Chai lovers: You can now enjoy this spiced exotic treat in your own home. Rishi, sellers of organic tea, have launched an organic and Fair Trade Masala Chai tea concentrate.

Masala chai is made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs.

Chai is the generic word for tea in Hindi and Punjabi and many other languages around the world—English speakers use the word “tea” from the Chinese “te” (from a dialect spoken around Xiamen). If you ask for chai, you’re only asking for tea; so show your superior knowledge and ask for masala chai if you want spiced tea.

Rishi’s Masala Chai concentrate is all natural and microbrewed (brewing in micro-batches enables producers to adjust each batch according to the seasonal characteristics of the ingredients). You just add milk, then heat it or drink the tea cold over ice.

The concentration of fine spices in Rishi’s brew makes your mouth tingle and transports you to the Indian subcontinent (put on some appropriate tunes as you enjoy the masala chai).

There’s a bonus: Every purchase helps the Jane Goodall Institute including Roots & Shoots, a global, environmental and humanitarian program for young people from preschool to college.

Learn all about tea and find more of our favorite teas in our Gourmet Tea Section.

Dill is a natural with scrambled eggs and omelets (add cheese, especially feta). Add it to tuna, egg, potato and chicken salad. Toss it with cooked vegetables.

In a yogurt and cucumber salad, dill becomes the famous Greek dish, tzatziki.

As a garnish, snip fresh dill onto just about anything. Add it to hot dishes like soup just before serving.

Put a sprig in a martini or a Bloody Mary.

And it’s a beautiful pairing with lamb and poultry.

Dill originated in Eastern Europe and grew wild in the Mediterranean basin and in West Asia. Sprigs of dill were found in the tomb of Amenhotep II and in Roman ruins in Great Britain. The Talmud required that tithes be paid on dill.

Dill. Photo courtesy BaldorFood.com.

[1] A refreshing watermelon and strawberry salad with feta, goat cheese, or bocconcini/mozzarella balls (photo © Good Eggs).

[2] Yellow watermelon is a special treat (photo © DP Seeds).

[3] Greek feta is the best: no overly salty like others (photo courtesy Murray’s Cheese).

[4] There are more than 19 types of basil you can grow. Here’s more about them (photo © Epic Gardening).

[5] You can stack your salad, like this Watermelon Caprese. Here’s the recipe (photo © Mozzarella Company).

Watermelon is the juiciest of melons, with a very appropriate name given that the fruit contains about 92% water by weight. Mankind has been enjoying watermelon for a long time.

Originally, in Africa, the melons were carried as canteens, a providing watermelon water to the thirsty. The melons have been cultivated in the Nile Delta since the second millennium B.C.E.

Watermelon is a good source of vitamin C, beta carotene and lycopene (the latter in the red-fleshed variety only). But first and foremost, it’s delicious.

Beyond mixed fruit salads, Martinis, smoothies, sorbet, on the grill, and much more, today we suggest a great summer recipe: watermelon salad with feta, goat, or mozzarella, plus its perfect herb partner, basil.

You can eat it as a fruit-and-cheese salad, or add greens of choice.

Below:

> Watermelon salad ingredients.

> More watermelon salad recipes.

> Summer basil types.

More watermelon salad recipes.
Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> 20 more watermelon recipes: drinks, breakfast, lunch, sides, dessert.

> The history of watermelon.

> The history of feta cheese.

> The history of salad.

> The year’s 40 salad holidays.

Watermelon is wonderfully refreshing in this Watermelon Salad with Thai Basil & Feta. Just because it’s called a “salad” doesn’t mean it has lettuce—or even a recognizable vegetable. Other greens, such as parsley or basil can turn mixtures of ingredients into salads.
 
 
RECIPE: Watermelon & Feta Salad With Basil

Ingredients: Mix & Match

 
Preparation

1. SELECT ingredients, place in a bowl and toss lightly.
 

[4] Watermelon salad with bocconcini, mozzarella balls (photo courtesy Murray’s Cheese).
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*Substitute fresh lime juice for the vinegar, or use a citrus-infused vinegar or olive oil (blood orange, lemon, lime, etc.) If you have chile-infused oil, you can use that too, ideally half-and-half with non-flavored oil.
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MORE WATERMELON SALAD RECIPES

 
 
SUMMER BASIL TYPES

Beyond what you find in the supermarket—the herb called sweet basil—there are many different basil varieties, each with distinct aromas and flavors. We love the conventional basil, but in the summer months, we head to the nearest farmers market to pick up some special varieties.

If you live in a temperate climate, you may only see these in the summer months. If you have a garden, plant your own!

 
There are many more basil cultivars.
 
 
 

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Even when they’re not a stated recipe ingredient, chives add color and subtle onion favor to just about any dish: eggs in the morning, salads and soups at lunch and vegetables, poultry, fish, and compound butter at dinner (see a recipe for chive butter).

A sprinkling of tiny snipped chives adds a festive garnish dusting to any plate, and in their “long form,” they can tie asparagus or green beans in bundles, make graceful “X” designs over steaks, chops, fish and poultry. Combine chives with roasted red or yellow peppers or a slice of red tomato to make a tasty color statement. Halve red and yellow grape tomatoes in a vinaigrette with snipped chives for a delicious and low-calorie topping or condiment.

If your pot of chives flowers, consider that a bonus and use them immediately as a glorious garnish.

• Try this recipe for Spice-Seared Tofu with Avocado, Beets & Cucumbers. The sauce is an avocado purée with chives.

Chives in flower. Photo by Bura | SXC.

Fish and rhubarb? Absolutely! Photo
courtesy McCormick.

• Ginger is a wonderfully pungent spice with a long history of cultivation. In China, where the plant originated, as well as in other Asian countries, the spice is used in a multitude of both savory and sweet dishes, is eaten raw or pickled and is made into candy. In the U.S., ginger is especially associated with holiday baking, thanks to the western tradition of making gingerbread cookies at Christmas. Crystallized ginger is another favorite baking item—as well as a candy. Ginger makes a soothing tea (by itself, with boiling water, or by adding raw slices to your favorite tea). Ginger is high in antioxidants, and as such, is one of the Seven Super Spices.
• Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, not a fruit. The giveaway might be that it looks like red celery stalks with cabbage-like leafy tops (some can be dark green like spinach or kale). By the time it gets to market, the leaves have been cut off, and we only see the red stalks. (Another giveaway: fruits carry their seeds inside; vegetable seeds scatter in the wind. You see seeds in an apple, avocado, cucumber and tomato, but not in broccoli, carrots or lettuce. Lacking sweetness doesn’t make it a fruit.)