Oat and Nut Energy Bites - Sugar free

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Snacks play a starring role in my day's menu. I would happily skip lunch if I was offered snacks instead. Items like bakshanam*, vadai* or samosa* immediately come to mind. Not that I ever do that, mind you, because my conscience would not let me get away with that. Knowing my weakness for snacks I take care that I never keep the items mentioned above at home and stock my pantry with healthy alternatives like dry fruits and nuts.

Having said that, there are only so many dry fruits you can snack on, before it starts to become a little boring. So when I came across this recipe  on Divya's site I thought it was an interesting and intriguing idea. I have now made these energy bites many many times and have changed some of the proportions along the way and have enjoyed it quite a lot each time. This energy bite is mildly sweet and with a combination of oats and nuts, is packed with nutrients, fiber and protein. This also makes a great snack when on the go, especially on long drives or even on the drive back from work :-)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make the energy bites

1 1/2 cups of one minute oats ( I used Quaker)

1 1/2 cups of mixed nuts ( I used a combination of raw unsalted peanuts, almonds and cashewnuts) (any combination of nuts works here, I have used almonds (badam), peanuts (mungphali) , walnuts (akhrot), cashew nuts (kaju)  to name a few over time in making these)

1 1/2 cups of dates

1/2 cup of raisins

1/2 tsp cardamom seed powder (elaichi)

1 tsp clarified butter (ghee/nei) (optional for additional flavor) (leave out for a vegan version)

Dry roast the one minute oats till it turns into a  creamier color ( about a minute or two) and keep aside.

Dry roast the mixed nuts either separately or together and keep aside.

In a food processor or blender grind the oats to a fine powder and keep aside.

Similarly grind the nuts to a fine powder and keep aside.

A food processor is my preferred gadget to make this because it really simplifies the process. If using a food processor, place the dates and raisins and process until the dates are much smaller and seem a little mushed up.

Add the oat flour and nut powder to this along with cardamom seed powder and process until all the ingredients come together.

It looks a little like thick and sticky breadcrumbs. You know it is done when you place a little of this mixture on your palm and make a fist, the mixture should bind and hold together.

If using clarified butter/ ghee add at this point and give it another turn. 

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Roll into little balls and store in an air tight container.

If using a blender then the best way to proceed is to powder each of dry ingredients separately and add to a large bowl.

Lastly grind the raisins+dates and add the crushed/ground dates to the rest and knead with your hand until the mixture starts to come together.

Proceed as above.

Notes:

You can use a combination of any type of nuts, I used these since they are my favorite ones.

You can change the proportion of oats and nuts slightly but the dates and raisins are essential because they impart sweetness and also provide binding to these bites so reducing or skipping one or both can impact the final product. 

The cardamom imparts wonderful flavor to these bites so I would not recommend skipping it.

* Bakshanam are deep fried snacks from Southern India, Vadai is a snack made from deep fried ground lentils and samosa's are spiced potatoes rolled in dough and what else....deep fried of course:-) 

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Vegetarian Chili with pinto beans

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Snow is not a frequent occurrence in our city and when it does make an appearance, things come to a complete standstill. We got such an occasion recently and all the offices and schools in our city closed down and we got an opportunity to enjoy one day of snow break.Since driving was not advised, I  was forced to manage with the stuff I had at hand. So when  I found myself in the kitchen, either making something or planning for the rest of the day I happily congratulated myself for stocking everything and on being able to manage for a couple of days, if not more, without a run to the grocery store. That is until..... I discovered that I was running low on salt of all things.....I could not believe it..I searched high and low in my pantry sure that the additional container of salt that I always keep in my pantry was just behind that one pack of poha or peanuts...but no such luck. I really was running low on salt...what a nightmare !

