Spicy Indian Tea!

India is the second largest producer of tea to china. It’s interesting to note that even though they have the largest amount of tea available in their country, they still ad lots of spices to their beverage!

- Helen Saberi writes how this spicy tea full of Indian flavours can relieve you from  ‘a Headache, Gravel, and Griping in the Guts’.

There were various recipes available for masala chai, so I decided to put it up for a test…. I am going to compare Helen Saberi’s recipe that has been inspired by Rabbi Blue’s recipe, a BBC recipe for masala chai and Beatrice Vieyra’s Cutchee tea

Recipe 1:

 Helen Saberi adapted this recipe from Rabbi Blue’s ‘Matchmaker’s Tea’ in his book Kitchen Blues. Make a pot of black Indian tea for two to four people. Into each cup put a 1 inch cinnamon stick, a slice of lemon, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 teaspoons sugar and 3 tablespoons rum and pour over the hot tea. For a cooling drink in summer add ice cubes before pouring ‘

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Recipe 2:

BBC’s recipe Ingredients

 350ml/12fl oz. water

100ml/3½fl oz. milk

4 black peppercorns

10 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed

Good pinch green fennel seeds

Small piece cinnamon stick

1 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and roughly sliced

1 tea bag

Sugar, to taste

Salt, to taste (optional)

Preparation method

Heat the water and milk in a pan with the spices and ginger until it comes to the boil. Turn the heat down and cook over a low to medium heat for 15 minutes. Be careful as the milk can easily rise and boil over.

Once the volume is reduced to a large cupful, add the teabag and let it brew for one minute, or longer if you like strong tea.

To serve, strain into a cup and add sugar or salt if using, to taste.

And finally…

Recipe 3:

Another recipe for spiced tea can be found in the book Culinary Art Sparklets; the author Beatrice Vieyra introduces a cutchee Tea that includes milk, sugar, almonds, sago cardamom pods and rosewater! (Mentioned in the book Tea: A global history)

All these recipes put a strong emphasis on the spices that are added to the tea, they use similar ingredients but they are all so very different from each other!

My attempt to try the masala chai: (Helen Saberi’s recipe was used  with a pinch of milk) - tips to make a great Helen Saberi inspired tea: boil the milk whilst its cooking it makes the tea creamier and more full of taste! 

sources: 

Tea: a global history by Helen Saberi, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/theultimatemasalatea_86647