Masala Chai & the Short North

A few years ago, before I moved to the suburbs of Columbus, I lived downtown in an artsy area called the Short North. I shared a cute old brick duplex with a friend from ORU. We had a grand time living there and spring was beautiful as all of the streets around our house were brick paved and lined with dogwood trees that bloomed white in March and April.

Of course, one of the more interesting things about living downtown was that it was definitely a gay neighborhood. I witnessed, on more than one occasion, events that seared themselves into my brain! On the upside, it was beautifully “gentrified” and was, overall, a pretty safe place to live.

Once I had some friends from South Africa visiting, and we went to enjoy some coffee at one of the outdoor café’s near our house. As we sat outside chatting, a white van screeched by while the driver screamed some kind of anti-gay slogan and slammed one of my friends with rotten eggs! We were all horrified…then laughed hysterically that they hit the only straight people in the whole place! My friend commented the rest of the night that he “took one for the team.”

But I digress. What I really wanted to share was the fact that while we lived there, one of my favorite haunts was a cool tea house called Zen Cha. They made the best Masala Chai! So when I married into an Indian family and started learning how to make Indian food, one of the first things that I learned was the art of Chai. But my husband used to laugh at me wanting to add too many spices to my tea. Apparently, masala a north Indian tradition.

But I am happy to report that I found the perfect Masala Chai recipe in my favorite Indian Cook Book (my brother-in-law says that with this book he doesn’t miss home cooking anymore!) And since I have been into sharing recipes lately, I thought I would share this one with you too:

1 ½ -1 ¾ C of Milk (whole)
½ - ¾ C of water
1 Tbsp of Black tea
2 Tbsp of Sugar (to taste)
2 cm piece of ginger dry roasted (or dry spice is fine too)
2 cm piece of cinnamon stick
4 green cardamom pods
4 black peppercorns
4 cloves

Put all of the spices into a spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, and roughly crush. Put milk and water into pot, along with ground spices and black tea. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add sugar. Let seep for 2-5 minutes. Filter out spices and tea into cups. For more froth, pour tea from one cup to another and back till frothy. Yum!!!