I'll have to ask the lady wife, but I think she uses mostly milk and very little, if any, water!
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Zoiks! I'm late to the party, but I have my own recipe for chai masala and masala chai (the spice base and the finished tea) that I've been making for a few years and that I don't mind sharing! We are blessed to live near a Penzey's as well as large Indo-Asian market, so I'm able to get all the spices I need for my mix. I also do a concentrated cold-brew version of my recipe that I'll share as well.
I like mine heavy on the cardamom, so fair warning....
The spice base (makes enough for 4 servings). By the way, I weigh everything so it's consistent each time, using my ultra-sensitive lotion scale for the lightest weights, but I've also included the volume amount just for the kicks:
-12g whole green cardamom pods (roughly 50 pods)
-1.01g whole cloves, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 12 whole cloves)
-1.29g whole peppercorns, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 20 whole peppercorns)
-4g whole fennel seeds (roughly 2 teaspoons)
-3.85g ground Vietnamese cinnamon, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 2 teaspoons)***
-4.21g ground ginger, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 2 teaspoons)***
Basically, I take all of the above (except for the ground cinnamon and ginger, that is), put them in my coffee grinder and give them a whir until all is broken up. It doesn't have to be finely powdered or anything like that, but just as long as things are all broken up, all is good.
***Alternatively, you can use the whole, dried forms of these particular 2 spices (bruise them up good in a mortar and pestle): use 2.835g of whole cinnamon and 28.35g of whole dried ginger.
[My recipe in percentages (in case you want to re-size the amount up or down): 45.524% Cardamom pods; 3.832% whole cloves; 4.894% whole peppercorns; 15.175% whole fennel seeds; 14.605% ground cinnamon; 15.971% ground ginger.]
After grinding, I then add all the spices together in a bowl to mix.
Next, all the spices then get transferred into an extra-large sized tea filter made by Finum: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002WB12JI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I fold the top over and seal with a staple. Make sure to leave as much top-space in the bag as possible because the spices will swell considerably when heated later.
To make the chai (I'm not so persnickety with the following measurements. I just go by volume):
3 cups water
1.5 cups milk
4 regular-size teabags (or 4 teaspoons of loose) black tea or Darjeeling tea or orange pekoe (or whatever favorite tea of your choice)
1/3 cup honey, or whatever sweetener of choice to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional- if you want to make a vanilla chai)
1) Bring the water to a boil in a 2 qt. pot and add in the large bag of spices. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and let the spice bag heat and steep for at least 20 to 30 minutes, or to preferred strength (swirl the bag around every now and then when you think of it).
2) When done heating/steeping, uncover pot, add the black tea (or whatever tea of your choice), then re-cover and let steep 5 more minutes (or to your own preferred strength).
3) Remove bags and carefully squeeze the excess liquid out of them into the pot.
4) Add the milk and honey (and vanilla if using) and heat through before serving
My cold-brew concentrate masala chai (which I finally and happily perfected to my satisfaction last year):
In a gallon-size glass canning jar add:
2967g cold or room temp. spring water (87.87%)
125g of my above dry chai masala blend (3.7%)
288g loose tea of choice (I've been using Lipton's orange pekoe lately) (8.52%)
Add all the above in the jar, give it a stir, cover, and place in the fridge to steep for a few days. The longer, the better (I've gone as long as 3 1/2 days before, btw). Whenever you think of it, or whenever you open the fridge for whatever reason, give the jar a swirl to mix things up.
When done steeping, I strain 2 times into a large bowl (or two bowls, or whatever works):
1) The first strain is through a large, coarse-meshed strainer to catch all the largest bits
2) The second strain is through 2 large (clean) muslin tea bags placed one inside the other for maximum filtering power, in order to filter out all the finer particles/grit. Basically, what I do is use a turkey baster/bulb siphon to suck up the first-strained chai and then squirt it out into the doubled-up muslin tea bags, pinch the top closed, and squeeze down (over a large bowl) like I'm milking a cow. This makes for a grit-free chai. You'll be amazed at how much grit is filtered out!
