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Indian homes are known for their warm hospitality and the Indian
homemaker takes pride in her cooking abilities in bringing out
elaborate delicious dishes and serves it with love to her family
and friends. Go to any Indian home and you will be welcomed with
a cup of warm tea or chai (Hindi) as known to the world
accompanied with some homemade snacks like samosas,kebabs,pakodas ,bajjis ,muffins or cookies.Recently there has
been some amazing scientific research in this revitalizing
beverage revealing how the powerful antioxidant phytonutrients
in tea(chai), called flavonoids, help defend the body against
physical ailments and highlighting its benefits by including it
in our daily diet.
In India, there are different types of tea leaves, depending on
the region they are grown like, Darjeeling Tea ,Assam Tea or
Nilgiri Tea. You will find that in most homes,Brooke Bond Red
label (Assam Variety) or Taj Mahal Brand, which gives tea its
color, and Darjeeling Green Label, which is aromatic & full of
flavour ,are used to prepare chai or a blend of both are used to
prepare Masala Chai.Generally Brooke Bond is the preferred tea
powder to prepare Masala Chai Tea as it has a stronger flavour
and goes well with the masala spice.You can use tea bags instead
of loose tea powder.
Here's how to prepare a wonderful cup of plain simple chai or
Indian tea
Ingredients:
1 ˝ cups of cool water
2/3rd cup whole milk ( or you can use 2% or skim milk)
3-4 tsps sugar (it depends on your choice)
3 heaped tsps of loose black tea powder (any brand of your
choice)
Add water to a stainless steel vessel and bring to a boil. Add
the milk and sugar and bring it to boil again and simmer. Add
the tea powder and once the mixture rises to the brim remove
from heat immediately and turn off heat.Let it sit for 2 mts.
Now use a fine mesh tea strainer to strain the tea.This serves 2
cups of simple plain chat.
If you are using skimmed milk or 1%, decrease the amount of
water and use more milk.You can use whole spice instead of the
pre-ground spice mix for more potency of the whole spice.
Preparing chai tea is an art and I grew up watching my mom
preparing tea and learnt how to make Masala Chai from my
her.Each home has its own spice blend to make Masala Chai.We
make our spice mix or masala chai spice mix by coarsely crushing
the whole spices (green cardamoms, black pepper, ginger,cloves,
cinnamon).Here's how you perpare Masala Chai:
Ingredients:
1 ˝ cups water
2/3rd cup whole milk
3-4 tsp. sugar (or to taste)
3 teaspoons any loose black tea or 4 single tea bags
1/4th teaspoon Masala Tea mixture (Pound 1 cinnamon stick (1"
inches), 2 green cardamom pods ,2 black peppercorns ,1 clove,1/2
tsp ginger powder)
Add water to a stainless steel vessel and bring to a boil. Add
the masala tea spice mixture. Let it boil for a minute.Now add
milk and sugar and bring to boil again and simmer. Add the tea
powder or tea bags. Once the mixture rises to the brim remove
from heat immediately and turn off heat.Let it sit for 2 mts.
Use a tea strainer and strain the tea into two cups and serve
hot.
Note: You can play with spices to suit your taste and instead of
the Masala Chai mixture you can add a pinch of cardamom powder
or ginger pwd or fresh ginger.Whenever we were down with the
cold blues my mother would add ginger and black peppercorns to
the tea instead of the usual masala mix.You can read more about
how to fight cold with effective home remedies like ginger tea,
herbs and spices here.
About the author:
Sailaja Gudivada is a herbalist,an avid foodie and an
enthusiastic cook.She highlights how to cook curry,Indian
recipes, ayurvedic cooking and nutritive value of herbs & spices
of India from her kitchen at http://indiacuisine.blogspot.com
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