Benefits of Drinking Clove Tea wuth Ginger and Cinnamon

	If you’ve ever wondered about natural ways to keep your mouth feeling fresh and your lungs clear, clove tea may be a comforting option. Many people experience benefits from warming spices that offer more than just flavor—they can also help soothe your body in subtle ways. This simple tea combines cloves with ginger and cinnamon, creating a drink that targets mouth bacteria, lung mucus, and immune support.

Step 1: Gather your ingredients. Start with half an inch of fresh ginger, one cinnamon stick, and half a teaspoon of whole cloves. These ingredients are known for their warming and antimicrobial properties, which set the foundation for a soothing tea.

Step 2: Add the spices to three cups of boiling water. Pouring boiling water over the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves helps to release the essential oils and gentle compounds that contribute to their health effects.

Step 3: Reduce the heat to a medium boil and let the mixture steep for about five minutes. This timing allows the flavors and active substances to infuse fully without becoming overpowering.

Step 4: Strain out the spices and allow the tea to cool slightly. You can then add honey if desired. Honey often adds a gentle sweetness and can further soothe your throat.

Research suggests clove tea’s combination helps kill mouth bacteria and clear mucus from the lungs, while also offering antioxidant support that many find helpful for their immune system. If any of these signs are severe or don't fade, it’s worth checking with someone qualified.

Next time you enjoy a warm cup of clove tea, you’ll know it’s doing more than just tasting good—it’s quietly supporting your mouth and lungs in ways that feel natural and comforting.

 

 

 

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How to make your everyday chai more gut friendly

A morning ritual to wake up the body or an evening cup for refreshing conversations, chai has been central to our lives. And in this wellness first world, an expert spills the tea on how to brew a healthier sip that's healthy for your gut too.

 Ek cup chai ho jaaye!

It’s a phrase that echoes in the Indian hearts, homes, offices, and even street corners every single day. There’s no need to make a case for tea and how it’s more than a beverage – it’s a habit and a comfort.

If you’re a chai person, you would know it’s not just limited to that morning wake-up drink or evening refreshment. This beverage also makes for the perfect afternoon companion — a pause in the hustle, a moment to reset, maybe even a subtle boost for better cognition. But it’s not just about any tea. It has to be the kind that offers more than comfort and science seems to root for black tea in that department.

While most people prefer the staple version, the one with the milk, unfortunately, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It can lead to acidity, bloating, and digestive discomfort, and may not be the best pick for those who are lactose intolerant either. From a health perspective, black tea has the edge. 

Studies suggest that two to three 200 ml servings of black tea can enhance both objective and self-reported attention and alertness. It contains L-theanine, an amino acid that promotes calm alertness and helps balance caffeine’s effects, making it ideal for midday consumption. The kind of post-lunch pick-me-up or 4 pm office refill drink everyone’s looking for, right?

Additionally, black tea is considered a better alternative to milk tea largely because it retains higher levels of beneficial polyphenols and antioxidants, which are often diminished or bound by the proteins in milk. Research has also linked black tea with improved heart health, lower LDL cholesterol, and anti-inflammatory effects — benefits that might be compromised when it’s consumed with milk.

There are several studies that establish how black tea may help you power through that afternoon slump too. But that’s not all. Before you rethink your tea ritual, in this wellness-first world, a doctor recently shared how to make that afternoon black tea even more nourishing.

Healthy and hearty afternoon tea

Dr. Saurabh Sethi, a Harvard- and AIIMS-certified gastroenterologist, often shares his expertise online through quick, practical reels. In one of his recent viral videos, he shared a recipe that can make a regular black tea more nourishing without losing the comfort that makes it so beloved.

His intention? To make that sip a little more anti-inflammatory and a little better for the gut. Because, well, isn’t gut health the wellness trend?

Here’s his way of adding a little more ‘well’ to your garam chai ki pyaali:

• Take some black tea leaves and bring them to a boil.
• While it’s brewing, add a few slices of fresh ginger — it helps with better gut mobility and aids digestion.
• Next, crush a few cardamom pods and add them to the concoction. They help reduce bloating and add a naturally sweet aroma without sugar.
• Add a small piece of clove; it contains eugenol, a compound known to support liver function.
• Once everything is done, strain the tea and let it cool slightly. You can then add a drizzle of honey for optional sweetness.

It’s true this version takes a little extra effort to prepare, but experts say it’s a small step toward wellness. However, it’s not a magic fix as health is always personal and subjective to each individual’s body and lifestyle. 

Not only this, but people must also be mindful of the tea-time snacks they consume because those rusks might be savoury, but not so much for health.

