tea, made strong and spicy.

Lately, I've been on a chai schtick. That warm, spicy tea is the perfect solution to the biting cold we've been having as of late. While any hot drink would've been fine, chai has always been my go-to for whenever it gets cold. What can I say? I've been in love with chai ever since the first time it's ever touched my lips.

Since I love chai so much, I find that buying a cup or two (or three!) a day started to get pricey. And when we moved to Guam and no decent tea house was in sight, desperate measures called for making my own chai at home. Thankfully, I was able to find key ingredients like cardamom on the island and decided to make my own "instant" version using several different recipes as a guide.

While the convenience of adding hot water to the "instant chai" was great, I found that getting spice sludge at the bottom of each cup was unappetizing. Even with a fine sieve, granules of cardamom, cinnamon, and pepper drifted to the bottom, soaked up the water, and formed a layer then went in my mouth, ruining those last few sips of the chai that I could've enjoyed. Not only that, the use of highly processed non-dairy powder and instant tea really bothered me . . . what was I really drinking?

When we got back state-side, I once again had access to coffee and tea houses. I drank chai steeped from actual tea leaves and it was heavenly! But those places are still hard to get to since we're currently in a small town and I find myself confined instead to store-bought bags of chai packets. After the last purchase I made and finding it lacking in both taste and flavour, I decided it was time to make my own.

I like my chai spicy. With lots of pepper and cinnamon, a good amount of cardamom, and enough licorice to round out the flavors. So when I was hunting for a recipe, this was a great starting point. I tinkered with the spice portions to suit my taste and added a bay leaf and star anise for good measure. I'm not a fan of nutmeg, so I swapped that with some allspice instead.

This turned out lovely. The spice was strong, but not aggressively so, with just the right amount of bite. The added vanilla extract made this aromatic in the best way and I loved that I knew what went in this chai. No weird chemicals, no weird powders, just spices, tea, and a good amount of milk. THIS is what good chai tastes like!

---- o o o o ---- 

Spicy Masala Chai
(adapted from Lands & Flavors)

For the Masala:
10 to 12 tbsp strong black tea leaves (Ceylon or Irish Breakfast)
6 cinnamon sticks
15 pods green cardamom, seeds only
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
5 whole allspice berries
1 pod star anise

For the Chai:
1 cup evaporated milk, half and half, or thick coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
2 inch piece of ginger, sliced
1 large bay leaf
sweetener, to taste
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

 
Combine tea and spices and coarsely grind to make masala. Place in cheese cloth or coffee filter and tie off the ends with kitchen twine to make a bag. Set aside.

Add milk, water, ginger, and bay leaf in a 2 quart saucepan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Once the milk comes to a boil, add the masala bag, sweetener, vanilla extract, and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer chai for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent the milk from scorching.

After the chai has steeped, remove from heat and strain chai with a fine sieve. Serve hot with a stick of cinnamon in mugs or in glasses over ice. Bring remaining chai to room temperature before storing in the fridge to keep for up to a week.

naan the better.

last night i decided that i was going to try my hand at making some curry and naan bread again. i really love indian food with all it's spices and robust richness. trouble is...i really can't seem to get it quite right. so frustrating. the last time i made some indian food, i ended up with a less than satisfying concoction that really frustrated me (the naan in particular). the curry itself was alright, the naans just sucked. :/

this time around, it was switched...i got the naans perfect but the curry recipe i tried was okay. definitely a more "inspired" dish than actual indian. and i think i really prefer a vegetable, fish, or chicken curry as opposed to beef. it was okay...again not what i was looking for.

well, to be fair, i didn't really follow directions for the beef curry. i felt it was all meat so i added some more veggies (namely the chunks of onion and green bell peppers) and used a full can of coconut cream. AND i threw it in a slow cooker. *sigh* the naans, however, were delicious! i deviated just a little bit from the recipe by adding some coconut oil to the mix (see a theme here? lol), subbing 1/2 cup with some whole wheat flour, and gave it a thirty minute second rise before rolling out the dough. i think that helped with making it soft and chewy and much easier to work with. also, i think by adding the coconut oil, it was easier to roll between two sheets of wax paper as opposed to adding more flour which could've possibly made it more dense. the naan recipe was killer and i'm definitely going to keep it as my go-to for naan bread!

