Missing ingredient makes the chai

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Sometimes you just need something to calm you down… when you’ve become hot under the collar over teabags. When two interviewees postponed today. As a matter a fact, I’m hot under the collar now.
So it was that I though I had to buy chai, that calming hippy dippy Indian spiced tea.
Three local supermarkets later and I had none and was too bothered to drive or ride across town to buy it.
The best selection was at the local St Kilda IGA supermarket. There were at least half a dozen varieties, but all in the teabag.
Frustrated, I return home, without even a bar of chocolate.
Damn it! Why can’t I make my own. And I remember chef Barry Vera’s series Feast India, where he made masala chai.
Ingredients
2 cinnamon sticks
9 cloves
7 black peppercorns (or red or white of Australian native)
9 green cardamoms
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 knob of ginger (officially it’s meant to be dried but it is better this way)
Ground nutmeg, allspice or whatever you fancy

Dry roast everything apart from the ginger and the ground ingredients. Takes 3-4 minutes. Discover the lid of the cheap coffee grinder is missing. Bin it and use the pestle and mortar instead. Discover no dried ginger. Put a couple of teaspoons of spice mixture in teapot in compensation for not using tea with it and add shavings of fresh ginger. Add hot water.
Mix with one-third milk, crate in palm sugar and microwave for one minute (yes, I have a modest one hidden away in the laundry).
Chant hommm…
In his enlightened state I decide I should search for some more recipes. Movable Type guru Elise at Simply Recipes has a variation with star anise (great idea), Allspice and broadleaf black tea (maybe next time). Others, such as the Cardomom Addict have similar recipes. Others use bay leaves and other herbs. I’m personally tempted to use chilli.
There are other Ayurvedic recipes blending various Ayurvedic herbs for different people types but I’m too chilled to find them.
Has anybody else got any home made chai tips?

Food fascist

1. Fresh ginger is best
2. Continue to rail against teabags
3. Don’t forget the fucking chocolate bar next time (current desire Green & Black’s Maya Gold even if it is owned by Cadbury’s now).

Ed Charles is a journalist and digital consultant who spend the better part of the part two decades in Australia. He trained with IPC in London and has written for major international and national business and lifestyle titles. Establishing this blog in 2005, he was one of the first of a handful of food bloggers in Australia. He's spoken at the Melbourne Writers Festival and Emerging Writers Festival and has broadcasted regularly on food and digital media issues. He is currently writing a history of mankind told through food.

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