How to Make Masala Chai, Perfect for Winter’s Cold Days
This week, we’re spotlighting recipes from Made in India: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen by Meera Sodha (Flatiron Books), a London-based chef and food writer. Try making the recipe at home and let us know what you think!
Photo: David Loftus
By Meera Sodha
The Perfect Masala Chai
Makes 2 servings
The chai wallahs of India are soul soothers to the billion or more people who live there. Like tea lotharios, they wander the streets with a kettle of chai and a cloth bag of snacks, serenading the tired city dwellers, train travelers, and office workers with their calls for chai.
At home, my mother’s chai is sovereign. Her hot sweet cups of cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger-spiced tea are the perfect pick-me-up.
Here are some tips from my mum on how to make the perfect masala chai:
1. Use the mugs you’re serving it in to measure out the water and milk you need
2. The optimal chai is ¾ mug of water to ¼ mug of milk per person
3. You only need a ¼ teaspoon of chai masala spice mix per person
4. Around two teaspoons of sugar per person is about right to draw out the flavor of the spices
Now that you know all that. You could in theory make chai for a whole busload of Indians, but here’s how to make it for 2 people. For this recipe you’ll need to make up Mum’s chai masala (see below).
1 ½ mugs of water
½ mug of milk
2 tea bags (I prefer Yorkshire Tea)
½ teaspoon chai masala (see below)
4 teaspoons sugar (or to taste)
Put the water, milk, tea bags, and chai masala into a saucepan, stir and bring to a boil.
As soon as the chai starts boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for a minute before straining through a fine-mesh sieve into 2 mugs. Stir in the sugar and serve right away.
Chai Masala Spice Mix
Chai nu masalo
Chai is India’s most popular drink, and everyone, from maharajas to street dwellers, drinks it daily. This is my mother’s recipe, which I use everyday in my masala chai. In our family we love the taste of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, so our chai masala contains more of those than the other spices, pepper and cardamom.
If you have trouble finding ground cardamom or cloves locally, you can make your own in a clean coffee grinder or buy them online.
4 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
Put the spices in a jar, screwing the lid on a very tightly before shaking vigorously to mix them. To store, keep the jar out of direct sunlight, and use within 6 months.
Reprinted with permission from Made in India: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen by Meera Sodha (Flatiron Books).
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