Fun Fridays- A Pitcher of Tamarind Iced Tea

The last few months have involved a lot of travelling, friends staying over, festivals and weddings, and it seems like things are finally getting back to normal.  So when Friday came around I thought to myself... ah! Friday... the promise of a nice chilled out weekend and blissful lazing around.  

So this Friday I thought we'd have a nice family night at home, enjoy some drinks, some nice food and basically catch up. For drinks I made my version of Iced Tamarind tea, a drink I once had at a restaurant in Haus Khaz Village, Delhi. I know, I know, you may say its Friday! Why not the 'good stuff'? ... add a little 'something special', but I have been trying to be 'good' of late, sort of detoxing (hope I'm not sounding too much like an alcoholic)  so I'm off the 'good stuff' for a while.

This ice cold tamarind tea is incredibly refreshing. I served it at the Onam dinner we had last Sunday and it went down like a treat! Its like a lemon iced tea with a kick of sour from the tamarind that is quite interesting and a nice palate cleanser if you're having a really rich meal. 

Along with the tamarind tea I made some homemade pita bread, hummus and some salad. Fresh, healthy and yummy.

Here's the recipe for the Tamarind Iced Tea

4 mugs water

1 level tsp green tea leaves

1 level tsp tea

2 tbsp Jaggery (palm sugar will also do)

1 tbsp tamarind

4 tbsp sugar (add more or less as per your taste)

1/2 tsp salt

a few lemon slices

Heat the water in a pan until bubbles just start to form... don't let it boil. As soon as this happens, remove from heat. Add the tea to this and cover. Leave to steep for about 5 minutes. Strain and remove tea leaves. Add the jaggery, sugar and the tamarind and leave till the mixture cools down to room temperature. With your hand squeeze the tamarind to remove all the pulp from the seeds. This may take a while. Finally strain the mixture being sure to squeeze out every last drop of the tamarind pulp through the strainer. Add the salt and freeze until it is a pulpy, icy mixture. Break up the icy mixture and pour into a pitcher. Add the lemon slices and some more ice cubes and enjoy!

p.s- I'll be putting up the pita bread and hummus recipe soon.