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Posts Tagged With: healing foods

Spiced Beach House Chai and the Awesome Power of Cinnamon

Posted on August 13, 2014 by leroy watson

Beach House Chai on Karuna Farm, Tamil Nadu

This is something we quaff every day; with some sitar int he background and little incense waft, we could be back in Tamil Nadu, in our cottage on the hills (we have a thing for cottages on hills!!!!)

The ceremony of chai, the aroma as it bubbles on the stove, makes us both feel so at home. Its up there with the smell of freshly baked bread or sweet peas in the depth of summer.

A simple everyday chai here that adds spice and warmth to your morning cuppa. You may like it milkier, adjust the water to milk ratio as you like. Namastex

Happy Chai Man, Madurai ’14

The Bits – 4-6 cups

1.5 ltrs filtered water

500ml almond/ soya milk (unsweetened)

12 green cardamom pods
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick (3 inches, broken in two)
2 star anise

4 teas loose leaf tea (assam is best or 4 normal tea bags ripped open)
jaggery or unrefined brown sugar (to taste)

Do It
Grab a large saucepan. Boil the water in a kettle (quicker) or bring to a boil in the sauce pan.

In a pestle and mortar, bash up the cinnamon and star anise, add to the boiling water, then bash up the cardamom and cinnamon, add that to the boiling water. Lower heat to a simmer and cover, leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

Now, bring back to a rolling boil, spoon in the tea. Leave to bubble away for a couple of minutes and then add your milk. Bring back to a boil and sweeten as you prefer. Indians love it very sweet indeed. Using a sieve (and a ladle is easiest), pour into your favoured receptacle.

Serve

In your finest cups. Smaller cups are better and more authentic, even a small glass will do (generally how its served in a proper Chai stall). Sip and slurp with relish.

Foodie Fact – Cinnamon

Surely one of the worlds coolest barks! Cinnamon is medicine. Powerful agent for healing. There are two main types of Cinnamon that we can buy, Chinese (known as Cassia) and Ceylon(which is harder to find and supposedly more refined), it is one of the oldest spices we know of and was used by the ancient Egyptians as medicine and also for embalming! It was considered more precious than gold. It was even mentioned in Chinese botanical medicine over 4700 years ago.

Containing some truly magical essential oils, cinnamon is a potent anti-inflammatory, anti microbial (cinnamon essential oil can be used as a powerful preservative), flavouring high carb food with cinnamon slows the release of sugars into the blood stream, helps with type-2 diabetes, it is a very, very, very strong anti-oxidant. Even smelling the scent of cinnamon has been shown to boost brain activity. It is also an excellent source of fibre, calcium and manganese.

Cinnamon has long be regarded as a warming spice in Chinese and Indian energy based medicine systems. This means that is you feel a cold coming on drink plenty of cinnamon, ginger and lemon tea and you’ll be fine!!!

Cinnamon is best bought in stick form, it stores well for an age. You can then crush it or grind it up freshly ans savour that familiar aroma. Once crushed, kept it in a sealed container out of natural sunlight. A fridge is best (this goes for all spices).

Chai's off the menu for me, I hit the Jack Fruit stand instead. Yum!

Chai’s off the menu for me in India, I hit the Jack Fruit stand instead. Yum!

Banana!!!!!

Categories: Healing foods, Infusions, Recipes | Tags: chai, cinnamon, food, healing foods, herbal, india, medicine, photography, travel, vegan, vegetarian | 12 Comments

Nettle & Wild Garlic Pistou

Posted on May 26, 2013 by leroy watson

Jane and I have been visiting the local hedgrerows and forests recently and have regularly come back with a bumper crop of nettles and wild garlic. It is such a wonderful time of year for these abundant herbs, they’re also easy to identify so there is no reason why we shouldn’t all be taking advantage of one of natures finest freebies! The forests reek of fragrant garlic!!

This is a pistou (French/ Italian) not a pesto (Italian), mainly due to the lack of nuts. If you add pine nuts, or another nut, you’d probably call it a pesto. Otherwise both are potent blends and something rather special to have hanging around the fridge.

There are a vast amount of edible shoots, leaves and berries that we are not aware of (by we, I mean us at the BHK!) We have books, we have TV programmes, but you cannot beat getting out there and having a look at whats growing for yourself. For example, we have recently learnt that young hawthorn leaves are a rare sweet treat. We’re taking it easy and adding a few new foraging delights to the menu each year.

Wild garlic and nettles have magical health properties. Nettle tea is a staple at this time of year and this pesto blend makes the most of both. It can be kept in the fridge for while and adds a unique flavour to anything it touches. Dressings, soups, stews, bread, to name a few we’ve stuck it in.

Nettles were used extensively in ancient Tibet and the Buddhist saint Milarepa was said to live on them when on retreat, turning green and enlightened. The kind of story that gets our imagination whirring.

Jane and I have gotten ourselves into a multitude of busy situations, gardening being but one. There has been much rain recently and today we managed to get out into the garden and pop the potatoes into the earth. We also have much beetroot, cavolo nero, spinach, rocket, rainbow chard, sunflowers and I can’t remember the rest. Needless to say, we are excited about the prospects of the Beach House Garden this year and have our fingers well crossed for a mild, wind-free summer. Very, very, very wishful thinking.

The Bits

60g nettle leaves, 40g wild garlic leaves, 4 garlic cloves (crushed), 100ml evoo, 100g vegan parmesan (Violife do a good one), 1 pinch salt and 2 pinch pepper

Do It

Blanch nettle quickly (10 seconds) in boiling water, this will keep them nice and green and take the sting out of them! Plunge (great word) into cold water. Pat dry.

Place all in a blender, blitz together until paste formed. Add a little more olive oil if you like in runny.

For old fashioned style, use a pestle and mortar. Simple as this.

Serve

In a pistou stew, see below, or spread on toast! It really comes to life tossed in warm pasta.

We Love It!

It literally grows on trees (or below them). This is our type of gardening, wander around pick it, no digging or engaging the brain. Go for a walk with a plastic bag and one rubber glove (those nettles take no prisoners) and you have a harvest on your hand.

Foodie Fact

Nettles contain bags of chlorophyll, calcium, iron, trace minerals, vitamins and proteins. They can be made into paper, hair lotions, thread, soil enricher (great on tomatoes!), disinfectant for stalls and stables, cups of tea…..It is a tonic, diuretic, astringent, anti-asthmatic, chi strengthener, anti-anaemic, laxative and a nettle brew can heal damage tissue. It strengthens kidneys, lungs, intestines and arteries with regular use.