Berry & Rosehip Iced Tea

Spring is here now and the warmer weather seems tantalisingly close. Yet not quite in reach. It's lovely and warm in the sun and the temperatures are not too bad, but as soon as the sun disappears behind a cloud the chill sets in and you're reaching for a jumper. Evenings are still cold enough for heaters and blankets (in our cold house especially) but in the day I can cling optimistically to the promise of warmer things to come. It's about this time of year that I find myself optimistically digging out a t-shirt to wear and starting to think about summer foods. I can't wait for mangoes and stone fruits to become cheap & plentiful, but until then I can celebrate with summer style drinks, sitting out in the sunshine on my back deck.

This iced tea is caffeine free and unsweetened, so it's great if you want to enjoy a refreshing drink on a hot day without the caffeine and sugar. The berry teabags give it the sweet tang of berries without the sickliness of canned berries or berry juices. This recipe uses freshly squeezed orange juice, but feel free to get creative and add any juice you like. And if you have a bit of of a sweet tooth, some elderflower or ginger cordial can certainly be added. It can also be lovely with a small splash of orange blossom water or rosewater.

If you're celebrating or entertaining, add a bottle of champagne and thank me later :)

Berry & Rosehip Iced Tea

Ingredients:
3 berry tea bags (any kind you like, I used a 'forest fruits' one, but any mixed berry type thing is great)
2 rosehip tea bags
2 litres of boiling hot water
1 litre of freshly squeezed orange juice
Juice of 1 fresh lime. 

Optional garnishes - fresh berries, mint leaves, orange or lime slices. 


To Make:
1. In a large jug, add water and tea bags. Allow to cool to room temperature and then fish out the teabags Place in the fridge to chill. 
2. Remove from fridge and add orange juice and lime juice. Stir.
3. You can chill it again if you like, or just serve it straight away (with or without ice, as you prefer). 
4. You can add fresh berries, if you like and if they are in season, or even fresh mint leaves to garnish. 

Makes 12 cups (3 litres).

Vegan Chai Banana Bread

Can you believe it's been snowing in some places near me today?! Snow in October! 

Today has been windy and stormy and rainy. The kind of rain which soaks all of your "covered" outdoor areas as well. It's the kind of day for staying late in bed, drinking lots of tea, having hot soup for lunch and baking. Baking is a lovely thing to do on a cold windy day. The oven helps warm up the house and at the end you get a nice still-warm baked treat to devour. Preferably with a cup of tea.

I recently did a clean out of my cupboard and found that I had 48 different types of tea, I'm serious - 48! I decided that I had better not buy any more tea until I had consumed some of what I already have. I am pretty crazy about tea, but even to me 48 seemed excessive. Even though I drink several cups of tea a day, I decided that it would take me too long to work through them just by drinking. So I decided that it was time to do more baking with tea and to experiment with some new fresh iced tea drinks (if the weather ever warms up enough!).

One of my 48 types of tea was this beautiful Tulsi Chai Masala, which my friend brought back from India as a gift for me. It's quite different to other Chai Masala that I've had, it's a blend which is very strong on cinnamon. So I thought that this strong spice would make it perfect for baking. If you've read much of this blog before then you'll also know that I really don't get into breakfast. So I settled on Chai Banana Loaf - to serve the joint purpose of using up some of my teas and getting me excited about breakfast. It didn't disappoint. 

Ingredients

2-3 heaped tsp chai masala (this depends on how strong your chai is)

2/3 cup boiling hot water

1 banana, mashed well (should make about 1/2 cup, a bit more or a bit less is fine)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil (to make a healthier loaf you can substitute 1/3 cup apple sauce and 1 tbsp canola oil)

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (if your oven is fan forced then reduce to 170).

2. Steep the chai masala in the boiling hot water for at least 10 minutes. You can leave for longer if you want a stronger flavour. Strain and allow the tea to cool.

3. Combine the banana, sugar, oil, tea and spices in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarb into the batter and mix well. You'll have lots of little wholemeal husks left in your strainer after sifting, but you can just throw those in too.

