Something that we have learned to vehemently avoid is drinking skin; the skin that forms on the top of our chai and coffee that is. The milk that is delivered to us daily is fresh milk (hours out of the cow perhaps) and is not pasteurized. We have to boil the milk to help kill any bacteria and to make the milk last longer. During our first weeks here we did not know we needed to boil the milk and a glass of milk left in the fridge after one day turned into something that looked a science experiment. It was scary.
The milk we get has a higher content of fat as well. We can’t order 1% or skim. It comes as it does; fatty. Our cook has recently been skimming this fat off the milk and saving it in a bowl. She then made this into butter, which she then turned into ghee (clarified butter) that is used in much of the cooking here.
The higher fat content is what I blame for the infamous skin. After making a fresh cup of chai on the stove I let it sit to cool, and as it cools, the skin forms. I usually try to move the skin aside but occasionally it sneaks its way into my mouth, which I then promptly spit out. It’s not that it tastes bad; it’s just kind of gross, and well, it is a bunch of fat. Sometimes as we all sit around the table drinking our chai or coffee while reading someone will suddenly spit out a mouthful of chai back into their mug and I know; the skin found its way in. My favorite is the unsuspecting swallow where someone is so involved in what they are doing that they don’t notice that the fat has formed. As they take a drink it takes them by surprise, and it comes dribbling out of their mouth as they try to get it out. You may think I have no life if I am sitting around watching people drink chai, and you would be right. Why else would I be writing a blog about chai skin?
Ha! I would have never thought this as one of the issues with always having fresh milk. Does it taste better than the milk you're used to having in america?
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