 

Indian Spiced Beef Curry
(from Ocado)

900g lean beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2½ cm fresh root ginger, peeled
4 tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped
2 fresh hot red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
150ml double cream
1 handful fresh coriander, finely chopped (optional)

1.) Put the beef, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, and oil in a bowl, and mix thoroughly. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the spiced beef, and sauté for about 10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the pan, and set aside.

2.) In a food processor, whiz the onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and chillies until minced. Add to the same frying pan as used for the beef, and cook for about 5 minutes over a medium heat. Stir in the cream, add 150ml (5fl oz) water, and bring to the boil. Return the meat to the pan, reduce the heat slightly, and simmer for 15–20 minutes.

3.) Stir through the chopped coriander (if using), and serve immediately.

 

Yeasted Naan
(from Journey Kitchen)
Makes 6

2 cups bread flour or strong white flour or all purpose flour* (subbed 1/2 cup with whole wheat)
1 tsp sugar (used pure cane sugar)
1 tsp salt (used kosher)
1 tsp active yeast
2 tbsp ghee (didn't have any, used regular butter)
5 tbsp yogurt (used plain greek yogurt)
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 tbsp or so extra virgin coconut oil plus more for greasing

Author's Note
* I use bread flour whenever I have it around because it creates much better naan but when I don't all purpose flour works just fine. Sometimes I also use 1 cup chapati flour instead of all white flour for nuttier flavor.

Mix the water, yeast and sugar and leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to come alive. It’s necessary that you don't get confused between a yeast that mixes and rises to the top and an yeast which actually proofs with bubbles of air forming.

Add salt to the flour and keep aside. Once the yeast has proofed, add it to the flour along with yogurt and ghee (also added the 3 tbsp coconut oil here). Knead the dough well for about 10 minutes. The dough may feel sticky at first, apply some ghee (used coconut oil) on your hand and keep kneading till it’s soft and supple. Keep it in a greased bowl covered with wet towel to rise (preheated oven to 200 then turned it off when it was at temp--let rise covered with loose saran wrap). It may take any where between 2-3 hours to rise (mine doubled at the hour mark).

Once it rises, knead it for another 5 minutes and divide it into equal size balls (here i let them rest for another 30 minutes in the warmed oven before going further). If you want to make garlic or cumin flavored naan, add it while kneading the dough at this point. Roll each piece into a flat ball. Dust the work surface with flour and start rolling the balls with a rolling pin. After the intial rolling it become much easier to handle it with hands. Try to give it a tear drop shape by stretching it from one end. Don't stretch too much as it may tear. (skipped the fouring part--i rolled the dough into 1/8 inch thin rough ovals between two sheets of wax paper)

Heat the pressure cooker or skillet on high heat for 3 minutes. Put this rolled naan on the skillet and cover with a lid. If using a pressure cooker, remove the whistle and tighten the lid. In less than a minute bubbles with pop up. Reduce the gas to medium high, flip the naan on the other side and cook for few seconds till the bubbles char. Alternatively, with tongs take the naan and put the other side on an open flame to cook and char the bubbles. Naan cooks very quickly at this point so don't let it be on flame for more than 30 seconds. (used the skillet method and slightly deviated--didn't cover, let cook until bubbles formed then flipped and charred the other side until i thought it was done, about two minutes or so at most? they cooked real fast!)

Brush immediately with butter and sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves. (i buttered them and sprinkled a little bit of garlic powder on them...worked just fine and they turned out perfectly awesome with just a hint of garlic. :D)

recipes in pictures: fusing food

my all-time favorite kind of ethnic cuisine would probably be indian food. it's rich...it's spicy...it's so flavorful and the use of spices are amazing! but even though i love the stuff...i can't seem to make a decent curry. it's always a little off or it doesn't turn out quite how i wanted it to. i decided to try my hand at malai kofta using parts of this, this, and this recipe and also tried my hand at making some naan.

let me tell you...it's still a bit of a struggle for me. the naans came out like pancakes (too thick on the width) and the malai kofta were off a little bit (needed more gravy and some kind of seasoning i can't taste). however, i was happy that i got to experiment with using felafels as the dumplings instead of making my own (thank you, vine ripe market, for your excellent felafel bin!). next time, i'll see if i can do a chicken tikka masala. :)