Jenn’s Cook Book

Another dual project recipe for Smoothie-licious and Midnight Snacks, again from chapter 1:00 AM: Spa Night, this smoothie gives green tea a fruity new twist. Spa Night features “light, enlightening foods to bask in…If you don’t indulge yourself, who will? You deserve it.” I do not normally care for bananas in smoothies, but combined with kiwi the flavor is very refreshing. With a small kick of caffeine from green tea, this is a great early-morning revitalizer. Kiwi skins are actually edible, according to the authors the peel adds an earthy flavor to the smoothie and (of coarse) will change the color slightly. Recipe makes enough for two servings, but can be halved for one.

1 1/2 cups soy milk
4 green tea bags
4 kiwis, peeled or unpeeled, quartered
1 banana, peeled and broken into pieces
1 tbsp honey
3-4 ice cubes

In a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, bring soy milk just to the point of simmering (do not boil).

Steep the tea bags in the milk for 5 minutes. Discard tea bags and pour liquid into a blender.

Add fruit pieces, honey, and ice cubes. Blend until smooth.

Shown below, served in a chilled glass with mint:

Here is another recipe in the DIY Herbal Teas mini-series, this one a Jenn Original Recipe. The combination of cinnamon and lavender is great at night before bed. Sip this fragrant tea as the temperature drops after the dark.

1 cup boiling water
1 tsp dried lavender
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp honey, or to taste
lemon wedge, for serving

Pour boiling water over lavender and cinnamon stick. Steep for 5-7 minutes. Drain lavender and cinnamon stick.

Stir in honey to taste. Garnish with lemon wedge and cinnamon stick if desired. Serve hot.

After seeing a recipe onRecipezaar for Green Tea with Rose Water, I was compelled to make my own version. This iced tea combines rose water (pink) and lime (green) with green tea to make a fresh iced drink with an interesting twist. Rose water is typically used in Middle Eastern-style cooking, so whip up this drink, take a sip, and image yourself in an exotic cafe far, far away.

2 green teabags
1 cup water
1/2 tsp rose water
1 tsp honey
1 tsp fresh lime juice
lime slices, for garnish

Bring water to a boil and add teabags. Steep 3 minutes and remove. Stir in rose water, honey, and lime juice.

Fill a large glass with ice. Pour tea over ice and add lime slices. Pop in a sprig of mint, if desired. Sip slowly and enjoy!

Another DIY Herbal Tea, this one using sage, fennel seeds, mint, and lemon. Sweeten with honey, sugar, or simple syrup as desired.

1/3 cup chopped fresh sage
2 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp fresh mint, crushed
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
5 cups boiling water
honey, to taste

Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add sage, fennel seed, mint, and lemon rind. Cover and steep 15 minutes.

Strain and stir in honey. Chill 1 hour.

Serve over ice with fresh sage and/or mint leaves as garnish. Add lemon wedges for extra flavor.

Served in a pitcher with mint leaves, ice, and lemon wedges:

Single serving, garnished with a fresh sprig of sage:

This is a great tea, served hot or iced,  depending on the weather! James wanted green tea with honey, I wanted tea with ginger, and here is the end result. The ginger gives this tea just a hint of flavor and spice, which is perfect for the Gingerama category. Enjoy a tea-riffic Jenn Original Recipe (sorry, couldn’t help myself).

8 green tea bags
8 cups water
1/3 cup honey
1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled
lemon wedges, for garnish

Cut ginger into half-inch slices. Bring water to a boil and pour over tea bags and ginger slices in a heat resistant pitcher. Steep for 5-10 minutes and remove tea bags. Stir in honey and steep ginger an additional 5 minutes. Remove ginger slices.

Serve immediately warm, or chill 1-2 hours and pour over ice and lemon wedges.

From Food & Wine magazine, this recipe combines combines tart pomegranate juice and orange pekoe tea steeped with orange zest. For an added flavor burst, I used POM Wonderful Pomegranate-Blueberry juice blend and frozen blueberries as garnish. POM also makes Pomegranate-Cherry, Pomegranate-Tangerine, and Pomegranate-Mango juice blends.

2 oranges, zest removed in strips
8 cups water
9 orange pekoe tea bags
2 cups pomegranate juice
3/4 cup simple syrup, or to taste
orange wedges, for garnish

Remove zest from oranges in strips using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler. Bring water to a boil and add zest strips and teabags. Remove from heat and steep 10 minutes.

