by Glynnis | Mar 1, 2018 | Aromanutrition, Ayurveda, Spicelove, Spices
Full Moon Ode to Clove
known as “the strong-scented”
Katukaphalah or Lavanga
Your Sanskrit names vibrate with sensual power
and good Kapha medicine,
and aromatic stories well-travelled.
From Maluku Islands within the Banda Sea,
you have come.
Clove Bud you numb my pain,
making me forget, with your sweet spicy botanica
yet uniquely pungent.
The dried flower bud,
of the tropical evergreen.
Syzygium Aromaticum
My love for you is eternal,
and true is yours for me.
Ahhhhhh yes another full moon, with two occurring in this month of March. It seems like we are blessed with Blue Moons galore in this power 2018 year. As I looked in my spice apothecary this morning to adorn my rye oats with something spicy for the almost-Spring damp day, the clove jar jumped off the shelf. Usually cloves are my third, fourth or fifth choice to go in my chai or maybe in something baked. I’ve chewed on a bud for relieving toothache.
But today I gave it a closer look, you know how you cannot ignore the plea of something to be acknowledged when it makes you pay attention. And so a new love affair with an old spice is born as I put the C in LOVE for this full moon.
I BIT IN WITH CURIOSITY TO A NEW RELATIONSHIP
Giving this familiar spice another chance to show its character made me feel grateful. All those things that are ‘just there’ that we take for granted, and yet they are so mystical, generous, exotic even, when we dig deeper and smell closer and taste with more attention. Always striving for the new, the glamorous, the exciting, sometimes we overlook those solid things and their secrets to happiness.
WHAT I REDISCOVERED
Clove is a visionary spice. Its strong smell and intense flavour literally numbs the mucous membranes, it is an analgesic, quieting pain so one can focus on higher things (like feeling good). I sprinkled some on my rye oats along with ginger and turmeric and blueberries and cashews with a splash of almond milk. Ohmigosh I could not believe the fireworks that went off in my brain. This is Kapha time of year and the spicy digestive activity started right in my mouth, allowing for easy digestion. Pulling away all things sticky that I wanted unstuck. It was delicious all this good spice medicine at breakfast time. And then I bit into a whole clove bud. I closed my eyes and chewed it. A world of flavours and sensations arose in me. I forgot the cliche’s of clove and saw this spice treasure in new light.
In addition to their unique, sweet and pungent aromatic flavor, cloves are revered for their potent medicinal properties. Studies have found that the compounds in cloves display multiple health benefits, including supporting liver health, helping stabilize blood sugar levels, as well as being antimicrobial and rich in antioxidants, and improving bone health. (Jaw-dropping!).
For sure I could go on with a long list of clinical benefits but those do not sing in the heart. In Ayurveda the wisest way to receive boons from the plant and spice medicines is to include them with reverence in moderation in your daily diet, perhaps even chanting their names as you invite them into your inner world.
HOW TO GET A DAILY DOSE
OF CLOVE MEDICINE FOR
GOOD HEALTH
• Sprinkle into your cereal, oats or atop scrambled eggs
• Adorn your eggs-and-avo toast
• Add to your chai
• Goes great in coffee!
• Make a spice blend with clove and sprinkle lavishly
• Add to your smoothie
• Drop one into your herbal tea
May you too discover new mysteries in old relationships for this full moon and all the cycles of your life.
With CLOVE and Fragrant Blessings,
Spice Mistress Glynnis xox
by Glynnis | Jan 30, 2018 | Spicelove
Hello beautiful soul
The celestial bodies are blessing us with an auspicious occasion in the early part of the year. This morning, Wednesday January 31, 2018 the first Super Blue Blood Moon and full Lunar eclipse since 1844 graced the sky. You may, like me find yourself in a heightened state of creative euphoria – nothing that unusual as the full moon tends to affect some people that way – but this feels extra-Cosmic and deeply spiritual. The words of George Harrison’s powerful song-prayer ‘Give me Love’ have been running through my mind and it feels like a healing nectar being poured sweetly over the whole universe.
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth.
Give me light
Give me life,
Keep me free from birth.
Give me hope.
Help me cope, with this heavy load.
Trying to touch and reach you with
Heart and soul.
Om mmmmmmmm.
Mmmm my Lord.
Please take hold of my hand,
that I might understand you.
Wont you please
Oh won’t you.
In the last few days I have listened to this song repeatedly (ummm a thousand times). It’s like chanting a never ending mantra and I’ve noticed it stirring up feelings of beauty, love, peace, and devotion and oh-so-mystically aligning with this lunar event of the Super Blue Blood Moon.
