HOW-TO: Homemade Tea Bunches!

As these last days of winter trickle away (at least we're hoping these are the last days) I have been looking for new things to sip and warm me up. The Glühwein season is over, and coffee just isn't doing it for me. I have a big selection of packaged teas, but they're boring me. So I started to make my own.

I used some great recipes found in a German Women's magazine, all of which use a combination of whole spices, root plants like ginger and other interesting ingredients like lemon grass and various herbs, many of which I had hanging around in my spice cabinet anyways! This has been lots of fun and the possibilities are endless.

Ginger Infusion

I can also imagine that these could make great gifts, with the ingredients either packed up in teabags or wrapped in cloth ready for preparation (see photo above!). Here are some delicious recipes:

TIPS:
A normal kitchen sieve works great.
If you have a thermos, use it! Just drain your tea right into the thermos. It will stay warm all day and you won't be able to get enough of it!

Ingwerguss – Ginger Infusion (citrusy and zesty)

1 small piece of ginger root (about 1.5 inches)
1 organic orange (or a regular one, well scrubbed)
Honey

Grate ginger into a glass carafe, or wherever you will be brewing your tea. Immediately add two tablespoons of honey or agave nectar and stir. Peel the orange into a spiral (or just make pieces, but make sure to take only the orange part, and leave the white). Add 1 liter (about 1 quart) of water, let steep for five minutes. Remove orange peel and enjoy!


Heiße Tasse – Hot Cup (spicy and refreshing)

2 tablespoons dried peppermint leaves (or a handful of fresh ones)
A pinch of chili powder (or ½ of a small dried chili)
Two cinnamon sticks
A dash of nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
4 whole cloves


Break the cinnamon sticks in half, add the spices and chili power and peppermint leaves, and pour a quart of boiling water over the spices. Let seep for 5-8 minutes and the drain off the spices and serve. Sweeten with honey, if desired.

K and K Drink (Kardamom und Koriander)

4 cardamom capsules
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 piece lemon grass

Crush the cardamom and the coriander in a mortar and pestle. Cut the lemon grass into medium sized pieces and crush them with a rolling pin. Put everything into your carafe and add 1 quart of boiling water. Let seep for 10 minutes and sweeten with honey, if desired.

Pikant-Tee (Lightly Piquant)

3 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns (found in spice aisle)
2 tablespoons dried peppermint (or a handful fresh)
3 pieces Star Anise
1 quart water

Crush the fennel seeds and the green peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Put the crushed spices in a carafe with the star anise and the peppermint leaves. Let seep for ten minutes, drain off the spices.

Citrus Drink with Bay Leaf

1 organic orange (or regular one, well washed)
3 bay leaves
a dash of cinnamon
¼ cup orange juice
3 tablespoons milk

Peel the orange in a spiral and place peel in carafe along with the bay leaves and cinnamon. Brew with 1 quart water for 10 minutes and then drain off the bay leaves. Serve with a splash of orange juice and milk.

Enjoy the warm and cozy refreshments!

Homemade Citrus Vodka (and how to repurpose the leftovers)

As part of finger-lickin' Tuesday, here's a HOW-TO for making citrus infused vodka. I took a bottle of Absolut Vodka and stuffed it full of lime, orange, lemon and grapefruit peels.

In its essence, it's a really easy project. And cheap, considering all you have to do is buy the vodka and put in the peel—something you would probably trash anyways. But as I discovered, getting rid of all that "white" stuff from the peel is quite hard work.

Ingredients:

Vodka
Citrus Fruits

1) peel off sections of each of citrus fruits. Pick your method: I read that a vegetable peeler works well, but I had better luck cutting thicker sliced and then trimming off the white by holding the knife at a slight angle and cutting towards my fingers. Sounds dangerous… and it kind of was.. I sliced my finger a bit. Let me know if you have a better method!

2) Fill the bottle. I threaded bits onto a skewer, to make it more decorative, but they were really hard to get into the bottle. In the end I just stuffed the rest in--- this looked pretty, too. You may have to pour a bit of the vodka out to fit in the peels. That's ok, you can make yourself a vodka gimlet with the juice from your lime and a simple syrup or powered sugar. Mmm.

3) Time to wait. Mine was a birthday present for a party a few days later, and when I tasted it, it was already pretty citrusy (and had a pleasant orange color). But most tutorials suggest waiting at least a week.
4) Don't forget to label it! Here's my label which I made with word. I colored in the picture with colored pencils. The cocktail recipes are of course only a few of many different ideas. Experiment.

All in all a big hit at the party. I did have to explain that no, I did not make the vodka myself in my bathtub. I had a laugh over that one.

CITRUS PUNCH

After all the peeling, I was left with a bowl of naked citrus fruits! What to do?! I decided to peel them and slice, and then douse them in sugar and let steep in the fridge. The next day Artur and I bought a bottle of Sekt (german champagne) and doused our citrus fruits. Mmmm mmm delicious (it was still delicious on sunday night, too… if not less bubbly).

LEMON LIME JAM

My third use for my leftover ingredients was to make "lemon lime jam" which was actually my first venture into the world of jam making. I happened to have a package of "gelierzucker", which is sugar mixed with a gelling agent. I followed the following steps, improvised from a series of internet recipes:

1) slice lemon and limes into thin, half moon slices (I used 2 lemons and 4 limes)
2) boil in 1 quart of water for 20 minutes, or until tender
3) add package of gelierzucker, stirring constantly until the contents boil
4) continue stirring for four minutes while everything boils nicely.
5) Pour immediately into sterilized jars

I didn't take any photos while cooking because it was too sticky. It's quite tasty, kind of like sprite marmalade.

Here's to a vitamin C overdose!!!!