Anu's Chai Tea

This winter has been about visiting with friends but we're all broke students or recent college graduates so all we really do is sit around and talk. Plus, we've been gorging ourselves all winter while spending time with family over the holidays so no one really feels like eating. Sometimes it's hard to throw together a meal or snacks for impromptu entertaining so I started having 'hot chocolate and chai' nights and it only takes 10 minutes to put together.

For the hot chocolate I use the rest of the Mayordomo chocolate in I brought back from Oaxaca that is a blend of chocolate, almonds, cinnamon, and sugar for a halfway approximation of indigenous flavors from Oaxaca. I boil the chocolate on the stove in half water and half whole milk. For the chai I use Anu's recipe for chai:


Anu's Chai Tea

Grate about 1 tablespoons of fresh giner. Crush 1 cinnamon stick, 10-15 cardamom seeds, 10-15 whole cloves, and half a teaspoon of fennel seeds. Place everything in a large pot and boil in 2 quarts of water for 5-10 minutes. You'll start to smell the spices while they're cooking.

For the tea you'll want to use loose tea leaves. I've found that English Breakfast comes closest but you can also use any black tea or darjeeling. If you can't find any of those you can tear open a Lipton's tea bag and use that but make sure you take the leaves out of the bag.

Add the tea leaves to the pot of water and let that steep for about 2 minutes. You want to make sure it doesn't steep too long otherwise it will get bitter. At this point, if you like it really sweet add sugar, I usually let people add their own sugar to taste. Add about 2 cups of whole milk and bring to a boil. Then, turn off the stove, strain the chai into cups, and serve.

Always a crowd pleaser. Stay warm!