Spring milk
Most years, the spring grass starts growing again by the beginning of April, and Terri Lawton moves her cows from the dust and hay trough of the barn to the mud and nibble of the pasture. Lawton, a 27-year-old dairy-inspector-turned-dairy-farmer milks seven Ayrshires on Oake Knoll Farm in Foxborough. Lawton grew up on the farm, which is part of Lawton's Family Farm. It has been in her family since the 1700s.
Milk lovers know that spring milk tastes and looks different than winter milk. "When the cows switch from hay to grass the color of the milk changes right away," says Lawton. "It gets yellower and oranger." It's not as creamy as winter milk, but the farmer prefers to drink from cows that have been on grass. "It's another way of connecting to the change of the seasons," she says.
Lawton drinks about half a gallon of her own milk a day. But you can also turn it into all kinds of treats that show off its good taste. Samir Majmudar grew up in Bombay in the 1960s, and she remembers the kulfi -- a kind of ice cream -- that hawkers sold door-to-door in cones. "They would knock on the door after dinner in the evening and depending on my mother's mood we would have kulfi or not."
At Rani Indian Bistro, Majmudar's restaurant in Brookline (617-734-0400 ), cooks make kulfi (below) with condensed milk, light cream, and milk. In India, kulfi is made only with milk. But the recipe requires boiling it down. "We use condensed milk and more light cream to make the reduction process go more quickly and to avoid the pinkish tint from the lactose in the milk," says Majmudar. In India, he adds, "The chef starts the kulfi and then the servants stand there and stir."
The milk is sweetened with sugar, flavored with cardamom, Ovaltine, or mango, reduced in a pot to a fudgy paste and then frozen in styrofoam coffee cups (for the cone shape). If there is too much water, the kulfi forms icicles in the freezer. To serve it, Majmudar pops the kulfi out of the cups and onto plates. He tops cardamom kulfi with crumbled pistachios and a drizzle of pink rose syrup. It's dense and almost chewy, really fun to eat. Another way to enjoy one of spring's glories.-- JONATHAN LEVITT 