“I grew up in a household and a tradition that lives off of chai. My mother and sisters get up [with] chai and drink it earlier than sleeping,” says Maryam Ghaznavi, chef-owner of Charleston’s Malika Canteen, the primary Pakistani restaurant in South Carolina. Ghaznavi, who hails from Lahore, Pakistan, makes her masala chai with black tea, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, mint, and, crucially, evaporated milk. “It’s denser than recent milk, and the viscosity yields a creamier chai,” she explains. “It’s essential to prepare dinner down the milk, then aerate it. Go as excessive as you may together with your ladle and drop the liquid again into the pot to create bubbles.” The top result’s a lightweight, ethereal chai that’s equally good scorching as it’s iced. Whereas Ghaznavi often eyeballs the components—“I don’t assume I’ve ever measured it. It’s the ‘approach of the palms,’ which known as andaza in Urdu.”—she was variety sufficient to share the precise quantities for this recipe on the Charleston Wine + Meals Competition.
