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Chai
 Chai
is tea, black tea, but tea steeped in milk, flavored with wonderful
spices and sweetened with sugar or honey. Here's the ingredients:
Spice ingredients for
one pot of tea:
1/2 of a star anise star
10-12 whole cloves
6-7 whole allspice
1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon bark (or 2 short sticks)
6-7 whole white peppercorns
1 cardamom pod opened to the seeds (not pictured)
Other ingredients:
1 cup water
4-6 cups whole milk
2 heaping tablespoons of a high quality full-bodied broad-leaf black
tea (Ceylon, or English Breakfast if a broad-leaf Ceylon is not
available)
Sugar
Directions
1 In a 2-qt saucepan, add spices to 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil;
remove from heat; let steep for 5-20 minutes, depending on how strong a
spice flavor you want.
2 Add 4-6 cups of whole milk to the water and spices. If you don't have
whole milk, you can also use non-fat or low-fat milk, just add some
cream to it, a few tablespoons. Bring the milk and spice mixture just
to a boil and remove from heat.
3 Add the tea to the milk and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes to taste.
(Option at this point - reheat to a simmer and remove from heat.) You
can add sugar at this point, or serve without sugar and let people put
the amount of sugar in they want. Traditionally, sugar is added before
serving.
4 Strain into a pot. Serve. Add sugar to taste.
Frozen Watermelon Slush
 Ingredients:
3 cups cubed seedless
watermelon
1 cup frozen strawberries
2 scoops lemon sorbet
1/4 cup pineapple juice, chilled
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Directions:
In blender, combine watermelon, strawberries, sorbet, pineapple juice,
and lime juice and blend until mixture is smooth. Pour into 4 glasses.
Blueberry Blast
 Garnish
with a skewer of fresh blueberries.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cranberry juice cocktail, chilled
1 container (8 ounces) low-fat blueberry yogurt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
Directions:
In blender, combine cranberry juice, yogurt, and blueberries and blend
until mixture is smooth and frothy. Pour into 1 tall glass.
Coffee Granita
 Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups ground espresso coffee beans (about 4 ounces)
2/3 cup sugar
Sweetened or unsweetened whipped cream (optional)
Directions:
1. With automatic drip or percolator coffeemaker, prepare ground coffee
as manufacturer directs but use only 3 cups water. You should have 2
cups strong coffee. (Or, if you have an espresso maker, prepare enough
hot espresso to yield 2 cups.)
2. In medium bowl, stir sugar and coffee until sugar dissolves; cool to
room temperature. Pour mixture into 9-inch square metal baking pan.
Cover with foil or plastic wrap and freeze about 1 1/2 hours or until
mixture is partially frozen, stirring occasionally. Cover and freeze
until mixture is completely frozen, at least 3 hours longer or up 3
days.
3. To serve, let granita stand at room temperature 15 minutes to soften
slightly. Use metal spoon to scrape across surface of granita,
transferring ice shards to chilled goblets or dessert dishes without
packing shards. Top with a dollop of whipped cream if you like.
Raspberry-Lemonade
Granita
 Ingredients:
2 to 3 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 pint raspberries
Directions:
1. From lemons, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 1/4 cup juice.
2. In 1-quart saucepan, heat sugar, lemon peel, and 1 1/2 cups water to
boiling over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove saucepan
from heat; stir in raspberries. Cool sugar syrup to room temperature.
3. In food processor with knife blade attached, blend mixture until
pureed. With back of spoon, press puree through sieve into bowl;
discard seeds. Stir in lemon juice and remaining 1 1/2 cups water. Pour
into 13" by 9" metal baking pan.
4. Cover and freeze mixture about 1 1/2 hours or until frozen around
the edges. With fork, scrape ice, mixing it from the edge to the
center. Repeat process about every 30 minutes or until mixture turns
into ice shards, about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Serve granita right away, spooning shards into chilled dessert
dishes or wine goblets. Or, cover and freeze up to 1 month. To serve,
let stand about 5 minutes at room temperature to soften slightly.
Saigon cooler
 Ingredients:
20-30 fresh
raspberries
crushed ice (enough
to fill a 600ml pint cocktail shaker)
25 ml Plymouth gin
15 ml Chambord (wild
raspberry liqueur)
4 teaspoons
cranberry juice
2 teaspoons Gomme
syrup
soda water
Garnish: lime wedge
or slice of star fruit
Equipment: pestle
and mortar, Boston shaker, cocktail strainer
Directions:
1.In the pestle and
mortar, mash the raspberries into a smooth purée.
2.Fill the shaker
with ice and add all the ingredients except for the soda water and
garnish. Place the lid on top and shake vigorously, about 30 seconds.
3.Fill a highball
glass with fresh ice and strain the cocktail in slowly. Top up with
soda water.
4.Garnish with
either a lime wedge or slice of star fruit and serve immediately.
Cocktails
Wines Champagne
Tea
Whisky
Go Up
(source of the article is
the the magazine 'Fashionweek', several websites, the
books 'Lemongrass and Lime – New Vietnamese Cooking', Mark Read, Simon
& Schuster;'The return of the naked Chef', Jamie Oliver, Penguin Books) |
