Most of this week we've been dealing with the flu. First T, now me. Our first line of defense during cold and flu season is ginger-scallion-cinnamon "tea." Making this drink, I can't help but think of the gifted healer and friend who taught me how to make it. During our first winter in Boston I was having a hard time dealing with the bitter cold, and any little cold often turned to bronchitis. Pam taught me how to make this drink to boost my immune system. In traditional Asian medicine, ginger, cinnamon and members of the Allium family, which includes scallions, are considered Yang, or warming energy. By the end of that winter, almost everyone in our office was drinking some form of this tea!

First you need a "hand of ginger" which is the large piece you see in the picture above. Washed well and lightly scrubbed, the ginger need not be peeled, but should be sliced. Then 2 large scallions, including the roots. (Pam was very specific that the roots must be kept intact.) Finally, a handful of cinnamon bark. If you're using the thicker rolled "cinnamon," you'll need 2 rolls. An optional ingredient is a pear, either the Asian nashi pear (in photo) or your favorite variety. The pear provides a very mild natural sweetness, and may be eaten separately as a treat or to soothe a cough.

Place all these in a large pot and cover with at least 4 quarts/liters of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer. After 30 minutes, remove the scallions and continue simmering for another 30 minutes.

After simmering for an hour, use a ladle to serve yourself some "tea" and enjoy while hot. This beverage, like the friend who shared its secret with me, is strong and full of energy, with only a hint of both sweetness (cinnamon) and earthiness (scallions) beneath it. It is most beneficial if drunk as is, but if you want to sweeten it, choose a natural sweetener such as stevia, agave or fresh fruit juice. Processed white sugar has actually been found to lower one's immune response for 5 hours after being consumed, so should be avoided.(A) Artificial sweeteners are increasingly shown to be cancer-causing and likewise should be avoided.(B)


Let the pear cool for awhile in the liquid, then enjoy separately. In traditional Chinese medicine, pear is considered a "cooling" fruit that lubricates the lungs and quiets coughs.


You don't have to wait for a cold or the flu to make this for yourself, in fact you may avoid getting either if you start boosting your immunity now. When we lived in places where the change of seasons was more noticeable, I started making this drink when the air started to get crisp, but here in Hawaii it's easier to forget that seasons still change and flu is always around the corner. Stay healthy, Everyone! And to Pammie, we will always think of this as "Pam's tea" — thank you for all your generous gifts to us!


(A) See the article: "Sugar's effects on your health"
(B) Learn more about the benefits of natural sweeteners and the dangers of artificial one: "Sugar substitutes and the potential danger of Splenda"

Tags: Healing, Beverages

Food as medicine is an ancient concept, of course. It has a documented history over 5000 years in Asia, and at least a couple millenia in Europe. And now much of traditional lore about chicken soup to treat colds, and garlic to ward off illness is now backed by scientific study.

To explore this further, I've borrowed a book from the library called, “Herbs, Demystified” by Holly Phaneuf, PhD. It’s not part of Linda Bladholms’ similarly-titled series explaining the mysteries of ethnic groceries, instead Dr. Phaneuf writes in plain-speak (most of the time) about the medicinal value of and clinical research, if any, behind some of the herbs and plants that are gaining popularity as medicinal and wellness foods. (The book is subtitled: “A Scientist Explains How the Most Common Herbal Remedies Really Work”)

Take artichokes, for instance. I love artichokes, but never thought of them as a medicinal food until earlier this year when I saw a local TV program highlighting healthy eating. The show featured 2 local naturpathic doctors who use both food and alternative therapies as medicine in their practice. One of the doctors is of Vietnamese descent and described how her grandmother would make a “tea” by simply boiling halved artichokes. She recommended it for maintaining good liver function and said it promotes clear skin.

When I had cooked artichokes before, it was always in highly seasoned (lemons, onions and peppers) water, which was then discarded. I'm always drawn to “grandmother wisdom,” though, so we decided to try it. We were expecting a bitter or funny-tasting brew, but were happily surprised it had a clean, mildly sweet, and pleasant taste. In fact, it tasted exactly like an artichoke heart. We’ve since adopted the practice of boiling artichokes in plain water, so we can also drink the “tea” afterwards.

