nedelja, 29. maj 2011

Wiskey berber

Since more and more traffic to this blog comes from ... well actually everywhere in the word, with exception of Slovenia, there is really no use of me writing in Slovene. :)

And what is better to start writing in English than with a culinary post. :)

It's been almost a year since I was in Morocco and there has been many thing that reminded me of that country and it's culture.

So one day i went to the market and buy some mint - it wasn't from Morocco, but it was from Africa - Egypt. :) It smelled SO nice! I forgot about wrong origin all together, just because the scent. :)

A set of glasses and teapot from Morocco
Since I was in Morocco tree times already, i drank much of the mint tea there and of course was shown how to make it many times. So i can say i have learn how to make it in many different way to get the same effect. But this was the first time I made it at home... far away from Africa.

So I chose to make the Moroccan mint tea - it is also called whiskey Berber- by recipe that includes also green tea. 

How dido I make it?
First i boiled water and pour it over green tea that taste like crap. :) I brought it from Morocco, so the taste and the looks (it looks like Gunpowder tea) was authentic. After pouring water over tea, i pour the water away - it supposed that the tea releases toxic or something. Now i repeated what i did a minute before - i pour boiled water over the same green tea and steep for 2-3 minutes. Then i put the tea away. 

After all the work with green tea, i filled the teapot with fresh mint. When I say filled i meant filled the teapot and than put some more mint in it and some more and some more, until it looked like the teapot is going to explode. There HAS to be A LOT of mint, otherwise it wont have the right taste - VERY STRONG TASTE. :) If there is not enough mint, don't even bother... it's a waste of time and mint. :)

If there is that much mint in the teapot... dont' bother - there is hardly any mint in the pot, so the taste won't be right... :(
Pouring tea in the glasses is based on the tradition that shows guest how welcome s/he is - the higher the position of teapot, more welcome s/he is. But before the tea is poured for real we mix sugar in the tea. Moroccans put abnormal amounts of sugar in the tea... oh, yeah, the sugar comes in cubes. So to mix the sugar and the mint aroma - some glasses are poured and then the tea is poured back in the teapot. :)

We can put mint in the glass.
Then the tea is poured for real. The high the teapot the more the person you pour the tea to is welcome. the we make ourself comfortable and enjoy with Moroccan ground rule: In Morocco we have time!

You can enjoy in this position only until the tea is completely out. It is completely possible that your imagination will take you to souks in morocco, like it took me.