Cold Coffee with Ice Cream

I have not been so much of a cold coffee/ heavy chilled drinks person.It is maybe the chai effect that i never got around to making coffee in any form.  The last week we had cold coffee at a cafe, all i was thinking was that this is such a simple thing to make. And that it can be easily whipped up, sans all that overdose of ice. Some people prefer all of that ice. But i feel that so much ice dilutes the milky effect of the drink.
I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer and with the sun looking up, it seemed like the perfect time for a cold drink. Like i said, i did not add the ice to the cold coffee. I chilled the milk enough for the drink to be cold, but not to the extent of numbing the palette and inducing a brain freeze.
It takes just five minutes to put together the drink if you have all the ingredients at hand. Here is how i made it.
Cooking Time: 10 Mins
Preparation Time: 20 Minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 cups Milk
3 scoops of vanilla ice cream
3 tsp of sugar
2 tsp instant coffee powder
half cup of water
1/2 inch cinnamon
1 tsp of cocoa powder

The ice cream is mostly filled with air. So it does not really add to the quantity of the drink much. I used two tall glasses that i picked up from hypercity. They come with different colored stripes and are currently trending on the dining table.

My measuring cup with milk fills the glass upto 3/4th its brim. The rest is taken care of by the ice cream and the decoction.

Method:

Boil the milk. Add the sugar to it and stir well.

Once it slightly cools down, put the milk in the fridge to chill. Put the glasses that you are going to use into the freezer. This might take about half hour to an hour depending on the cooling settings of your fridge.
Just about five minutes before you want to serve the drink, boil half a cup of water and add the coffee powder to it to make the decoction.

 Now take out your blender jar, and simply dunk in your chilled milk, the decoction, three scoops of vanilla ice cream and give it a whizz.

Take out your glasses from the freezer.

Pour and top it with some cinnamon powder and cocoa powder. Serve!

Today's evening snack was cold coffee with zucchini-spinach fritters. The sweet-bitter-savory combo is a fab thing! Even if you do not have anything savory, serve the cold coffee with some cookies. It is really simple to make. Now your neighborhood cafe does not need to be your stop for cold coffee!

Ginger tea

My day begins with a cup of this goodness. Another dose mid-morning. And then of course, the evening cuppa. Sometimes i feel that all those posters that say - keep calm and drink tea are overrated. But there are those days when i know that the cup has really uplifted my mood.
I cannot remember the last time when i made my tea plain. For days when i am lazy, i have the pre-mixed tea masala. But i really prefer the kick that i get from fresh ingredients.
So every morning, before the pressure cooker goes up for the day's cooking, a pot of water goes on the stove. Many people get their tea ready in a jiffy. But i like to let mine boil on really low flame, so much that it takes a good ten minutes for it to get done- enough time to call out the husband three times to wake up.
Depending on what i am feeling like, i throw in different things into the tea - mint leaves, pepper corns or elaichi. The way it rains here, the tea needs all the fortification from the spices to keep that irritating throat and the cold at bay.The latest addiction is lemongrass. I get fresh lemongrass in the vegetable market here. I wash it and cut it into bits and store it in a box - a bunch lasting me a week. It has become an absolute necessity in my weekly grocery.
Making tea does not really need so much storytelling, or a post even, you may say. I say that it is my fuel. And i love tea.  And tea drinking with the newspaper and biscuits on the side is a ritual at home. Its the calm before all the running around for the day begins. Now i shall stop and give you the recipe for my one cup of tea. While this tastes great, i always get better tea when i make it for two :)

Cooking Time : 10 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 tsp Tea leaves
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
Half a cup of water
Half a cup of milk
an inch of ginger
a few bits of lemongrass

After a lot of experimentation, i have come to the conclusion that Society tea leaves give me the strongest tea. A spoon suffices for a cup.
I am also really loving my latest acquisition of the small hand grater. I stopped chopping ginger and use ginger shavings from this instead. It really gets out the juice from the ginger.

It also works great for grating cinnamon and nutmeg into the bakes. Anyways, coming back to the tea.

Method:

Bring half a cup of water to boil. Once it does, add the grated ginger and lemongrass to it.

Let them boil together for a few more minutes, until the fragrance of the lemongrass and ginger starts wafting through the air. Add the sugar and tea leaves at this point. Let it boil until you get a rich reddish brown decoction.

Add the milk. If you like your tea black, replace milk with half a cup of water. I like my tea milky. So i add half a cup of milk and a little more to make up for all the water that evaporates.

Allow it to boil and come together. Once the tea starts boiling over, turn off the gas, and let it rest for a few seconds. Strain and press down the tea leaves in the strainer with a spoon, to ensure that you squeeze out all the juices.

Enjoy your tea in your favorite mug with some biscuits or a piece of cake or something savory on the side. Hearty, flavorful and warm, for that perfect start of the day!