Looee’s Strawberry and Rooh Afza Milkshake

Since I couldn’t send Looee, the other chimps and my bookclub to India, I thought I’d bring India to them.  This is the third weak strand of my attempt to connect Looee’s spaghetti with meat sauce to Indian cuisine.  I did mention that a dessert served at bookclub would offer the last tenuous connection, didn’t I?

I made about six servings.

Recall that Looee is the main character from Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth. He is a captive chimpanzee who goes from the luxury of an upper middle class American family's lifestyle to the dismal quarters of a cramped cage in a research institute.  Whereas he used to order milkshakes in a diner because no town’s person dared to stand up to his wealthy owner, now he only hallucinates ordering a strawberry milkshake at a point when he is drugged, dizzy, thirsty and suffering from muscular atrophy. 

Looee, this one’s for you:

Servings are per person, so multiply amounts by number of people or chimpanzees to be served.

1 cup 2% milk

2 scoops good quality vanilla ice cream

5 to 8 strawberries (I used frozen, but fresh would be better.)

1 tablespoon Rooh Afza rose syrup (or more to taste)

I use an old fashioned 1950's scooper.

This is nice and simple, and not overly sweet.  

All ingredients go in a blender.  Buzz till smooth. Pour and enjoy.  

I served this for my bookclub, but really it would be an incredible treat during hot weather. Strawberry cools the body, as does Rooh Afza. 

On a very hot day when you’re concerned about dehydration, adding club soda would stretch this treat even further without adding to the calorie load.  In fact, the taste would be sweet, light, fluffy and fresh and herbal.  Oh I do like club soda, and how I adore Rooh Afza!

Rooh Afza is available at many Indian grocery stores, and occasionally at a certain big box grocery store that is well known to many Canadians.  If you can find some, buy it at once!

Looee wanted to order this in his imagined diner, so I served this in typical diner paper cups, although they were very little cups.  We had tons of other delicious desserts, and my book club ladies are much too refined to swill down a full sized milkshake, especially after a meal of spaghetti and meat sauce!

Update:  Please consider joining the NonHuman Rights Project at https://www.facebook.com/NonhumanRights

Updated Feb 6, 2014