A so-called blood moon occurs during a lunar eclipse when the moon, in the Earth’s shadow, takes on a reddish tint due to sunlight reflected by the atmosphere. A blue moon is when there are two full moons in one month and when these events occur together it is quite rare and magical. Apart from my desire to go deeper into the ecstasy of prayer, chanting, and devotional practice I was inspired to draw a Cosmic comparison to a fun coincidence in the kitchen with some colour magic. It was no surprise that I saw the earthly expression of the blue-blood moon manifesting in my teacup when I poured myself a very special alchemical flower elixir that I had bought over the holidays at an amazing new tea shop in my hood.
This marvellous flower (Clitoria ternatea) has become a bit of a tea trend and for really good reason. Butterfly Pea-Flower makes a transformative cup of tea, going from a pale blue to Indigo to purple depending on the PH balance of what is added to it. The PH balance of the tea is sensitive to change and acts like a mood ring, changing colours according to that shift. Add limes, lemons or any other citrus-botanical and a myriad of warm colours change before your eyes. I made a concentrated ginger-honey-lime syrup and as I added this to the steeped tea it bloomed from a violet-indigo blue moon to a purple-red blood moon in seconds. Nature!
Tangy and sweet, the ginger lime syrup gave the otherwise earthy woodsy taste of the flower tea a delicious feisty zing. Not only fun and very light to sip on but also satisfying and full of antioxidant benefits equivalent to that of green tea.
Geez talk about satisfying the artist’s aromatic soul!
RECIPE FOR ONCE-IN-A BLUE-MOON-CHAI
2 inch sliced fresh ginger
1 TBSP Honey
Juice 1/2 fresh lime
2 TBSP dried Butterfly Pea flowers
3/4 cup water
2 cups boiling water
Add sliced ginger to 3/4 cup water in a small pot and bring to boil. Simmer half covered for 10 minutes to reduce liquid to 1/2 cup. Add honey and lime juice and stir until blended.
Steep pea flowers in 2 cups boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Pour into glass. Enjoy the blue colour and add the ginger lime syrup to tea. Watch the magic as it changes to a purply-red colour. Experiment with other botanicals such as hibiscus, fresh grapefruit, lemon or orange juice. Sip under a blue blood moon : )
Happy Celestial Magic Moon and Fragrant Blessings as always,
Glynnis xox
Your Spice Mistress
Some good places to buy Butterfly Pea Flower tea and other fun links.
Babylon Tea Co.
Blue Chai
South China Seas Vancouver
Wild Hibiscus Flower Co.
by Glynnis | Dec 10, 2017 | Aromanutrition, Ayurveda, Spices
You know those things you love and are attached to and have a hard time letting go of? Maybe because, well addiction or nostalgia or you just can’t imagine your life without it. Well I’m like that with chocolate. Every sworn abstinence just leads me back even stronger, pulls me closer like a crazy lover full of desire and ecstasy. And I like it. I love it. And I won’t stop because now I know I can have it as good medicine rather than guilty pleasure. Don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of pleasure, just without the guilt.
CACAO VS COCOA
Good chocolate makes all the difference. It’s certainly not like the Halloween candy bar stash that makes you high at night and very very low in the morning, or the processed hot cocoa with fake-o marshmallows on top that warms you up but leaves you wanting. So what exactly is ‘good chocolate’? Its raw and real, unprocessed, fair trade and organic.
The difference between cocoa and cacao is very simple. Cacao is the raw bean that has been fermented, cocoa is the processed cacao bean turned into powdered cocoa through heat. Cacao is raw and cocoa is what the bean is called after being heated and processed. So? The raw fermented cacao is FULL of antioxidants. Unbelievably 40 times higher than that of blueberries. Cocoa is roasted and has about 60% less antioxidant goodness, its basically been processed out.
Raw cacao is also choc-full (adorable pun intended!) of magnesium, in fact its the highest whole food source of magnesium which is a brain and heart super-food. Something I only recently found out is that raw cacao has a much higher and more bio-available (easier to digest and metabolize) calcium content than cow’s milk. Contrary to what we think we know about cacao is that it actually helps with weight loss, and stabilizing blood sugar. This makes it good for those with type 2 diabetes. It’s packed with coumarin (also found in cinnamon) and chromium which imbues it with these health-giving benefits.
The main reason we all eat this Theobroma ‘food of the Gods’ so passionately is that it makes us feel good. Cacao has an amino acid phenethylamine or PEA, the feel-good neurotransmitter responsible for that feeling of LOVE as it releases the pleasure-inducing endorphins. In Ayurveda cacao is an aphrodisiac or rasayana, boosting immunity by restoring the reproductive tissues and bringing SOMA or bliss to the mind and emotional body.