I always keep a spare container of salt in my pantry, apparently the one time I have failed to replenish it, turned out to be the one time I could not go out and replenish it either....pah ! So for the entire day and half of the next that I could not get salt, I used what I had as if the grains of salt were made of  gold. I measured and remeasured the salt while using it and saw to it that not even one grain spilled out and got wasted. What happened?....well luckily for me the salt did last, although I had to come up with some creative solutions  like using salt only on the part of the idli batter that I was using immediately and leaving the rest of the batter unsalted.The next evening when the roads were open again, I headed to the grocery the first chance I got, to pick up salt. The moral of the story....... if you are expecting a snow storm avoid the mistake I made and keep your pantry well stocked with vital ingredients like salt. :-)

Now moving on from possible culinary disaster to vegetarian chili, which  is one of my favorites and is perfect for the chilly wintry days we are currently experiencing. I tried this variation with pinto beans just for a change and thoroughly enjoyed it. Give this a try when you are looking for something hearty, wholesome and spicy...

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Ingredients and Method to make Vegetarian Chili with Pinto beans

2 medium yellow onions (cut fine)
2 large green bell pepper (capsicum) (remove seeds and cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
1 1/2 cup pinto beans dry (soaked overnight)
2 large tomatoes (cut fine)

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp minced garlic
2 bay leaves
3/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional) (or according to taste)

1 tbsp oil 

Soak dry pinto beans with plenty of water and a pinch of soda ( the soda is optional) overnight.

Rinse the soaked beans in fresh water and place in a large heavy bottomed pan with fresh water and simmer until cooked. Keep aside

Alternatively pressure cook the soaked beans with fresh water until soft but not mushy. Keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil add onions and saute until transparent.

Add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes are soft and mushy.

Add dry powders, bay leaves and stir for a few seconds.

Add green bell pepper and water as required and cook until bell peppers are half cooked.

To this add the cooked pinto beans , water as required and simmer the entire mixture together with salt to taste for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

Served hot with cornbread to make a complete meal.

Notes:

You can use equal quantities of red kidney beans (rajma) instead of pinto beans and proceed with the rest of the recipe in the same manner.

If you like really very spicy chili you can add half or one full jalapeno to make it more spicy.

This chili is off to My Legume Love Affair, the seventh helping being hosted by Srivalli and originally started by Susan 

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Eggless Pudding Cookies

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Recently I discovered that the baking powder I have been innocently adding to so many of my bakes contains aluminum in it. I researched on this topic a little and my research did not specifically yield any issues from ingesting this aluminum contained in food, yet I felt it was an unnecessary additive in my food that I was not keen to include in mine and my family's diet. So I switched to aluminum free baking powder. If you, like me think you do not want to include this unnecessary additive in your food, look for aluminum free baking powder, this is available in almost all grocery stores.

While on the topic of baking powder,here are some tips for buying and checking effectiveness of baking powder. Since baking powder has a short shelf life it is better to buy the baking powder in small quantities each time. Also to check the effectiveness of the baking powder already lying in your shelf, stir in 1 teaspoon of baking powder into 1/3 cup of boiling water, if it gently bubbles than the baking powder is still effective and can be used.

Moving on...I came across this cookie on Madhuram's Eggless cooking site. From the very first time I saw this simple and elegant recipe I knew I would not be able to resist making this. I made two batches of these cookies, one with butterscotch flavor and the other with pistachio flavor. In place of all purpose flour I used a combination of ground flax cereal, almond meal and semolina flour in the first and a little milk powder instead of semolina flour in the second.

Both of these turned out fantastic and if you gave it to someone and asked them to guess the ingredients they would not be able to guess that they were actually consuming something as healthy as flax cereal and almond meal in their cookie. I also reduced the quantity of butter, then started getting nervous while the cookies were baking that they would get messed up because I did so, luckily it was fine and we thoroughly enjoyed these quick and yum treats. I particularly loved the pistachio flavored one because I used a little milk powder in that and loved the taste of pistachio and milk together.




