Chai Tea to eat
March 8, 2011 6:31 PM   Subscribe

I'm attending a chai tea themed potluck and I need an awesome recipe for food made with chai tea. Any ideas?

I originally figured I'd go with something sweet and baked but now I'm thinking there are probably some really great savory foods flavored with chai. I'm open to either (as long as it's awesome).
The oven is my best friend. The stove, not so much but I'm open to using simple stove-top techniques.
posted by simplethings to Food & Drink (19 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
You could try a chai cake.
posted by flod logic at 6:36 PM on March 8, 2011


I have not tried this, but I bet chai would make an excellent marinade and/or sauce for pork chops. Not sure how that would translate to a potluck though. Maybe you could do a twist on sweet and sour meatballs and include chai in the sauce.
A sweet option is chai ice cream.
posted by purpletangerine at 6:42 PM on March 8, 2011


Some of the recipes on this site specifically call for Chai, and you could substitute it for the other tea suggestions. I really like the looks of the Cornish Game Hens, but of course you'd have to modify to make it potluck accessible.
posted by purpletangerine at 6:48 PM on March 8, 2011


I was going to say both cake and ice cream. Or maybe pudding? Pretty straight forward and you can do it on the stove. Or a chai syrup, drizzled over bananas and whip cream, you could do single servings in paper cups.
posted by meringue at 6:49 PM on March 8, 2011


And chai rice pudding would probably be delicious too
posted by meringue at 6:51 PM on March 8, 2011 [2 favorites]


Another chai cake from a Mefite cake expert. I hope what happened to that Mefite doesn't happen to you...
posted by cranberrymonger at 6:52 PM on March 8, 2011


Since you want a savory dish, you could do Tea Eggs. You hard boil eggs, then crack the shell with a spoon all over. Then you simmer them over the stove for a few hours in a mix of tea and spices. Then you peel the eggs. They'll have been flavored from the spices and the cracking from the shell will give it a pretty marble look.

They look a bit weird, but everyone I know who's tried them has liked them. They take awhile, but they're SO easy and tasty. And they make the house smell great too.
posted by Caravantea at 6:54 PM on March 8, 2011 [3 favorites]


No recipe to offer, but it occurs to me that tiramisu could be adapted to use chai.
posted by Gilbert at 7:20 PM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


No recipe here either, but I had an AWESOME chai creme brulee recently.. yum.
posted by j at 7:34 PM on March 8, 2011


Chai marinated pork would be good. Chai-glazed salmon too. I've had chai tiramisu and it was great. I can try to work up recipes if you like.
posted by Nothing at 8:04 PM on March 8, 2011


Yogurt Marinated Salmon with Chai

1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 tablespoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons Chai
2 (2 inch) pieces fresh ginger root, minced
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless salmon fillets

Mix everything except the salmon in a large ziplock bag. Add fish and marinate overnight.

When ready to cook, remove from bag and broil or grill until done. Approx 5 min each side.
posted by Nickel Pickle at 8:21 PM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


I haven't tried Chai tea in this (yet!) but I suspect it would be great for bara brith - served sliced with butter and a good cheese, it would make an unusual contribution!

(Here's a a sweeter version.)
posted by ceri richard at 1:54 AM on March 9, 2011


There's no such tea as "chai" so I don't really understand many of the responses here. Obviously whatever you made would have to be sweet so I'd recommend something like ice cream or cake made with masala chai spices. You probably don't even need to add any tea but a little Assam would work.
posted by turkeyphant at 2:42 AM on March 9, 2011 [1 favorite]


Here, eat this!

Coconut Cream Chai Pie
This is easy to make, but assembling the spices is a pain if you don't have them on hand already. If you can get them from a bulk spice place, you can buy tiny quantities of the things you don't want to maintain in your inventory.

