Tiffinbox

Inspiring Photographers

My Mother-In-Law’s Recipe For Masala Chai

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It's a cold day in Connecticut and there is nothing better to do than to sit here, watch the snow fall and sip a hot cup of chai. No, not the kind you get at Starbucks. Ugh! It's way too sweet and it's full of stuff that makes me want to go and brush my teeth right away.

Now as a documentary wedding photographer, I have photographed many North Indian weddings where “masala chai” was a given. So, all props go to the Gujarati, Punjabi and Sindhi communities for rockin' it with their chai. They've got it down pat and I am hooked.

This morning, my friend Syl Arena (read his awesome book – LIDLIPS – on the pursuit of photography ) and I were discussing on Twitter what some of the best recipes for real chai would be. I pointed him to a couple of websites that came up on Google; here is one and here is another. Pretty decent. But I knew we could do better.

My mother-in-law, Saraswathi, is visiting us over the weekend. So I asked her to write down her recipe to make two cups of masala chai.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Water
1 cup of either 1% or 2% milk
2 table spoons of loose or Powdered tea leaves (Darjeeling/Assam/Sri Lankan work)
1/4 table spoon of ginger or ginger powder
1/4 table spoon of black pepper
2 small sticks of cardamom
Sugar (to taste)

Boil 2 cups of water with one cup of milk
Add 2 table spoons of the tea leaves
Add the ginger, the black pepper and cardamom
Boil & Stir for 10 minutes (the tea should turn to a shade of rusty brown)
Pour the tea into a vessel using a strainer

Put the remaining tea leaves in a vessel, add a little water and boil again. Go ahead and strain this as well and add it to the original mix (this makes it nice and strong).

Sweeten your cup up to taste and enjoy!

Try this recipe out and let me know if it works out for you. It's very easy to do. I would love to hear from you in the comments section how your masala chai turned out.

Seshu | Editor & Publisher

Seshu | Editor & Publisher

Seshu is an Avon, Connecticut based headshot photographer and family portrait photographer. He edits and publishes Tiffinbox and produces Tiffincast for photographers like you!

Comments

  1. Jesse says

    I tried this early today. Was really stoked that you posted this, as I missed many of the tweets about it until late yesterday. Anyway, we enjoyed it – much better than coffee shop chai. Was a little confused about the cardamom sticks. We have cardamom pods — both the dark an light varieties.

  2. Nilanjana says

    Seshu, sounds delicious, but I suspect you call for two sticks of cinnamon (and some cardamom?)
    And/or some cardamom pods or seeds?
    Inspired to make my own cuppa this morning.

  3. Jigar Champaneria says

    This recipe is very similar to our usual chai recipe at home, however we use a pre-mixed chai masala that my mom makes. In addition to the usual cinnamon & cardamon, it also has a lot of spice in it to give it kick. To give it some coolnees, I many time will add a handful of fresh mint leaves in with the tea in the water.

    In addition to this Indian chai recipe, we've also lately been making Singaporean Teh Tarik (literally, Pulled Tea, named for how the tea hawkers will pour the tea to cool it down). Instead of adding any spice or milk, we brew the tea for just 5 mins, then strain it into a mug, and add condensed milk (usually 2 heaping teaspoons, but just do it to taste). This gives the tea a totally different flavor than adding milk & sugar. It's a great change of pace and we've found that our friends who don't like chai, LOVE this Teh Tarik version.

  7. Harjit says

    The Punjabi version doesn’t use black pepper.

    *Jigar* – Teh tarik is Malaysian lah. I know, I grew up there.

  8. Deepa says

    Hey,
    This is an interesting recipe!
    Lemon grass is a refreshing addition which I love! And cinnamon is again a different flavor which gives the traditional masala chai a new twist!

  9. Aaisha Sohail says

    HI. here in pakistan, we have no concept of masala chai. i tried it according to your recipe and it came out great… thanx.

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