Chai and more musings on Tea

I've been in a major mood for an iced chai latte. So in my dear old Rainbow, I purchased some Chai concentrate from my dear old Rainbow foods. I bought the Oregon Chai, regular and brought it home to make my first at-home iced chai latte.

YUM! Definitely different than Caribou's chai but I can appreciate it for its difference. This one has more spice and vanilla to it.

I also purchased some new Jasmine tea. I have a love hate relationship with jasmine tea. For a bit I'll really like it but then I don't. But last friday, I discovered a really good one, Numi organic Jasmine tea. It was hands down the best one I've had. So I couldn't resist when I saw it on special at Rainbow.

I think it's about time to make myself a mug of it now!

What's for Dinner 4/11/10

Post-Pampered Chef party, I was super inspired to do some cooking, so tonight we had coconut rice beef fajitas. I got the idea from TGI-Fridays, of all places. We had fajitas from there that were served with coconut jasmine rice and they were fabulous! I've also come to realize that minute rice is no longer cutting it for my rice consumption. So after some googling of coconut rice, I decided to undertake this myself using the following recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 cups jasmine rice or any other long-grain rice, washed
• 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
• 2 1/2 cups water, or as necessary
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large pot with a tightfitting lid, heat the oil over medium heat until it starts to shimmer. Add the onion and stir and cook until soft and translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat evenly with oil.
2. Stir the coconut milk and pour it into the pot, followed by the water, salt, and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.
3. Turn off the heat and let the rice rest on the stove, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes. When ready to serve, remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork or chopstick

this recipe came from www.Chow.com , specifically this link. They used shallots as well in their recipe which I omitted.


Observations from cooking:

• My liquid cooked down much faster than the 35-40 minutes allotted for cooking. It actually only took mine about 25-30 minutes and I even added about 1/2 cup of water 1/2 way through cooking. So it's definitely something to watch over.
• I also reduced the salt by half because 1T sounded like it could be too much.

Overall it was a pretty simple recipe. I encourage you to check out the link to the recipe and check out their suggestions. They had a good one for a rule of thumb for how much water to add. And I like to check out user comments for a recipe ahead of time too in order to help tweak it, or decide against making it.

After cooking, I served it on tortillas with steak fajitas, sour cream and cheese.

Homemade Cold Press Coffee

Warmer temps are here.This means it's the time of year when I guzzle down Cold Press Coffee in mass quantities! With the help of my grinder and my handy dandy french press (which currently only collects dust), I decided it was high time I tried to make my own.

I measured out 8 scoops of coarsely ground beans. I used my Perennial Blend beans from Caribou for this.

After putting the grinds in the press, I filled it with cold filtered water from my refrigerator. I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight (approximately 16 hrs total).

This morning, I took it out of the refrigerator. Skimmed the grounds off the top with a spoon. I then put the strainer for the french press on and strained it.

Poured over ice and Voila! Cold Press Coffee at home.

Verdict: I think it turned out fabulous! I only wish I were set up to make this in jugs because my french press only will hold about 2 cups. Although, it's probably a good thing that I can't make it in a jug! I would definitely consider buying a strainer so that I could make this in a jug if I'm ever having a summer party.