Gayathri Pai's Food Bytes

“Spiced Green Tea” … It’s raining off and on though not heavily, but the weather is not so good, so thought of sipping on something steaming hot … prepared green tea with spices added on; sort of my own kashayam … also I had managed to get some bikkies (biscuits) a few days back so had a few with homemade putani churmundos … Yummilicious … 

** The days are somehow passing by though we are under lock down, the whole day passes of with some work or the other and I have been so busy that I just don’t get time to think. The busy life has both ups and downs, yes, truly it does, I have been busy allways attending business, office, home, bank work and then my personal works, blogging and now my food group. But I always found time till the lock down period but now I just need more and at times I really get stuck with back logs. My Blog has been lagging behind for over 2 months now with so many posts in draft mode without seeing the day. All work that I was priory doing are still going on the only huge burden added is cleaning on daily business which I am getting really tired off. Such a major task of cleaning, sanitizing, washing all the time, that it is really draining me. Somehow with my aches I am pulling on taking plenty of rest in between too, to avoid more issues. I have always enjoyed drinking fruit juices for mid break, but with present crisis the advisory on drinking hot beverages has really put the juices on back shelf added on is the situation of non availability too. I have switched over to hot drinks as it is also monsoon season, I try preparing something new at least once in 2-3 days but I am unable to edit and crops and set the pictures so it is taking time. Today it is spiced green tea for mid morning with a few biscuits to munch on and a few churmundos to give additional body strength. 

** Here is my simple recipe for “Spiced Green Tea” … My Style, sure to give relief to that itching throat and relief to mild colds if any … Will be adding on more hot drinks so do keep trying them and enjoying with your family … 

** In a bowl add in 2-3 green cardamoms (ellaichi/ yellu), 6-8 black pepper corns (Mire), 5-6 cloves (lavang), 1 inch piece of fresh ginger root (alle’/ adrak) and with a heavy with crush them into semi coarse powder. You can use the mixer grinder and grind it to a coarse powder too, as it is faster. 

** Bring three cups of water to boiling point. In a small vessel add in 2-3 tsp of green tea leaves, add just one cup of boiling water over it, cover and keep it aside. Meanwhile to the other 2 cups of boiling water add in the coarsely powder ingredients and mix well. 

** Continue to simmer the water for a good 5 minutes on low to medium heat and then remove cover and keep it aside for another few minutes. Now strain it into another vessel and also strain and add in the green tea. Mix well, if it has cooled you can heat it again. 

** “Spiced Green Tea” is done and ready to be served steaming hot. You can serve with some simple biscuits or any other snack of your choice, though preferably you should sip it on hot without any thing else to munch on for added on benefits and munching on something does not soothe the throat. 

** I prefer drinking green tea as it is bitter for best health benefits, but if you want to you can add on organic jaggery powder or honey and mix before serving. The choice is yours, but once you make the habit of having it all bitter and healthy as it is slowly you will adapt to the change and prefer the same or will not be bothered about adding on sweeteners.