'Tis the Season for Warm Beverages: Homemade Spiced Chai Mix

Two drinks in a row! Well. Babies, it's cold outside. I mean seriously. We are reaching the part of the year when I stop mentioning in my classes that I am a native Californian because that conversation about why I would ever choose to live in this climate when I have known and experienced a more temperate one (a glorified, glorious one, in fact!) gets tiresome. Minneapolis has its draws, I assure you. But I don't think that my appreciation for the warmth that 8 degrees offers in comparison to zero is one of them. Anyway. As promised, brunch ladies and gentlemen from last Thursday - with reiterated apologies for not actually making it that night - please warm up with this. It's nothing short of delightful. More pictures to follow. (Not to ruin the surprise or anything, but: it looks like... chai.) 

xoxo

e-nc

P.S. Would you like to know how I came up with this recipe? Several years ago, my dear friend Alicia (hi, wifey!) bought for me a chai spice blend from a fancy spice store in her part of the world (the OC). It was the best chai I've ever had, and I have had a lot of chais. Fortunately, she bought me TWO packets of the mixture, so when I opened the second one, carefully now that I was cognizant of its status as precious gold, I actually counted all of the individual spices (even the anise and fennel seeds, before I measured them and realized they added up to a nice round teaspoon each), one by one, and then recreated the recipe with store-bought spices just to make sure there wasn't something secret I was missing. These are the kinds of things you must do to become a cooking instructor. DECONSTRUCT! FIGURE IT OUT! At least when WINGING IT hasn't paid off. The fenugreek is a recent addition brought to you by my own imagination and a recent personal fancy for fenugreek in just about anything I consume. Entirely optional, but subtly special if you can get your hands on it and are into random, exotic ingredients that look like mutant ninja bee pollen. Adds a nice hint of malt and caramel to the chai. Your choice.

P.P.S. Buy in bulk if you make this. It is a cheap way to go (see below: six cents for the fennel - yes please!) and then you won't allow $8 worth of cardamom or fenugreek to go rancid in your spice cupboard over the coarse of the next three years. Remember the rule of thumb for spice shelf life: 6 months for ground spices and herbs, 1 year for whole. Or... just trust your nose.

P.P.P.S. Don't skimp on the ginger, even if you think you don't love ginger. It's key, both for potency and sweetness.

Homemade Spiced Chai Mix

Yields: 4 cups chai concentrate; enough for 6 large or 8 normal servings

2-3 tablespoons crystallized ginger (¾ ounce)

1 cinnamon stick (3-4 inches)

2 bay leaves

7 green cardamom pods

20 black peppercorns

20 cloves

1 teaspoon anise seeds or 2 star anise

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon whole fenugreek (optional)

2 heaping tablespoons loose leaf tea (black or rooibos)
To serve: milk, sweetener of choice

Place all ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan. Add 4 cups water, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, add 2 heaping tablespoons of your choice of black (more traditional) or rooibos (decaf, lighter-flavored) tea. Steep 5 minutes. Strain, stir in 3 to 6 tablespoons of desired sweetener (honey in my case). Combine one part chai concentrate with one part milk or non-dairy beverage of choice and serve over ice or hot (about 180 degrees). 

A Drink for Health: Coconut Spice Elixir

This is to make you feel better when you're under the weather. Turmeric + raw honey + Himalayan sea salt for wellness. Coconut + chai spices for taste. It's delicious and theoretically nourishing and that's about all I have to say about it. Here are some pictures to further entice you where my words, I suspect, will fall short this evening. Now excuse me while I go give my neti pot some exercise. (What? That didn't make you all hungry?)

Oh wait. One more thing. Don't leave this to simmer unwatched.

A mess like this is the last thing you want to deal with when you and your children are all sharing a cold.

P.S. Good news: this post was a few days in the making and we are well now. Elixir indeed.

Coconut Spice Elixir

Adapted from Journey Kitchen

Serves 1 adult and 2 small children

1 can full-fat coconut milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

2-3 whole black peppercorns

2-3 whole cardamom pods, cracked

About 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan pink sea salt

1/4 teaspoon each of whatever of the following spices you have and like: fennel seeds, cinnamon stick, anise seeds or whole star anise, cloves, whole fenugreek seeds

1 heaping tablespoon raw honey

Bring coconut milk, water, and all the spices to a low boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 more minutes. Strain. Stir in honey and serve.

God of All Harvests: a Thanksgiving poem + Kale-Apple-Lemon Salad with Honeyed Sunflower Seeds

God of all Harvests

By Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS
©2013 Catholic Relief Services, www.crs.org, used with permission

God of sun and God of rain,

In you, there is no dryness.

