Chai tea x coconut mylk

I still love my coffee (yes i am not perfect either and no saint here!) but i hate the withdrawal symptoms that make me even feel worst than before.  I am constantly looking for something that i can replaced with the richness and aroma for the comfort feeling and until I found my Chai Tea!

It  all started when my ex Indian neighbor had introduced me to it one day and I had never looked back since. It was such a comforting drink especially during the wet days here.  Chai Tea is commonly made up of black tea,  cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper and it gives a warm and soothing effect.

The traditional way of making chai tea in India is with heavy milk for the creamy texture but you will be surprise that how mother earth is so clever to give us the wonderful big nut here to create the even better guiltless super creamy and thickness texture for replacing the usual milk or soy milk here!

The amazing coconut water is the liquid found in a young coconut, it had this sweet and nutty in flavor. It is rich in potassium and electrolytes which is a great alternative to commercial sports drinks and is also often used to treat dehydration and it really works on me when i had too much salty food. So lets get started now on this quick and easy recipe. You will cant wait to sipped away this creamy spiced comfort drink and you will find It’s difficult to resist a second cup on a lazy wet wet day

what you’ll need:

1. 3/4 cup of water
2. 1 heaped tbsp of chai tea leaves (for 1 serving)
3. any sweetener ( raw sugar, agave or raw honey)
4. 1 young coconut
5. dash of cinnamon powder (optional)
6. 1 cinnamon stick (for garnishing, stirring and add on flavor too)

make it happen:-

• Brewed the tea in a 3/4 cup boiling hot water and let it sit for 10 mins to get the flavor out. Let it sit longer if you prefer a stronger flavor.
• Sieved through a tea strainer into your teacup and add in your sweetener.
• add in the delicious thick and creamy coconut milk. The more you add in the more creamy and thicker it will be.
• sprinkle a dash of cinnamon power with the cinnamon stick
• stirred well and enjoy the moment!

To make the coconut mylk:
Hacked open the coconut. Pour out the coconut water and scraped out the flesh into a high speed blender and blend until you get a creamy thick consistency. It all depend how much water and flesh you can get to yield how much of the coconut milk. To get a thicker mylk, more flesh and less coconut water here.

Get a fine siever or a nut milk bag and  sieve through any coarse bits and you can store the rest in the chiller for about 5 days, alternatively you could freeze them into ice cube and blend them for a “slurpee” drink. See here

 

 

Raw Pumpkin Pie for Halloween!

Yes! Think…..besides flying broomstick witches, bats, scary shadows and eerie  spiders and creepy crawlers…yikes! Yes we had our lovely orange hue! It is October and it is  HALLOWEEN!

Although Singapore don’t really have a big bash on Halloween here but you could actually see a lot of creative and pretty decoration in some shops. So does F&B industry would for sure take this great opportunity to plan for a halloween related dish and of course pumpkin is one of the most top used ingredient

And i do find during this period of time,  the pumpkins are unusually sweet and with the strong pumpkin scent too. So lets us make the best out of this season produce and give ourselves a nice sweet treat!

what you’ll need:-

Fillings:

1. 4 cups pumpkin
2. 1 cup agave nectar
3. 1/2 cup or more of dates (depend how sweet u prefer, soak at least 30 mins)
4. 1 teaspoon of all pie spice/ or a dash of  cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger (to taste)
5. Pinch of salt
6. 1 cup of water

Crust:

1. 2 cup walnuts (or any other nuts u prefer)
2. 1 cup dates, soaked in water for 30 minutes if you can
3. 2 tbsp coconut oil
   
4. Pinch of salt

make it happen:-

• use a processor to process the pumpkin into small pieces and add in all other ingredients with some water until fine texture
• next, get a high speed blender and blend all until you get a creamy smooth texture
• you can adjust the sweetness or more spices at this point if you think is not enough
• for the crust, processed the walnuts into powder form and add in the rest of ingredients to get a good coarse texture, don’t over processed otherwise you will be getting a lot of oil from the walnuts
• get a pie pan, pressed the crust down and evenly and you can pour the pumpkin filling in it
• let it sit for at least an hour before serve or you could slightly warm up too.
• Ta da! Best served  with a scoop of ice cream , i used “BLISS” coconut with vanilla flavor. Or just its own with your favorite beverage. Light tea is recommended.