AI-generated image
Kashmiri chai
Pink tea (noon chai or gulabi chai): green tea leaves boiled with baking soda, aerated, then simmered with milk, cardamom and pistachios
Kashmiri chai, called pink tea or gulabi chai across Pakistan, came down from Kashmir to become the winter drink of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad: it is ladled out at weddings, sold from steaming pots at tea stalls on cold nights and served with nankhatai biscuits at family gatherings. The colour is real chemistry, not food colouring: green tea leaves are boiled hard with a pinch of baking soda until the brew turns deep red, then whisked and splashed to get air into it, and finally cooked with milk until it blushes pink. It is lightly salted in the old Kashmiri way and sweetened in the city way; add as much sugar as you like. The mistake people make is using black tea; only green tea leaves turn pink. Chef's tip: pour in ice-cold water as soon as the brew is reduced, and beat it hard; the shock and the air are what lock in the bright colour.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Put 2 tbsp Kashmiri green tea leaves, 4 ¼ cups water, 4 green cardamom pods, 1 star anise and 1 cinnamon stick in a deep pan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Boil hard for 5 minutes.
5 minStep 2: Add ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda; it will foam up, so stir. Keep boiling on a medium-high heat for 15–20 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to about 250 ml and turned a deep brick red.
18 minStep 3: Pour in 1 cup ice-cold water. Now aerate: lift ladlefuls high and pour them back in, or pour from pan to jug and back from a height, for 3–4 minutes, until the brew is frothy and a darker, wine red. This step is what gives the pink colour.
4 minStep 4: Strain out the leaves and spices and return the brew (the kahwa) to the pan. Add 3 ¼ cups whole milk and 1 pinch salt and bring to a gentle boil over a medium heat, stirring.
5 minStep 5: Simmer for 3–5 minutes, ladling and pouring a few more times, until the tea turns a soft dusty pink and smells creamy. Stir in 3 tbsp sugar until dissolved.
5 minStep 6: Pour into cups and scatter over 2 tbsp pistachios and 1 tbsp almonds if using. Serve hot.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 180 kcal
- Protein
- 7 g
- Carbs
- 20 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does kashmiri chai take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 5 minutes to prepare and 35 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of bicarbonate of soda?
- Baking powder, three times the amount (the bake may taste slightly different).
- What can I use instead of green cardamom pods?
- A pinch of ground cardamom per 2 pods.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Guava delight
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
Power pack
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Horchata de chufa
Horchata de chufa is the drink of Valencia's summer, sold ice-cold in the city's horchaterías with long, soft fartons pastries for dipping. It is made from chufas, or tiger nuts: small wrinkled tubers grown around the village of Alboraya just north of Valencia, which have their own protected designation of origin. Soaked, ground with water, strained and sweetened, they give a creamy, nutty, naturally dairy-free milk with a hint of cinnamon. Valencians drink it very cold, or half-frozen as 'granizada'. Chef's tip: soak the tiger nuts for a full 24 hours and change the water once; they must be plump and soft enough to blend into a fine pulp, or the horchata will be thin and taste of raw starch.