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.

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Shahi Tukra - Emperor's morsel

As you can tell, I am still keeping my promise. Another Indian dish. The dish is called "Shahi Tukra" or Emperor's Morsel. The very name speaks of royalty, decadence and richness. It is all of these, only easier than it sounds!

This is a type of bread pudding that has its origins in the Mughlai cuisine. Mughlai cuisine is a South Asian cuisine, influenced by the imperial kitchens of the Mughal Empire. The cuisine is strongly influenced by Persian, and Turkic cuisines of Central Asia.
Shahi Tukra is a rich dessert made with bread, ghee, saffron, sugar, rabri(a cardamom flavored reduction of whole milk), almonds and an optional gold or silver leaf for added opulence!

Another not-so-royal name that it is known with is "Double ka meetha". Double here referring to bread - just an Indian name of bread - Double Roti, while "meetha" meaning sweet.

With a name so rich and opulent sounding, there is no way I am going to try to make it healthy. It must be eaten with all the fat, cream, sugar and white bread that you can eat! So here is the recipe





INGREDIENTS
For the Rabri
• 3 cups whole milk
• 3 Cardamom pods, crushed

For the sugar syrup
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Water

• 4 slices Bread
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• 4-5 Pistachios, blanched and chopped
• 4-5 Almonds, toasted and sliced
• 4-5 raisins(optional)
• Few strands of saffron

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut each slice of bread into 4 pieces . A day or two old bread works best for this recipe. If using fresh bread, keep it in a very low oven for about 10 minutes until the bread dries up a bit. This is in order to avoid the bread from soaking up too much ghee.
2. To make the sugar syrup, mix sugar and water and set the mixture to boil. Now, simmer the solution for about 10 minutes.
3. Take a pan and set the milk to boil. Simmer it until it reduces to 1/4th quantity. Keep stirring occasionally so that it does not stick to the pan. Now, add the crushed cardamom, pistachios and few strands of saffron to the thickened milk. This is our rabri.
4. Add in the ghee to a non-stick pan and lightly fry the bread until golden brown on both sides.
5. Dip the fried bread in the sugar syrup for about a minute.
6. Arrange the slices on the serving dish
7. Now, spread the rabri onto the bread and sprinkle some almonds, and saffron strands over it.

Oh, and before I forget - thanks to the last month's DMBLGIT judges for judging one of our pictures amongst the winners. The "Life After Coffee" picture was awarded the 3rd place in the March 2010 edition of DMBLGIT. Here is a link to the post with all the winners.


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Beetroot halwa

Do not forget to enter for the $100 giveaway on this blog. Open internationally! Link available here!

So who wants a dessert that is healthy too? And has more nutrients than you can count. Don't think too hard - I'll answer it for you - it is my latest favourite dessert - Beetroot halwa. A quick search on the holistic benefits of beetroot will enlighten you on how good it is for you, but I had been eyeing on turning this vegetable into something that I can fall in love with. I don't like it raw, I don't like it in salads, not in a vegetable curry, not in a soup..yeah I am quite choosy that way. But I need my iron. I will not turn this into a health bulletin but all you folks who don't eat red meat - you need your iron - which you'll find aplenty in this veggie.

So last weekend i tried turning it into a dessert - a halwa. Traditionally a halwa uses copious amounts of ghee(clarified butter), but since it is not so easily available in stores(except Indian and health food stores) I replaced it with a can of condensed milk. And it was ready in minutes. Of course after 30 mins of my work out in grating it very fine. So here is how I made it.



- 1 large beetroot washed, peeled and finely grated
- 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 2 and 1/2 tablespoons ghee/butter
- 4-5 cardamom pods or 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoonful of cashews/pistachios/almonds
- 1 tablespoon raisins

Heat 1 and 1/2 tablespoon ghee or butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Add in the beetroot and fry it on medium heat for about 10 mins. Add in the cardamom. Then add the condensed milk and reduce the heat. Keep stirring for 20-25 mins. In a seperate pan, add in the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee and then the nuts and raisins. Once the nuts get a light brown colour and the raisins puff up, add them to the halwa.
Add some more nuts for garnish while serving.

I made this last weekend just as a test since I am known for not liking this humble vegetable, but was surprised when my husband ate up 2 cup fulls of deliciousness and demanded I make it more often. And I couldn't be happier to finally start my love affair with this vegetable so understated! Share