Chai Tea
Serves 2:
Time: 30 minutes (5 minutes active)
Ingredients:
Spices:
- 1/2 tsp whole cloves
- 1/2 a cassia (cinnamon) stick
- 1 1/2 tsp cardamom seeds (or pods)
- 2/5 of a star anies
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp fenugreek (optional)
Other:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2-3 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thin
- 1 teabag, black or rooibus
- Honey or sugar to taste
Directions:
Heat a small frying pan on the stove. When pan is hot, add cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, nutmeg seed (if using), and fenugrek (if using). Don't try this with ground spices - they stick to the frying pan.
When spices just start to smoke, pour contents of frying pan into a pot. Add the ginger, milk, and tea bags. Bring to a simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes. If using black tea, possibly add later. Pour through a strainer into mugs, and add honey or sugar to taste.
If you really want to be fancy, you can repeatedly press the resulting liquid in a french press, which doubles or triples the volume of the milk.
It's possible that the spices should be added later than the ginger and the tea - need to run some tests.