What makes a drink bubbly?  The drink is infused with carbon dioxide which is released when the container is opened. Of course, one didn’t think that it was possible to make milk fizzy till very recently but using the same principle with the right equipment can go a long way to making this happen. It looks like the huge beverage brand Coca Cola is the umbrella under which it will be launched. The news is that there has already been a soft launch in – where else but the Big Apple? It’s a mix of milk, fruit and cane sugar to sweeten.  

This direction is obviously the route to younger consumers and with the milk being offered in many flavours – who knows? They might just have a whopping runaway success on their hands. Flavoured milk with fizz might just become very fashionable!

Most commercial yoghurts have gelatine added to them. There still are a number of people who have no clue that gelatine is made from beef or pork bones, tissue and skin. Gelatine doesn’t only go to make a yoghurt set better. It is also used in jellies, other desserts, pies, ice creams, marshmallows, snacks, soups and sauces.

The thing is, it just makes these products thicker, smoother and endows them with a better mouth feel. Ever since Jell-O was made over 200 years ago, gelatine has been very much a part of the food industry all over the world. Add to that the studies that gelatine actually helped those with painful joints and you’ll see why it is so popular. Many pharmaceutical capsules are gelatine-based. Gelatine is very easily absorbed into the body so many vaccines are using it to keep the medication in a stable state. Many cosmetic creams use it too.

All very well – but the problem starts when someone turns vegetarian and continues to eat foods like yoghurt simply because they are unaware that it could contain animal products. A lot of the gelatine used is not kosher either. When gelatine is used in yoghurt, you get a product that is creamy, thick enough to transport and one in which the calorie count can be controlled. It’s also great when you have fruit yoghurts because the fruit stays suspended. And of course, it adds bulk to yoghurts. So you see why the yoghurt manufacturers love it. (Danone and Yoplait state they use only kosher gelatine.)

There are special starch products available today which could be used as alternatives but they are much higher-priced so you probably won’t see the supermarket brands changing any time soon. However, there are yoghurts available from organic farms which don’t use gelatine so if you are a strict vegetarian and you love your yoghurt, make sure you look at that list of ingredients on every pack!

Here’s what you need: a tin of sweetened condensed milk, double the quantity of cream, a handful of almonds/cashewnuts/pistas/whatever nuts you have or like, ground fine. The sweetened condensed milk cans usually weigh 14 ounces or around 400 grams, so you will need 800 grams of cream. Now put all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix well and freeze. That’s it – and you can cut it up into slices and serve up delicious kulfi.

There’s nothing quite like a kulfi after a Indian meal!