Rich cardamom chai tea ~ Elaichi Chai

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Wish all my readers a very happy and joyous new year. Hope you all had a good start to the year. Sorry I haven't been very active in this space for the last few months. Every time I make something new that I love, I keep thinking I should blog about it, but finding the time to take pictures can get difficult and I end up putting off the post for a little more time. One of my new year resolutions is to post more often in this space *** keeping my fingers crossed ***

Moving on, in keeping with the tradition of this space, I am kicking things off this year with this rich cardamom chai tea.  This tea has a rich, fragrant, slightly sweet flavor and taste. It makes for a nice finish to an Indian themed lunch when entertaining guests or when you want to indulge a little.

Click here for a printable view of this recipe 

Ingredients and Method to make cardamom flavored Chai tea.

1 and 1/2 cups whole milk (doodh)

1/2 cup water (see notes ) 

2 tsp sugar (shakkar) (see notes) 

2 slightly heaped tsp of good quality loose tea leaves ( chai patta )

5 cardamoms ( Elaichi ) 

Place milk and water in a medium sized pan and place on medium heat. Add sugar and coarsely crushed cardamom seeds and stir a few times. 

When the milk is close to a boil, lower heat and add tea leaves and stir a few times. Allow this mixture to simmer for a scant 20 to 30 seconds and remove from heat. Do not boil the tea for too long as it will leave a bitter taste. Strain and pour in serving mugs.  Serve hot.

This quantity serves approx 2 

Notes 

When using whole milk, add water to dilute the milk slightly, if you are using skim milk like 2 % just use 2 cups of milk in the above recipe.

This tea tastes a little sweet so when adding sugar make sure not to add too much if you do not want to end up with a cloyingly sweet beverage.

 If you are looking for more chai or other hot beverages, here are a few more

Masala chai ~ Spicy chai tea latte

Fennel flavored chai tea ~ Chai with saunf

Lemongrass chai tea

Homemade hot chocolate mix

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Masala Chai / Spicy Chai Tea Latte

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Chai tea is such an integral part of our lives, that when I have to go without tea for a day, the day itself feels strange and somewhat incomplete. When I first started out making tea, I used to stick to the basic version without any spices or flavorings. I still make that version occasionally, but most days my tea has some kind of additional flavor. Either ginger, or ginger + cardamom or ginger with some other spices, etc :)

 

Usually how I make my tea is also determined by the ingredients I have on hand, if I can get my hands on some lemongrass than this version with lemongrass is my preference. If I have some of this spice powder on hand than this spiced version of chai is my preference. When the weather gets cold I love to have this spicy fennel pepper tea.

For really cold weather, in addition to making the fennel tea that I mentioned above, I also love to make masala chai.  This version does not require making any masala powder ahead of time, so its really quick to make. Just ginger and a few spices from the pantry and voila you have a wonderfully aromatic and delicious chai that is just the thing to perk you up on cold evenings :)

 

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Masala Chai
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/2 inch piece of ginger grated (adrak/inji)
1/4 tsp fennel seeds (saunf/ sombu)
1/4 tsp whole black pepper (kali miri/ milagu)
4 green cardamoms coarsely crushed (elaichi/ elakkai)
2 whole cloves ( lavang/kramb)
1 inch piece of cinnamon (dalchini/ pattai)
2 tsp sugar (or to taste)
2 1/2 tsp loose tea leaves

Heat water in a medium sized pan. Add ginger, fennel, pepper, cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon and allow to simmer for a few minutes. I usually keep it on simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes.
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In the meanwhile, heat milk on the stove top/ microwave. Add sugar and loose tea leaves and allow it to simmer for a scant 30 secs to 45 secs at most. Add milk to this mixture and allow to heat until it boils.

Switch off heat, remove, strain tea and pour into two cups. Serve immediately.

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