Masala chai

I love warming up with a hot cup of tea every morning and every time I come out of the cold. Tea is one of those popular beverages that you can find anywhere you go. From China to Morocco to Britain, almost every country on the globe will have its own culture of tea-drinking and special brews. One of the countries I've been admiring from afar for its tea is India, which is second only to China for producing and consuming the most amount of tea in the world. India has a unique tea drinking culture where its tea, or chai in Hindi, is brewed with varying mixes of spices, or masala. There are no hard and fast rule to making masala chai, as there are a multitude of ways to customize your own spice combination. I started off with this masala combination from Manjula's Kitchen and, as usual, tweaked it to fit my pallet.

This recipe will make a spice mix for 10-12 cups of masala chai. You can brew your tea in milk only or a combination of milk and water, which is how I like mine. You can also sweeten it and spice it up to your liking. You can also brew your tea a little longer than 5-6 minutes to get a stronger flavour of the spices. Be careful not to let your tea boil over; once milk has reached its critical boiling point, it can bubble up within seconds boil over. Trust me, you do not want your kitchen smelling like burnt milk!

I grounded my spices in a food processor and then used a pastel and mortar to crush any remaining spices that were still whole. A pastel and mortar is probably more suitable for single-serve spices but if you're making a small batch as I did, go for the food processor or a spice grinder if you have it.

Check out the super easy recipe after the jump.

Medu vada - South Indian deep-fried lentil dumplings

Who's feeling a little adventurous today? How about we travel to South India for lunch?

 

Medu vada is a delicious South Indian dumpling made from urad dal (black gram), a bean from the pulse family originating from India. I grew up eating vadas because my home country, Malaysia has a minority Indian population so it's easy to find road-side stalls selling crispy vadas fresh out of the deep frier. Here in Canada: not so much. So even though the recipe seemed completely different from the stuff I'm used to making, my craving for vadas compelled me to be brave and try my hand. Now, five batches of vadas in, it's my one of my favourite snacks to make and I can almost say I'm a pro at it!

Black gram has a black outer skin, but you'll need split black gram which has had its black skin removed.

I found a relatively easy-to-follow video/recipe from the awesome ladies at Show Me The Curry. The recipe itself it pretty simple but shaping the vadas into donuts does take some skill. My advice is to just be brave and go for it! My first attempt at making medu vada only produced donut-like shapes, so I consider this recent batch a huge improvement! The green bits in the picture are cilantro (which I add to pretty much everything!) but I'd suggest using curry leaves for a richer flavour. Feel free to tune the chillies up or down according to your tastebuds' threshold for heat. I've also tried deep-frying the chillies for a few seconds before adding them to the batter; that makes the chillies crisp and not as flaming hot, which is more to my liking.

A few tips on grinding the dal: The goal is to use as little water as possible during the grinding process. This is because the less water added, the thicker the batter will be, and the easier it is to form the batter into donuts. So when grinding, be careful not too add too much water at once; add only a few tablespoons at a time as neccessary. Through a happy accident, I discovered that soaking the dal overnight (or longer) makes them absorb more water, so less is needed during the grinding process.

An important tip on shaping the vadas: The donut shape ensures that the vada cooks evenly throughout, so don't skip the step! Trust me - I'm speaking from experience. It takes a few tries to get it right, but you'll realize it's worth the effort once you bite into one of these crunchy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside deliciousness.

Full recipe after the jump.