Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Keeping Warm



Many of the last few days have been cold and wet – a bone chilling combo. Sunday afternoon, as I huddled in a blanket in front of the TV, I decided it was the perfect kind of day to try a recipe for “hot spiced tea”. Recently I have been trying to clear out some back issues of various cooking magazines and this was one of the recipes that I saved from an old issue of Everyday Food (sorry – I neglected to make note of which issue it was from).

This “hot spiced tea” is a milky tea infused with fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper and sweetened with honey. Unfortunately, in order to make the tea I had to go out into the cold and buy some 2% milk and fresh ginger. But once back home, I quickly mixed up a pot of the stuff and indulged in a cup. Mmmmmm – spicy, sweet and warm – like liquid gingerbread. Then it occurred to me – this must be like that chai tea I keep hearing about. Am I the only one in the world that didn’t know about it?

I put the leftovers in the refrigerator and found that the tea reheated beautifully in the microwave. What a wonderful thing to come home to on a soggy Monday night!

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

As my husband (the academic and food snob) would point out, in an annoyed tone, 'chai' actually Means 'tea'.

You should read a recent post of his:

http://www.cabbagesandkings.us/fish/battles/04/10/masala_chai.php#comments

Cerebrum said...

Does sound a lot like the chai I made up the other day - or okay, the infused with spices tea with milk I made the other day ;-) Love it too!

Cathy said...

Stephanie - funny that your husband and I both posted about the topic on the same day! It MUST be the weather! Anyway, I look forward to trying his recipe.

Zarah Maria - yes, I think I'm hooked now - no matter what it's called!

Kelli - I've seen it in all the stores, but never knew anyone who drank it (or at least who talked about drinking it). Since I only drink decaf and thought I didn't like sweetened tea, what I was seeing in the stores didn't really appeal to me. But if I make this (or some other variation) myself with decaffeinated tea, that takes care of that worry, and I was amazed to find out how much I like the honey in there! I'll have to keep an eye out for the teas you've mentioned - thanks!