BVC Eats: Golden paste for golden tea

Strictly speaking golden tea is not a beverage, but medicine. The spices are warming and comforting, the turmeric reduces inflammation, the coconut fat aids digestion, and the honey helps it all go down. Mix a couple of tablespoons of this with hot milk or hot milky tea when you’re feeling cold, sick, sad, or all three.

½ cup turmeric powder
1 can of high-fat coconut milk
1 ½ teaspoons fresh-ground black pepper
3 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon powdered ground ginger
pinch of ground cayenne

In a heavy pot, cook the coconut milk, turmeric, and black pepper until it forms a paste, stirring and cooking for 7-10 minutes. It will get mighty stiff. Remove from heat and beat in the honey, cinnamon, allspice, vanilla, ginger, and cayenne.

Keeps refrigerated in a tightly covered jar up to four months. This amount fits nicely into a clean Talenti ice cream jar.

When I want to get fancy, I add this to my favorite tea, which is a combination of Celestial Seasonings Roastaroma tea, dried licorice root tea, and 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream. When I feel sorry for myself, I do all that, and add a spoonful of cocoa powder. When I’m feeling really go-to-hell, I do all that, plus I add two jiggers of Irish whisky. At this point I feel like biting a tiger and you can stand a spoon up in the cup.