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Re: Cooking with roses

At 10:27 PM 10/24/97 -0400, Carol Wallace wrote:
>> OK, Duncan -- I'll throw out a question. Does anyone here cook with
>> roses? Or know how to make rose hip tea? My rose editor on Suite 101
>> has listed a few rose recipes,but he's about the only person I know
>> who thinks of roses as an edible -- although I have been known to toss
>> a few petals into a salad for color.(I never spray my roses with
>> anything but a stream of water for aphids, so it's safe.)
>

I happen to have a recipe for tea with rose hips!  It is nice and fruity and
makes a nice hot punch at Christmas time.  Here 'tis.

Afternoon Tea

1/4 cup dried hibiscus flowers
1/2 cup dried chamomile
2 tablespoons dried rose hips
1 tablespoon dried orange peel
1 3-inch cinnamon stick, crushed

Makes about 30 cups

Plus, here is a file that I have on herb teas in general with instructions
and some recipes.

Fruity flavour in herb teas.

You could use dried fruit.  Dried blueberries make a very nice addition to
tea.  You can also use dried fruit peels and rinds, and rosehips are kinda
fruity.  So is oil of bergamot.  Many fruits are available as their
essential oils, and you can mix those into your blends, provided the
manufacturer/supplier can certify them safe for consumption.  (Some kinds of
essential oil are for aromatherapy only and may just plain be something you
shouldn't ingest).

Teas

         All teas are made with 1 teaspoon of the herb, steep them for 5 to
10 minutes.  If the tea is wanted for medicine, then steep no less than 20
min.  Always cover container while 
it is steeping. NEVER BOIL them. They will be STRONG and potent.  This also
brings out more of  the other substances that they contain.  This is the
difference between a refreshing drink and a medecine tea.

       Pine Needle Tea is BITTER, but, it is very high in nutrients, this is
a starvation tea.  Some like bitter tasting teas.  Use at least 3 good
clumps of the needles to 1 cup of hot water and steep for 5 to 10 min.
depending on your taste.

       Did you know that you can eat ANY inner bark of a PINE tree??  It is
very tasty and sweet, especially that of the Jack Pine also called or known
as lodgepole pine.  The inner bark can also be boiled like noodles and
eaten.  When dryed out, it makes a good rope or twin for many uses and for
rope making and for weaving mats or covers in a pinch. OOOPPPPSSSS, got off
the subject.  It`s GOOD!!  Called Starvation Food and drink, high in protien
and nutrients, very good for you.

       Feverfew, peppermint, rosemary teas are all good for headaches.
Depending on headace, they can be steeped for 15 min.  Wormwood is good too,
for this, it also has a hallucinagenic in it called Toujone.  Depending on
person`s senitivity, usually a lot has to be drank or made very strong to
hallucinate.  Wormwoods and sage are in the same catagory or family or
genius or what ever its called.  Feverfew helps pain, and
can also help vomiting to be stopped. 

       Sage tea, cooking sage or garden sage can be use as well as the type
of sage that grows out west.  The tea is slightly bitter, honey fixes that.
If you sweat too much on a hot day, drink a cup of sage tea and wait for 1
hour, it`ll stop.  Sage is also good as a gargle for a sore throat
especially if you put in a little clove with it, but only gargle with it
then, do not swallow it.

       Calendula tea is bitter but not harshly bitter, this is a good drink,
it is a safe one, enhances immune system, in general an all around
antibiotic, you can swallow the yellow petals too. 

       Horsemint, also called Bergamont, leaves make a good tea and is
healing.  NEVER EVER BOIL MINTS OF ANY KIND, always REMEMBER THAT!!  :o)
Unless you want to make the enemy VERY SICK or kill them depending on their
system.  Pure mint oils will do much harm, they can also go through the
pours of the skin and irritate badly and cause system toxicity.  Mint itself
is safe, it`s the pure oil that is harmful.  If you get headaces,
neausia, diarrhea, upset stomach or vomit from mint teas, then it is made
too strong or you`ve drank tooooo much, one must then back off.

