Culinary Circle

By request of my first do not know in real life commenter (yea!) the chai recipe!

This recipe is from the cookbook "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni, highly recommended if you're in the market for an Indian cookbook, great korma and mataar paneer recipes.

Masala Chai

6 cups water
1 stick cinnamon, 3 inches long
6 whole green cardamon pods
4 whole cloves
12 black pepercorns(optional, I always use them)
6 heaping teaspoons of loose leaf tea or 9 tea bags

1. Bring water to a boil and add spices. Turn off heat and cover pan and let the spices soak for 10 minutes or longer(I usually do about 20.)

2. Add the tea leaves or bags and turn up the heat to boil again, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes( I like less strongly brewed tea so I usually do about 2 minutes.) Strain tea leaves and spices out(this sometimes gets tricky if you don't have enough large pots around, I usually end up straining into two large bowls or whatever is around and clean.)

3. Add milk and sugar to taste, the recipe recommends 1/3 cup milk and 12 tsp of sugar. What I usually do is just add the milk on a per cup basis just a splash until the color is right, probably ~2tbsp, and I use about 2-3 tsbps of sugar per mug(8oz). Remember that if it doesn't taste cinamonny enough that adding more sugar will bring out the flavor, don't be shy.

4. Enjoy! And now your house will smell all delicious for at least a few hours.