Masala for Homemade Chai | Masala Tea- Freeze & Store

Kitchen Hack | Quick Indian Cooking Tip | Frozen Chai Masala Cubes | Masala Tea cubes

While most people are familiar with the masala chai spice mix available in powder form, this kind of fresh spice mix is new to me. Someone I met recently gave me this idea, which made me go wow and I finally got around to implementing it.

I’ll tell you how this is a super useful kitchen hack for me. First thing in the morning, pounding ginger gets too noisy. I can’t pluck the lemongrass because my garden is still dark at 5.30am. And, I’m too lazy to deal with cardamom.

So here’s how this ready masala chai cube goes – grind up some fresh ginger, lemon grass greens (called chai ki patti in some parts of India) and a good handful of green cardamoms until you get a coarse paste. To save this paste, use my ice-tray kitchen hack and freeze into single chai worth cubes using some water. 1 cube of this fresh masala mix cube can be boiled along with water until the spices steep in the water, then add tea and milk to make a refreshing cup of chai.

Feel free to add your favourite spices such as cinnamon, clove, pepper and even other herbs like Tulsi or mint. This freezing tip came to me from Nikhil of Nonchalant Gourmand when he saw my post on Instagram. If you don’t want to freeze it, make half the quantity and store in airtight container in the fridge and use a clean dry spoon to measure out masala when making chai. I’m presuming this will stay for 2 weeks.

Masala for Homemade Chai - Freeze and Store

A kitchen hack for the chai-lover - a fresh masala mix to make homemade masala chai, store this fresh spice mix in the ice tray and use 1 cube per cup of chai. ENJOY 🙂

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Servings: 20 piece

Course: beverage

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 80 grams ginger fresh root
• 6 - 7 lemon grass stalks of
• 12 pods cardamom green

Method

 

1. Wash and make sure there is no mud on the ginger root. Dry thoroughly. Roughly chop into slices.
2. Snip the lemongrass with a pair of scissors into finger length pieces.
3. In the chutney jar of a mixer or any small sized food processor, add the sliced ginger, lemongrass and whole green cardamom pods.
4. Grind until you get a coarse mix.
   
5. Using a spoon, place teaspoon full of this mix in each slot of an ice tray. Add filtered water to fill up the ice tray and freeze.
   
6. To make chai, use a cube of fresh spice / herb mix, add the necessary water, tea leaves and bring to a boil. Add milk and sweeten if required and it's ready to serve.