Masala Spicy Tea Food

MASALA CHAI (INDIAN SPICED TEA)

Steps:

• put the water on the stove and add spices, bring to boil.
• cover and let simmer for few minutes.
• add sugar or sucanat (whole ground sugar cane--like jaggery) and milk, stir.
• bring back to just barely boiling (watch pot, milk will bubble over).
• add tea leaves, cover pot, remove from heat.
• steep for 5 minutes.
• pour through filter to remove spices and tea leaves.

SPICED MILK TEA (MASALA CHAI)

Steps:

• Grind together cardamom, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and fennel seeds with mortar and pestle or coffee/spice grinder.
• Bring milk just to a simmer in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir or whisk in brown sugar, ground spice mixture, ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste. Reduce heat to low and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes to infuse flavors.
• Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a 1-quart saucepan, add tea, and boil 1 minute.
• Pour tea through a fine-mesh sieve into hot milk mixture (discard tea leaves) and cook over low heat 1 minute. Stir before serving.

SPICY CHANNA MASALA / SPICY CHOLE

Steps:

• Chop the onions, green chillies and tomato.
• Soak the chick peas in water for 6 hrs or overnight, rinse it and cook it with salt and the tea bags.
• If using canned chickpeas, drain the liquid, rinse it, add 1 cup of water and 2 teabags and cook it in low heat till the chick peas gets the tea flavor and colour.
• Roast and grind the first seven spices.
• Combine the above ground spices with coriander powder, mango / amchur powder and chilli powder.
• Add 1 tbs of oil in a pan and stir in the combined spices and cook in low heat for few minutes. Remove from stove and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, fry the onions and green chillies till the onion turnes soft golden brown.
• Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for few minutes, add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are soft.
• Take 3 tbs of the cooked channa and the cooked onion mixture and grind it to a fine paste.
• Combine the cooked channa, the ground spices, ground channa and onion mix and the fried onion and green chilli, If the channa masala is dry, add 1/2 cup of water.
• Cover the pan and reduce the heat and let it simmer till the oil separates and the raw smell no longer remains.
• Transfer the chole to a serving bowl and garnish with onion, coriander leaves and lemon wedges. Enjoy it with baturas and poories.

MASALA TEA (INDIAN SPICED TEA)

Steps:

• Warm your teapot by rinsing it with boiling water.
• Place the tea& spices in the teapot.
• Boil the 5 cups of water and pour over the tea& spices.
• Let steep for 5 minutes, stir, and serve with a cardamom pod added to each cup.
• Add sugar, honey and/or milk to taste.
• NOTES:.
• You can substitute Assam or Ceylon tea for the darjeeling, and can use teabags instead (1 or 2 per cup of water, depending on how strong you like your tea).
• If using a coffeemaker, 4 teabags for a 10-cup pot seems to work perfectly.