Now let’s cook
Kazakh tea. The brew is strong, the milk is hot, and the kese is filled only halfway — not to save tea, but so it can be topped up more often.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp black tea leavesdry black tea, loose-leaf or granulated, with no added flavourings
- 375 ml waterplain drinking water
- 125 ml milkcow’s milk, brought to the boil and added to the tea hot
- 2 tsp sugar (optional)white granulated sugar
Method
Boil the kettle. Rinse the teapot with boiling water to warm it, then pour the water away.
Put the black tea leaves into the teapot.
Pour about a third of the boiling water over the tea and leave it for 5 minutes. Then pour in the rest of the boiling water.
While the tea brews, bring the milk to the boil and take it off the heat.
Pour a little hot milk into each kese, then the same amount of strong tea from the teapot and the same amount of boiling water. Keep topping up a little at a time while the tea is hot.
Put the sugar on the table separately, for everyone to add to taste.
Where this dish comes from
Black tea with milk is drunk in many countries: in Kyrgyzstan milk goes into kuurma chai, and in Pakistan black tea with milk is a favourite. In Kazakhstan tea with milk is simply called Kazakh tea. The brew is made thick and dark, and the milk goes in hot: with cold milk the tea turns grey rather than reddish. Milk goes into the kese first and the brew after it, the reverse of the English order. The kese, a small bowl, is filled halfway and topped up often so the tea stays hot. Baursaks (pieces of fried dough), jam, honey, raisins, dried apricots and nuts are set out with it.