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Ingredients and method to make Pudding cookies Variation 1

1/2 cup finely ground flax cereal ( See notes below)

1/2 cup finely ground almond meal ( See notes below)

1/4 cup fine rava (semolina flour)

1 pkt 3.5 oz of Jello Pudding and pie filling (butterscotch flavor)

1/3 cup Smart balance light (or butter)

Preheat oven at 375 deg F

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and keep aside

Process flax cereal in food processor/ blender until fine, keep aside

Process almonds with skin in food processor / blender until fine, keep aside.

In a large bowl, mix flax cereal, almond meal and semolina flour and keep aside.

In another bowl, cream together the butter (or smart balance) and jello pudding and pie filling until smooth and mixed well.

Add to this the ground flax cereal + almond meal + semolina flour mixture and mix well until it is well blended.

Roll the dough into little balls and place on cookie sheet and flatten gently.

Bake in the oven for about for 15 mins.

Remove and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

This yielded about 16 cookies small

Notes: I used the flax cereal from Trader Joe's which is not very sweet, you could probably use any type of cereal here that is not very sweet.

Or you can use replace the quantity of ground cereal with all purpose flour (maida)



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Ingredients and method to make Pudding cookies Variation 2

1/4 milk powder
3/4 cup fine powder of flax cereal
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup smart balance light (or butter)
1 pkt 3.5 oz Jello instant pudding and pie filling pistachio flavor

Preheat oven at 350 deg F

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and keep aside

Process flax cereal in food processor/ blender until fine, keep aside

Process almonds with skin in food processor / blender until fine, keep aside.

In a large bowl, mix flax cereal, almond meal and milk powder and keep aside.

In another bowl, cream together the butter (or smart balance) and jello pudding and pie filling until smooth and mixed well.

Add to this the ground flax cereal + almond meal + milk powder mixture and mix well until it is well blended. Add milk and mix some more

Roll the dough into little balls and place on cookie sheet and flatten gently.

Bake in the oven for about for 15 mins.

Remove and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

This yielded about 20 really small cookies

Notes: You can easily replace the quantity of ground cereal or any of the other two items like almond meal or semolina flour (or even all three if you choose ) with equal quantity of all purpose flour.(maida)

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Mixed Vegetable Khichdi ~ Masoor Dhal khichdi ~ One dish meal with rice, lentils and veggies

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Khichdi, as I explained in my post here , is a dish made out of rice and lentils that is simple, satisfying and wholesome. I find this the perfect comfort food and a great life saver for days when all I want is something familiar and simple and have no patience to try something exotic or different. Last week when I returned home in a rush and was thinking about dinner ideas, all I could think of was to make some khichdi. But since the basic khichdi lacks vegetables, my conscience would not permit me to make just that and be done. So I thought of trying to make a khichdi with some vegetables in them.

Since time was short I could not turn to my most trusted source for new recipes....the internet, so I just made this dish up as I went. I cooked the rice and lentils in a pressure cooker with the bay leaves tossed into it so that their flavor could get absorbed by the rice and lentils. I then used cumin seeds, asafoetida and a little chilli powder to impart more flavor to this dish.I kept the flavors in this rice dish minimalistic,since I wanted something on the simpler side as far as flavors go, so this is one rice dish that will work well with spicy curries too. I enjoyed this version of khichdi so much, I know I will be making this far more frequently than the other plain version. Try this when you are looking for simple and comforting one pot dishes and a change from the usual pulao's and biryani's :-)

If you are looking for one dish meals, you can also check out these other one dish meals
Bisi Bele Bhath
Kadambam Saadam

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Mixed vegetable khichdi

1 1/4 cup brown basmati rice (or white rice, see notes)

3/4 cup split red lentils (masoor dhal/ mysore parappu)

3 small bay leaves or 1 large bay leaf

1 medium sized onion cut fine (pyaaz/ vengayam) (Optional)

1 1/2  to 2 cups of mixed vegetables (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) ( I used a combination of cauliflower, carrots and peas but any seasonal vegetables like beans, carrots, potatoes, peas and bell pepper/ capsicum can be used)

1 Tbsb Clarified butter (ghee/nei) 

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing/ perungayam)

1/8 tsp turmeric powder (haldi/ manjal podi)

salt to taste (namak/ uppu)

1/2 tsp chilli powder or according to taste

handful of cilantro/coriander leaves(hara dhania/kothamalli) cut fine(optional)

Mix brown basmati and whole red lentils,add water to it, swirl a couple of times and drain the water. Repeat this process a few times until the water runs clear.

