While making the apple sauce this year, the left over apple cores went into the freezer rather than directly going into the compost bin. Recently, we have been enjoying them as spiced apple tea, at nights. Especially when in need of a drink to heat you up, these were really easy to put together. The result is always satisfying even if the “exact” measurements I am about to share is not followed. You know the drill; you just whatever you have in this warm tea.

Recently I have developed taste for unsweetened tea, but for this one, somehow one looks for a sweetener. Our usual choice is the jaggery I have learned from dear Indira. Not only it improves the taste, but gives a nice color, too. Instead of buying the big cones from the local Indian store, I prefer buying the irregular shaped, small ones. This is way easier to deal with. ;) If you do not have a way to obtain jaggery, honey or molasses is another good alternative to sweeten your tea.

• 10 – 12 apple cores, with seeds
• 8 – 10 black peppercorn
• 2 inch long of cinnamon stick
• 8 – 10 cloves
• 1 – 2 inch fresh ginger
• 3 – 5 cardamoms
• 750 ml water
• 1 piece of jaggery or a teaspoon of honey

Bruise the peppercorn, cloves and cardamoms using mortar and pestle. Add to the rest of the ingredients. Add the jaggery if using, keep the other sweeteners off the mix for now, and add when serving. Boil on a very low heat about 30 minutes. Strain from a very fine cloth, add sweeteners if not already, and serve hot.

Above, the tea cup in the front has jaggery in it, but the further away has no sweeteners. See the color difference?

You dried or roasted watermelon, sun flower or pumpkin seeds at least once in your life, right? What about melon seeds? Any ideas how to make use of them?

I mean any melon, let it be honeydew, cantaloupe or any other type.  I always wondered what can be done with them or if anybody had found any use of them — that is other than saving them for next year’s crop.  Towards the end of last summer, I thought if there is a recipe that calls for melon seeds I bet there is a good change Tijen would include that recipe in her Tales From a Fruit Tree book. Yeah I know, melons do not grow in trees but that book is all about fruits, their various uses and includes many recipes (not necessarily common ones.) And looking into the section for melon, I proved myself right :) There it was. A recipe of a drink that was once a popular one in Izmir, largest city on the Eagean coast of Turkey.  It is a type of a sherbet; common drinks of our culture before the soda invasion.

A fast internet search revealed a similar recipe for Horchata de melon from Mexico.  It is curious to see recipes like that to pop up unexpectedly from another part of the world.  Does your cuisine have a melon seed drink as well?
Finally some local melon is out in the markets and even though I do not care for melon for eating, I quite like its taste when making smoothies at home.  I carefully scooped out the seeds, washed and dried them. After collecting them from little melons I had enough to make the recipe below. The result: totally refreshing and very interesting taste. Nothing like coke or any of those types of soda/pop that has all those unpronouncable ingredients. Try it, you might like it, too.

• 1 cup of washed, dried melon seeds
• 4 cups of water
• 3/4 cups of sugar (can be adjusted to taste)

Put all the ingedients in a blender, mix for about 10 – 15 minutes until obtaining white, milky puree.  Strain thought a fine sieve (cover with folded cheesecloth) into a jug.  Taste it and adjust the sugar to your liking.  If adding more sugar, stir well to disolve. Cover with saran wrap, put into fridge and serve chilled.

Keep in mind that it will not last more than 2 days in the fridge; make it just before you want to drink.

Enjoy!