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Incredible India… Lassi

19 Nov

I have mentioned lassis to you before… I shared with you my version of a mango lassi earlier.  But after having lassis in India during my past trip there, I realized my version of lassi is not that authentic.

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink very typical to India.  It is made out of plain yogurt churned with some fruit, typically mango, but I learned that it can be done with other fruits too.  But the fruit is minimal, because all the lassis I had during this trip are white and do not take on the color of the fruit being mixed in.

Lassis are typically drunk as an appetizer before a meal…   I drank them also during the meal to help cool of my taste buds of all the spicy Indian food.  I even had it as an afternoon snack… when everyone at the hotel bar was ordering drinks after taking in the sights of the Taj Mahal, I ordered myself a lassi.  The server laughed but found it endearing and as a sign of us embracing of Indian culture.  He also thought I was Indian…

I learned there are 2 versions of lassi – salted or sweet.  I only knew the sweet versions, which was preferred by everyone I asked.  I got to try the salted version during our 1st breakfast in Agra.  Nothing special, just imagine a liquid yogurt sprinkled with salt.  It only helped me to cool down the spiciness of the dosas and chutneys I had that morning… other than that, I will continue ordering sweet lassi.

 

Also, lassis are made with a churner, like the one you see below, instead of a blender, like I do…  I guess that was why the lassis would take a little while every time I ordered them.

So, for a more authentic version of lassi… you can still follow my recipe, just add a tiny bit of fruit, to maintain the white color of the yogurt.  and you can add some pistachios on top… to resemble the one I had at the ITC Agra Hotel… super chic indeed.

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Incredible India… Chai Masala Tea

14 Nov

This is something I learned in this past trip to India…

Every time you visit a store or for breakfast you get offered tea.  And the tea they refer to is chai masala tea.  This is a tea made already with milk and seasoned with some kind of sugar/sweetener and a blend of spices or masala.

Chai masala 1

The masala blend for the tea is usually a spice mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, ginger and sometimes even peppercorns.

Masala Blend

I am not the tea drinker; Annie Mariel is the tea drinker here.  And the teas I usually drink are mostly herbal (chamomile, spearmint, linden, lemongrass, etc.) to avoid the caffeine in most teas.  But I was intrigued by this chai masala I was being offered all the time.

I loved it… it is traditionally served in these clay cups.  Not to worry, the cups are disposable and used only once.  Even when you get seconds, the cups are never reused.  I was told the cup itself gave some flavor to the tea and that even a second pouring would not taste the same as the first one.  And when I had tea in a paper cup or in a regular china cup, it did not taste the same as that original clay cup.

Drinking Chai      Chai @ Train

The one-time clay cups are also the preferred way to drink lassi, I later learned.  I believe these disposable clay cups are partly the reason why there’s so much dirt flying in the air all the time… Imagine all these clay cups being thrown into the curbside, they get pulverized, the dirt then flies all over the place… you can imagine the picture.

But my love affair with this tea was short-lived…  I wondered why I had not been offered this tea during my first trip if it’s so popular everywhere in India.  The reason??  It has caffeine, and in the line of vegetarianism I practice, we avoid caffeine as it is a stimulant that is not beneficial to a healthy nervous system.

But it is sooooooo good, I am on a mission now to recreate this delicious chai masala tea in a decaffeinated version.   Just stay tuned…  OK?

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Spearmint Infusion

18 Jun

I learned to drink herbal teas when I was living in NYC… I started making myself chamomile and linden teas to help me go to sleep.  Chamomile and linden are both commonly used as relaxers.   Later on, I also started to drink teas as part of natural treatments – that’s how I got to know lemongrass tea, peppermint tea, Siberian ginseng tea, cold care mixes, etc.  

But I have never been too fond of hot beverages while living in Puerto Rico… I just start sweating after drinking any hot tea, for a treatment or not.   But, when I visited Israel in 2000 , ittle did I know I would fall in love with a tea… or an infusion, I should really say.  At the end of each meal we would be offered a mint tea – a handful of spearmint leaves in hot water; mix the water up with brown sugar or honey and you have the loveliest after dinner drink.  It helps in digestion and tastes awesome.  During our visit to Israel, I would finish all our meals with a few cups of that…

But since then I have learned to be very careful when asking for a mint tea… in a Middle Eastern restaurant or otherwise.  Because tea is really a specific plant that’s dried or cured and commercial teas out there mix that plant with other herbs to make flavored teas…  Tea usually has caffeine, the main reason I do not drink coffee or chocolate.  So every time I get the craving of mint tea after eating falafels, etc.  I am usually left with the unfulfilled desire for one…  And since that trip I remember with fondness those spearmint infusions. 

