MILKING THE TREND
▶ Now gaining international acclaim, nutrient-rich and dairy-free camel milk has long been a staple in the Middle East, writes Emily Price
It seems that the Bedouins really were on to something. Camel milk, the sustaining, wholesome drink that has been consumed throughout the Middle East for thousands of years, is finally getting some international recognition.
Of course, camel milk is nothing new for those of us living in the UAE; we’ve long been able to buy it from the supermarket and are au fait with ordering lattes with a camel-milk base or even treating ourselves to a camelccino when we visit Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace.
Recently, though, the benefits of camel milk have been gaining wider traction. At the tail end of last year, major United Kingdom supermarket Asda announced it would be stocking Camelicious camel milk in selected stores. There’s been plenty of chatter about the ingredient on social media, too, with bloggers highlighting it as a trend for 2018 (with her marketing team ahead of the game as ever, Kim Kardashian was an early convert to the drink, tweeting her appreciation back in 2012).
Whether it’s a true superfood or just the latest super-fad, camel milk does boast some impressive credentials: it contains high levels of iron and calcium, as well as vitamins B and C, is lower in fat and cholesterol than cow’s milk, and is also suitable for those who are intolerant to lactose.
What all this means is that, if you want to stay ahead of the culinary curve, it’s time to start cooking with camel milk, as well as consuming it. Colin Clague, the executive chef at Ruya, the contemporary Turkish restaurant at Grosvenor House in Dubai, is already a big fan. For the 46th UAE National Day, the restaurant introduced a limited-edition dish featuring baklava and camel-milk ice cream, and Clague says that he often cooks with the ingredient. “In the restaurant, we’ve used camel milk to make various ice creams that we serve with different desserts. The very particular taste of camel milk adds to ice-cream flavours, and goes well with an array of different sweets.”
On a more personal level, his youngest son suffered from a series of allergies, which meant that for two years he avoided cow’s milk and drank camel milk instead. Given the choice, he still favours the latter today.
Clague says that camel milk is particularly good for making rice pudding and milk-based desserts such as panna cotta and ice cream. Flavour-wise, caramel complements the light, salty aftertaste of the milk, and chocolate is a good match too. This is an opinion shared by Kathy Johnston, the chief chocolate officer at Dubai company Mirzam Chocolate, which specialises in smallscale, bean-to-bar chocolate-making. Johnston confides that producing a chocolate bar using camel milk was always on the agenda for the young company: “It’s a really important part of the craft-chocolate movement to utilise locally available ingredients, and also to be able to share the story of that ingredient,” she explains. As a result, in November last year, Mirzam revealed its 55 per cent spiced camel-milk bar packaged in a wrapper featuring Sheikha Wafa bint Hasher Al Maktoum’s well-known camel tessellation pattern.
When cooking with camel milk at home, Johnston recommends experimenting a little: “The flavour can vary depending on the quality or type of feed that the animals are given – I suggest that you try different brands of milk to find the one that suits your taste profile best.” The salty, everso-slightly sour taste goes well with Arabian flavours, such as the saffron and cardamom that Mirzam infused its camel-milk bar with, she adds. Why not try these three recipes and see if you agree?