Obtain ye by some magick a Graham Wafer Crumb Pie Crust. You can make one easily, or buy one.
One box Jell-O Coconut Cream Cooked Pudding/Pie Filling (or make your own custard). Do not get instant. You can sub vanilla, if you add 1/4 cup sweetened coconut to your milk as you heat it.
2.5 cups whole milk
0.5 cup of the spiced tea you will make
Whipped cream prepared with vanilla and a bit of icing sugar
One stick cinnamon, broken in two or three pieces
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp allspice
3 whole cloves
3 black peppercorns
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg, grated, plus more for garnish
1/4 tsp ground ginger powder
6 cardamom seeds
Three plain black tea bags, or three tablespoons of black tea (I use Assam or China Black)

Put all your spices into a reusable tea filter or bouquet-garni bag and put it in a couple of cups of water in a microwave bowl or on the stovetop in a pan. Bring it to a boil, remove from heat, and add your tea bags or your loose tea in a filter. Let it steep about five minutes, and then pick out the lumps or strain.

Prepare your coconut pudding according to the instructions on the box, but sub in 0.5 cup of your spicy tea for 0.5 cup of the three cups of milk required. (Drink the rest of the tea with some heated milk, because it is delicious. YES THE BYPRODUCT IS DELICIOUS CHAI, and you made it totally by osmosis.)

Put your prepared pudding into your pie shell.

Put your whipped cream on top (you can carry it to your destination in a container and add it there if you are worried about smashing it on the way) and add grated nutmeg to the top. It is customary to put a little toasted coconut on top of coconut pies, in order to forestall the wailing and gnashing from Boston Cream Pie whiners. I say screw them.
posted by Sallyfur at 4:43 AM on March 9, 2011 [2 favorites]


If you think there will be too many desserts at this party, you could adapt the chai recipe above to a brine by leaving the spices loose, removing your teabags after steeping, and then adding half a cup of sugar and half a cup of sea salt. (er, you know not to put the milk in this, yeah?)

Brine a bunch of chicken thighs (or kebabs) in this overnight, and then fish them out and cook them under the broiler. Serve them with this ginger onion jam: two tablespoons ginger puree, one minced garlic clove, half a white onion, minced, cooked on the absolute lowest heat in three tablespoons of butter until it is soft and golden.
posted by Sallyfur at 5:01 AM on March 9, 2011 [1 favorite]


Chai smoked fish?

Combine some loose leaf tea with cardamom, cloves, etc. and use in place of the woodchips in a smoker or on a BBQ.

Brine the fish overnight in a mixture of equal parts salt and sugar dissolved in water. Take it out and allow it to dry in the fridge on a rack for an hour or two before smoking. Smoke the fish as per the smoker's instructions. Delish!
posted by LN at 6:37 AM on March 9, 2011


A note on flavoring things with chai: Masala chai itself is expected to be sweet and milky; if you're flavoring a savory dish, you might just use the tea and the spices. In either case, you'll want to use plenty to make sure the flavor comes through. Names like Oregon Chai Concentrate are misleading. There's nothing particularly concentrated about it (I actually find that brand too pale and not tea-like enough when mixed with milk), it's just a word used to tell you that you'll need to add milk to make their product into the drink you expect.

If you want to use the chai to flavor something as opposed to drinking it, your best bet is to use something in leaf form, and brew the tea up double-strong. If you have a box of masala chai bags, great. If you don't, but have a large spice cabinet, then you can mix your own with a tea and spice blend involving cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, fennel, cloves and/or black pepper.

I made a chai mousse at Thanksgiving and it was a very weak flavor at first; the end result was tasty, after I used extra-strong tea instead of the apple juice for dissolving the gelatin in, and added several shakes of ground spices.
posted by aimedwander at 8:09 AM on March 9, 2011


These chai gingerbread bars look wonderful.
posted by bearwife at 8:57 AM on March 9, 2011


I'd omit the tea component and make something that uses some of the spices commonly used to flavor chai. (Speaking of which "chai tea" is like "ATM Machine" - totally redunant as "chai" is the Hindi word for "tea".)

Look for recipes using flavors like ginger, cardamom, clove, and cinnamon.

A north African tagine would be lovely, for example. As would most any South Asian curry, especially anything more associated with northern Indian cuisine. Use the base spices in your recipe, not "curry powder".

Or if you wanted to be a little less exotic, what about whoopie pies made with ginger molasses cookies and filled with a cardamom or clove-infused icing?
posted by Sara C. at 10:59 AM on March 9, 2011


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