G'day. If you're new here, and you are interested in the Melbourne food and drink scene you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or the email newsletter below. Thanks for visiting and enjoy eating and drinking in Melbourne. Cheers.
Sometimes you just need something to calm you down… when you’ve become hot under the collar over teabags. When two interviewees postponed today. As a matter a fact, I’m hot under the collar now.
So it was that I though I had to buy chai, that calming hippy dippy Indian spiced tea.
Three local supermarkets later and I had none and was too bothered to drive or ride across town to buy it.
The best selection was at the local St Kilda IGA supermarket. There were at least half a dozen varieties, but all in the teabag.
Frustrated, I return home, without even a bar of chocolate.
Damn it! Why can’t I make my own. And I remember chef Barry Vera’s series Feast India, where he made masala chai.
Ingredients
2 cinnamon sticks
9 cloves
7 black peppercorns (or red or white of Australian native)
9 green cardamoms
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 knob of ginger (officially it’s meant to be dried but it is better this way)
Ground nutmeg, allspice or whatever you fancy
Dry roast everything apart from the ginger and the ground ingredients. Takes 3-4 minutes. Discover the lid of the cheap coffee grinder is missing. Bin it and use the pestle and mortar instead. Discover no dried ginger. Put a couple of teaspoons of spice mixture in teapot in compensation for not using tea with it and add shavings of fresh ginger. Add hot water.
Mix with one-third milk, crate in palm sugar and microwave for one minute (yes, I have a modest one hidden away in the laundry).
Chant hommm…
In his enlightened state I decide I should search for some more recipes. Movable Type guru Elise at Simply Recipes has a variation with star anise (great idea), Allspice and broadleaf black tea (maybe next time). Others, such as the Cardomom Addict have similar recipes. Others use bay leaves and other herbs. I’m personally tempted to use chilli.
There are other Ayurvedic recipes blending various Ayurvedic herbs for different people types but I’m too chilled to find them.
Has anybody else got any home made chai tips?
Food fascist
1. Fresh ginger is best
2. Continue to rail against teabags
3. Don’t forget the fucking chocolate bar next time (current desire Green & Black’s Maya Gold even if it is owned by Cadbury’s now).
Popularity: 28% [?]
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I was devastated when G&B sold out to the big guys. My addiction is the dark peppermint. However as Mayan Gold is the only one in the range that has continued to be fair trade, you can still feel virtuous.
Never being a (black) tea drinker, I have avoided chai. I make my own spiced tea in winter - a few slices of orange, lots of fresh ginger, some star anise, cinnamon bark, cardamon (as is, not roasted). Steep for 10 minutes and drink. Very yum. But mulled wine is better!
I actually made mine without any tea and I reckon it was better for it. Of course, in this weather Chai wine will be next. We’ll just have to find new chocolate eating grounds.
You can of course get those little boxes of Chai Masala by Everest from your local Indian grocery. I keep meaning to grind my own chai but never get around to it.
Sadly there was nowhere local that sold them so rather than a 15km round trip it took five minutes to gring. You should try it as the flavours are much fresher. To the kettle.
Leave a Comment