Spearmint is not as widely available here in Puerto Rico and when I tried to grow it here next the beach, the leaves get too bruised by the constant heat. But now, with my CSA box, I get spearmint grown in Aibonito on a weekly basis. So I can enjoy my spearmint tea while watching my TiVo…

 

 Spearmint 1

 SPEARMINT INFUSION

2 sprigs of spearmint
About 1 ½ cups of water
Honey or Brown Sugar to taste

 

  1. In a small saucepan with a cover, bring the water to a boil.  When water is boiling (or at least shows little bubbles in the bottom of the pan), turn the stove off.  Place the spearmint sprigs in the water and cover.
  2. Wait for at least 15-20 minutes for the leaves to steep in the hot water.
  3. Strain the leaves from the water into a mug and season with honey, brown sugar or even agave nectar…. your preference.

 

This is great as an after-dinner drink… they serve it at Le Bernadin in NYC.  They use French presses used to make coffee to present the spearmint leaves and water… when you press on the lever, then you’re left with the liquid infused with spearmint flavor.  Yummy…

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Mamey Milkshake

30 May

My best friend is Angie is in Miami right now… and as soon as she told me she was going there I said: “Please, drink a Mamey Milkshake in my name…”  Because God knows I crave one every time Miami is mentioned.

mamey_sapote

Mamey is a super sweet fruit reminiscing to a papaya.  It’s brown and kind of hard looking on the outside yet is super red and sweet on the inside.  The seed in the middle resembles a mussel.  It’s a very pretty seed indeed.    Some people in Puerto Rico call it sapote.  I call it simply mamey because that’s how it’s known in Cuba and how I was taught to call this fruit.  If you say just mamey in Puerto Rico you might often get another fruit that is similar yet not the same.  Here you need to specify mamey sapote.

In Miami you can get frozen mamey pulp to make milkshakes, which makes them very accessible year-round.  Fortunately and unfortunately, here in Puerto Rico you need to make them from the fresh fruit.  And it’s an expensive fruit here… sometimes I have paid up to $6 for one mamey.  So sometimes when I visit my family in Miami I bring a few frozen bags of pulp to indulge my mamey milkshake cravings.

 

 Batido de Mamey

MAMEY MILKSHAKE

¼ of the pulp of a mamey, about 1 cup of cut fruit
About 1 ¼ cup of milk – I always eye-ball this, never measure
2 tbs of brown sugar
A pinch of sea salt
¼ tsp vanilla powder
3 -4 ice cubes

 

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until frothy.

 

A mamey milkshake is one of the ideal accompaniments to a Cuban sandwich, or course now my preferred version is the Veggie Cuban.   Other appropriate accompaniments might be: a Frutabomba Milkshake or a Malta…

Salud!!

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Lemongrass Tea

31 Dec

One of my favorite teas is lemongrass tea… it’s calming, soothing and great as an after dinner tea.  I love it seasoned with brown sugar. And now that the weather is a bit chillier, it’s great to have a nice cup before going to bed.

The lemongrass plant is very easy to grow.  It looks like those grasses that grow next to the road…  Even though I’ve seen the hard part of the grass used in Thai cooking, I use the grass blades to make the tea.  Here’s a picture to familiarize you with the plant.

lemongrass-plantJust find yourself some lemongrass blades and it’s super easy to make the tea…

 

 lemongrass-tea

LEMONGRASS TEA

A small handful of lemongrass blades
2 cups of water
Brown sugar or honey to taste

 

  1. In a medium pot, add water and lemongrass blades.  Cover the pot and bring to a boil.
  2. After the water and lemongrass have boiled for about 5 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the tea to cool enough to drink.
  3. Season with brown sugar or honey to taste

 lemongrass-tea-2

 

If you find lemongrass blades, you can easily freeze them to use whenever you want to make some tea.  I place them in freezer ziplock bags and keep them in the freezer and just take a few blades when you’re ready to boil them.

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