nallukka

... but most Americans are ridiculously lazy about this kind of thing…

Get a coffee grinder. Have whole star anise ready to go. Cinnamon, too (Saigon is best—Spice Islands has a Saigon cinnamon variety)... and if you can find vanilla BEANS that aren’t costly, go for it (or I’ve made my own vanilla extract, so mine is superbly cheap and I know all that went in it right down to who farmed the vanilla)...

DO NOT get the nasty stuff called Thai tea-you’ll see why it is “red”-FOOD COLORING, eww! Please… forgive yourself the grotesque colors and take high quality ceylon-alwazah for example is a good buy for the money at a couple bucks per pound and high standards of all-from-Sri-Lanka farming (sorry, tea from Thailand is generally tea from China reboxed in Thailand anymore-they can’t compete with China on this front, but Sri Lanka has the hold on the best tea around)... It’s called RED tea because good black tea is red when brewed… like green tea is yellowish green when brewed… all a matter of fermentation, and Thai tea needs to be fully fermented red... meaning BLACK by western standards… tea.

I grind the star anise and cinnamon up just before making the tea-to release the flavor right then and there- and scrape about 1/4 a vanilla bean in right when I’m putting the tea into the filter… a few anise, what amounts to about 1 anise worth of cinnamon bark (less if you use the powdered Saigon-really only a couple dashes of that will do for the whole pot-it’s STRONG)... if you can’t do the vanilla beans, take a good pure extract. God knows fake vanilla is not the taste of Thai tea, eww.

So it takes a LOT of tea, yep… because you make it STRONG. For a single pot-which is about 50 ounces or so… I run the same water-super hot boiling-through (my coffeemaker is commercial, mind you, but not any more than regular ones save junky hamilton beach stuff from Wal Mart)... usually 3 times… put a can of sweetened condensed milk into it-eagle is the best by far on this—and you have it the way THEY do it… a lot at a time, strong, the milk sweetened beforehand and condensed… then swirled around… chill it, then pour over ice, adding more milk if your taste buds are weak.

I’ve been making this since I was a little kid—then it was boiled in a pot then strained (grew up with a Thai family next door in our little townhouse)... if I could do it at age 5, surely an adult won’t wine about something like a mini Capresso doing their work for them (~$30 but think… fresh inexpensive spices ground then and there and no need for yuck mixes)... oh yeah, I also sometimes do the “Thailand peninsula tip” variety and take a dry allspice berry and grind it in, too… or maybe a single clove, never multiples of THAT!

Enjoy… it’s REAL Thai tea, at your fingertips… courtesy of 1 Bunn commercial maker (the water heats in a separate reservoir so it pours through SUPER FAST—produces coffee that’s NEVER BITTER as long as the actual bean is any good!) and the mini Capresso spice grinder… <$100 for both long ago… probably even less now. Just don’t skimp… and psst kosher markets are where to get great spices. They have STANDARDS and stuff. Yep. True.

Kabul Afghan restaurant in Seattle, WA, is the best in the western world I’ve had… consistent, whereas the few spots on the east coast are either hugely costly for what you get (still worth it but… well, they are a monopoly and act like one, too)... or sort of a fast-food version because so few people know anything about the cuisine at all…

I’m yearning for some roasted eggplant with yogurt sauce on top, all on a bed of spicy tomato yum. Lamb and ash are amazing, too… as is their take on pistachio ice cream: rose water and saffron? Yes please… Cardamom tea is standard there, too. Very worth trying… and lamb kebabs (far more than they seem, served with saffron rice with raisins and complex herbal beauty) are worth giving up vegetarian ways for that one experience.