Green, black, milk, or bubble — chai is a drink that doesn’t just brew conversations, it stirs emotions too, and history is proof of how it has always been part of shared social fabric. So, why not make it a little healthy?

 

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Carrot Rice

   

Ingredients

cashew nuts as desired

⅓ cup onion finely chopped

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 cup grated carrot (loosely packed)

½ tsp red chili powder or to taste

½ tsp garam masala pdr

salt to taste

1 and ½ cups cooked Basmati rice or any cooked rice of your choice

1 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped

 

To temper

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp ghee

One inch cinnamon

1 clove

1 small cardamom

½ tsp cumin seeds/ jeera

few curry leaves finely chopped

1 green chili slit/ finely chopped

 

Directions

In a pan add  oil and ghee. Add cashews fry until golden brown, remove and set aside.

To the same pan add cinnamon, clove, cardamom then cumin seeds let it splutter.

Add few curry leaves and  green chili let it splutter.

Add  chopped onion, ginger garlic paste and salt to taste.

Saute until it turns golden.

Add grated carrot.

Saute for 2-3 minutes or until raw smell leaves.

Cook covered for 2-3 minutes.

Open give a quick stir then add  red chili powder and garam masala powder.

Saute for a minute.

Add  cooked basmati rice.

Add fried cashews along with  coriander leaves.

Give a quick mix and switch off.

Serve with papad and raita of your choice.

Note- You can add some green peas, sweet corn to make it healthier. 

 

 

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Mochar Ghonto

 Mocha Kata / How to cut and clean Banana Blossom

One of the important and trickiest parts of cooking banana flowers is cleaning and cutting the banana flower. We call Mocha Kata o Porishkar kora in Bengali. While planning this post with the detailed recipe video, I decided to include the process of cleaning and cutting as well. I waited for Maa to come to my place. While she cleaned and cut, I captured the moments. I am listing the process below along with a set of pictures. You can also see the video for a better understanding.

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha Kata / How to cut and clean Banana Blossom

One of the important and trickiest parts of cooking banana flowers is cleaning and cutting the banana flower. We call Mocha Kata o Porishkar kora in Bengali. While planning this post with the detailed recipe video, I decided to include the process of cleaning and cutting as well. I waited for Maa to come to my place. While she cleaned and cut, I captured the moments. I am listing the process below along with a set of pictures. You can also see the video for a better understanding.

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha aka Banana Flower

Removing the boat-like covering

Pistil and Calyx- are to be discarded

Cleaning Mocha

Pistil and Calyx- are to be discarded

Cleaning Mocha

This is how you clean Mocha aka Banana blossom

Cutting Mocha

While peeling  the banana flower, always apply oil in your hands well, once you peel a bunch of flowers, hold together and dub in your hand, the pistil, the hard one with black head can be seen, which needs to be removed from each one. It is a laborious job, but the end result is worth it. Another important point to remember is that once you cut he flowers, soak it in water with little buttermilk added to prevent it from getting black.

 

 

Ingredients

 

550 g whole mocha (banana blossom; 300–350 g after cleaning)

100 g potatoes

25 g mustard oil

2  dried red chilies‍

1 clove‍

1 cardamom 

1 cinnamon‍

¼ tsp cumin seeds

20 g grated coconut about 4 tbsp

4 green chilies

20 g ginger paste

1 tsp turmeric

¼ tsp red chili powder

2 g cumin powder

20 g salt (total) or to taste

18 g sugar / 3 tbsp

8 g ghee‍

¼ tsp garam masala

 

 To cook the florets

Transfer the chopped florets and the chopped inner core to a pressure cooker. Add salt, turmeric, and water. Pressure cook everything on medium heat for one whistle. Let the pressure release naturally.

Strain the mocha. Let it cool for 30 minutes.

Mash the boiled mocha using your hands. This will help produce a good mix of mushy and crunchy texture.

Cooking

1. Chop potatoes into 2-cm cubes.
2. Pour mustard oil into the kadai. Let it smoke gently and turn pale yellow in colour.
3. ‍If using prawns, coat them with a pinch of salt and turmeric. Add prawns and fry on medium heat for 1 minute. Set aside.
4. Temper mustard oil with dried red chilies, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and cumin seeds.
5. Add potatoes. Fry for 4 minutes until golden.
6. Add grated coconut and continue frying. Be careful to not burn the coconut.
7. In a small bowl, mix ginger paste, cumin powder, turmeric, red chili powder with water. Add this slurry to the kadai.
8. Add salt and sugar. Stir to mix everything well. Add 2 slit green chilies.
9. Continue frying the spices until the raw smell goes away. Add a splash of water if the spices dry out. This will take around 5 minutes.
10. Add soaked chola. Cook them with the spices for 3 minutes.
11. Add boiled and strained mocha. Mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 minutes.
12. Add 2 more slit green chilies. Stir gently.
13. If the dish looks too dry, you can add 2 tablespoons of milk.
14. Keep cooking on low heat for 3 minutes. Add ghee and garam masala. Mix everything well.
15. Serve hot with rice and dal.
    

