Tandoori chai –
Tandoor chai – If you are fond of tea and love to experiment with different chai recipe, this is amazing must try innovation. It is prepared same as indian masala chai by using milk, chaipatti(Tea powder), cardamom, ginger and sugar. But quirky preparation make it different from regular masala chai. For making tandoor chai, masala chai is pour into the empty clay pot heat up in tandoor. Tea is brewed up and usually served in kulhad(clay pot).
In this post I will show you how to make tandoori chai at home without tandoor. Follow and check the simple and amazing tandoori chai recipe step by step with photos.
Clay pot and tandoor cooking technique both are Popular for giving smokiness and earthy flavour to any dish. Cooking food in tandoori oven and clay pots is quite old and popular technique to cook some of the best recipe, at present time it is difficult to make tandoor at home, especially in urban cities so we generally approach restaurants and hotel to have a bite of some amazing tandoori dishes.
Word tandoori is so fascinating that there are lots of dishes are originating associated with tandoor, and the tandoori chai were recently introduced in India. Indians are fond of tea and in general they consume 3-4 cups a day. When these two popular thing tandoor and tea comes together and it becomes tandoori chai.
Origin –
“Chai la – The tandoor tea” it is a small chai corner from Pune where this wonderful tea recipe is invented. This shop was in news for its unique way of making tea and slowly with social media its become popular in all over india.
This concept of making tea was exciting for chai lovers, especially its smokiness and flavour of clay in chai. I am lucky to be in Pune(Indian city) when this concept was introduced. We got taste of tandoori chai first time in Pune and it tastes amazing. It goes best with bun maska (bun with lots of butter). Now these kinda of chai shops are mushrooming around Pune and serving this unique concoction. People around Pune sniffed these shops around and now you will see they line up to get glimpse of its prep work which is utmost satisfying to watch and take a sip during casual hours.
Serving –
Tandoori chai is usually served in clay cups, it is know as kulhad. It is handle-less clay cup unpainted and unglazed. Kulhad’s are made with clay, so these are recyclable and environmental friendly. These cups are also used in India for serving curd. But now a days many chai corner serve tea in cups made with terra cotta clay, they look same as clay cups and reusable.
I love to have the tandoori chai with bun maska( bun with lots of butter).
Tandoori chai can be served with many other snacks like spinach corn sandwich,rava toast, cheesy pockets, aloo bonda, crispy papdi, stuffed bread pakoda.
Important Points –
- Sugar can be adjusted according to your liking.
- Following same recipe you can also make masala chai, just ignore clay pot step.
- You can doubled this recipe.
- Tandoori chai generally served in clay cups, but if you don’t have one you can use simple tea cups.
Watch video –
Printable recipe –
Tandoor chai recipe step by step with photos –
- Take 1.5 cups of milk in a jar. Add 2 tbsp of milk powder.
- Mix well with spoon, keep it aside.
- Heat 1.5 cups of water in a regular sauce pan on medium heat. Give it a boil.
- Add green cardamom, and grate ginger directly to the hot water.
- Add tea powder( chaipatti) in to the water. Boil it for 2-3 minutes.
- Add milk which we prepared at the starting of the recipe. Mix it well with spoon.
- Add sugar, mix until sugar dissolve. Boil it for 5-6 minutes, stir in between.
- Switch off the heat and with the help of tea strainer, pour the tea into a deep pan. Keep it aside.
- Take a clay cup or kulhad, heat it on gas/stove for 10-12 minutes from all the sides.
- Carefully remove it from heat use oven glove or tong to pickup and place on deep pot/vessel.
- Start pouring hot tea on the clay cup/ kulhad. It will start to bubble and eventually ooz out from the kulhad.
- This process will give very unique earthy flavour and smokey taste to tea.
