Cocktails right from the washing machine

Indian jacks of all trades once again demonstrated how to solve large-scale tasks cost effectively using their ingenuity and the simple improvised things turned out to be at hand - even sending the lowest-budget mission to Mars. For example, on the hottest summer days, a roadside cafe in the city of Jammu in northern India launched the production of refreshing lassi fruit and milk cocktails, using ... an ordinary washing machine to mix them. 

This unusual idea dawned on the owner of a roadside snack-bar for long distance truckers, salesmen and tourists, under the pretty name ‘Club of Friends’, at the very height of the season of scorching heat especially searing this year. The video posted on YouTube clearly demonstrates the superiority of this technique to shakers and mixers and the keen interest of customers.

To avoid problems with sanitary services because of any possible contamination of drinks with detergent residues, a new - the simplest - top-loading washing machine was purchased. According to the ‘inventor’, despite the creatively different approach to the production of a food product, these cocktails are in great demand, since travelers do not have to languish at the hot curb waiting for their cocktails.

Lassi (or put it in the English manner - fruit yogurt smoothie) is considered in India as one of the best refreshing drinks. If you do not need to produce 10 litres of the invigorating drink immediately, on a hot summer day you can prepare it in a small home mixer and treat your relatives and friends. Core ingredients are a fermented milk product like plain yogurt, fruits and ice. According to the Indian cookery expert Manjula Anand, ‘lassy must be isy’. She suggests making lassi mango following a very simple recipe: you need to blend two cups of coarsely chopped ripe mango pulp in a shaker with 1 cup of yogurt and half a cup of milk adding sugar to taste - about 3 tablespoons - as well as a half-spoonful of cardamom powder. Then about 3 cups of chipped ice are added to the container with the base mix of the drink – at first, one cup of ice and a half and then as much again – blend thoroughly and pour the resulting pale yellow ‘masterpiece’ into tall glasses decorated with several mint leaves when served. 

Perhaps the most difficult and costly thing for the Russians in this recipe is to get ripe mangoes, however, as famous Indian culinary experts emphasize, you can take any fruit or berries as a fruit filler, the pulp of which is easily chopped and has a fairly delicious taste, for example, black currants, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, apricots. Whatever the filler, you will love it and enjoy its refreshing effect, the main thing is to prepare and serve the drink with love, adds Manjula. By the way, you can pour this mix without ice into a cup, stick an ice-cream spoon and enjoy your excellent mango-yogurt ice cream.