A DAILY DIET OF GUILT-FREE CACAO
So how best to get this good stuff into the daily diet and reduce cravings for the not-so-good stuff? Recently at Spice Lounge, an event I offer in Vancouver, we got to know the cacao bean a little more intimately and made a spice blend Gomasala where the star was cacao. This blend with a base of sesame seeds is for sprinkling lavishly as a finishing spice on avocado-toast, scrambled eggs, popcorn with ghee, soups, roasted veggies, chicken, fish…. really it adds nutritional enhancement and divine flavour to food of all kinds.
Included in our Spice Lounge was a cacao chai that can be enjoyed as a morning elixir or late afternoon drink to reduce sugar cravings. We had it in the evening and the group were all euphoric, there was a tangible mood of luscious love in the air. This cacao chai would make the most delicious holiday drink with whipped cream or frothed almond milk and perhaps a splash of ginger liqueur
CACAO SPICE MOON CHAI
Makes 8 cups.
This heavenly cacao chai is rich in antioxidants and digestive spice medicines. Cacao is the star ingredient of this chai and can be enjoyed any time of day as its tea base is the herbal but full bodied rooibos (red bush).
Rooibos is high in antioxidants and is anti-inflammatory and known to relieve stress and nervous tension. Along with the antioxidant, mind-relaxing and pleasure-inducing benefits of cacao this is a beverage for everyone during the cooler season and the busy holiday season.
INGREDIENTS
4 sticks Cinnamon
2 TBSP Cardamom pods
6 Cloves
1 tsp whole Black Peppercorns
1 tsp ground Nutmeg
2 TBSP Cacao nibs
3 TBSP Cacao powder
1 tsp dried Ginger
4 Rooibos teabags or 4 tsp loose Rooibos tea.
Honey to taste
METHOD
Pre-toast all the whole spices together in a skillet (this optional step releases the aromatic molecules).
Gently crack the spices in a mortar and pestle or grinder, chunky style.
In a medium sized pot add 10 cups of water with spices and slowly bring to a boil.
Add the rooibos tea. Simmer together on very low for at least an hour to infuse the spices.
Add the dried ginger and cacao powder (and nutmeg if you are using ground) and stir well. Allow to steep for another 15 minutes.
Turn off heat and allow to steep for at least another few hours. This gives a deeper, richer chai.
Strain into a big glass jar to store in refrigerator or pour into mugs ready to enjoy.
Add honey (I like it sweet and spicy so I add 1 heaped tsp per cup)
Top with optional whipped cream or frothed almond milk and a dusting of cinnamon or cayenne.
Enjoy your Cacao Spice Moon Chai and the soulful magic of this Winter Solstice season. I’d love to hear how you adorned and enjoyed your personal Cacao Chai!
YOUR SPICE ORACLE FOR THE WINTER SOLSTICE SEASON
Pulled by The Spice Mistress
With Love and Fragrant blessings as always,
The Spice Mistress
Glynnis xox
by Glynnis | Nov 9, 2017 | Ayurveda, Spicelove, Spices
Hello Beautiful Soul!
The last couple of months have been a mandala of madness. A stunning trip to Iceland, the launch of the first Spice Lounge, and my teaching schedule starting up again, along with some surfacing of stuff I imagined already resolved. And then there is the enduring thread of empathy with the suffering of others in the world. But the real madness has been in the mind. There have been days of digging into the terrifying darkness while simultaneously reaching with great hope for the light. It has been nourishing and painfully heartbreaking all at once while the to-do list looms as a provocative reminder that I will never get it done.
All around me I observe my close community experiencing this too. With years of embracing Ayurvedic self-care rituals, it is comforting to know that devotion to feeling good through these practices pays off. They soothe and help navigate us through dark moments. My go-to soothers (surprise!) are the spices and aromatic plant medicines. Grinding out resistance to change, embedded habits, or anger with a family issue really works! Try grinding down big chunks of dried orange peel or powdering whole star anise or tenacious juniper berries with your mortar and pestle. It’s a workout!
The Uplifting Perfume of Hope
By sticking with the process…poof…’suddenly’ you have a workable, edible, easy-to-digest ingredient for your spice blend. Easy to swallow. And divinely aromatic. On releasing the volatile aromatic molecules you have breathed in the good medicine. It’s alchemical. The same goes for working through a difficult problem or emotion. Process allows release of anger, doubt, pain, and stinky thoughts. It releases the volatile aromatic molecules of light and allows you to inhale the uplifting perfume of hope. What a relief to release our balled-up essence and then pray. In deep meditation and prayer we can take the goodies that have come up through process and transmute them into love in the hands of the Divine.
