How to make Masala Chai

{A Girl At the local Starbucks} Can I have a Chai Tea Latte?
{Ancient} Me : "Chai Tea Latte"? That's "tea tea milk"..? That's like saying Starbucks Starbucks coffee. Or maybe not..Starbucks is a proper noun..chai..no..Ok so may be its equivalent to saying "Chocolate Chocolate biscotti" or "Whole wheat whole wheat pasta".

Yes, that is what it is equivalent to!

Masala chai is an Indian drink made my adding a blend of aromatic spices in freshly brewed tea and served hot.
Masala = Spices
Chai = Tea
It is a staple in our home and indeed, in most Indian homes. Every family has a different way of preparing their favourite brew. Some alter the ratio of the different spices, some would add more milk than water in this recipe.

While staying in New York, sharing an apartment with 2 other roommates, there would be 3 different types of tea that were made EVERY morning. Even in the morning rush that all of us used to be in, we would not budge and have the tea the other roomie was making. One used to simmer it for very long, which would make it thick and slightly burnt tasting for my liking, one used to have her own special blend of darjeeling tea with honey, and I used to have my good ole spiced chai. I usually grind up a big batch of spices every few weeks for my chai.



RECIPE
Here is what you will need to make 4 cups of Masala Chai

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Cardamom pods - Discard the outer peel, use only the seeds from the pod
• 1 Cinnamon stick 1 1/2" stick
• few pepper corns
• a teaspoon of fennel seeds
• 1" piece of ginger
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups water
• 5 teaspoons assam or darjeeling tea
• 3 and half tablespoons sugar. Brown sugar works beautifully in this recipe, but regular granulated sugar is fine too.

DIRECTIONS

1. Grind the spices into a powder.
2. Place the water in a saucepan, and add the tea to it.
3. Add in the sugar and the ground spices
4. Grate the ginger piece and put it in the saucepan
5. Once the concoction comes to a boil, add in the milk
6. Simmer it all for about a minute or two so that all the flavours combine
7. When it starts coming to a boil again, take it off the heat and pour it in your tea cups using a sieve.
8. Enjoy it hot with a biscuit or 2.

Share

Iced coffee

Coffee! Can your day be complete without the caffeine? (And you thought your decaf coffee was sans any caffeine? Well, think again ). No kind of weather can ever put me away from my beloved beverage - not even a scorching summer afternoon! Just that how I drink it is different - with a lot of ice!

Iced coffee - that is what I had at around mid-day today, instead of my usual espresso or cappuccino ( the latter served with some milk froth and chocolate powder for extra goodness :-)). Everyone has their favourite way of brewing their coffee - the kind of beans used, the kind of coffee grinder, how you store your coffee, how it is brewed..blah blah..there is a whole world out there when we start talking coffee. Let us not get there. I'll just share with you how we make our tall glass of iced coffee.

I prefer making it with what is also called the 'cold brewed' method. Nothing fancy here - just that you stir your ground coffee in water and let it sit a couple of hours (preferably overnight) before you strain, add equal amount of water, and serve it with ice - as opposed to pouring it piping hot onto a glass full of ice (and a plastic or steel one please - you'll most likely break your 'glass' otherwise!).
But this time I used the easier method - I had some left-over coffee from the morning, so I let it cool off and turned it to iced coffee. This isn't the healthiest way because it is more acidic that the cold-brewed method, but it's ok once in a while.

So here is how I made it
Brew your cup of coffee the way you like it. I use a moka pot and use the following for 1 glass of iced coffee
- 2 tablespoons of your favourite ground coffee
- 1 cup of water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- ice cubes
Once the coffee is brewed, I transfer it to a pitcher. Add in the sugar so it dissolves while still warm. Allow it cool for 2-3 hours at room temperature. Then add in the milk and stir - this is optional of course! Pour it in a tall glass filled with ice cubes. And enjoy! Share

Raspberry smoothie

I think I have written enough in praise of berries in my earlier posts, that I love them, and how one look at all of them together is a celebration of summer itself! At the risk of repeating myself - 'I love berries' - all kinds! My favourite ones are blueberries but raspberries make for such a lush and rich red drink, or for garnish, along with strawberries, that I love them simply for their colour!

When I had bought my Magic bullet , I thought smoothies and juices would now be the order of the day. I guess I was on a high from reading all those 'Power juice' and 'Fasting with juice' books and how it will detoxify my system, make me 'live a fuller life' etc. I think I was just being too ambitious thinking I'd accomplish that! I still do have the intention of making a healthy concoction with veggies and fruits every morning, but it has remained just that - an intention!

Smoothies with fruits like berries are such a breeze! No peeling, no deseeding, no mess at all. Guess that's why I always have at least one berry in my weekend shopping basket.

Anyways, this is just one of the smoothies me and my husband are addicted to these days. Here's how I made it.