In you, no weed chokes the root.

No blight withers the leaf.

No frost bites at the blossom.

And, so, we pray for farmers and their harvests everywhere.

In you, seeds of tears yield a bountiful harvest of joy.

May the rice farmer in Madagascar know such bounty.

In you, seeds of truth and courage yield a bountiful harvest of justice.

May the coffee farmer in Honduras know such bounty.

In you, seeds of compassion yield a bountiful harvest of wisdom.

May the cacao farmer in the Philippines know such bounty.

In you, seeds of hope yield a bountiful harvest of fulfillment.

May the vegetable farmer in Haiti know such bounty.

In you, seeds of love yield a bountiful harvest of forgiveness and reconciliation.

May the cassava farmer in Zambia know such bounty.

In you, seeds of the Gospel yield the glorious harvest that is our salvation.

God of all harvests, bless all planters everywhere:

All who sow and all who gather,

All who nourish and all who weed,

All who thresh and bundle and bring to market.

And bless all harvests.

Sprinkle your living water on our fields, on our relationships, on our communities, on our hearts.

And kiss us with the light and warmth of your undying sun.

May all our harvests reflect the Harvest that is to come.

Oh, kale. You are just like the rest of us. You start out prickly and tense and tough.

And then after a little TLC, you're soft and sweet and ready to be friendly.

Who are we getting friendly with? Lemon dressing, honeyed sunflower seeds - though a cup of granola instead worked just fine at the Thanksgiving brunch I hosted this week - some fresh herbs and a chopped apple or two.

This is basically autumn in a salad bowl.

Massaging kale is impressive. It reminds me of how blessed most of us are to have hands.

My salads classes love this salad.

My brunch guests devoured it more aggressively than they tackled Aunt Judy's Egg Casserole and some superyum pumpkin muffins.

I wish I could eat some right now but instead I'll settle for popcorn.

Kale-Apple-Lemon Salad with Honeyed Sunflower Seeds

Yield: 6-8 servings

For lemon dressing (which, by the way, tastes great on just about anything), stir together:

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil or sunflower oil

1 tablespoon honey (or agave nectar or 2 teaspoons sugar)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

For seeds*:

In a dry skillet, toast 1 cup raw sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds). When aromatic and slightly golden in color, add 1 tablespoon honey and 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir until well coated and then transfer them to a plate to cool.

For salad:

Clean, remove stalk, and shred or tear up one big bunch of kale (any kind of kale will work). Place torn leaves into a large bowl, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and massage with your hands until it is soft and almost cooked in appearance and texture, 2-4 minutes. Add 1 or 2 apples or pears, chopped into 1/2" chunks, the seeds (which might be all stuck together in one clump, but once you toss them with dressing and massaged kale, they'll break up nicely). Optional additions: a couple tablespoons of chopped mint, chives or scallions. (At brunch and in class I usually do a mix of mint and scallions.) Enjoy and feel healthy! Happy belated Thanksgiving!

* In case you skipped my ramblings at the top - note that a cup of granola is a lovely substitute for the sunflower seeds. That's what I added for crunch on Thanksgiving and it gave the salad a decidedly brunchy flare.

For Rhiannon: Fall Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli, and Chickpeas

Rhiannon! I've been thinking about you this week. I hope the transition back to work has been smooth and that the soup challenge is paying off. I also wanted to tell you that I am obsessed with my homemade moisturizers, so thank you for inspiring me.

The rest of you! This is the best thing I've eaten in a long time. It's not a one pot meal, or a quick weeknight meal, or anything decadent. But it's DELICIOUS. And flexible (I've embedded a few alternatives into the recipe, but you know your kitchen and palate better than I do). Also, please note that this is a clever combination of all whole foods. And with the exception of the roasted vegetables, everything is theoretically do-ahead. And this is the time of year when using your oven is totally a good idea - doesn't your furnace need a little rest now and then?

So here are the main parts:

A couple cups of cooked quinoa. Maybe the costly multicolored kind because it's pretty. (They cook the same. Don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise.)

Spiced, roasted vegetables. I used broccoli and sweet potatoes. I think parsnips and cauliflower would be good too. You want about 2 pounds of whatever vegetables you like; use common sense or the google machine to sort out your cooking times. I inadvertently charred mine and everything still ended up crazy good.

Even my children enjoyed their deconstructed portions. (Except for the quinoa. They used to like it but I stopped making it for a while so now it is weird to them. Take note, parents! Sadie tried, literally, two grains of quinoa and declared it was too spicy for her. There was no spice in it whatsoever.)