Add 4 cups of water to this mixture, allow to soak for about 30 minutes. Add bay leaves, place in the pressure cooker and cook until soft. (This takes about 4 whistles in my pressure cooker) Alternatively you can place the rice and lentils in a large pan with the bay leaves and sufficient water to cook the rice and lentils and simmer on medium heat until the rice and lentils are cooked and slightly mushy.

Remove the bay leaves and discard.Keep the cooked rice and lentils aside.

Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add cumin seeds to it. When the seeds start crackling, add asafoetida, turmeric powder and quickly saute for a second.

Add cut onions (if using)  and saute until the onions turn translucent

Add vegetables and sprinkle a little water, a pinch of salt and cook until the vegetables are soft but not mushy.

Add the cooked rice and lentils to it, add chilli powder, salt to taste and mix well. Let it heat on low all the way through for a few minutes.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with raita or kadhi with some chips/ papad on the side.

Serves approximately 3-4

Notes

If you would like to make this with white rice, ideally white rice like sona masuri is a good choice for this dish. To cook sona masuri usually a proportion of 1 cup rice to 3 cups water is used, so for this quantity of rice and lentils you would need about 4 and 1/2 cups of water.

The ghee and the bay leaf mainly do lend a lot of flavor to this dish, so if these are not used it can make quite a bit of difference to the taste.

If you want to spice up this khichdi you could cut 3 to 4 green chillies (small Indian or thai variety) or according to taste and add it immediately after you add the cumin seeds to the ghee, saute for a minute and proceed with the rest of the recipe

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Onion Tomato Chutney version 2

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While browsing the internet an article titled, "The most unhealthy veggie sandwich" caught my eye.Curious to find out which sandwich got this title and also apprehensive that it may be one of those veggie sandwiches that I occasionally have when eating out, I warily clicked on the article. I was relieved to find that the sandwich mentioned in the article is something I have never had, yet the information was quite shocking and I immediately thought this was something I wanted to share with my readers. 

The article  says that Blimpie's Veggie Supreme sandwich (12") contains 1106 calories. Imagine that, a veggie sandwich that contains 1106 calories, seems totally insane. In addition it contains 56 g of fat seemingly because this sandwich uses three types of cheese and a lot of oil too. This sandwich was not the only shocker, the article then went on to list a whole list of extremely high calorie foods available at restaurants including a Dessert Ravioli at Romano's Macaroni Grill that contains a whopping 1630 calories and 74 g of fat. Amazing isn't it, I am so glad that neither of these items nor the other items mentioned in the list have been ones I have ever ordered when eating out. 

Having said that I realize that most of the food served at restaurants tend to be much higher in calories than when we make them at home. This is the reason I avoid eating out too much and when I do,I try and make smart choices by sticking with low fat soups or watching the portion sizes and eating smaller portions. On the rare occasion that we order dessert (which is really a rare event) we just share one serving of dessert so that all our efforts in watching our weight and counting calories is not rendered completely ineffective in one fell stroke.This usually works well and is a better alternative than giving up eating out completely.I am sure all of you have your own techniques to avoid weight gain even when eating out, do share them.... I would love to hear these tips.

Moving on to the recipe which is in complete contrast to the discussion above, this chutney is  low fat, wholesome and tasty and I use it to make sandwiches at home and avoid disasters such as Blimpie's veggie sandwich :-) I call this chutney onion tomato chutney version 2, my earlier version of this chutney can be found here. I use this chutney in veggie sandwiches in place of mayo  but this works just as well in accompaniment with any traditional Indian dish such as dosa's, idli's or roti's or as a dip to go with raw veggies :)

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Ingredients and Method to make Onion tomato chutney version 2

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seed (methi seeds/ mendiyam)

6 curry leaves (optional)

6 whole dry red chillies (or according to taste)

1 large onion cut fine

4 large tomatoes cut fine ( I used roma tomatoes)

salt to taste

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add mustard seeds to it.

