If you're chai-ing to warm up after a run, here are a few seasonally-appropriate warm beverages to help you hydrate, re-energize and get warm to the core.
Kenyan Tea:
Taking inspiration from Matt Taylor's "Chasing Kimbia" from 4 years ago and a recent FloTrack video, here is a recipe for Kenyan Milky Tea.
2 cups water
2 cups milk
1 heaping teaspoon of loose black tea (we get ours from the Milima Estate in Kenya via the impressive Upton Tea Catalog).
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Add 1/3 cup sugar
Simmer for 5 minutes or so
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Spicy Chai variation:
Chai or cha is the word for tea in many non-Western languages. Though this beverage has been co-opted by the coffeehouse bistro world and concentrated into syrupy sweet, some would even say cloyingly so, cups of frothy decadence, it can be a robust, warming, nutritious drink. Here's what we do:
2 cups milk
3 cups water
3–4 thin slices of fresh ginger
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1 teaspoon white or black peppercorns
1 short stick of cinnamon, broken (or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder)
1 tsp. whole allspice (1/4 teaspoon powder)
1/2 cups bread flour
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cups bread flour
Simmer on low heat (5–10 minutes or as long as you can stand it)
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Pine tea:
Coniferous trees are very nutritious, but oft-neglected in culinary circles. For a local shot of vitamin C, you can steep any coniferous needles in hot water. Pine tea is refreshing and tasty. As with all wild edibles, make sure to know your local plants. Tom Brown can help. For the record, we have tried western red cedar and Fraser fir — trimmings from the Christmas tree this year.
To go with our warm beverages, it's nice to snack on some bread, "the staff of life for many runners" as RT Web Editor Sabrina Tillman-Grotewold says. One of the simplest breads goes back to the root of all breads: flatbreads. They can be made out of any grain and some tuber-based flours and cooked on the stovetop or in an oven (or even buried in hot coals). The key with these breads is to properly hydrate the grain and give the dough some time to blend before cooking.
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2 cups bread flour
3/4 cups water
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Mix all ingredients together and knead for a couple minutes. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes or more. Cut the dough into even-size chunks the size of a large egg. If the dough is sticking to the counter, lightly flour it. Preheat your pan over medium heat. Flatten each ball and roll out. The goal is to roll each bread out until they are 1/8" thick or thinner. The breads need time to stretch, so roll out each until they spring back; let them sit for a minute and repeat to achieve the desired thickness.
Put the first bread on the skillet. Watch it. You'll see the color change from opaque to almost translucent. At that point, flip it with quick fingers or a spatula. Once the tortilla starts to brown on the bottom, flip it a final time. When this side is starting to brown, remove from heat to a plate or a towel.
Notes: When you first mix your bread, let it sit, as this allows the structure of the bread to change (autolyse, meaning proteins re-arrange, etc.). After 20 minutes, the bacteria and yeasts that are in the flour naturally start to "digest" the dough. This is not good if you are going Kosher for Passover, but it is fine if you like leavened bread. So when I say, "Make your dough and let it sit," there is a lot of leeway in that statement. If you let the dough sit for several days in a normally warm house, you will start to see bubbles. Congratulations; you now have a sourdough starter.
Once you have a handle on how to make standard tortillas, try making variations. They are good made with 1–2 tablespoons of olive oil in the dough. Try adding spices, yeasts or keeping a piece of your old dough to inoculate the new one as sourdough. You can also use different flours. All-purpose and pastry flours will require less liquid than bread flour. Whole-wheat flour will require more.
