Tea Recipes

Try chai at several Indian restaurants first to get a feel for your taste preferences, then try making chai from scratch--it's fun, fragrant, makes your kitchen smell great and is immensely satisfying. Once you try it, you'll want it again.

Jan Routh -Recipe Editor

For maximum flavor Masala Chai should be fresh and very hot, slurped not sipped.

J agadisha

Freshness of spices is paramount for the best flavor. We frequently buy very small quantities of the spices that we like at the local health food store or an Asian-Indian grocery we go to. I would not recommend using any spice that is over three months old.


... the step of boiling the whole concoction until it foams up at least once is very important. Whole milk, or half & half, is also necessary to get that good film on top.

Lisa Tsering

You must use black tea which has the strength to hold its own with the spices--green tea won't do. Also, interestingly, chai must be sweetened to bring out the flavor of the spices - chai is not very good unless it is sweetened. We use ordinary granulated sugar so no extra flavors are added.


By the way, skim milk works best in steamers if you want foam. If you don't want cappuccino foam, 2 percent or whole milk is better.

Joanna Daneman

... sweetened canned condensed milk combines rich milk and sugar.

http://www.odie.org/chai/com/com82295.html



http://www.odie.org/chai/com7995.html

Judith Favia

When you are feeling down and dull or cold and sick, a cup of strong Chai brewed with a small piece of Ginger, some pepper and some fresh mint leaves can give you an electric boost.

Mustafa Fakhruddin P.

Chai is also somewhat medicinal. Our herbal books explain that ginger and cardamom aid natural digestion, cloves, pepper and cinnamon are warming, and we feel a sense of well being after drinking chai. Indian foods seldom bother my husband's delicate stomach.


To make your own chai masala grind all the ingredients in a spice grinder until fine. Remove into a glass bottle & store in cool, dark place. This blend stays fresh for about 6 months.

Umesh Reghuram

The best tasting tea is got by mixing the so called dust tea and leaf tea. Dust adds strength, while leaf gives a distinctive flavor to it. And remember tea should never be boiled, it should be brewed.

Krishnan Seetharaman

Various other spices/seasonings that I've found in chai recipes that can be used to make chai: licorice root, fennel seed, allspice berries, bay leaves, nutmeg, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, orange peel, coriander, mint leaves, vanilla bean, lemon, and the list goes on...

Romantic Chai:

Recipe:

http://www.odie.org/chai/rec/rec107.html

http://www.odie.org/chai/rec/idea305.html




Put 2 ilaichis in water.Put one thin slice of gingerLet it boil.Add Taj Mahal teaAdd milk (or micorwave it separately)

Timings:

1) When it is raining. Place yourself at place from where you can see shafts of water connecting sky with earth.

Play the song or sing if you can: "Rim-jhim gire sawan..."

2) When you're snowbound. Light the fire (in fireplace) Once again watch the earth getting dressed in fresh cotton.

Enjoy

BTW: I'd marry someone who loves tea !!

TITLE: My Favorite Chai Recipe

FROM: Linda Sherman

DATE: 12/22/96

EMAIL: [email protected]

Try this:

Boil 5 minutes, then steep 10 minutes:

1 Tbsp fennel or anise seed6 green cardamom pods12 cloves1 cinnamon stick1/4" ginger root, sliced thin1/4 tsp black pepper corns2 bay leaves7 Cups water

Add, bring to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes:

2 Tbsp Darjeeling tea

Add:

6 Tbsp honey or brown sugar1 Cup milk

Yum!

TITLE: Masala spice Chai

FROM: Kayshav

DATE: 10/29/90


SPICY INDIAN TEA(Masala=spice Chai=tea)

Ingredients:

3 - 4 Tea Spoons/4 Teabags of good tea (Darjeeling/Orange Pekoke/Lipton)A chunk of dry ginger (or fresh ginger if dry isn't handy)3 - 4 cardmom pods, crushed (See Note below)3 ClovesSmall piece of cinnamonA Tsp of SOANP(I don't know the name. Can be found at Indian grocers. Also indian restaurants keep this for your pleasure after dinner. Looks like cummin seeds)1 or 2 whole black peppers (optional)Sugar to tasteMilk (atleast Vitamin D, low fat won't do)

Brewing:

Bring 2 cups of water to boil (microwave or otherwise). Add all the ingredients and boil again for about 15 seconds. Let stand for a minute.