Strain tea into a pitcher and chill 1-2 hours. Stir in pomegranate juice and simple syrup. Serve over ice with orange wedges.

Simple Syrup:
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups water

To make Simple Syrup:
In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring. Boil until sugar dissolves. Let syrup cool and chill, covered. Simple Syrup will keep for 2 weeks. Chill, covered, until ready to use. Makes 1 1/2 to 2 cups syrup.

Steeping with orange rind strips:

Shown below, with blueberries:

A new twist on iced tea from an Australian food website called FoodDownUnder.com, this recipe combines passion fruit, mint, and a little bit of sugar. Passion fruit juice settles easily, so shake well before using and stir tea vigorously before serving (I like to keep a stir-stick in my glass). The recipe didn’t specify the type of tea to use, so I used Orange Pekoe.

6 tea bags
4 cups water
1 cup fresh mint, lightly crushed
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup passion fruit juice
sprigs of mint, for garnish

Bring water to a boil and pour over tea and mint. Steep 10 minutes. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add juice and stir well to combine. Strain tea into a pitcher.

Chill tea 1-2 hours. Stir well before serving. Pour over ice and garnish with sprigs of mint.

This recipe is great if you want to try something new, like passion fruit. I would discourage using fresh passion fruit because it’s a little pricey and you don’t get much juice from each fruit (you’d probably need 10-12 passion fruit to complete this recipe).

Another DIY Herbal Tea, from the website Recipe Goldmine. In this recipe, tea is made by water steeped in anise seed, which is similar to fennel seed but with a stronger licorice flavor. Can be served hot or chilled. I liked the flavor of honey with this tea better than sugar.

5 cups water
2 1/2 tsp anise seed
sugar, to taste

Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add anise seed and remove from heat. Cover and steep 20 minutes. Strain out seeds and add sugar (or honey).

Serve immediately hot or chill 1-2 hours and serve over ice.

Anise Tea for One

Here is another version of Anise Tea, this one from About.com. Great on a chilly night or a day when the AC has been turned on for too long. A quick and easy treat to serve one.

1 cup boiling water
1 tsp anise seed
1 tsp honey or to taste

Pour boiling water over anise seed a small heat-resistant bowl or saucepan. Steep for 5-6 minutes.

Strain tea into a mug and sweeten to taste with honey.

To serve iced, chill for 20-30 minutes and serve over ice as shown below. Again, this herbal tea will not be as dark as regular tea.

Here is the first in a short series of DIY Herbal Teas (do-it-yourself). No tea bags required! From the website www.about.com.

1 1/2 cups loosely packed sage leaves
1 large lemon
2 tbsp sugar
4 cups boiling water
sage sprigs or lemon wedge, for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and maintain a slight simmer (not a full, rolling boil). Separate sage leaves from stems and discard stems. Using a vegetable peeler, remove rind from lemon in 3-inch long strips.

Add sage, lemon strips, juice from lemon, and sugar to simmering water. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Maintain simmer for 30 minutes, covering saucepan with lid.

Strain tea into a heat-resistant pitcher. Can be served hot. For sipper, chill tea for 1-2 hours. Serve over ice with garnish, if desired.

This herbal tea will not be as dark as regular tea.

Garnished with sage leaves:

I was skeptical of this combination given that the orange-mint tea didn’t turn out as good as I hoped, but I tried the Lime & Mint Iced Tea and it was quite good. Given this, I decided I would give mint another try (you may have already noticed that I favor basil as a garnish for my fruity-tea recipes). The combination worked, though it probably isn’t a recipe I would do again unless I had leftover ingredients to use up, which was actually why I made it in the first place. The recipe did not specify a type of tea to use, so I used Orange Pekoe (also known as Lipton Original, as I’ve recently realized).

10 tea bags
4 cups cold water
4 cans (12 oz size) apricot nectar
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, slightly crushed
1/4 cup sugar
mint sprigs, for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Steep 5 minutes. Discard bags. Stir in nectar, mint and sugar. Cover and chill 3-4 hours.

Pour tea through a strainer into a serving pitcher or punch bowl before serving. Add ice and garnish with mint sprigs as desired.

To make a single serving:
2 tea bags
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups apricot nectar (or 1 can)
2 tbsp crushed mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar
mint sprig, for garnish

This is actually what I made instead of the full recipe. Follow the above directions, though you can reduce chill time to about 1 hour. Pour tea into a tall, ice-filled glass instead of a pitcher. Garnish as desired. This makes a large serving (2 1/2 cups), so there would be plenty to share with two!