5. Line a 22cm/9inch long loaf tin and line with greaseproof baking paper. Pour in the batter and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Makes 1 loaf.

Sri Lankan Tea Factories

Recently I went on an amazing trip to Sri Lanka! I posted lots of delicious pictures of all the wonderful food I ate and the wonderful cooking class I took in Unawatuna to learn how to cook Sri Lankan curries. I thought I might post one other post about Sri Lanka. Essentially (foodwise) Sri Lanka is famous for two things: curry and tea. I already posted rather a lot about curry, so I thought you might like to see some photos from some of the tea factories that I toured.

When I say "factories" I don't mean to too extensively, I only went to two. I had a wonderful driver who took me to two that he recommended, one because the tour was great and the other because the tea was fantastic quality.

Our first stop was Blue Fields, where I tool the factory tour but didn't look at the tea (at the diver's recommendation). Here are some photos of the factory and the many, many huge machines they have as part of their processing:

Piles and piles of tea!!

Blue Fields gave a great tour - and I learnt so much about the processing of tea! They took me on a tour of the whole factory and then gave me a cup of delicious tea to round it off! After Blue Fields we headed to Mackwoods Labookellie, which my driver recommended as having particularly good quality tea.

Tea packed up ready to be auctioned!

I hope you enjoyed all these pictures - it was great to see all the processing facilities and learn about how tea is made! I didn't end up buying any tea at Mackwoods Labookellie - because it was staggeringly expensive! Their boxes of tea cost about $10 - which is more than I would pay over here! You would think that it would be cheaper to buy tea from the source, but apparently not. I guess they think that they can charge big amounts because tourists will pay anything, which is disappointing. 

Thai Red Tea Vegan Jelly with Poached Apples

Tea is a way of life for me. Coffee doesn't even rate for me. Don't even talk to me about coffee. Tea is an essential aspect of all the parts of my day. I drink so many cups of tea a day it's just not funny. So when 84th and 3rd (one of my favourite blogs) announced that the next Sweet Adventures Blog Hop theme was 'What's Your Cup of Tea" I knew that I had to make something even though I have been a bit lax in the blogging this month. To emphasise my point here are five reasons why tea is better than coffee (but seriously, I have nothing against coffee drinkers or coffee, so please don't take offence!):

1. Variety - having several cups of tea doesn't mean you have to have the same thing each time. Tea comes in so many different varieties that you can match it to your mood. English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Chamomile, Peppermint, Green Tea, Matcha, Orange Pekoe, Rooibus. I could go on for a long time - but you know them all. 

2. Decaf tea tastes just as delicious as regular tea - since I've had a long history of insomnia I'm predominantly on decaf tea which is pretty much the same as non-decaf. But decaf coffee just isn't quite the same.

3. Coffee gives you really bad breath. Seriously. If you drink a lot of coffee and you didn't know this then you should go out and buy some mints. 

4. Tea is the first thing guests get offered when they come into your home. It's a symbol of hospitality.

5. Some people (mostly young students) who drink a lot of coffee seem to think that their caffeine addiction is the coolest thing ever. I've had so many days at work or uni in which I've heard people loudly proclaiming that they can't function without their morning cup of coffee - as if it's something to be super proud of. Having an addiction is never cool - just so you know.

When I thought of the tea desserts the immediate obvious choice is cupcakes - super easy to add tea flavours to. I've made lots of Maccha Green Tea Cupcakes and lovely Chai Tea Cupcakes, I've even made Mango Chili Chai Cupcakes. But I wanted to try something completely different and new. Of all the delicious teas that I've got in my cupboard I knew immediately that I wanted to use the gorgeous Thai Red Tea which I bought when travelling in Thailand. It is served ice cold with coconut milk and/or lemon and it is the perfect way to cool down in the humidity.

