It is 6:45 am. The battle is on. In my kitchen that is. And I manage to pull the pillow back on my head and go back to the most precious minutes of the morning sleep. There is something incredibly satisfying about waking up 10 minutes earlier than your set alarm clock time and going back to catching the most satisfying zz’s.
But the battle is on. In my kitchen that is. The pounding of the metal on the floor, the clash of metal against metal, and oh wait.. Was that stone pounding! Whoa! And now a bang!
No.. The TV is not on this early at my home and we have blocked all TV war monsters from our home anyways. But there is one war lord who manages to get the battle on almost all days in the morning. Even though my heart thuds at each pounding and clash and bang I close my eyes and cozy in; for these battle sounds are from the kitchen when my SO makes Chai.
The pans collide; the doors of the refrigerator close with a thud or may be that was because they were closed with a kick! The tea is stirred with a heavy metal spoon and the resulting ringing…. Something like a toooiiiiinnnnnggggg travels through the home; the spices are pound using a mortar and pestle and heavy pounding adds the drum beats to the ringing.
And then the whiff of the tea boiling away, the soft footsteps up the stairs, the gentle good morning and I smile a bright smile for he wakes me with a kiss every morning and gives me my cup of Masala tea.
Now I will try and tell you how he makes it for me, but as you already know I am getting my precious last minutes of sleep at the time he makes it. So this is a verbal recipe passed on. Do your thing and get your So’s to make this for you 😉
Guidelines:
Half a cup water
Half a cup milk
1 tsp Assam/Darjeeling tea
a slice of ginger .. this gets the pounding
some sugar
a couple of mint leaves
how to make the chai :
Boil the water, add the tea leaves. let it simmer for a minute or two. Add the milk and ginger. Allow it to boil. Add the sugar and stir with a spoon. Place the mint leaves in the strainer and strain the tea concoction into a cup.
Wake up! Do you smell the beautiful day?