Lynn Strong

This was the second roughest holiday season of my life, and my plans for 3 weeks mostly of writing and editing… the universe said Ha, and kept laughing. I’m… probably not okay. But I need to keep impersonating it, because there isn’t a good alternative. When you grow up undiagnosed autistic with complex trauma and then become a theater major on top of that, are some things you learn about the functional value of masks that keep you together somehow when the show absolutely has to go on.

I also realized that I made fundamental mistakes trusting WordPress’s defaults 3 years ago. But the amount of time and work needed to correct them is time that won’t go into writing new books.

So here’s my patch between what I didn’t know about WordPress three years ago and what I can hopefully sustain going forward: the new Recipes section, collected by book, which I hope to add to gradually, reusing content that’s already written in the books and cutting down on the volume of paper needed in paperback editions. (If only in focus photos were not my nemesis!)

Chai and Cat-tales has the least-intimidating collection of gaps to fill, so I’m going to start there.

And, really, I’m willing to bet a fair number of folks are in need of some warm and soothing comfort lately.

Golden Milk and Golden Chai

Haldi doodh, turmeric milk, is an ancient drink from India. I can’t give you anything resembling a date, though. Every reference I’ve found has said Ayurvedic medicine has used it for “thousands” of years, and while I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s in the Manasollasa or Lokopakara manuscripts, I don’t have legible access to either of them.

So in this case I’m blending history with a twist of modern knowledge: cucurmin’s bioavailability goes up dramatically in the presence of pepper and fat, and cinnamon and ginger and many other spices are potent anti-inflammatories (as well as being delicious). And if you’re adding chai masala as well, the difference between golden milk and golden chai comes down to whether you also simmer in some tea.

The resemblance between dry chai masala, medieval poudre douce, and pumpkin spice is striking. I have a whole rant about the historical intersections between pumpkin pie spice and chai masala and poudre douce, with tangents through “things women are regularly mocked for enjoying, with or without pepper,” “things megacorporations time-limit and access-control,” and “things I want to enable more people to enjoy for themselves whether or not it is corporate-and-or-patriarchy-approved.” But that rant is not so cozy!

Personally, it took me a while to warm up to turmeric drinks. In my quest for inflammatory symptom relief that wasn’t NSAIDs, most of the turmeric tisanes I’d tried tasted like I was licking my ochre art pigments. But once I found a concentration I liked, it got easier. And also tastier. 

I’ve seen modern recipes going from “a pinch” to “a tablespoon” (!) of turmeric per cup of milk. My own balance point hits around a quarter to half teaspoon in my big 24 ounce mug, because on bad days I want to just make it once and sip on it for hours. 

On a bad day, I’m also not going to be up for freshly hand grinding every spice. So I pregrind my chai masala. Then I use about ½ tsp chai masala to ¼ tsp turmeric, or sometimes half and half when I need extra ouch-fighting power.

If you’re fond of skim milk or you’re using a fat free nut milk, you’ll likely want to either add a bit of coconut oil to the hot liquid or sip a spoonful of olive oil on the side. 

I know some people enjoy “bulletproof coffee” with butter in it. And I’ve made and drunk Tibetan tea with butter and salt. But both of those strike my own taste buds as “We’ve crossed the beverage-versus-soup threshold here.” So I don’t suggest blending olive oil into your turmeric and milk, or you may find yourself wondering where the rest of your dal makhani ingredients are.

Some useful dry chai masala / poudre douce variants 

Easy mode: Get something already fine ground like pumpkin spice and add extra cardamom and black pepper.

Easier mode: Use something like the Blue Lotus chai powder mentioned below, though it includes powdered tea so you will get some caffeine.

Handcrafted for storage:

• A couple dozen green cardamom pods, cracked and with the black seeds crushed. (Or 1 Tbsp powdered)
• 3-4 cinnamon sticks, preferably Ceylon cinnamon, bashed up enough to fit in a spice grinder. (Or ½ Tbsp powdered) 
• 1-2 tsp black peppercorns (or long pepper if you can find it)
• 1-2 tsp dried ginger (not crystallized or fresh here; powder keeps longer)
• ¼ to ½ tsp nutmeg, ideally fresh grated
• If you can find them:
  • ½ tsp grains of paradise
  • A couple chunks of galangal
  • ½ tsp mace

If they’re already powdered, mix them up.

If they’re still whole, grind them all up together. 

If you enjoy the brewing process, it doesn’t need to be ground too fine. 

If you don’t want to have to strain it, make sure to remove the green hulls from the cardamom pods and extract the seeds before grinding. Then grind all the spices as finely as possible.

Put the ground spices in an airtight jar and date it so you know how fresh it is. (Best within a few months; it won’t go off, it just won’t be as fragrant or as potent.)

When you’re ready to drink:

• 1 or 2 cups hot milk from cows or plants
  • (If skim, add a bit of coconut oil or a sliver of unsalted butter) 
  • (If you want it to be chai rather than hot milk, simmer some CTC black tea like PG Tips or Jivraj in there too)
• ¼ to ½ tsp turmeric (to taste)
• ¼ to ½  tsp chai masala / poudre douce above, OR pumpkin spice plus cardamom and pepper (to taste) 
• 1 to 2 tsp honey, jaggery, or sugar (to taste)

Simmer for 15 minutes or so, strain if needed, and serve warm.

Scale up or down based on the size of your mug.

Ready to drink easy mode: 

When I’m having a bad day, my super-fast, get-it-done, not-sure-I-won’t-burn-the-milk-today version goes:

• 1 or 2 cups hot water (not boiling)
• ¼ to ½ tsp turmeric (to taste)
• Half a container of Orgain’s vegan vanilla meal shake (brings enough fat for bioavailability, a lot of creaminess, a lot of vitamins, and enough sugar that I don’t add more)
• Your chai masala / poudre douce equivalent of choice:
  • ¼ tsp your home blend, if you ground it finely enough not to need to strain it
    OR
  • ¼ tsp something like Blue Lotus original chai masala per cup
    OR
  • ¼ tsp pumpkin spice plus ⅛ tsp cardamom and several grinds of pepper per cup

If I’m out of meal shakes I swap in 1 Tbsp milk powder and 1 tsp sugar per cup.