Wholemeal Crank
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Posts posted by Wholemeal Crank
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I brew all kinds of teas, and use an adjustable digital kettle to control the temp to within 5-10 degrees, use a scale when preparing tea for formal tastings or reviews, but though I have a bunch of timers, I rarely use them for tea. The most critical timings are with the very short initial infusions for very strong or aggressive young raw puerhs and green teas, and those are so short I just count them out to myself, up to 60 seconds or so. For infusions longer than that, I check the clock, and sometimes goof up but usually even a quite long infusion, if it's not at the very beginning, can be rescued by some dilution, so I'm more relaxed about those.
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I shouldn't forget the basic wikipedia entries, that seem pretty good, if limited in depth, especially the very helpful flowchart on tea production techniques, that helps clarify the distinction between various traditional types of teas. And there is a very helpful little chart on Den's Tea web site which, if you study it, helps clarify the effects of different brewing temperatures and times on tea flavors.
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The place I go most often to talk about tea is TeaChat, as mentioned above, because it's a busy place where many there are ongoing discussions about different aspects of teas and teawares. It's a good source of tea info, but like any forum, the quality of the information varies from poster to poster and topic to topic. But it's pretty well moderated and a friendly place. The search function works pretty well to pull up threads on specific topics.
Another place I spent quite a bit of time with is the Yahoo group tea-disc. There is another larger 'tea list' Yahoo group, but it was quite heavy-handedly moderated and not the most informative. The tea-disc group has an extensive archive and that was very helpful to build my knowledge about tea beyond what my tea books could provide.
Other places I've found good tea info include blogs, personal web pages, and tea retailers' pages, that sometimes give a lot of good background along with sales pitches for their latest finds. Some that I've gone back to over and over are TeaHabitat, for information about Dan Cong teas; Norbu, for mostly chinese but recently some japanese teas also; Pu-erh.net, a personal page about puerh; MattCha's page, a personal blog with discussions of many different teas, including a lot of korean teas; and Marshall's blog as listed above; JK tea shop has some good info especially but not exclusively on puerh. My own web site is pretty limited on the tea pages--I really should update them.
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I haven't been drinking much sencha for the past few months.....got out of the morning sencha habit. Happily, I'm now sufficiently well equipped at work to make afternoon or evening sencha a reasonable choice, so I'm getting some in here and there. But I've got some new sencha samples lined up to taste, must get going with them.
I'm still officially agnostic re: matcha. Haven't yet had the 'aha!' moment that came so easily with oolongs and puerhs and white teas, and not so easily for green and black teas. It's too expensive to waste on 'meh' results, so until I can get to a matcha party with an expert and a selection of great matchas, I'll let the rest of you enjoy it and use my chawan for other teas.
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"Oolong is sometimes written as Wulong but the meaning is the same: Oo (Wu) means Black and Long means Dragon."
That fits my recollections (vague) about it.
Quote is from this web site (found on google, not one I've done business with).
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Today, started with some old puerh--probably a shu, ?15-20 years old, that I inherited without any additional information about it's origins. It was probably a souvenir of a trip to Hong Kong, which has a really thick earthy broth, with a strong cinnamon spicy aftertaste--a lot like what Rou Gui seems like it should be (but since I haven't yet tried many of these, I don't know how characteristic it really is of typical Rou Gui).
And now, moving back to a nice Alishan oolong--Tsou Ma Fei from Norbu. Spicy and floral and sweet.
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I learned a lot from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and continue to use it as a resource. I was inspired by a discussion on shortbreads to start manipulating the grains in my fresh-milled flours to adjust the texture of my baked goods--rice for crunch, oat for softer, etc--and first browned butter with her directions. Lots of good, reliable recipes and excellent pearls here, there, everywhere.
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Made several things over the weekend, now reporting back.
I used pumpkin seeds, toasted, to make some hermits as follows, more or less:
HERMITS
1/2 cup tart dried apricots
1 cup raisins
(zapped together in food processor with part of the flour to chop pretty finely but not turn into paste)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
juice & zest of 2 lemons
2 eggs
400g soft white wheat milled with
3 long peppers
1 teaspoon mace pieces, crushed lightly
6 pods cardamom
1 inch cinnamon stick
OR
3 1/4 cup unbleached or soft whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted
Spread in baking pans--3 @ 8x8--baked 350 about 20 minutes.