Spice Lounge attracts those who understand the benefit of community and have caught a whiff of the sweet nourishment of process. We grind, meld, blend, laugh, share stories, recipes, and feelings as the spices, seeds, and aromatic oils wave magic over our gathering. Together we create a phenomenal spice blend to use in the month ahead and most likely work out some serious sticky stuff in a delicious way. The spice oracles encourage us with food for thought and our journey home after feels lighter, inspired, and a lot less insane.
The Wise Counsel of an Enchanting Spice Blend
My inspiration for Spice Lounge came out of both the dark and the light. The medium of aromatic botanical wisdom propels me with great passion into the kitchen to witness the magnificence of the creative process. Perhaps I will whip up a batch of something wild to share with the tribe of seekers who love the wise counsel of an enchanting spice blend and the simple therapy of a sweet ‘n spicy chai.
I hope your process is bringing you that release and inspiration through kitchen magic, art, dance, music or words. Whatever your good medicine, stay with it and if you are in the hood, please join us for Spice Lounge. Cacao is the star ingredient for December’s aromatic spice blend.
Fragrant Blessings,
Glynnis
The Spice Mistress
XOX
by Glynnis | Aug 17, 2017 | Aromanutrition, Spicelove, Spices
DO YOU KNOW ANNATTO?
Cheeky earth-red seeds ripen
into becoming.
Bird-beaked in form, colour dangerous.
Why discover you now?
With so much prickly pain outside this primal pod.
Are you ready to share your secrets?
This Summer I became obsessed with Annatto seeds as I recalled a certain soup. Late Summer corn. Recipe by my best friend Myra Kornfeld in her first cookbook, “The Voluptuous Vegan”
It was sooooo VOLUPTUOUS.
Roasted corn with a sexy sofrito infused with the hue of this prehistoric-looking spice.
I made it again and again, the colours, flavours, and scent memories of friends gathered.
After I moved from New York and then Seattle, those feasts with best friends over the border became like rubies, precious and rare. Until one trip to the spice market where I rediscovered this jewel. Oh the happiness. Infusing oils, sauces, soups and ecstatic spice blends. I cannot even tell you how these beauties will make you feel.
When I step into my kitchen knowing they are there, I feel like a traveller, never lonely, free to go off on some adventure or another deep into my world of colours, aromas, and wild imaginings.
While playing with my new spice friends in a whole new way I created this tangy spice masala and I’m using it like crazy on my Late Summer corn on the cob with plenty ghee. Definitely a blend for adding to veggies like cauliflower and potatoes, as well as to various types of white fish. Its citrusy, slightly sweet and a little bit of spicy.
ANNATTO LEMON ZEST RUB
2 TBSP Annatto seeds
Zest of 2 medium lemons
3 TBSP Coriander seeds
1 TBSP Whole Black pepper
1 tsp salt
Toast the coriander and black pepper and grind to a rough consistency. Grind the annatto seeds until roughly powdered. Zest lemon skins. Add salt and meld all together.
Use as an aromatic rub directly on corn, tofu, poultry, fish, root veggies.I hope you enjoy making this rub, so easy and fresh and a really really great way to enjoy the Summers corn bounty!
NOTE: Annatto lends a deep crimson colour to dishes either as an infused oil, rub or marinade traditionally for meat and fish but is definitely a gorgeous rub. The seed’s rich pigment infuses oils and vinegars with its golden-red hue imparting not only colour but a subtle citrus flavour to foods. Kitchens around the world use annatto to add its yellow-red colour to foods. The peppery, citrusy and earthy flavour of annatto, best ground raw or infused whole into oils, enhances and pairs well with most spices especially coriander, lemon/orange zest, black pepper, cumin, ginger, and cocoa.
As an Ayurvedic spice benefit, annatto assists liver and kidney function and strengthens bone tissue.
MYTH, MAGIC, & SACRED MEDICINE
I love that this stunningly vibrant seed was originally used as a ceremonial pigment and that nearly all Mayan scriptures were written in its red-staining ink. The Mayans and Aztecs considered this juice sacred and revered it as a symbol for blood in their rituals. These early civilizations went on to use annatto in foods ranging from spicy stews to powerful ritual chocolate drinks. Due to its rich hue, annatto was also valued as a pigment for war paint and is still used for colour in cosmetics (mostly lipstick), food and fabric dye.
Known as an aphrodisiac for women, annatto is imbued with the fire element and provokes desire. Mmmmm I must say just cooking with this amazing spice makes me feel totally luscious. So satisfying. With all this and its many health benefits, I implore you my darlings to go find some and try it.
Love and Fragrant Blessings,
Glynnis, Your Spice Mistress xox
