Tea Book: The Love of Tea, by Carol Mark

The Love of Tea cover via The Love of Tea (source)

Cooking and baking are among my favorite hobbies as is preparing tea so I have a  collection of tea cookbooks and recently the collection grew by one with the addition of Carol Mark's The Love of Tea. The recipes are divided among five categories: starters, mains, desserts, cocktails and afternoon tea.  Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph of the ingredients or the finished dish.

Although I have not yet prepared any of the recipes I am intrigued by the desserts section.  Reverse Earl Gray Chocolate Truffles Best Chocolate Tea Cake. The recipes are short which I take to mean easy to prepare.

Non-imbibers will appreciate the mocktail versions of the tea cocktails.  Don't Basil Fawelty made with rooibos, basil, and orange and pineapple juices or Red Blitz Blast with rooibos, lemonade, and cherry juice sound refreshing?!  (Oh, warm weather dreaming.)  And some of the cocktail recipes were designed without alcohol in mind like the Cucumber Sandwich Mocktail prepared with matcha.  This one sounds like a drink for afternoon tea.

Plan your next home afternoon tea using the recipes in the afternoon tea section.  Make classic egg, cucumber, and chicken sandwiches.  Bake scones, shortbread, and sponge cake.  And don't forget the lemon curd!

The Love of Tea is available on iBooks.  You can find Carol Mark hanging out on Google+.

Thank you to Carol Mark for a review copy of the book.

How to Make Masala Chai - Tiffany's Recipe

I drank the best masala chai ever, or at least of the year, last weekend.  It was served at an open house and I asked its creator for the recipe.  Here's an edited version of what she wrote.  Note: it's not your typical recipe!

We actually have a masala mix from I don't know when and where - must have been bought on one of our trips to India or brought by my in-laws because I never bought it in the US...

Having said that, during our last trip to India we bought a mix which was really not that good, so I ended up making our own with the few spices I had available: black pepper (you should get Indian one, it has a very particular taste), Cardamon, cloves, and ginger (fresh or powder). I usually take the spices as whole and grind them myself (and use fresh ginger)...

You can also add cinnamon or things like that...

Unfortunately I don't really have a specific recipe - I do pretty much everything in the kitchen by "feeling" - even much of the baking. I'd try with pretty even parts of the ingredients, but you may want to use less pepper and adjust the ginger as well because both can be spicy, but the spice level can vary depending on the quality and specific kind of pepper you use...

I also like Oh, How Civilized's recipe. And check out Melissa Cooks Gourmet's Spiced Milk Tea recipe.

Share your favorite masala chai recipe in the comments.