I bought mine in Thailand, but I'm sure you can get it at some Asian grocers or probably on the internet. It is worth it to find though, as the taste is just great! In this recipe I made a fresh and healthy vegan jelly with a lovely surprise of poached apples on the bottom.

Ingredients
3 apples, peeled and cored
2 1/2 cups strong Thai red tea
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold water
6 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 tsp lemon zest
A few teaspoons of coconut milk

To Make
1. Slice the apples thinly and simmer gently with the red tea and sugar for about 10 minutes, until softened but not mushy.
2. Remove the apple and keep the tea syrup. Distribute the apple pieces evenly in the bottom of six glass dessert bowls.
3. Dissolve the cornstarch in the 1/2 cup of cold water.
4. Place 2 cups of the tea syrup and the lemon zest into a saucepan over a low heat.
5. Add the cornstarch. Leave over a low heat and stir continuously for 5 minutes. Don't allow it to simmer or boil, just keep it on a low enough heat to keep it hot. It should gradually thicken and deepen in colour. After 5 minutes it should look fairly thick but be easy to pour.
6. Pour over the jelly evenly across the six bowls. Add a couple of drops of coconut milk to the top of each one and use a skewer to swirl it across the top. You'll need to do this quickly as it will start to set fast.
7. Chill in the fridge for 40-60 minutes.

Serves 6.

Cabbage-Is-My-Friend Tea

If you read this blog much then you'll notice an influx of cabbage over the last week or so. This is partly due to lots of delicious cabbage-y Croatian recipes, and partly due to the fact that we had lots of cabbage left over from all out Croatian cabbage cooking to use up. Now, cabbage is delicious - however, there is a catch and you all know what it is. So, in order to address this problem I have devised this carminative tea of fennel seeds, caraway seeds and fenugreek which is not only delicious but eases the digestion and allows you to eat as much cabbage as you like without stinking out the whole world. Hurray!

Not only is this tea carminative but it's also very good for you in other regards as well - because all these ingredients have fantastic properties which can be beneficial to your health*:

Fennel Seeds:

1) Can be a great source of antioxidants, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins (including B group), as well as calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, folate, molybdenum and many other useful elements and nutrients.

2) Has been shown to produce anti-spasmodic, pain-reducing and fever-reducing effects

3) Can help stimulate milk flow in breast feeding women

4) Is a natural treatment for problems of digestion - including bloating, flatulence, constipation, IBS, cramping and pain of the abdomen

5) Can help regulate oestrogen in women and alleviate PMS symptoms

6) Can act as an aphrodisiac and increase libido

7) Is an effective weight loss aid

Caraway Seeds:

1) Treat digestive disorders such as diarrhoea, colic, flatulance, cramps and poor appetite.

2) Can help ease cramps during the menstrual cycle and can act as a natural pain reliever for dysmenorrhoea (period pain)

3) Can increase the production of milk in breastfeeding women

4) Can help fight bronchitis and coughing

Fenugreek:

1) Can lessen mood fluctuations and PMS during the menstrual period

2) Can increase libido

3) Improves digestion and metabolism, including treating flatulence, acid reflux, bloating and constipation (acts as a milk laxative)

4) May help regulate blood sugar levels and stimulate production of insulin

5) May help lower high cholesterol levels

6) Eliminates bad breath

What a wonderful lot of properties! Now you see why you should be drinking down this tea even if you haven't had any cabbage recently!

Ingredients

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

1/2 tsp whole fenugreek

To Make

1. Put all ingredients in a tea pot and fill the pot with boiling hot water. Allow to steep for 4-5 minutes.

2. Strain into a mug and drink.

3. Refill the tea pot with more boiling water next time you want a cup of tea - you can use the same set of seeds all day and keep refilling, although you may find you will need to steep for slightly longer times as the day goes on.

*A small disclaimer on this: most of this information was gathered from various reputable websites, however, I did not have the time to trawl through research papers to find supporting evidence to these claims. Therefore you should take it as you would take any information you read on the internet (with a grain of salt). But not literally of course, because I don't think this delicious tea needs any salt added.