Warm milk in a pot.

Filter tea into cups.

Add milk and sugar. That's IT.

If you don't like to spend much time, mix all the spices and coarsley grind them. Boil water and add tea and a tsp of this ground spices. Rest is as above.

Note: Since cardmom is expensive, I peel them and add the skin to my stock of tea leaves. This gives a distinct aroma. Of course you boil the skin with water.

ENJOY

TITLE: Microwaved Indian Chai

FROM: Ibarahim Al-Rashdan

DATE: 8/18/95


The secret of making a good cup of Indian Chai from a regular tee bag:

Crush two peices of cardamon, add to it little safrone (optional) add the cushed mixture to the tee in the tee-bag after opening restaple the tee-bag.

Put your cup of water in the microwave for two minutes (until the water boils, then take the cup out add the tee bag immediately, move the tee-bag until the required strength.

Then add your evaporated milk to required taste.

Your instant Indian chai is ready

Enjoy it, please let me know if you have better way to improve the microwaved Indian chai.

Ibrahim.

TITLE: Simple Indian Milk Tea

FROM: Padma Talasila

DATE: 5/10/94


It's very simple.

For one cup tea :

tea bags : 2water: 2/3 cupsmilk: 1/2 cupmasala: 1 cardomom or small piece of crushed gingersugar: 1 teaspoon

Put tea bags in water and let it boil vigorously for 5 minutes.Pour in milk and add sugar. Let it boil until the milk rises.Add crushed cardomom pods or ginger.Serve hot.

If you use ginger, take it out of tea before drinking. You can also use teapowder in which case, you need to filter tea as you would do for coffee.

For better taste, tea should be boiled for long time. The more you boil, the more creamy it will be.

I find that tea powder is better than tea bags. The amount of sugar can be varied with your taste.

TITLE: Chai cookies!

FROM: Debby Lovell

DATE: 6/21/96


hi!

I ran across a recipe in a vegetarian forum and modified it. Tried it yesterday and it is truly yummy!

CHAI MERINGUES

3 egg whites1 c. granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cardamom1/4 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer at low until they get foamy, then at high speed until they form stiff peaks. You should be able to turn the bowl sideways without the egg whites moving. Your bowl and beaters must be grease-free for this to work properly! Gradually add sugar a little at a time while beating at high speed. When all the sugar has been beaten in, the egg whites will look shiny. Add the spices and beat in as briefly as possible. Drop the mixture into small mounds on baking sheets that have been covered with foil or parchment paper. Bake at 250 degree Farenheit for 90 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues to sit. Don't open the door! Let them sit overnight (preferable) or at least until the oven cools. Remove them from the foil and store in an airtight container.

You can change the spices around. These three are mainly what I use in my chai. Another idea was to throw some instant tea in with the spices to give it a real chai flavor, but we don't have instant tea in my house! ; )

Enjoy!

TITLE: Perfect chai to sip in peace

FROM: Krishnan Seetharaman

DATE: 9/28/92

EMAIL:

Ha, my favourite drink, and topic! How to make the perfect chai and then sip (note sip, not drink!) it in peace.

The Perfect Chai:

- For each cup, of chai u need about 4/5 th cup of water, u are going to lose some water in evaporation etc.. and u are going to add milk for the rest. This measure can be changed to suit your proportion of tea+milk.

- Boil the water and then pour it into the tea pot. Now ad the tea leaves, I use about 1 teaspoon/cup. - Now close the pot, and if u want to preserve the heat, close it with a sort of insulating cap u get for the pot.

- Now heat some milk separately.

- The cups can be pre-heated by rinsing with hot water.

- After the tea has brewed for 7-10 minutes, pour the tea into the cups through a strainer, add milk + sugar.

- Enjoy.

Modified Chai (doesn't need pot etc..)

- Boil the water in a regular vessel

- Turn off the gas, add chai and close the vessel with a plate so that the steam stays in

- Other steps are same

Ginger+Ilaichi chai :

- Cut some pieces of ginger, crush them with a spoon. Add it to the water when u boil it. U can also add Ilaichi (cardamom ) to add flavor.

U can try various types of tea. The best is got by mixing the so called dust tea and leaf tea. Dust adds strength, while leaf gives a distinctive flavor to it. Try Darjeeling tea, its great.