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Herbs and spice substitution

 Here are some substitutes to some commonly used spices:

1. All spice

In case you’re missing all-spice powder in your pantry, you can make your own all-spice powder mix. Substitute the following spices for every 1 teaspoon allspice: Mix ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg and ¼ tsp ground cloves. Note: You could also grind the whole piece of cinnamon and clove to obtain their powder. As for nutmeg, you could grate it using a grater for the powdered form.

2. Apple spice powder

Substitute the following spices for every 1 teaspoon of apple spice powder: Mix ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg, ⅛ tsp ground ginger and ⅛ tsp ground all spice.

3. Anise

Substitute anise seeds with fennel seed, for 1 whole star anise, use ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds.

4. Cilantro

Use fresh flat-leaf parsley in place of fresh cilantro.

5. Cardamom

Cinnamon and nutmeg are each widely used substitutes for cardamom when baking. A good rule of thumb is that mixing ½ teaspoon of cinnamon with ½ teaspoon of nutmeg or ½ teaspoon of allspice equals 1 teaspoon of cardamom. If you are making curry and don’t have cardamom on hand, you can use an equal part mixture of cumin and coriander powder.

6. Cinnamon

Nutmeg is a perfect one-to-one swap for ground cinnamon in sweet baking recipes, for 1 tsp of cinnamon powder use ¼ tsp of nutmeg powder. In savory recipes, use ¼ tsp of allspice powder in substitute for 1 tsp of cinnamon.

7. Clove

Nutmeg makes a great substitute for clove, for 1 tsp of clove use ½ tsp of nutmeg powder or you can also use 1 tsp of allspice while baking pies or tarts.

8. Garlic powder

To substitute garlic powder use, 1 clove fresh garlic or ½ tsp. bottled minced garlic. Lastly, asafoetida also makes for a great substitute for garlic powder, but make sure to just add a pinch as it has a pungent flavour.  

 

9. Garam Masala

Combine 3/4 tsp of ground cumin with ¼ tsp of allspice, for an easy substitute when you’re in a hurry. Mix and then use it as a substitute for 1 tbsp of Garam Masala in your recipe.  Curry powder can easily be used in a 1:1 ratio for garam masala in any recipe.

10. Ginger Powder or Fresh ginger

You can use fresh ginger if you want to substitute ground ginger in your recipe. You just need to use more fresh ginger as the ground ginger is more concentrated. For every ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger, use 1 tablespoon of fresh-grated ginger in recipes. Converting fresh ginger to ground ginger and vice versa is easy.

11. Italian seasoning

It is super simple to make your own Italian seasoning blend at home. The most prominent Italian herbs are dried oregano, thyme and basil that make a classic Italian seasoning mix. To make a herbs mix –

Add a tablespoon of oregano with two teaspoons of thyme, two teaspoons of basil and a half teaspoon of sage, rosemary and parsley.

12. Oregano: 

Use 1 tsp of thyme or basil for 1 tsp of orgenao.

13. Parsley

Use 1 tsp of cilantro or mint for 1 tsp of Parsley.

14. Pumpkin pie spice:

For 1 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice mix substitute it with ½ tsp. ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp. ground ginger, ⅛ tsp tsp. ground nutmeg , and ⅛ tsp. ground clove.

15. Thyme

Use 1 tsp of basil or oregano for 1 tsp of thyme.

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How to Make Baked Apples

 

 

1. Choose the Right Apples

My mom and I can never decide which is the best apple variety for making baked apples. Some varieties turn to mush so fast they explode out of their skins, while some stay weirdly firm. Either way they’re edible, but not ideal—a baked apple should stay intact but be soft enough to eat with a spoon. So I decided to make the dish with as many apples as I could find at the grocery store so I could set the record straight for my mama.

After making the dish in the exact same way with eight different varieties (Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Cortland, Granny Smith, Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji, and McIntosh), there were were two clear winners: Gala and Fuji apples, which both got nice and soft inside, but maintained their shape when baked.

You’ll need one apple per person. It doesn’t matter how many you bake at once—just choose a baking dish that’ll hold your desired amount of apples with not too much empty space around them. (Sometimes I just make one single baked apple in a very small baking dish all for myself.) 

