Ginger Tea and Milk

Ginger - the wonderful rhizome.

Ginger is clearly beneficial for you in many ways, but I guess what I like best about it is that it works well with both sweet and savory foods. Anyhow with a nice nip in the air, today I made some great spice cookies and spice tea.

One of the common misconceptions about spicing tea is that people assume all the spice teas have to be boiled, we can also brew spices in the tea, yes, the flavors are more subtle. My preffered tea of choice is the wonderful Darjeeling Tea, which really does not work well if boiled. This queen of teas is meant to be brewed.
BTW, if you are looking for a great place to try good tea and other teatime treats in Westchester I highly recommend the Silver Tips Tea Room in Tarrytown, NY. They also sell a great selection of tea from around the world over the internet at very reasonable prices.

Ginger Anise Tea

Makes 4 cups

Ingredients

1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and sliced
2 star anise
4 tbsp darjeeling leaf tea
Milk and sugar to taste
4.5 cups of water

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the water to a boil. Immer the ginger and anise and let this infuse in the water for 10 minutes.
2. Reheat to boiling if needed.
3. Add the tea and let this brew for 4-5 minutes.
4. Strain and serve with the desired amount of milk and sugar.

The next drink is my concoction for my husband who does not like tea at night, this is really good to soothe a cold as well.

Rinku's milky brew for Anshul

Makes 2 cups

2 cups of milk
4 thinly sliced pieces of ginger
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 cloves
1" inch piece of cinnamon
1/3 piece of nutmeg
3 tsp honey

Method of preparation

1. Boil the milk for 5 min with the ginger, pepper, cloves and cinnamon.
2. Let this sit for 5 minutes.
3. Strain the milk and grate the nutmeg onto the milk and stir in the honey.
4. Pour into mugs and drink.

As a lighter substitute to eggnog, mix in 1 tsp butter and a 2 tbsp of brandy per cup and serve.

Back from India

India was interesting as usual!

Just back from a three week stint of India, I went to Kolkatta and Delhi, it was so interesting to be there over the festivals. Unfrtunately, I caught the tailend of Durga Puja, but even then it was great. My camera has been left behind so one will have to wait for my pictures. No biases, while the capital city has improved in its cuisine, it just cannot match the gastronomical delights of Kolkatta, where people live to eat. Ate amazing rolls, bhetki, chinese and of course lots of sweets. Two great recipes, I picked up for desserts were for Rasogollar payesh, (this differs slightly from its cousin -rasomalai) and Labanga Latika (neat pastry packages filled with kheer and coconut). The trends for fusion has expanded from Chinese to Thai, Mexican and Italian.

In Delhi, of course I tried chaat, Alu tikkis and for the first time I tried pure Awadhi cuisine. Some thing that I did not try but caught my attention was the popularity of Japanese cuisine. Sushi seems to be quite the rage, go figure!