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January 14, 2011

My sweet, salty nut juice.

For Christmas, Fawn and her parents got me a rice milk maker. It also makes soy milk, tofu, mung bean milk, and nut milk.

It was one of those true Christmas surprises because I had never said, "You know, Fawn, we should get a rice milk maker." In fact, I had never even really thought about it. No blatant suggestions. No subtle hints. In fact, I hadn't consciously thought about rice makers since Fawn had suggested we get one several months ago. She was quite enthusiastic about the idea at the time.

The present conjured up fond old family memories of Christmases past - like when my dad bought my mum a garage door opener and promptly had it installed on the side of the garage where he parked his car. I, briefly, questioned who the gift was really for.

Fawn and her mom experimented with the device, churning out rice milk and oatmeal-rice milk and peanut milk and soy milk. The latest experiment was with cashews.

I took a mug of the cashew juice and warmed it up in the microwave. When I tasted it, the flavour could best be described as bland. It had a distinct non-flavour.

Hmmm, I wondered, What could I add to give this nut milk some flavour?

Salt goes well with nuts, I reasoned. I added some salt.

Honey goes well with nuts, too!

I added some honey.

I tell ya, a little bit of salt and a little bit of honey made the flavour of that cashew milk jump exponentially by a factor of three gazillion and it was delicious! I'm guzzling a mug of it as I write this.

It just goes to show that sometimes the best presents are the ones you didn't even know you wanted.

7 comments:

Fawn said...

It's the family gift that keeps on giving. ;) And that 1L of cashew nut milk cost about $3.00 in ingredients. Rice milk is even cheaper (though not very flavourful, IMO). With all the rice and soy milk we've been buying, you'll soon also be able to appreciate its money-saving properties on top of the flavouriciousness.

Carole said...

I've never even heard of a milk maker. Wow!

Megan said...

Is it like a juicer? How does it work? Do you end up with something like nut meal that can be used in baking?

Pardon my stupid questions, but I am always looking for help with gluten-free cooking.

Meandering Michael said...

You pre-soak a pre-determined measure of the ingredient that you're "milking" and then you put it in the machine with some water. The machine grinds up the nuts/grains and then cooks it all up. When it's done, you've got piping hot milk and something like a nut meal, oatmeal, rice meal, or whatever type of meal is appropriate for the ingredients that you put in.

Halia particularly enjoys the rice meal.

Scientific Chick said...

Interesting device. I didn't even know they existed! Though when it comes to random kitchen appliances, I myself would have preferred this:

http://bit.ly/bFEeTv

Glad you're enjoying the cashew juice, though. Blerg.

Meandering Michael said...

Good heavens! JUST what every kitchen needs!

Scientific Chick said...

I know, right? Just think of the possibilities... Jolly Ranchers cotton candy... Werther's originals cotton candy... *drool*