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Bringing National Dairy Month Home

BY SHAWNDRA MILLER PHOTOS BY SARA CRAWFORD

Move over, ice cream: You’ve got a rival for our affections. Smoothies, offering endless variations on a creamy theme, are the perfect way to mark National Dairy Month this June.

When the mercury climbs and you’re craving something cold and creamy, think outside the ice cream carton. Instead of reaching for a premade treat, get creative with your blender and whip up one of these refreshing beverages. You can go for tropical and tangy, nutty and sweet, or even dark and chocolaty.

Try incorporating summer’s bountiful berries or the best peaches the farmers’ market has to offer. Blend them with some Traders Point yogurt or milk plus ice cubes or frozen bananas, and you’ve got yourself a healthy milkshake alternative.

To get you started, we asked the kitchen wizards at the Chef’s Academy to bring National Dairy Month home to the Hoosier State with a focus on Indiana’s dairy products. The result is three very different smoothie recipes, all featuring local milk.

Chef Jason Anderson has concocted a rich treat featuring everyone’s favorite chocolate–peanut butter combo with an espresso twist. Chef Nathan Simpson’s creation bends toward the equator, while Chef Brandon Hamilton has built added complexity into his recipe with the inclusion of ripe avocado, pistachios and crème fraîche.

But don’t let the chefs have all the fun: The sky’s the limit when it comes to smoothie creation.

BANANA-CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER AND ESPRESSO SMOOTHIE

Chef Jason Anderson Makes 2 servings

1¼ cups low-fat milk ½ cup peanut butter ¼ cup dark chocolate (Try Endangered Species) 1 ripe banana 1 tablespoon sugar, plus extra to taste 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder, preferably espresso 2 ice cubes Ground cinnamon (optional)

Combine milk, peanut butter, chocolate, banana, sugar, coffee powder and ice cubes in a blender. Blend until very frothy. Taste and add a pinch more sugar, if needed. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired. Serve immediately.

TROPICAL FRUIT SMOOTHIE

Chef Nathan Simpson Makes 2 servings

1 cup diced pineapple ½ cup diced mango ¼ cup peeled and diced kiwi ½ cup orange juice or milk ¼ cup coconut milk or milk ¼ cup plain yogurt (Try Traders Point Creamery) ⅓ cup ice cubes 2 sprigs mint or basil Extra mango or pineapple for grilling Shredded coconut for toasting, preferably fresh

Blend fruit with orange juice until a smooth purée forms. Add additional ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve chilled with grilled mango or pineapple, topped with toasted coconut.

Chef Brandon Hamilton

Smoothies are made throughout the world with different ingredients. Some flavor combinations that we find in other cultures are delicious but seem weird to us—usually because we never thought of using an ingredient in this way. In this recipe, avocados are used in a sweet preparation instead of the classical savory preparation most familiar in our culture. Flavor combinations for any recipe need to be well balanced, and smoothies are no exception. This recipe uses honey and bananas to add sweetness, avocados add a complex flavor of butter and nuts, pistachios add a nutty flavor, crème fraîche for slight sour flavor and milk to help round off all of these flavors with its fat. In smoothie recipes, yogurt is very common and can be used in placed of crème fraîche but the smoothie will have a slight astringent flavor. I like to use crème fraîche because it gives the same qualities as yogurt without the astringency.

Yield: 4 (8-ounce) portions

1 ripe banana, medium size, sliced 1 ripe avocado, seed and skin removed 3 tablespoons pistachios 4-5 tablespoons honey (Try Hunter’s) ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom ⅛ teaspoon ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ cup crème fraîche (recipe follows or use store-bought) 1½ cups Indiana milk (Shop Pogue’s Run, Whole Foods, or your areas farmers’ market)

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a blender and process until slightly smooth. With the blender turned on, slowly pour the milk into the blend and mix until smooth.

Crème Fraîche Recipe

1 cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons buttermilk or yogurt Combine the two ingredients in a glass bowl and mix well. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours, until thick. After the mixture becomes thick, refrigerate. The crème fraîche will last for 7 days in the refrigerator.