And now we have Dr. Phaneuf’s explaination about why this may or may not be a good practice. She concludes her six page review of research into artichokes by saying:

• they contain beneficial anti-oxidants,
• may reduce cholesterol,
• may improve both HDL/LDL cholesterol ratios and
• may improve bile production (hence, digestion).

She also warns, however, that further research is needed about whether artichokes can worsen an existing gallstone condition, and whether they deplete valuable CoQ enzymes. She also cautions that people who are allergic to other members of the daisy family (which also includes chamomile, milk thistle, dandelion and echinacea), may be allergic to artichokes too. Please refer to pages 31-37 of Dr. Phaneuf’s book for her full article. And of course don’t attempt any changes in your medical program (for instance, stop taking your prescriptions and eating artichokes instead!) without consulting with your medical provider.

If Dr. Phaneuf's caveats don't apply to you, then "A Santé!" "Zum Wohl!" "Kampai!" "Salud!"

(UPDATE - 7 APRIL 2008 - To wash artichokes, especially if you intend to drink the "tea," it is important to clean away as much pesticide residue as possible from non-organic produce. Following the advice from this NPR story, "What does it take to clean fresh food," instead of just spraying the vegetables, I prefer to soak the artichokes in a solution of 1/2 cup of white vinegar in 1 gallon of water (2 TBL. of vinegar to 1 liter/quart water). This allows the solution to get between all the packed leaves. Then rinse under running water, and drain.)

What do you do with the artichoke after making "tea"? Try Stuffed Artichokes with Italian-style Dressing or South Asian Style Stuffing.

Read more about the health benefits of artichokes at LifeScripts.com, here.

Tags: Beverages, Healing

For the last month or so I've been thinking about a tea we tried last January when we took a quick trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit my brother's family. Wouldn't you know it, it was the coldest days they had had there in 30 years or something. The roads were icy, the wind bit through our wool coats, clouds hung practically on our heads, and only the bravest of souls were out. On a drive back to our hotel, we happened on a Tibetan restaurant, Lungta. Never having had Tibetan cuisine before, it was a no-brainer that we would stop and try it. The food was exquisite, with some of the most subtle and delicious seasoning I've ever encountered. But the true revelation was the unusual butter tea. On the menu it was called Bocha, and was described as "lightly buttered, salted & churned with milk." We asked our waitress about it and she gave us fair warning that most people don't like it on first taste, but that it was sort of the national drink in her country. She also said it was very “warming.” On such a day, it sounded like it might be a winner. (You have to figure that Tibetans know a little something about how to keep warm in bitter weather.) She soon produced large mugs of a milky tea with a trace of butter on the surface.

First sip: OK, that's different — I've never had salt in my tea before, and I rarely add milk to tea either. But the spread of heat down and through the chest was a welcome sensation, and certainly worth a second sip. By the third sip, we were both hooked and loving the “heatiness” it provided — it was more than just the physical sensation of drinking a warm beverage, it was a warmth that went down to your toes. Before we left we asked the proprietor about the Bocha, and what special type of tea she used. She was genuinely surprised we liked the tea, and was kind enough to bring out a brick of dark pungent leaves to show us. We asked if it was something we could find in a shop nearby, but she told us she didn't know of a source, and said that friends send her the tea. So that was that. Nice experience, recommended Tibetan cuisine to any one who cares about good food, and soon returned to Oahu.

Eight months later and I'm craving this butter tea. It's not exactly cold here, but lately after midnight the temperature has been dropping below ... 70°F/21°C!! I know folks on the Mainland and elsewhere will have little sympathy for us, but that's pretty cool temperatures for around here. : - )

I found a few recipes for butter tea on the web, but the most helpful was from the Tibetan Assn. of Northern California at Lobsang's Tibetan recipes. On this site it is called Po Cha and the recipe seems straightforward enough: you need black tea, salt, butter and full-cream milk. And a chandong, or churn for making tea. (If anyone knows where I can get one of these, please let me know!) The original Bocha is made with yak butter or milk, but we were a bit short on that so we went with unsalted butter from cow's milk.