When all is said and done, I'm usually left with about 9 cups worth of concentrate (more or less), which I pour into clean glass storage container and keep in my fridge. It lasts for several weeks. To make a cup of chai, just pour out 1/4 cup of the concentrate and mix with 3/4 cup of milk or whatever other type of liquid of choice (it's great in hot chocolate or coffee, btw), sweeten to taste, and even add a splash of vanilla or rose water or orange blossom water if you like.
IrishLass
I like mine heavy on the cardamom, so fair warning....
The spice base (makes enough for 4 servings). By the way, I weigh everything so it's consistent each time, using my ultra-sensitive lotion scale for the lightest weights, but I've also included the volume amount just for the kicks:
-12g whole green cardamom pods (roughly 50 pods)
-1.01g whole cloves, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 12 whole cloves)
-1.29g whole peppercorns, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 20 whole peppercorns)
-4g whole fennel seeds (roughly 2 teaspoons)
-3.85g ground Vietnamese cinnamon, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 2 teaspoons)***
-4.21g ground ginger, weighed on my lotion scale (roughly 2 teaspoons)***
Basically, I take all of the above (except for the ground cinnamon and ginger, that is), put them in my coffee grinder and give them a whir until all is broken up. It doesn't have to be finely powdered or anything like that, but just as long as things are all broken up, all is good.
***Alternatively, you can use the whole, dried forms of these particular 2 spices (bruise them up good in a mortar and pestle): use 2.835g of whole cinnamon and 28.35g of whole dried ginger.
[My recipe in percentages (in case you want to re-size the amount up or down): 45.524% Cardamom pods; 3.832% whole cloves; 4.894% whole peppercorns; 15.175% whole fennel seeds; 14.605% ground cinnamon; 15.971% ground ginger.]
After grinding, I then add all the spices together in a bowl to mix.
Next, all the spices then get transferred into an extra-large sized tea filter made by Finum: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002WB12JI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I fold the top over and seal with a staple. Make sure to leave as much top-space in the bag as possible because the spices will swell considerably when heated later.
To make the chai (I'm not so persnickety with the following measurements. I just go by volume):
3 cups water
1.5 cups milk
4 regular-size teabags (or 4 teaspoons of loose) black tea or Darjeeling tea or orange pekoe (or whatever favorite tea of your choice)
1/3 cup honey, or whatever sweetener of choice to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional- if you want to make a vanilla chai)
1) Bring the water to a boil in a 2 qt. pot and add in the large bag of spices. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and let the spice bag heat and steep for at least 20 to 30 minutes, or to preferred strength (swirl the bag around every now and then when you think of it).
2) When done heating/steeping, uncover pot, add the black tea (or whatever tea of your choice), then re-cover and let steep 5 more minutes (or to your own preferred strength).
3) Remove bags and carefully squeeze the excess liquid out of them into the pot.
4) Add the milk and honey (and vanilla if using) and heat through before serving
My cold-brew concentrate masala chai (which I finally and happily perfected to my satisfaction last year):
In a gallon-size glass canning jar add:
2967g cold or room temp. spring water (87.87%)
125g of my above dry chai masala blend (3.7%)
288g loose tea of choice (I've been using Lipton's orange pekoe lately) (8.52%)
Add all the above in the jar, give it a stir, cover, and place in the fridge to steep for a few days. The longer, the better (I've gone as long as 3 1/2 days before, btw). Whenever you think of it, or whenever you open the fridge for whatever reason, give the jar a swirl to mix things up.
When done steeping, I strain 2 times into a large bowl (or two bowls, or whatever works):
1) The first strain is through a large, coarse-meshed strainer to catch all the largest bits
2) The second strain is through 2 large (clean) muslin tea bags placed one inside the other for maximum filtering power, in order to filter out all the finer particles/grit. Basically, what I do is use a turkey baster/bulb siphon to suck up the first-strained chai and then squirt it out into the doubled-up muslin tea bags, pinch the top closed, and squeeze down (over a large bowl) like I'm milking a cow. This makes for a grit-free chai. You'll be amazed at how much grit is filtered out!
