Malaysian Ginger Tea: Teh Halia

Ginger tea is a delightfully flavorful drink. There are variations to the recipe I have below that sweeten the tea with sugar or honey and then milk is added instead of sweetened condensed milk. I add orange peel and whole or ground cloves (which is perhaps a Chinese influence?), but that is something you can leave out if you prefer. You can certainly use more sweetened condensed milk if you like a sweeter drink. And make no mistake, there are also other variations. It is a beverage served in Malaysia and in Singapore.

 

Serve with cake, bread and jam or sandwiches.

Ingredients (2 servings of 6 ounces each):

2 teabags of black tea or 2 teaspoons loose tea (I add 2 1/2 teaspoons, I like stronger tea)

12 ounces water

1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced 

2 pieces fresh orange peel 1 inch each (1/2 inch wide)

2 cloves or a pinch of ground cloves

2 teaspoons sweetened condensed milk, 1 teaspoon for each cup, plus more to preference

Add the water and the sliced ginger to a pan. Bring the water to a steady simmer and simmer the sliced ginger for 10 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, add the black tea, orange peel and cloves. At the 10 minute mark, remove from the heat and let set for about 1 minute. Strain and add sweetened condensed milk to taste. 

 

  Malaysian ginger tea with sliced Portuguese roll and blackberry jam ...

 

WORD HISTORY:

Pumice-This word is related to "spumoni," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from Italian, and to "foam," a word from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to the Indo European root "(s)poih-," seemingly meaning "froth, foam." This gave Latin "pumex," meaning "porous, low density rock formed from bubble-filled solidified volcanic lava;" thus, sort of "frothy rock." This then became "pomex" (accusative: "pomicem") and this passed to Latin-based Old French as "pomis," with the same meaning. English borrowed the word in the early 1400s from Anglo-French, the French dialect that developed among French speakers in England in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest.    

Shrimp with a Malaysian Touch

There are various recipes for shrimp in Malaysian cooking, and this is really my version of a recipe that sort of fits in with Malaysian style shrimp. As I note below, you don't have to go looking for special soy sauce, as you can use regular soy sauce, but just add a little molasses or brown sugar to sweet it up a bit. Further, you also don't need to buy curry leaves, an ingredient common in Malaysian and some other south Asian cooking. Curry leaves have nothing to do with curry powder. The leaves are a bit citrusy in taste, but you can substitute the zest of 1 1/2 limes. I first made this dish with tomato sauce and rice wine vinegar, but I had noticed some similar Malaysian recipes that simply used ketchup, so I tried it, and I found that I liked the ketchup version better. This dish was certainly not spicy hot, but rather the hot chili pepper gave it a little zip and that's what is intended; however, remember, as I've noted here before, hot chilies can vary tremendously in heat. I've actually had habanero chilies that were extremely mild, like a "1" on a scale of 1 to 10. On the other hand, I've had some jalapeño chilies that brought tears to my eyes. Further, cooking often reduces the punch of chilies a bit. Similar dishes in Malaysia are served with bread to help sop up the great sauce. 

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, deveined
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped or grated ginger
2/3 cup mild red chilies (red bell pepper is fine), chopped 
1 hot red chili pepper
12 to 15 curry leaves, or zest of 1 1/2 limes
2 tablespoons soy sauce*
2/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 to 4 tablespoons oil

Add oil to skillet and set over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, mild chilies, hot chili and curry leaves. Cook until the ingredients soften, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning. Stir in the soy sauce, the ketchup and the sesame oil, mixing everything well. Add the shrimp and cook until just cooked through. Serve with rice or bread or both.

*  I used "Ketjap Manis," which is Indonesian soy sauce. It is syrupy and sweet. Some supermarkets or Asian markets will likely have "ketjap manis," but the keyword here is, "some." You can substitute regular soy sauce with some molasses, or even brown sugar, cooked together for just a few minutes.

Click on photo to enlarge ...

WORD HISTORY:
Shawl-The history of this word is difficult, but it "may" have originated from the textile town  "Shaliat" in southwestern India, also known as "Chaliyam, Saliyam, Chale." Historically that area of India was influenced by the Persians, Arabs and Portuguese. The idea is, "shawls" were produced in the town, which gave transliterated Persian "sal," seemingly originally with the meaning, "neck scarf." This was borrowed by Hindi and Urdu ^ and English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s with the heavy involvement of the English on the Indian Subcontinent. By the mid 1700s, the meaning had expanded to a "large piece of cloth used by women that is draped over the head that also covered the upper body." German borrowed the word from English as "Schal."  

^ Both Hindi and Urdu are Hindustani languages from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo Iranian branch of Indo European. They are related to English, but much further down the family tree.