Marriage has brought a lot of changes in my food habits, and most of you know I started to love Bittermelon (Pavakkai), Mushroom, Dals & sweets which I never really enjoyed or rather liked earlier. I must say that this cardamom tea is one such which I never fail to have almost daily. I would skip one or two days a week but yet I would have this craving to have Cardamom tea again. My parents are tea lovers and without tea their day would not start and somehow back then I think I saw this same tea on the table daily that I somehow did not enjoy it then. After marrying a coffee lover all I want is tea :P makes me laugh to even say it. Although I admit more work to make tea and coffee in the morning but the rebellious me still enjoys every sip of tea ;-). Having rambled enough I was thinking of doing a post of cardamom powder, since its too versatile when you make this ahead and store it in an air-tight container. Cardamom powder is used for many Indian sweets like payasam, burfi, kheers and Indian bakes like Cardamom cake, Nankhatai to name a few.
Cardamom has many health benefits from detoxification, oral health, digestion and so on, you can read more about it here. Usually its the seeds in the cardamom pods that hold flavour and you can remove the seeds and then blend to have a powder, but I felt that using the pods/ shells reduces the work, later you can sieve it to get a fine powder.
Prep time - 10 mins
Makes - 1 and 1/4 cup cardamom powder
Storing suggestion - in an air-tight container in room temperature
Ingredients
Cardamom seeds- 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 th cup
Method
Using a mixer blend the sugar and cardamom pods for 3-4 minutes giving an interval of 30 seconds every minute. This is to avoid the mixer becoming really hot. later sieve this powder to grind again, let it cool down completely. Store in an air-tight container and use as and when required.
HOW TO MAKE CARDAMOM TEA/ ELACHI CHAI / YELLAKAI TEA
Ingredients
Tea powder - 3 teaspoons ( I used Taj Mahal Gold)
Water - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 and 12 cup
Sugar - 3 tsp (as required)
Method
In a saucepan bring water to a boil, add tea powder and let it boil further for a minute, now add milk, let it boil, add the sugar and cardamom powder and switch off
Serve hot along with crisps or snacks
Cooks Wisdom
- You can remove the shells of the cardamom and use only the seeds to make a fine powder
- Tea can be made with boiling tea powder in milk or with water and then adding milk. Since I used full fat milk I used water to make the tea
- Store the cardamom powder in a moisture free air tight jar for long life. I usually prefer this powder every month and store it
