Rice Tea
I'm currently in the middle of an elimination diet which means that for the next two weeks I'm eating and drinking nothing but rice and water (more on that in a future post, I'm keeping a journal). It's been just over a week since I started the diet, and one thing I really miss is a hot drink in the morning. While hot water is way more satisfactory then you would ever guess, it still doesn't cut it. Last weekend a few people mentioned rice tea so I decided to do some research.
What most people refer to as rice tea is a Japanese drink called Genmaicha which is a mixture of green tea and roasted rice. The rice was added as a filler because it was cheaper then tea. Originally it was drunk by the poor but more recently it has become a popular drink on it's own. Sadly green tea isn't on the approved list.
There are also two Korean recipes for rice tea. Sungnyung is made by boiling the left over scorched rice from the bottom of the cooking pot. Hyeonmi cha is made by roasting rice in a pot and then boiling water on top of it. Technically these are both actually tisanes since they aren't made with tea.
Though the author calls it sung nyung I found what appears to be a less traditional recipe for Hyeonmi cha. The nice thing about this recipe is that you roast the rice first and then steep it in your cup. Now I can take my roasted rice to work for my morning cuppa!
I've just finished my first cup, and it's really nice (yum!). The water doesn't change colour but gets a rich nutty flavour and as it steeps longer it gets a sweetness to it. A very pleasant addition to my rather boring diet at the moment!