I think they needed a little less flour, but the pumpkin seeds were outstanding, and I'll make these again this way.
And using the suggestion above about using sunflower seeds raw when added to a blander drop-cookie dough, made
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with sunseeds
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 small lemons
150 grams hard wheat
30 grams sweet rice
milled with 3 inches chopped vanilla bean
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
2 cups quick oats
3/4 cup sunflower seeds, raw
6 oz (180 grams or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips or chopped bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup raisins, chopped
and baked per toll house drop cookies 375 about 15 minutes. I really didn't notice much difference vs my usual walnuts or almonds in this dense cookie.
And finally, made lemon-poppy seed shortbread cookies with browned butter, very nice, just a slight variation on this recipe from my web site (which has moved to my new domain debunix.net).
I will put the recipes above into better form and port them over to the new site, where they'll show up on the recipe index page here.
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This topic has been quiet for a very long time. I've been drinking a lot of tea, still mostly drunk hot despite the warmer weather. Recently, I'm working through some Jin Xuan processed as a green tea from Norbu, a last remaining packet (sent as a gift from Greg at Norbu) of the summer 2009 High Mountain Beauty Alishan oolong I enjoyed so much, and had a recent Dan Cong frenzy with both some less pricey but still very tasty Mi Lan from Norbu and some pricier but superb (as usual) DCs from TeaHabitat, including the end of some Honey Orchid, Song Zhong, and Po Tou, and newly opened a Zhong Ping Lao Cong Zhi Lan Xiang. Greens and puerhs have been around too, some standby Sea Dyke TKY, and more. The hotter weather also brings out some more herbal teas for drinking cooler--hibiscus, mint, lemon grass just feel better in summer. Just haven't been writing about it daily here.
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Aha...ground chocolate plus chipped chocolate....I am suddenly inspired to recreate forgotten kisses, yes!
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Consider the nut limitation a challenge rather than an obstacle....think about the cookie's texture. Tuiles, madelines, biscotti, meringues: you can vary flavors & textures with different styles of cookies, rather than focusing on a drop-style cookie dough embellished with chunky things. When I need cookie inspiration, I usually turn to Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy. She organizes the book according to texture, and each recipe is loaded with variations.
Avoid bland cookies by flavoring the sugar with herbs (mint, rosemary, lavender) or citrus zest (whether crushing together by hand or by food processor).
I've been going to this camp for 4 years, and I have been thinking of it as a challenge rather than an obstacle.....but this time, the infinite cookie generator ran out of oomph, and that's why I decided to try a batch or two with these seeds, which I've been avoiding doing for the past 4 years. I've done variations on biscotti, shortbread, bar cookies, drop cookies, rolled cookies, spritz cookies, icebox cookies, but refuse tuiles (too lazy for those); adjust the flour's contribution to the texture by changing the grain mix milled for each batch (rice for crisp, oat for soft, hard wheat, soft wheat); but most of my favorite cookies have nuts in them, and I've made most of the ones that don't have nuts several times already, and don't want to duplicate what their own kitchen turns out (snickerdoodles, plain chocolate chip, simple oatmeal cookies, brownies).
Meringues....I recently played a bit with macaroons, and when I was in France 2 years ago bought some, but every time found them too sweet, even when the sugar was minimized and the proportion of nuts was very high. I'm pretty sure I've already done Anise Caps for them, but maybe another variation on those, where the eggs are beaten whole rather than as meringue, and the richness of the eggs cuts the sweetness of the resulting cookie to tolerable levels.
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RAw or toasted?
In applications as standalones with spices, toasted. Paired with chocolate chunks, raw.
Exactly the sort of insight I'm looking for. And cranberry-sunseed sounds like a very interesting combination, with the blandness of the seeds to temper the tartness of the cranberries.
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Ahh....I haven't ever done apricot newtons for this group, but I've done them a lot in the past. And with the new meat grinder to really smooth out the dried fruit filling, that's a terrific idea. Maybe some ground pumpkin seeds to add a little interest to the cookie part would do it.
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RAw or toasted?
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Coconut is also right out.
No tree nuts, or peanuts, and tree nuts includes such botanically distant relations as pine nuts AND coconuts. I blew it on coconuts a year ago and can't do that again.
