Moot Thoughts & Musings

After surveying several recipes off the internet, I settled on this one and tweaked it a bit to my liking:

Chai Recipe

Ingredients:

* 2 green cardamom pods
* 1 black cardamom pod
I only had green, and three green worked fine
* half teaspoon fennel seeds
I used anise seeds
* 2 cloves
I used four cloves
* 1/2" cinnamon stick
* 1 tea spoon tea leaves
* 1 and a 1/2 cup water
* 3/4 cup milk
* sugar
* fresh black pepper
I also used about a quarter to half teaspoon sized of crystalized ginger.

Steps:

1. Warm the green cardamom, black cardamom, fennel seeds, cloves and cinnamon stick in a frying pan for 15 to 20 seconds.
2. Take the warmed spices and grind using a mortar and pestle.
3. Bring to a boil the water and ground spices in an open pot. Turn down to simmer and let the spices steep a bit.
4. Add tea leaves and bring water to boil again, and then immediately turn down to simmer again.
5. Add milk.
6. Add a pinch of fresh ground black pepper.
7. Allow to come to a boil again then turn off.
8. Strain tea into cups and add sugar to taste. I don't normally take sugar in tea, but a little bit in this recipe doesn't make it too sweet, rather brings out the taste of the spices.
I tried to make the spices stretch to larger liquid amounts, but it didn't work as well. It seems best to keep the liquid to spice proportions relatively the same as designated here.