When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add fenugreek seeds to it.

When the fenugreek seeds start getting a little browner, add onions and saute until onions are transparent then add tomatoes to it.

Saute the tomatoes until it is soft and mushy. Add whole dry red chilies and curry leaves if using and stir a couple of times. Remove from heat.

Allow to cool completely, then grind this mixture to a smooth paste, add salt to taste and mix well and serve with any dosa, any roti, use in sandwiches  instead of mayo or use as a dip to go with raw veggies.

Refrigerate the balance and use within 2 to 3 days.

This chutney is off to the Chutney/Dip Mania Event being hosted by Ramya

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Mediterranean White bean soup (Fassoulatha)

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Fassoulatha is a Mediterranean soup made with white beans, celery, carrots, onions and tomatoes.Until recently I had neither heard of nor tasted this soup. The first time I saw a reference to this soup was on Curry Leaf's site here . Since I am always looking for soup recipes especially hearty soups such as this one, and the description and simplicity of the soup appealed to me, I decided to make it soon. Conveniently for me I had everything required for the soup at hand and this soup featured in my kitchen very soon after I saw it for the first time.In addition to curry leaf's recipe I also referred to another recipe for this soup here 

This delightful soup turned out to be hearty and filling, making it perfect for the really cold days we are having these days. And the best part about this soup is that it does not require a whole lot of exotic ingredients making it simpler and easier to make. 

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Ingredients and method to make White bean soup

1 yellow onion chopped fine

2 large carrots cut into half inch pieces

2 stalks of celery

2 small bay leaves

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp paprika ( or according to taste)

1 tomato cut fine

1 cup dried white beans soaked overnight with a pinch of soda (soda is optional)

3 cups of water

salt to taste

2 tbsp olive oil

Fresh ground pepper to taste (optional)

Retain a few celery leaves for garnish

Drain the soaked white beans and add fresh water to it and drain again.

Place the beans along with fresh water in a large heavy bottomed pan, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer on medium heat until cooked. 

Keep the cooked beans aside.

Heat oil in the same pan and add the chopped yellow onions and saute until the onions are transparent.

Ad the chopped tomato and saute until tomatoes are soft and mushy.

Add the balance of the vegetables, all the spices, salt to taste, sugar and water and let it simmer until the vegetables are cooked and slightly soft.

Add the cooked beans to this,Add water if required to achieve required consistency and let it simmer for another ten or so minutes.

Garnish with celery leaves and fresh ground pepper and serve hot with bread of choice on side.

Serves about 3-4

This soup is off to My Legume Love Affair, the seventh helping being hosted by Srivalli and originally started by Susan 

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Sweet Potato Roti (Indian Flat Bread with Sweet Potatoes)

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Sweet Potatoes are some of the most nutritious vegetables and have been found to have significant anti oxidant properties.This is also an excellent source of  vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, good source of vitamin C, manganese, good source of copper, dietary fiber, iron and potassium.Since sweet potatoes are very rich in beta carotene and vitamin C and vitamin B complex, they are also excellent immunity boosters.Sweet Potatoes are also said to be beneficial in stabilizing blood sugar levels.

Ever since I read about these health benefits of sweet potato I have been trying to include this vegetable in my weekly menu. Unfortunately R is not too fond of this vegetable and does not like the sweetness of it, so I have been on a mission to try and disguise it in as many ways as possible and sneak it into our diet. This sweet potato roti is one such successful method to sneak in this vegetable into our diet. In fact this was such a successful disguise that R was not even able to detect that the roti's he had been relishing actually had sweet potatoes in them.The signature sweetness of the sweet potato is not very  obvious in this dish. At the same time the roti's turned out very soft and tasted very nice. In fact R actually asked me to make more of them, giving it his seal of approval in addition to mine :-)

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Ingredients and Method to make Sweet Potato Roti

2 small sweet potatoes peeled cubed cooked and mashed (yielded about 2/3 cup of mashed sweet potato)

2 cups whole wheat flour (atta)

salt to taste

1/2 tsp chilli powder (or according to taste)

1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing)

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)

2 tsp oil.