And remember tea should never be boiled, it should be brewed.

TITLE: Best Traditional Indian Tea---FROM SCRATCH

FROM: vijay

DATE: 11/22/97


I read the Indian Tea recipes on your Chai Recipes page. Quite interestingly, most of these recipes are for "busy" people. Even from the well known cook expert.

I do not want to boast, but try the following traditional recipe, which is used by hundreds of thousands of Indian housewives, who have lots of time to prepare tea. Remember, good food, especially indian food, is never cooked in hurry. Try it, and if you do not like it, do not post on the net.

First, all of these ingredient should be fresh (or as fresh as possible). You can get all these spices in Indian-american grocerry stores.

1. Brooke Bond Red label, Mamri, or Tajmahal Black tea [DO NOT USE GREEN OR LEAF TEA, IT WILL RUIN THE TASTE].

2. Cloves, cinamon stick (good quality), fresh ginger (powder or prepackaged cannot be substituted), whole black pepper, cardomon pods.

3. Optional items: White khas-khas (Indian name of a spice, which is round dried seeds); and soanph (green dried, not roasted)

4. Half-and-Half milk. No other milk can be substituted (if you really want the taste of real chai)

PREPARATION METHOD FOR 1-CUP CHAI:

In a clean deep dish container, put 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup milk (Half-and-Half), 1 full teaspoon black tea and spices as follows.

1 pod cardomon2 pea size fresh ginger (mulched)1-2 big size whole black pepper1/8 to 1/6 cinnemon stick

On a hard piece of paper, crush all of them together. Immediately put this mix in dish with water and milk. Keep them on heater plate or gas range for about 15 minutes, keep stirring continuously. Add sugar to your taste. Drain on strainer and serve in a cup.

The idea is to burn water from the tea while mixing the spices into the leftover tea. You may have to experiment with the quantity of water and milk to the final quantity of tea. In my experience, 2:1 ratio works better, i.e. I use 2 cups of (milk + water) for making one cup of chai. 1 cup of water is burned in the process. This provides smooth taste of chai.

Please note: Chai making can be fun, but you cannot cut time. I have always made the best chais and never thought of time. Belive me it is time well spent.

Send me your comments. Vijay

TITLE: Two Ways to Make Indian Tea

FROM: Mahesh

DATE: 09/28/92


There are 2 methods you could make tea the Indian way.

1) Boil water - nothing is added till the water is boiling. Stop the heat source. Add tea leaves and spices (I will give you a list of spices at the end). The tea and spices are usually added to the boiling water in a Bone China tea decanter. The decanter is then covered with a "tea cozy" for around 3-5 minutes (to allow the tea to brew). Filter into tea cups, add milk and sweetener to taste. This is considered the sophisticated method and is used for the more exotic tea leaves. Usually not many spices are added in this type of preparation. By exotic I would say - Darjeeling varieties.

2) Boil a mixture of water, milk (as much as needed for the entire serving). This mixture is then brought to a boil. Once that happens, add the tea leaves and spices and continue to heat - please note that this is the important difference in the two methods - the "hotch potch" is boiled for about 5 minutes and you would have to keep stirring the mixture (other wise it would boil over). Strain the tea directly into tea cups. This method is used for the not so exotic variety of tea leaves - Basically, you depend on the spices to give you the flavor.

Spices

There are a lot of varieties which are used. Combinations are made usually depending on the taste the individual likes.

Ginger (as you had mentioned)CardamomClovesWhole white pepper (this might not be available freely - check Asian-Indian grocer stores)

I can give you certain other names - but I know only the Indian names. Don't know the English equivalent. If you are interested you could email me for an extended list. Most of these would be available at Indian (Asian Indian) stores. I am not giving the list right now - by the time you get back to me I'll try and find the English name equivalents.

All these are part of mix-nmatch variety. All of them need to be ground before added to the tea preparation. A coarse grind should be enough. You need not add all, then again you could - depends whether you like what you gat as end product. Trial would help you out.

My favorite though is a mixture of ginger and Cardamom added to tea.

For this I add about piece of ginger (size of a grape) cut in small pieces and 2-3 pods of Cardamom (grind it coarsely - or just powder it with something heavy). This is added for a 2 cup serving.

Tea Recipes

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