The ingredients are :
- 1 and 1/2 cup fresh raspberries. Of course you can thaw and use frozen raspberries too.
- 1 medium sized ripe banana
- 1/4 cup + about 2 tablespoons milk. I use whole milk.
- Sugar if you need, according to your taste.

The banana I used was nicely ripe and gave the smoothie just enough sweetness, so I didn't use any sugar at all.
So it's as easy as blitzing it all together into a lush red smoothie. Try it, you'd love it! Share

Mango lassi

Ever seen that advert on CNN where they use a washing machine to churn out mango lassis but the bucketfuls? Never mind. Well I'm pretty sure that a washing machine is certainly not the must-have equipment for a good ole' mango lassi! Let's just leave it to doing what it does best!
Mango lassi is a sweet creamy yoghurt drink from India. And there is no reason why you should have it only when dining in an Indian/Thai restaurant. Try it at home, it is even more tasty when you make it yourself :)
There are 2 main ingredients in the lassi - mangoes and yoghurt. This drink tastes best if you use a variety of mango called the 'Alphonso'. They are only seen in Indian stores for about 2-3 months, and are a bit on the expensive side. But trust me, once you have had this fruit, you cannot but help get addicted to it. It is soo good! Just try it once, and you'll know what I mean. Now is the season to rush out and grab yourself a box (maybe 2). If you cannot find fresh mangoes, you 'could' use mango pulp from a can - but really, nothing beats the real deal.
Ok, so let's talk about the remaining ingredients




- 1 cup yoghurt.
- 1 cup ripe alphonso mango - peeled and chopped
- 2 tablespoons water(optional - use it only if you want a lighter consistency)
- A teaspoon each of chopped pistachio and almonds
- A pinch of cardamom powder
- 4 teaspoon sugar - adjust it according to the sweetness of the mango. If you are using mango pulp from a can, keep in mind that it is usually already sweetened, so you may not need the sugar at all.

Blend the mango, yoghurt, water. Taste it, and add sugar and/or water if you like. Pour it into your serving glass and garnish with the cardamom and nuts.

Share

My latest haul - A Cocktail Shaker set

I dont know if it's the summer or is it just me. This time the summer has been so cold, windy, rainy and cloudy that it hardly feels like the one we were all craving for after the extremely chilly winter. And it's already July, so just another 2 months, and we are back to wearing 10 sweaters, jackets, gloves, caps... :-(.
So I was wondering if it is the weather that is bringing out this unknown side to me. I am not much of a drinker, or shall I say, I have not been much of a drinker all my life - only, as they say 'drinking socially' ;) - which means an occasional tequilla or 2, sometimes a gin and tonic, but mostly wine.
But on those rare sunny days, I feel like I should celebrate it - I want to go biking, hiking, picknicking, and oh, just chilling - basking in the summer sun for long hours! Sweet! But the days when the sun is our friend are so few and far between. So on such rare days of this season I have found myself reaching more than once to my trusted cocktail shakers to make myself and hubby a margharita or two, maybe a mojito, or a martini.



So, as is the case with shopaholics like me, I felt just a cocktail shaker aint enough! Yeah, you get the drift...you know where I'm getting. So this weekend I bought myself an entire set. The tools that every self respecting bartender should have :). No I am not aspiring to be one, but home bartending would work just fine for me. So here is what I got - a cocktail shaker, jigger and a hawthorn strainer. Happy drrrinking. Hic!

Share

A perfect Mojito for a perfect summer day!

What a bright and sunny summer day it is! It is on days like these you feel like celebrating summer! Peeping out of my kitchen window was a pot of mint. Bingo! What do I need? A Mojito of course!
You know how smells remind you of something or someone(I mean the pleasant kind please!), a certain song would remind you of your days gone by, for me sometimes a cocktail does the trick. Last year when we were in Frankfurt on the 1st of September, there was this 3 day SeptemberFest that was just what we needed. Frankfurt isn't really a touristy place, so we ran out of things to do on the first day itself. It was this fest that made our weekend. A typical summer celebration, with different bands playing their own kind of music, stalls selling souvenirs, flowers, hats and of course there was food from all corners of the globe( does the globe have corners?)
Anyways, so here we were sitting one evening, soaking up the sun, listening to Summer of '69, sipping on a Mojito. Hmm..good times.
Almost 1 year later, I think of Mojito, and thats what I remember. Herez how to make it. You need
Few mint leaves (3 to 4 per glass)
1 lime
2 teaspoon powdered sugar
2 ounces white rum
2 ounces club soda
ice

Put mint leaves in a glass, squeeze the lime, add powdered sugar, and muddle it together. Don't be too aggressive, just muddle it to release the flavours. Add in the rum, ice and stir. Finish it with the club soda. And a mojito wouldn't be a mojito without a sprig of mint for garnish. Go wear your sunscreen, grab your sunshades, make a mojito and get the party started!
This post goes to the Summer Holidays With Vacation Food event. Share