Adrak Elaichi Chai: Indian Ginger-Cardamom Tea

If chai where you live means a sweet syrup out of a pump bottle, adrak elaichi chai is going to be a small shock. In India it is made with milk and nothing else. No water? None. Two cups of milk, three teaspoons of tea leaves, a half inch of ginger, three cardamom pods and a couple of spoons of sugar. That's it.

To make it, you start by crushing the ginger and the cardamom together into a rough paste. A mortar and pestle is the nice way to do it, but the flat of a heavy knife and a bit of pounding works too.

Then heat the milk until it starts to bubble, stir the paste in and let it boil for two full minutes. That pulls the heat out of the ginger and the perfume out of the cardamom. Add the tea leaves and the sugar, and give it five minutes at a simmer so the leaves really open up. Then strain it into cups and throw the leaves away.

It will look darker and thicker than you expect, because there is no water in it to thin anything down. Serve it properly hot, with crackers or plain biscuits on the side for dunking. In winter, a cup of this in the afternoon is genuinely medicinal.