Spicy Chai Tea

Clockwise from top: whole black pepper, star anise, cloves, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, whole cinnamon, ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom pods

Recently I visited with a friend in her sweet garden apartment for tea.  I had not seen her in a long time -- months? a year? I had just learned that she's expecting a baby in February -- a little boy. When I walked in I was enveloped by a warm, comforting smell and the loving energy of her home. I felt at ease, like we had seen each other just yesterday, like all was well in the world. It only got better as we relaxed into cushions to catch up over a cup of hot tea.

She served this chai (or something similar). It was mid-day and I enjoyed it with black tea, a nice caffeine pick-me up in addition to the energy-boosting kick from the spices. She enjoyed hers with rooibos red tea. The nice thing about this recipe is that a tea bag is added to each individual cup at the end, rather than boiled together with all the chai spices. The chai spices infuse as they boil in water to make a spicy, deeply fragrant and flavorful base that is poured over the tea bag of your choice.

Chai with a green tea bag, milk and honey

Today I gave it a try at home. It worked like a charm: our apartment filled with the comforting smell of the holidays, of baking, of celebrating and relaxing with loved ones. I highly recommend giving this a go -- the simple preparations are largely rewarding. And the chai base can be used with your tea of the moment: tonight I used green matcha tea. Black teas or roobois are also great. Add a little milk and honey, sit back and forget your woes. It's the perfect warming treat for the chilly weather, and the perfect tea to share with a friend.

Another reason to love this recipe is that it's flexible: ingredients can be eliminated, increased, decreased or substituted based on your taste and/or what's in your spice collection. How do you like it?

Chai Tea
makes 4 - 6 cups of tea
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon whole black pepper
2 star anise pods
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 or 2 sticks whole cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 2-inch knob of ginger, cut into 4 - 6 pieces
6 - 8 cardamom pods
8 cups water

Directions:
1. Heat the water with all the spices over medium-high heat until water comes to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer 30 minutes to an hour or more -- the longer the more flavorful.
2.  Place the tea bags of your choice into mugs. Strain the chai tea mixture into each mug. Steep for the appropriate amount of time (about 5 minutes for rooibos; 1- 3 minutes for green; 3 - 5 minutes for black).
3. If you want, add a splash of milk and some honey or other sweetener to taste.

Keep warm and enjoy in good company!

Guest Post: A Dark and Stormier Dinner Party

I'm Racheal, guest posting for my older sister, Eron. I live in Pittsburgh, teach public speaking while working on my doctoral degree in rhetoric, and only cook on occasion.

Eron has an amazing talent for integrating cooking into her everyday life. She cooks with a sense of ease and grace, as though it's no big thing.

But nothing could be further from the truth for her. Preparing meals is, in some ways, the biggest thing. Food is the sustenance of our physical bodies, but it is also sustains the community created in the act of breaking bread together, traditions and cultures, and our planet. Eron’s kitchen is a hopeful one, at least in part, because she has faith in the practice of preparing food: I can make a meal that means something for myself, and for others. Cooking is significant, an act of love and responsibility.

As inspiring as I find this, I can’t say I manage to integrate this sense into my own daily life. I’m pleased when I cook anything from scratch. I made myself a BLT the other day and told people about it. I was that proud. So when Eron asked me to be a guest blogger, I happily agreed, and then spent the next week obsessing over what I was going to cook. And of course, if I’m going to cook, we may as well have people over to share it. My boyfriend invited two of his friends over, and I started making a menu.