Honey Drink and Almond Tea 蜂蜜水和杏仁茶

Chinese recipes 中西食譜

106 F today. It is time for honey drink.
Honey Tea is my favorite summer drink. I used to buy several kinds of honey every year. For instance, poison oak and maple honey, blackberry honey, blueberry honey, wild flower honey and so on. They are like red wines with different flavors.

It is easy to make a honey drink. Just take 3 TBSP of honey, put in a 1 quart pitcher, add some cool water, stir it until it mixes evenly. Then add more water. Leave it in the refrigerator. Use more honey if you like it sweeter.









Another kind of drink I used to have in summer is almond/walnuts tea. It is not really a tea but more like almond/walnuts milk.
 





The ingredients are:
one cup almonds (or walnuts), 5 cups water, 5 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup melted butter.
 






Blend almond and water together in a blender. Skim off the chunks with a strainer and put back in the blender, several times until all the nuts are a fine powder. Use a sauce pan to heat milk and cream to a boil. Pour almond water in the boiling milk and keep boiling until they melt together well. Add sugar. Leave it till cool.
 









今天氣溫高達華氏 106 度，約等於攝氏 35 度，蜂蜜水和西瓜當然是夏天最好的消暑水果和飲料啦。這裡的西瓜絕對比不上台灣，不是太沙，就是太白。
 








不過有羊兒雞兒就不怕浪費食物了，切成小塊餵羊寶。







雖說山羊祖先來自沙漠，理當不怕炎夏高溫，但經人類世代飼養的奶山羊，就是和野生的 Kiko 不同。








Kiko 毫不在乎，照樣在草坡上吃草，我們只要留意隨時添滿水桶裡的涼水即可，瑪琪塔和糖糖就不同了，一直喘氣，尤其瑪琪塔，自小被娘家媽媽去掉能幫助調節體溫的頭角，一到天氣太冷或太熱，她就受罪了，我只好親自端一盆涼水餵它喝。才早上 10 點左右，就都躲到陰涼處，直到晚上六七點才會露臉了。

藍莓、野黑莓、毒橡木、野花蜂蜜，是當地的名產之一，每年都買四五加崙，分裝小瓶，分送有氣喘或注重養生的親友。

蜂蜜水很簡單。用一個大玻璃瓶，將 3 大湯匙的蜂蜜，與一點涼水拌勻，再把瓶子加滿冷水即可。

杏仁茶(或核桃茶)，夏天喝也很營養。

杏仁 (或核桃) 與液體的比例是 1:10。換句話說，如果你用一杯的杏仁，就要用 10 杯的液體 (五杯牛奶，五杯水) 去處理。因此，這裡先用一杯的杏仁和五杯的水，倒入果汁機打碎，每打一分鐘停一下，再開開關打一分鐘，一次不要打太久，機器容易損壞。可以分批打，打好後，用篩網加紗布過濾，把不夠細的杏仁放回果汁機重打，直到成為很細的粉末。

另外用一個鍋子，煮五杯的牛奶，煮滾後把剛才打好的杏仁水倒入，繼續煮，再滾後加一杯溶化的鮮奶油和半杯糖 (甜度視個人口味增減)，若覺得杏仁味道不夠濃，則可加一滴杏仁露 (若喜歡天然健康的，則可省)。趁熱與油條一起食用，或像我一樣直接當奶喝，放冰箱冰過亦可。