 

2. Hollow Out Those Apples

But don’t use an apple corer—it will slice all the way through the apple, which is not what we’re after. You want to remove the core and seeds while keeping the bottom of the apple intact so you have a nice little vessel in the middle to fill with sweet things and butter.

Start by using a paring knife to carefully slice around the top core of the apple, making sure not to go all the way through to the bottom. Then pull out what you cut, and use a spoon to scoop out the rest, making sure that all seeds are out. I find that the sharp edges of a 1/2 tsp. measuring spoon are ideal for scooping out the core, but any small sharp spoon or even a melon baller will do.

 

 

3. Fill Them With Sweet Things

Place your hollowed-out apples in a baking dish that has sides that are at least 2 inches high and doesn’t leave too much empty room around the apples. Then fill each apple with something sweet, some spices, and some butter.

You want about 1 Tbsp. of sweetener per apple: it can be either a liquid or granulated sweetener, like brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple sugar, maple syrup, or honey. Add a pinch or two of your favorite baking spices to each apple too: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cardamom, and/or ginger. And don’t forget a pinch of salt too. A few little cubes of butter in each apple will help make them more saucy and delicious—add the butter along with the sweetener and seasonings. It doesn’t really matter what order everything goes in, since it will all melt together as it bakes.

 

4. Pour Liquid Around Them and Bake

To keep the apple from charring and sticking to the baking dish as it bakes, but also to help soften it as it bakes, you want to pour about 1 inch of liquid around the apples. Water is the easiest choice and will get flavored with the spices and sweeteners and juices from the apples as it bakes. For a sweeter sauce, use fresh apple cider—and go ahead and add a splash of bourbon or brandy to that apple cider if you like. (You could also spike your water and it would be delicious.)

Bake the apples in a 350°F oven until they are very tender, about 40 to 45 minutes. Start checking at half an hour, and if the liquid has evaporated so much that the surface of the baking dish is dry, add more.

I like my baked apples with cold heavy cream. Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

5. Serve Them Hot, Maybe With Cream

When you pull the baked apples out of the oven, let them sit for five to ten minutes before serving to avoid burning mouths. Scoop some of the liquid from the baking dish into each bowl along with each apple. Then add a splash of cold heavy cream if you like (I do) or a scoop of ice cream or yogurt—something cold and creamy next to a hot, sweet apple is always a very good thing.

 

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Kumbakonam Kadappa- Makes an ideal side dish for Idli, Puris, Dosai, Roti.

Main ingredients

• potato 1 medium size boiled
• moong dal / paasi paruppr1/4 cup boiled
• onion 1 big Cut lengthwise
• tomato 1 finely chopped
• curry leaves  few leaves
•  turmeric pdr./haldi 1/4 tsp
•  cinnamon 1"
•  clove  3
• fennel seeds / sombu / saunf1/2 tsp
• coriander leaves finely chopped  1 tbsp
• salt to taste
• vegetable Oil 2 tbsp

To grind

•  coconut grated  1/4 cup
•  garlic pods 3
• roasted gram / pootukadalai  1 tsp
• fennel seeds / sombu/ saunf 1/2 tsp
• green chilies to taste

Instructions

1. Dry roast moong dal in a pan until it turns aromatic and golden brown. Wash it thoroughly, transfer it to a pressure cooker, and add enough water for 3 whistles. You may add the potato whole to cook.
2. Once done, mash the moong dal and set it aside. Mash the potato into chunks. Please do not make it into a paste. Set it aside.
3. Add all the ingredients under "To grind" in a mixer. Add water and grind to a smooth paste.
4. Heat a pan and add oil. Once the oil gets heated, add cinnamon sticks, cloves, and fennel seeds and let it crackle.
5. Now add onion and curry leaves. Saute until the onion turns light brown. Then add tomatoes and a little salt. Saute until tomatoes turn mushy.
6. Now add turmeric powder and saute for a min. Add ground coconut paste, adjust the water consistency, and add mashed moong dal and salt. Close the lid and cook for 10-15 mins.
7. Then mash and add the potatoes. Keep the potatoes a little bit chunky. Please do not make it to a smooth paste. Now cook the kurma for another 5 mins.
8. For idli and dosa, keep kadappa slightly watery. For poori and chapathi, keep kadappa thick consistency. Once done, garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with idli or dosa.

Recipe Notes

• Use only the specified amount of masala while grinding coconut, or it will overpower the taste of kadappa.
• We use only green chilies in this kadappa. So increase or decrease green chilies according to your taste.

this isn't my recipe, wanted to share this versatile recipe that goes with many dishes.

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