When all is said and done, I'm usually left with about 9 cups worth of concentrate (more or less), which I pour into clean glass storage container and keep in my fridge. It lasts for several weeks. To make a cup of chai, just pour out 1/4 cup of the concentrate and mix with 3/4 cup of milk or whatever other type of liquid of choice (it's great in hot chocolate or coffee, btw), sweeten to taste, and even add a splash of vanilla or rose water or orange blossom water if you like.
IrishLass
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IrishLass, it's interesting, our chai tastes are so close, if you replace fennel with dried orange zest, that's my favorite spice mix for chai. I never tried fennel in chai before. I will try it but first I am going to try your cold brew.thanks for sharing, summer should be even more fun this year.
Oh, boy, such wonderful info -- thanks everyone for sharing your recipes and ideas!
Irish Lass - I am sipping your recipe now and I LOVE it. I used about 30 cardamom pods, subbed star anise for fennel, and added a ground chunk of nutmeg, and some dried orange. Your spice to tea ratio and steeping length makes a superior Chai I think.
CritterPoor
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I just want to say that, as a new comer, this thread makes me love you guys all the more. Can someone pass me the tea now?
Here you go!
Hi all! I love the way this has turned into a tea party! I love masala chai as well, and was taught how to make it by a good friend from Gujurat, India. She uses fresh ginger, which I love. I like this fun article with a great recipe and a little science on why to use milk while making your chai. When I'm not in the mood for cow's milk, I substitute Almond milk, and I have the tendency to leave out the black pepper.
http://thehathicooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-make-best-chai-ever.html
"Warning--Nerdy science note: The flavors that make spices taste delicious are all aromatic compounds. Aromatic compounds are made of molecules that contain a structure known as a benzene ring, meaning they dissolve best in alcohols or fats. You may have noticed this when making drinks, that adding a twist of lemon to a martini adds significantly more flavor in a shorter amount of time than adding a twist of flavor to a glass of water. Similarly, if you make this chai with a non-fat milk, you won't extract as many flavors from the spices as if you make it with a milk that has some fat. So do your spices a flavor, and don't make this with skim milk. Nerdy science note done."
http://thehathicooks.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-make-best-chai-ever.html
"Warning--Nerdy science note: The flavors that make spices taste delicious are all aromatic compounds. Aromatic compounds are made of molecules that contain a structure known as a benzene ring, meaning they dissolve best in alcohols or fats. You may have noticed this when making drinks, that adding a twist of lemon to a martini adds significantly more flavor in a shorter amount of time than adding a twist of flavor to a glass of water. Similarly, if you make this chai with a non-fat milk, you won't extract as many flavors from the spices as if you make it with a milk that has some fat. So do your spices a flavor, and don't make this with skim milk. Nerdy science note done."
DeeAnna, you have pretty hands! Mine look I have been laboring in the field for 1000 years, handy to not have to worry about ruining them by washing the millions of soaping things, though.
Ah, my dear, the hands holding the cup are regrettably not mine. I'm awfully hard on my hands too, so they never look as nice as the ones in the photo. Right now one ring finger nail is mostly black from having gotten mashed between two pieces of firewood a month ago. I have a healing burn on the other hand from singeing it on my horses' water tank heater when I was fixing the waterer during a cold snap. And of course the usual assortment of hangnails and nicks, along with several lumpy finger joints that I suspect are becoming arthritic. But I'm still fond of 'em....
Can you use a vegan milk for your chai? There are so many to choose from these days. It's not just soy anymore. I drink almond milk and flax milk when I can find it. I tried hemp milk and gagged. Rice milk isn't my favorite for drinking, but I like it for cooking. Cow's milk tastes weird to me now that I've been drinking vegan milks for a few years.
Thanks for the suggestion Teresa! I make my own vegan milks, with a nice blender and a great nut milk bag from Amazon, while they taste wonderful on their own, their consistency is not uniform like the store bought ones which obviously have a lot of other things which help in getting it right. And they taste so much different in coffee and tea, something I haven't developed a taste for yet. So it's just going to be plain tea for me or when I can get this awesome organic whole milk from this 100% cruelty free dairy farm in PA, a treat of a real chai. With the other milks, a dash of cinnamon and honey will have to do.
Most of my home cooking has been vegan for years, so no problem there
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