Cooking tips, tricks, and advice from professional kitchens
Posts tagged cardamom
How to Make Chai Tea
Feb 28th
Making Chai Tea
Tired of that cup of Folgers every morning? Want a little change from Starbucks? Well, next time you want a little pick-me-up, try brewing a cup (or 4, in our recipe) of chai tea.
What is Chai Tea?
For those unfamiliar with chai, it is black tea infused with aromatic spices, finished with milk and sugar. Virtually any blend of ’sweet’ and ‘warming’ spices are a good match for chai tea. Sweet spices are those that pair well, or are enhanced by sweetness: Nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, fennel seed, star anise, cassia and cinnamon to name a few. Warming spices include peppercorns and ginger, as well as cinnamon.
There are brands of sweetened chai syrup on the market, as well as prepackaged chai flavoured teabags, but they can’t compete with the intoxicating aroma and deep flavours of real chai tea. Making the real thing is about as difficult as boiling a pot of water – you just need a few things on hand.
As with many Indian dishes, there are limitless regional differences with chai tea. Some recipes omit ginger or cloves, some add other spices, and I’ve even heard of chilies being added. Preparation methods differ as well, so remember, there is no truly ‘right way’ to make chai tea.
How do I make Chai Tea?
Ingredients for 1 Litre of Chai Tea
3 Tbsp Black tea – Use a good quality black tea. Something you would drink on its own. If you don’t have any on hand, 4 or 5 Tetley tea bags will do. I normally drink Red Rose tea, but for some reason Tetley seems to make nicer, less tannic masala chai.
Spices -
- 3 inches cinnamon stick
- 10 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 inch ginger, sliced thin
- 10 whole cloves
- 10 black peppercorns
- Place 2 1/2 cups of water, and all of the spices in a pot, and bring to a boil.
- Once boiled, cover your pot, and turn to low heat, or turn it off. Let the spices steep for 10 minutes.
- Add 1 1/2 cups milk, 2-4 Tbsp sugar, brown sugar, or honey and bring back to a boil.
- Once boiled, turn heat to low.
- Add tea leaves and steep on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
- Strain and serve.
Chai Tea - Ready to Strain
Some additional spices you may want to try adding to your chai:
- Star anise
- Dried orange peel
- Vanilla bean (or just the saved pods, after you scrape the seeds)
- Nutmeg
Butternut squash and zucchini curry with fresh spices
Jan 11th
This dish may not be traditional, but I tried to build it using some traditional Indian cooking techniques. Now, when I say ‘Indian cooking’, I realize that it is a huge country, with countless regional culinary variations. This dish is probably closest to west Indian, Gujurat or Rajastani food – hot, vegetarian, flavorful, and mildly sweet.
There is no curry powder used here, only fresh ground or whole spices. This gives the cook the ability to adjust the dish as needed. Its hard to screw up a curry dish, since you can always correct it as you go. The only golden rule is to never burn your spices. Keep watching your heat.
| Ingredients: |
| 2 tbsp vegetable oil |
| 3 red chilies |
| 4 green cardamom |
| 3 inches cinnamon stick |
| 1 1/2 tbsp cumin seed |
| 2 tsp fennel seed |
| 1 white onion, diced |
| 2 tsp ground ginger |
| 4 cloves minced garlic |
| 1 tbsp ground coriander |
| 1 tsp turmeric |
| 1 cup of diced tomatoes or halved grape tomatoes |
| 1 cup zucchini |
| 1 cup cream or omit for a lower fat version |
| 1 cup butternut squash diced |
| sprinkle of dried fenugreek leaves |
| 1 tbsp yogurt |
| brown sugar to taste |
| Fresh coriander for garnish |
Before proceeding, heat up a pot of salted water. Peel and dice the butternut squash and blanch it until soft, probably 4 minutes if diced into 1 inch cubes, less time for smaller cuts.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium heat until it begins to shimmer.
- Break off the stem of your red chilies and crack them in half. This way they wont explode and splatter you with oil. Sautee them until the skin begins to crackle.
- Add cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Let toast in the pan for about 60 seconds.
- Add the cumin seed and toast it until you can smell the toasty lemony scent.
- Add fennel seed and toast.
- Add onion and cook until translucent.
- Add garlic and ginger, saute briefly.
- Add coriander, turmeric
- Toss in the tomatoes and briefly cook out
- Add zucchini and cook briefly, then add cream and cook over medium heat until thickened.
- Add your blanched and drained butternut squash.
- Sweeten with brown sugar, and finish with yogurt if you wish.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Now, I know that seems like a long recipe, but once you do it once, it really becomes the same old flow over and over. The summary – toast and saute your spices, add your aromatics [onions, ginger, garlic], build sauce with tomatoes/cream/whatever, add veg, finish and plate. The plating would have been nicer, but I had to clean up a major spill in the kitchen while cooking.
Building the sauce, tomatoes added
Almost done, cook the zucchini
Add the butternut squash to reheat it
Finished and plated
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