Roasted chickpeas. These are super yummy. Their texture is best the day they're made (and better if you're using fresh cooked chickpeas instead of canned ones), but I wouldn't kick 'em out of bed on day 2. They're oddly reminiscent of corn nuts.

Quick cooking lesson: you want to use your two biggest roasting pans/baking dishes for the veggies and chickpeas, respectively, and you want to spread out your vegetables and chickpeas so that there is as much space as possible between pieces. Here's why: when vegetables and legumes (and anything you plan on eating) hit heat, the moisture that can be found in all (most?) organic matter is released. When food is crammed together on a pan, this moisture results in a steaming effect, rather than roasting. More space = less steaming = more dry, crunchy bits = good. 

Not pictured:

Dressing. You want something really bold and punchy that's going to tie everything together and brighten up the smoky spices (and, perhaps, "charred" flavor profile) you went for with your veggies. I used Smitten Kitchen's carrot-ginger-miso dressing, omitted onion and added 1 clove garlic and more water than she calls for in her recipe (at least 2 extra tablespoons, maybe up to 1/4 cup), subbed apple cider vinegar for rice vinegar (resourcefulness at its best). This dressing, even with necessary modifications, is fabulous - original source is Gwyneth Paltrow, so how could it not be? - and lasts a good week in the refrigerator (mine was at least 5 days old when I dressed my quinoa bowl with it). But you've got options if you don't have all those Asian pantry ingredients at hand. I've included three alternatives in the recipe below because I super love you.

Feta cheese.

Fresh mint.

You're welcome.

Fall Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli, and Chickpeas

Yield: 3-4 servings

2-3 cups cooked quinoa*

1 large sweet potato (~1/2 pound), scrubbed and chopped into 1/2" pieces

1 large head broccoli (or, in my case, 3 small ones), florets broken up, stems chopped into 1/2" pieces

2 cups cooked, drained, dried chickpeas**

2-3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Salt, pepper, other spices you like (I used Penzey's 4S seasoned salt on the sweet potatoes and broccoli, and then big pinches of ground coriander, smoked paprika, Golden Fig's Smoky Habanero Salt (available at a Local D'Lish near you! hey, while you're there take a class!), black pepper, and ground fenugreek seeds on the chickpeas; you could use a good curry powder that you like if you want less heat, or for more heat some cumin and a lot of cayenne, chipotle, aleppo, or freshly ground black pepper plus some fresh lemon or lime zest during the last 20 minutes of roasting)

Dressing options: Carrot-Ginger or Cranberry Miso or Garlicky Peanut Sauce or recipe at bottom of this post***

Feta cheese (optional)

Fresh mint or cilantro (optional)
(Oh wait, everything is optional, this is a grain-veggie bowl!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. You'll need two large roasting pans for the vegetables and chickpeas. (See cooking lesson above.) Toss sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon of oil and salt, pepper, and some spices you like. Spread them out on one of your roasting pans and place pan in oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until starting to soften but you don't want them to be browning yet, so check on them early and often. In a bowl, toss broccoli with 2 teaspoons olive oil and a pinch each of salt, pepper, and spices. In your other roasting pan, toss chickpeas with 1 tablespoon olive oil and about 2-3 teaspoons of combined spices of choice + 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add broccoli to the sweet potatoes on roasting pan and return to oven, on lower rack. Place pan of chickpeas in oven on the rack closer to the burner. Cook for 18-22 minutes more, tossing with a spatula every 5-8 minutes. Remove from oven when everything is just starting to brown nicely and chickpeas are crunchy.

Scoop 1/2 - 1 cup quinoa into each bowl. Top with a cup of vegetables, a good amount of dressing, some crumbled feta, chickpeas (or nuts or seeds - see note below), and some fresh herbs if you've got some. Happy healthy dinner! Happy fall!

* How do I cook quinoa? I'm so glad you asked. Like this: Toast 1 part quinoa in a dry saucepan for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1.5 parts water, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Allow to rest, covered for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

** Ultimately, the roasted chickpeas are just there for some crunch and protein (and, you know, they're a bit of a novelty item). You could easily omit them and substitute some toasted, spiced nuts or seeds (or, heck, corn nuts, I won't judge). Probably about a cup of them.

*** Another dressing idea is this zippy ginger-maple dressing that my friend Amber made for me and now I make it for my classes (with a little acid added (lemon/lime juice) because I like a lot of acidity in my food). Blend everything together: as much grated ginger as you can handle (1-2 tablespoons, by the way: no need to peel the ginger, especially if you use a microplane to grate it), 2+ large garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey or agave nectar or apricot preserves), ¼ cup olive oil or melted coconut oil, juice of half a lemon or lime.