Additional flour for dusting.

A few drops of oil or ghee (optional)

Place the peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in a microwave safe dish and cook on high in the microwave for a couple of minutes or until soft. Mix the sweet potatoes once or twice while it is getting cooked.

Cool slightly and mash until soft and pulpy and keep aside.

In a large bowl mix together whole wheat flour and all other spices and salt.

Add the mashed sweet potatoes to this and knead into a soft dough.

Add oil and continue to knead until the dough is soft and not sticky. There is no need to add water as the mashed sweet potatoes has enough moisture to  make the dough. If required add more flour or a few drops of water to get the consistency required ( I did not need either flour or water additionally with these proportions the dough came out correctly)

Keep the dough covered for at least 30 minutes.

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Divide the dough into even lemon sized balls. Using flour for dusting roll them out evenly as thin as you like.

Heat a griddle/ flat pan  and place the rolled out dough  and cook for a few minutes till it small spots begin to appear and then flip it over and cook the other side too until brown little spots appear on the other side.

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Black Eyed peas curry (Chawli/Lobia Curry)

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Usually I make black eyed beans with onion tomato gravy base with Punjabi spices or with Maharashtrian ones. So when I came across this recipe on Lisa's site I was instantly interested in this recipe. The spices used in this curry are distinctly south Indian and the absence of onion in a curry such as this, seemed like a nice departure from the usual curries.

I tried this curry and was really glad I did. I followed Lisa's recipe for most part and just modified the proportions slightly and added red chilli powder to add a little more spice to the curry. This one made a delightful combination with both roti's and also when served with plain basmati rice or cumin/jeera rice.Try this when you are looking for a change from the usual types of curries or cooking for someone that is avoiding onions or garlic in their curry.

Before I move on to the recipe, one quick update, I just updated my picture on my apple pachadi/ apple chutney post. Just wanted to let my readers know so that they could have a quick peek at the new picture. This one, though not as good as I want it to be, still does far more justice to the dish than my previous one :-)

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Ingredients and method to make curried black eyed peas

1 1/2 cups of dried black eyed peas (chawli/lobia/karamani) to be soaked overnight

1 heaped tsp of mustard seeds (sarson/rai/kadagu)

2 tbsp oil

salt to taste (namak/uppu)

3 small Thai or Indian variety green chillies cut fine (or according to taste)

1/2 tsp cumin powder (jeera powder/jeeragam podi)

1/2 tsp coriander powder (dhania powder)

1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi/manjal podi)

1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing/perungayam)

2 large tomatoes (tamatar/thakkali)(cut into small pieces)

7-8 curry leaves (kadi patha/ karvapillai ) broken into small pieces

1/2 tsp chilli powder (or according to taste) (optional)

handful of cilantro (coriander leaves/hara dhania/kothamalli) cut fine

Soak the black eyed peas in a large container overnight in sufficient water. Drain the water and rinse once.

Place the peas in a heavy bottomed pan in fresh water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the peas are cooked. Skim off the froth from the surface when it initially forms. (or pressure cook the chawli with sufficient water until soft, this usually takes about 2 to 3 whistles in my pressure cooker)

Keep the cooked peas aside. Heat oil in the same pan, add the mustard seeds to it, when the mustard seeds start spluttering add green chillies to it.

When the green chillies turn a little whiter, add all the dry spices and the curry leaves. Stir a couple of times and add cut tomatoes to it and saute until the tomatoes become soft and mushy.

Add the cooked black eyed peas, salt to taste and cook for another ten or so minutes.Garnish with cilantro just before serving.

