straining the chai into our tea cups, a relaxing way to start off our cooking class at the Spice Box in Udaipur

This is from our cooking class in Udaipur, and makes two cups of my favourite ginger chai!

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 inch ginger, grated
1 cup milk
loose black tea – 2 tsp
one cinnamon stick, 2 peppercorns, 2 cloves and 2 cardamon pods (grind in pestle a little beforehand)
sugar – to taste
 (most Indians I’ve met add astonishing amounts of sugar: 8 tsp. or more!)

Method:

1. In a small pot, add water and grated ginger. Bring to a boil.
2. Add in milk and again bring to a boil, stirring in between.
3. Stir in tea leaves and bring to a rolling boil.
4. Turn off stove, add ground cardamon, cinnamon, and cloves.
5. Cover and allow to steep for several minutes.
6. Add sugar to taste.
7. Strain into cups

How they make Chai in India:

A slightly different Chai recipe from Baba in Japan. This is masala chai, and uses cloves instead of ginger.

More on our 2010 trip to India.