I've done a lot with poppy and sesame seeds, but want specifically to try sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, just don't know how to use them. I'm trying to avoid straight up nut substitutes, like the bowlbys & wheat nuts, when I've a good alternative like sunseeds etc.
But it looks like she's basically doing an oatmeal cookie with cocount with a straight up sub of sunflower for walnut or almonds, and using the seeds raw, and with citrus. I don't think I need to see the recipe--just the idea of citrus plus sunseed in oatmeal cookie is a good start. Thanks!
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I volunteer at a camp several times a year that is militantly nut-free. I like to bring several kind of baked treats to the longer sessions especially, and have run through most of my standards by now--gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies, vanilla spritz, poppy and other variations on shortbread, oatmeal cookies with lots of other stuff, and lots of variations with sesame, and quite a few things made with cacao nibs. I am easily bored with bland cookies that just vary the proportions of butter, sugar, and flour, and I adore nuts.
So I'm thinking about breaking down and using sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds for interest, but I have never used these in sweet cooking before.
The infinite cookie generator in my head is on strike, because of a deep resentment against the whole idea.
I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for how to best compliment their flavors with spices and/or dried fruits or other flavorings (sunseed better with clove? cinnamon? mace? anise? massive vanilla? raisins? apricots? as butter vs whole vs ground?), and having never baked with them before, I don't have a good sense of how well they hold up to baking--do they get rubbery like peanuts? And I've so often been disappointed by rancidity in both of these in the past--what's the best way to avoid that? Will a slight off taste shine through even if toasted and then baked and wreck the cookies?
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A friend recently suggested what turns out to be a very nice combination for an herbal iced tea: rooibos, hibiscus, and mint. Tart and refreshing when chilled. I prepared some as a hot infusion and chilled it overnight, very nice. But I made too much and the 2nd day version was not worth drinking.
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Room temp.
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I have gotten into the habit of dragging my pressure cooker along to ski trips and other high altitude settings if I'll be doing anything more than making oatmeal. Just so much more efficient.
I haven't done it enough to have anything systematic to say about timing at pressure vs lower altitude boiling times for pasta, steamed veggies, etc.
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That question sent me to google, and to my favorite spice-information site to look it up. Ocotea quixos is a South American native tree of the laurel family (cinnamon is from the same family), and apparently its flavor resembles cinnamon. Hmmmm....I wonder if cassia buds might give a closer flavor than cinnamon bark?
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Thanks, the photo really helps.
I'll start scouting every hispanic and international market I come across now, to prepare for when the figs ripen. The first crop is already getting quite good sized, but usually isn't ready until July.
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This looks like a lovely thing to try with my fig tree this year!
I can get panela from a variety of local markets here, but if the key is the molasses content, is there anything wrong with adding molasses directly to any panela I can find? And should I be aiming for something approximating US dark brown sugar (but with real molasses)?
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Missed this thread first time it came up. Lentil soup is my favorite thing, whether savory & sausage-rich or curried veggie.
My favorite versions are this hearty German-style soup, this almost sweet-n-sour variation on an Armenian recipe, and my own meatless but not necessarily vegetarian lentil-spelt variationthat gets an unexpectedly chewy kick from the spelt.
The Iced Tea Topic
in Coffee & Tea
Posted · Edited by Wholemeal Crank (log)
Can't believe I missed this the first time around. Pineapple sage is one of my favorite herbs to grow, for the beautiful plant, and for the tasty leaves and flowers. I use it mostly in desserts--it is stunning in pinapple sage poached pears, especially when I can top the whole with fresh blossoms; gives a wonderful twist to an apple pie or applesauce; lifts an almond from interesting to wow. I've also used it in some spring and summer 'refrigerator soups'--fresh vegetable soups made with whatever came home from the market. It works very well with rosemary in those.
And, since I'm finally home during a proper heat wave, drinking some more chilled tea. Broke out the glass infuser mugs for the first time in while, dropped in a spoonful of some cheap sencha (I bought some of this in a local shop and found it was ok chilled but not so good hot), added cool water, and put in the fridge. The infuser mugs have glass filter inserts that clog too easily for me to enjoy regularly using them for hot tea, but they're just right for this use:
Chilled tea by debunix, on Flickr