Serve hot with roti's, plain basmati rice or cumin/ jeera rice .

Serves about 4

Notes

I wanted my curry to have some gravy so I retained the water the peas were cooked in and added that to the curry to give me the consistency I was looking for, in case you like to have your curry drier you could drain the water after the peas are cooked, then add the peas to the curry.

These curried peas are off to the Bookmarked Recipes event being hosted by Ruth

This curry is also off to My Legume Love Affair, the seventh helping being hosted by Srivalli and originally started by Susan

This hearty and filling curry is also off to the Winter Treat Event being hosted by Trupti

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Moong Bean Curry (Usal)

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Tea Spice Powder and Spiced Tea

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Tea is an integral part of my day and my daily routine. Tea is also one of those rare things,that I really miss when I am unable to have it.This does not happen often, only when I am traveling, especially to southern parts of India which is coffee land rather than tea.That is not to say you cannot get tea in these parts of the world, only that the tea made there does not really taste right to me. Okay I admit it, tea is one thing that I am really very picky about. All you tea drinkers out there know that how we make tea varies the taste of the tea drastically, use a tea bag to steep the tea and you get a mild tasting tea sans the bitter taste, boil the tea leaves and depending on how long you boil the tea leaves you land up with a little bitter or a lot bitter tea.Each person likes it in their own way and there is no right or wrong way of making tea.

My brother S who also shares my interest in tea, describes the process of making tea a "constantly evolving process". That's because the way we make tea has been changing over the years. But for me the process of making tea changes with the season too. In summer I make tea with herbs like mint and basil and in winter I make my tea with ginger, cardamom and a dash of freshly ground pepper for added flavor.

Recently I came across this recipe for a spice blend for chai tea and I was intrigued, especially when I saw dried orange as one of the ingredients for the spice blend. I was eager to try it soon and luckily had most of the ingredients on hand, so I made this spice blend the same day I saw the recipe for the first time.I modified the recipe and ground the ingredients to a fine powder so that I could use it to get the flavor to blend in quicker.

Once I made it though, I was very wary and skeptical about actually using the powder in my tea. I kept getting nervous that the orange in the spice powder would cause my milk to curdle and also since I have never used coriander seeds in my tea powder, was worried how this would taste and afraid my tea would get messed up. I am happy to say my fears were totally unfounded, the tea tasted fantastic, the orange added a hint of an exotic flavor to the tea and this spice blend turned out to be a keeper. So if all the late nights and staying up on long calls with family and friends has left you groggy, try making tea using this spice powder, it should both wake and perk you up when you need it the most :-)

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Ingredients and Method to make Tea spice powder

2 star anise

1/2 tsp whole black pepper

1 whole stick cinnamon

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1 1/2 tsp cardamom seeds

2 thin slices of orange(skin included) (any variety of orange will work)

Preheat oven to 200 deg F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminium foil.

Place slices of orange on the tray and bake until dried turning once every hour. (Took me 2 1/2 hours to dry the orange).

Toss all the spices together and process in spice grinder until ground to a fine powder.

Store in an airtight container and use as required.

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Ingredients and method to make Spiced Tea

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk (I use 2 %)

2 tsp of brown sugar (or any other type of sugar)

2 tsp of loose tea powder

1/2 tsp of tea spice powder from above

grated ginger as per taste

Heat water on the stove top. When it heats up add grated ginger, sugar, spice powder.

When the water begins to boil add the loose tea powder let it boil for a scant 20 seconds to half a minute and remove from heat.

Simultaneously,in a separate container heat milk until it gets to boiling point or use a microwave safe mug or dish to heat milk in the microwave until it is close to boiling point.

Add this milk to the tea and mix well and strain into two mugs.

Serve hot.

Yields 2 cups of tea.

Notes:

If you are using milk which is creamier like it is in India you may want to reduce the quantity of milk.

Adjust sugar and other spices as per taste, my tea tends to be only mildly sweet not very sweet.

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