Friday, September 24, 2010

Homemade Ginger Tea

Lately, I’ve fallen in love with ginger tea. Especially when honey is added to it. So yummy !

I discovered that actually ginger tea offers a multitude of benefits to our health. “Ginger tea has been used for thousands of years as an herbal remedy to treat a wide range of health concerns from nausea and colds to indigestion and joint pain. It is also purported to help boost the immune system and promote cardiovascular health.” http://www.learn-about-tea.com/ginger-tea.html .

A Chinese website that I chanced upon also sited very good health benefits of drinking ginger tea, whether it is mixed with honey, red or black sugar. Ginger tea with red sugar is said to be very good for women. If it is drank a week or so before a woman’s menstruation, it helps to ease possible cramps. The mixture of honey and ginger provides instant relief to a person suffering from cough, cold, sore throat, and runny nose. Apparently both ginger and honey contain natural anti-biotics. Each time when I feel an onset of sore throat or runny nose coming, this drink come to my rescue and it really works !

What I like most about this tea is because it is really easy to brew. Required ingredients are simply ginger, boiling water and honey. Usually I would manually minced the ginger, and put it into a stainless steel strainer.


Pour boiling water, cover it and simmer for about 10 to 15 mins.



After that, remove the strainer, let it cool down by another 30 mins or so before adding honey to taste.


I use raw honey here which gives a natural taste. The reason to cool down the drink before adding honey is to ensure that the high temperature of the drink do not spoil the honey nutrients.  I've also learnt that the correct way to make ginger tea is not to boil the ginger in a pot, but to simmer in a cup of boiling water. This way it will prevent the goodness of ginger from being damaged.

Just yesterday, I read that there are actually few types of ginger with each type giving different health effects to our body.  Wow, didn't know that.  Anyway, I hope to share it here after I find out more.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Nuts 'bout Walnuts?

Not exactly crazy about it but I loved eating walnut muffins or cakes when I was young, especially so if the pastry happened to be sweet, the presence of walnut would help to neutralize it to my taste. I basically dislike things that are either too sweet or too saltish. Fortunately hubby isn't too particular and can live with my preferences when it comes to food.

I bought a soya drink maker some months back and had been using it mainly to make soya milk. Since it also has functions for making peanut and sesame paste, I decided to try making walnut paste.

It is actually quite easy: simply soak the walnut for 2 hours, and soak some uncooked rice grains for 30 mins, boil some water with rock sugar, put all in the machine, and let it do the work. However, the walnut did not seem so well blended after the first round, so I got the machine to go one more round, before it turns out like this: 
 
I liked the texture. What about hubby? He's all smiles after tasting it.

 

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