Authentic Masala Tea With a Twist

It has been raining all week in London. I grew up in Chennai, I used to love rains there. Rain is a joy in tropical places. But in London, rain combined with chilly wind makes life miserable. What better way to liven up your mood than good old traditional masala chai and super healthy Baked Masala Peanuts. It’s a match made in heaven.

I remember the days my mum used to make crispy masala peanuts when it rains during the monsoon season. My sister and I used to sit in our balcony and enjoy the delicious spice coated peanuts with a steaming hot cup of masala tea watching the rain. One of my childhood memories I would always cherish. I’ve moved to a healthier version of Baked Masala Peanuts, which doesn’t involve deep frying. It’s a delicious guilt – free snack.

Tea making is kind of a ritual in Indian houses and they make masala tea in loads of different ways. There are many combinations of spices that can be added to your tea, it kinda depends on your taste buds. Here I will share the recipe what my mum used to make. For this tea you need ginger, cardamom, sugar (or) honey and mint leaves. My grandmother adds cloves and peppercorns as well but I find it too strong. But if you like your tea with strong flavours you can add them.

I am making 2 cups of masala tea.

Ingredients

1 inch of ginger cut into pieces
2 cardamom pods crushed
Sugar (or) honey (or) sweetener as needed
2 mint leaves
1 and a quarter cup of water
1 cup of milk

Method

Pour 1 and a quarter cup of water in the pan. Add an extra quarter cup of water as it will evaporate while boiling.
While it’s boiling, crush the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle to powder the seeds. Do you know in cardamom it’s the seeds that contains most of the flavour? It will release its flavour while boiling.
Remove the skin from the ginger and cut it into pieces. My mum always removes the skin of ginger before using it in cooking as the skin will give digestion issues. I follow this meticulously.
Now when the water comes to a boil, add both the ginger and cardamom. Adding the ingredients at the right temperature to the water is important because it helps in infusing the flavours.
Once the ginger and cardamom mixture comes to a boil, add milk and bring it to a boil. If you don’t like too much milk, then you can increase the water and reduce milk. If you like your masala tea to be really think you can even add condensed milk.
Once it comes to a boil remove it from the stove. Now add the tea leaves or tea bag. I used to add tea leaves to the boiling water. But when my husband and I went to a tea estate in Munnar we learnt that adding tea leaves to boiling water will kill the antibacterial properties and will reduce the flavours as well. Now add a couple of mint leaves and cover the saucepan with a lid for 2 minutes. If you don’t like the taste of mint like my husband, you can skip it.
Pass the tea through a tea strainer. Add a teaspoon of sugar or honey or sweetener and serve with crispy onion pakora.