color change.
• The gourd has to be tender else the peeling will make the paste coarse this will make the shake unpalatable.
• Removing the peeling from the gourd may be an option but this reduces the green color as well as the nutritional value of the shake.

Alternate Suggestions:

• It can be decorated with rose petals along with pistachio flakes
• Rose flavor can be added instead of cardamom.
• The shake can be topped with little cream and cherry to make it tempting to kids.
• 1 lt. milk can be boiled till it reduces to 250-300 ml. This thickened milk can replace normal milk. The resulting mixture can be frozen to make ice cream. Children love it. I have done it so many times while making kulfi (A type of ice-cream made from thickened milk) also.