I’m not much of a black tea drinker, except as iced tea, so in deciding on a tea to use I opted for the kind I used to send my tea-loving mother by the bags full — Lipton’s Yellow Label black tea. This was not available on Guam, so wherever we have lived, one of my first missions was always to seek out a new source of Yellow Label to keep mom supplied. These are available in Oriental shops, especially Chinese groceries, everywhere we have lived except here in Hawaii. Fortunately the Indian grocery carries 2 types of Yellow Label, the regular one, and another that is produced in India (shown here). But plain black tea just didn't smell as fragrant and earthy as I remembered the tea brick at Lungta being. One site I found mentioned using Pu-erh tea instead of black tea, so I used a mix of 1/3 Pu-erh and 2/3 Yellow Label.

First we made a double strength tea (2 heaping TBL black, and 1 heaping TBL pu-erh, simmered with 4 cups water and reduced to 2 cups liquid). Then added 1 TBL butter, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 cup half-and-half. And since I don't have a chandong (yet) and I'm a little leery of spinning hot liquids in closed containers at high speed, I opted to use a stick blender. This step emulsifies the butter into the tea.


Now what to nibble with this delicious heat-y tea? Seemed a good opportunity to try something from all those new recipes collected from the World Bread Day round-up. Something that wouldn't require turning on the full oven. In the end, we went with Hannah's vegetarian butterscotch bread, with the following adjustments. There was no vegetarian butterscotch pudding mix to be found at either of Oahu's 2 main health food shops so I turned to my over-stocked pantry to see what I had for substitutes. We had a powdered flan mix that comes with its own caramel sauce: the ingredient list had no gelatin so I hope it qualifies as vegetarian.

Soy milk disagrees with both of us, but we do use almond milk, and Hannah emailed to say it was an acceptable substitute for soy (Thanks, Hannah!). I only have olive oil for cooking and baking, so I substituted an equal amount for the canola in Hannah’s recipe. Also, I used less sugar because I wanted to use the liquid caramel flavoring from the flan mix for the extra flavoring. As much as I hated to, I omitted the chocolate chips ONLY because we’re making this to complement the butter tea and it didn’t seem like the chocolate would mesh well with the salty tea.

The Verdict
The tea was delicious and hit the right notes from our memory of that first taste of Bocha. It is a very rich and filling tea, thanks to the half and half and butter, of course. Not something you really want to drink on a regular basis unless you have a chance to work it off outdoors in a cold clime. It would make a great pre-ski or pre-Volkswanderung drink. I wouldn't recommend adding a sweetener to this beverage, and if you aren't used to drinking tea without a sweetener, you might literally find this tea hard to swallow. You may want to have sweet cake or cookie on the side to round out your experience.

The bread was a super moist loaf with a great chewy crust and delicious caramely butterscotchy flavor. T admits that he is not a big fan of vegetarian baking (he usually passes on treats at the health food bakery), but he was the first to say how pleasantly surprised he was by how flavorful, light and moist this quick bread is. The mild sweetness was a perfect counterpoint to the salty rich tea.

Here is the final recipe, with the original quantities/ingredients noted in parentheses.


Butterscotch Bread
(Original by Hannah, as adapted by manju)

1 cup/ 250ml almond milk (Soymilk)
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup/ 145g granulated brown sugar, aka “raw” sugar or demerara (1 cup/190g sugar)
1/4 cup/ 60 ml. olive oil (canola oil)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Caramel flavoring packet from flan mix
1 cup/ 100g all-purpose flour (1 ½ cup/ 150g)
1 cup/ 90g whole wheat pastry flour (½ cup/ 45g)
1 2.75 oz. package Goya flan mix (Dr. Oetker’s butterscotch pudding)
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
(optional) ½ cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven 350F/ 180C. Butter/oil loaf pan.

In large mixing bowl, add vinegar to almond milk and set aside to curdle.

In separate bowl, combine both flours, flan mix powder, baking soda and powder and salt, and sift well together.

Beat vinegar/milk mixture until frothy. Add sugar, oil, vanilla and caramel packet and beat again until sugar dissolves.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, mixing well after each incorporation. Pour into prepared pan and bake 35-50 minutes, depending on your pan, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in pan 15 minutes, then on rack until completely cool. Use serrated knife to slice.

Tags: Recipes, Breads, Beverages