You’ve probably heard of almond milk. Probably also rice milk, hemp milk, flaxseed milk and soy milk. And if you frequent “raw” restaurants you probably also know all about brazilnut milk, macadamia nut milk, and maybe even hazelnut, cashew, and pecan. Take any nut, seed, or cooked grain, blend it with water for awhile, then sieve it through a couple layers of cheesecloth or a nutmilk bag (yes, that’s a thing), and voilà! Vegetarian milk! Note that the wine bottle on the left is for size reference. Do not combine the two. That’s a horrible idea (white rum, however, would be just fine).
Now, I’ve owned a nutmilk bag for about a year, strangely enough. I bought it at Crudessence for something like $2 and meant to make my own almond milk with it. But almond milk is so cheap these days, and making milk so labour intensive that I stuck that bag at the back of my cupboard for a year. Until I saw that in Lithuania they’re really into poppy milk. And I had a Christmas party to throw.
For the 6th Annual Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza I decided to whip up a batch of poppy milk. It’s a non-alcoholic eggnot replacer—so rich and creamy. I didn’t really realize how rich until I saw the nutrition data on the recipe page, but lets just say that, like eggnog, a little goes a long way.
I made the recipe exactly as indicated, except I used the nut milk bag instead of cheesecloth. The only difference is that a nut milk bag has an elastic at the top of a cylindrical bag of what is essentially nylon cheesecloth. It’s harder to tear, easier to clean, and easier to squeeze the milk out without making a mess. I highly recommend investing in one of these $2 puppies if you’re really into DIY milks and/or are “raw.” And if you are raw, use date paste or agave to sweeten instead of white sugar. Without it and the almond extract the milk is very bitter. Note: You can save the leftover poppy fibre after sieving and use it the same way you’d use almond meal—in muffins, cookies, raw breads, crackers, etc. It essentially becomes a flour. It’s much more bitter than almond meal, though, so sweeten accordingly.
Here’s the recipe! You can adjust the amount of servings to the number you require. Nutrition info is on the right. Don’t look at it…
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