About

Coping through life’s turmoils one cup of chai at a time.

Hello world! I’m Steaming Chai: a British-Indian Sikh woman from cloudy London, UK.

My roots extend from Punjab and Kenya. So essentially my family dishes are mostly traditional – sometimes fancy – northern Punjabi style cooking. Think rich tomato bases and lots of spice.

The world can feel like a dark place. Intolerance, racism, and fear of otherness can make life seem hopeless, unjust and scary. In some small way, this site brings together the best of two different cultures – East and West – to give you some lovely morsels of food. These recipes are for the times when you want food to shelter you from the arrows of the world, and for those times when food is a celebration you want to share with those close to you.

Growing up in an Indian household, food was always the heart of home life. The recipes here are a collection of the dishes I’ve grown up learning, plus my favourite recipes I’ve adapted from cookbooks. They’re all tried-and-tested in a normal kitchen on real people.

I know how frustrating it can be to sift through masses of preamble, images and ads before getting to the recipe. I will always put the ingredients and method at the top. Any extended ramblings will be housed under the Blog for those with a little more time or, like those neighbours across the road, have an unbridled curiosity to peer through the curtains and into the window of another’s personal life.