Burnt offerings cookies

I had bookmarked a recipe for eggless chai cookies, which I finally tried out today. Unfortunately, however, the doorbell rang soon after I put the cookies in the oven, and by the time I could pull myself away, the butter had all melted away, and the perfect circles were an equally perfect flat mess. And brown too. So much for the perfectly white cookies I had been dreaming off.
But one has to serve up the disasters too, specially since this one comes with an important lesson. Never answer the doorbell if you have cookies in the oven!

Chai cookies

I love chai, and when I saw a recipe for chai flavoured cookies, I just had to try it out. The first attempt was a bit of a disaster, but I tried again soon after. Unfortunately, the flavour of cardamon was the dominant one, and the older one even dubbed it kheer cookies. It tasted good, but not the way I wanted it to taste- which means, I get to experiment a bit more!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon tea leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, optional
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp milk

Method:
Dry grind the sugar and tea leaves in a blender till well powdered.
Combine the flour, sugar, powdered sugar, tea mix, and salt, till well mixed (add cardamom powder if using).

Add the vanilla and butter and knead together to get a rough dough. Add the milk gradually till you get a batter.
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.Drop spoonfulls of the batter onto the greased cookie tray, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes till the edges start to brown. Cook for 5 minutes in the oven, then transfer to a wire rack for cooking. Store after cooling down completely.

Parsi Choi

Everyone knows I love my beverages. Chai or coffee, tea or kapi, I am indifferent. As long as it is hot, and comes with a book, I'm a contented puss.
So, when I have lemongrass, guess what I make- the Parsi Choi. Tastes amazing with the latest Martin Beck book!

200 ml water
100-125 ml milk
1 tsp Society tea powder
1 tsp sugar, or more, as per taste
¼ -1/3rd tspn black pepper powder
 long shoot of lemon grass, cut into 2 inch pieces (I prefer a wee bit more)
15-17 mint leaves

Method:
Wash the lemon grass n mint n keep aside.
Heat milk n water.
Add the tea powder, pepper powder, the washed herbs, sugar n bring it to a rapid boil. 
Once it comes to a rapid boil, cover it for a couple of minutes, then pour it out.
Enjoy with a lovely book on a drizzly day. 

Cinnamon Punch

After a few days of excesses, the body gets used to 'drinks'. This was a good way to start weaning it back to normal.

Bring 2 litres of water to boil.
Put 2 green tea bags (plain green tea, not flavoured) and 6 sticks of cinnamon, and let it brew for about 5 minutes.
Remove and discard the tea bags and the cinnamon sticks. Stir in the juice of 1 lemon, and about 3 tbsps honey.
Serve cold.

Madam Pomfrey's Magic Potion

I have the Marathon coming up next weekend, and I have a horrible cold. If I want to be sure of gettinr rid of it, I should be on antibiotics, but if I get on them, I can say goodbye to recovering before the race. So I'm overdosing on Madam Pomfrey's magic potion, and hoping the cold will go away.

Take 2 cups of water.
Add a 2 inch piece of ginger roughly sliced, 8-10 peppercorns, 6 cloves, and bring to boil. Lower heat, and let it simmer till the volume becomes half.
Have it hot, but not boiling hot.
Add 1 tsp honey, for taste, if required.