       Most all mints are refresshing, cooling to the system and energiseing.

       Catnip tea for sleep and will make one sweat to help break a fever.

Re: peppermint tea questions

>I have been using 7-8 small peppermint leaves from  my perrpermint plant to
make a tea with 8 oz boiling water.  It tastes better than the Mint Medley
tea I usually drink. My question is: should I dry the peppermint leaves
first?  I have been using fresh off the plant leaves- is there any problem
with using the fresh leaves? em
>
  Hello EM:

WHENEVER possible, for teas it is usually best to use fresh herbs as opposed
to dry.  Herbs are generally dried for ease of distrubution/storage only,
not for any special effects it has on an herb (I am speaking in general
terms for the most part).  Peppermint is a very
benign groovy herb that can't possibly hurt you in any way.  You can make
your tea as strong/weak as you like.  It's my totally favorite tea.  It's
wonderful for the stomach, and I tend towards bellyaches, so I drink it all
the time.  My favorite from my garden is peppermint/spearmint/lemon balm. I
fill up a quart jar w/as much as I cut, pour boiling water on it, let steep
15 20 min, get about 3-4 cups.  Yum yum!

Subject: Re: peppermint tea questions

>Martha
>Thanks-now I can drink my peppermint tea without worry-It grows all over my
garden, hard to control it, glad to know I can drink it fresh.  I will look
around for the seeds for the lemon you mentioned, sounds like a good combo.

Hope you know you can NEVER control these mints!  Have you also tried useing
peppermints in things like tabbouleh and all sorts of other salads? (Last
night I made a sauce w/yogurt/cilantro/onions/peppermint.  Yum!)

Lemon balm (melissa officinalis) is also in the mint family, but it's not as
invasive and tastes wonderful and is good for your tummy too.

When you make tea with mints, you can put the whole stem in, you don't have
to be careful.

Subject: Herbal Tea

These are two of the ones that I came up with myself.  If anyone else has
any to share with me it would be much appreciated. 

SPICE OF LIFE
Mix the following ingredients to taste.
     Cinnamon Basil
     Apple Mint
     Chamomile blossoms (German)
     Cinnamon Stick
     Orange peel
  Let 1 tsp. of tea steep in a boiling cup of water for approx. 5 min.  Add
honey or sugar to taste.

BERRY PUNCH
   Contains:
     Dehydrated Black and REd Raspberries
     Lemon Basil
     Cinnamon Basil
     Pineapple Sage
     Cinnamon Stick
     Chamomile Blossoms
     Orange peel
  Prepare as in above.

Subject: herbal tea

  Hi all,
The only herbal tea I have ever made myself is a combination, to taste, of
          raspberry leaves,
          mint leaves,
          dried berries, and
          orange peel dried
          (leaves can be dried or not).

My mom (aren't they great) recommended the raspberry leaves after an
herbalist on the radio said that teas made with it were especially good for
women, making mentrual cycles and labor easier somehow (which my book on
pregnancy and child care also concurred with, even though they also
recommended against experimenting too much with other homemade herbal tea
mixtures while 'preggers'). Even if it doesn't work, it makes a darn
tasty tea.

A great wake up herb tea in the mornings is a mixture of mint, sage, and
rosemary if you really want to get going on a cold winter morning add a
small pinch of cayenne.

Boil your water and remove from heat, and add your leaves and cover the pot,
let steep for at least 15 minutes.

For an evening tea use lemon balm, star anise, and a clove.  To cold water
add the anise and clove,  boil for 10 minutes with the pot covered.  Remove
from the heat and add the lemon balm cover and let steep another 15 minutes,
strain, and add honey to taste.

When making herbal teas, use 1 tsp of dried herb or two tsp of fresh herb
per cup (8 os) of water. Never boil leaves steep them and always with one or
two exceptions boil roots, nuts and barks.  Also never use copper, or aluminum.

Disclaimer:  I'm not a doctor so any medical claims made in this file should
be taken with a big grain of salt.

Monica L. Tittle  (and sometimes Robert Tittle) hstrynut@sonet.net
ICQ #2120658
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
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