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Cooking With Tea


Adam Balic

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Hello-Has anyone read "The Green Tea User's Manuel" by Helen Gustafson (forward by Alice Waters)? It as some wonderful recipes. IMHO the most interesting is Ochazuke,made from 1C hot cooked rice,2 oz sushi grade quality white-fleshed fish(raw),wasabi horseradish,1/2 sheetnori seaweed, and1C hot Japanese gree tea.

"As life's pleasures go, food is second only to sex.Except for salami and eggs...Now that's better than sex, but only if the salami is thickly sliced"--Alan King (1927-2004)

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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm working on a dinner for 8. I was thinking of creating a theme around coffee and tea.

Can anyone suggest recipes that include tea? That would be for appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, and dessert.

Thanks.

Stephen

There's a separate thread for coffee...

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Tea smoked duck and chicken.

Rice or other grains cooked with tea.

There have been a couple of other topics about cooking with tea.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Prawncrackers tea smoked duck breast rocks. I don't think it's posted though, you'll probably have to ask for it if you want to check it out. Well worth the asking.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I feel like such a dunce for not posting this link in earlier posts. I have referred to several of the recipes on multiple occasions (especially the ones using Lapsang Souchong - Ham and Lentil soup is fantastic) and have ordered from the site numerous times but for some reason it slipped my mind when posting to this thread.

I placed an order earlier and just as in the old cartoons, a light bulb lit up in my brain and I immediately thought that I should post the link now, so I don't again forget it.

Tea Chef recipes at Adagio.com

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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The tea and cholcolate combo sounds divine.

My only experience with tea as an ingredient is using it to flavor a basic sugar syrup that I first used to moisten a savarin (french yeast cake) that was then filled with whipped creme and berries. I've since used the same tea flavored syrup as a substitute for basic sugar syrup in other ways. The tea helps balance the otherwise very sweet syrup, and gives a very subtle perfume and flavor to the finished dessert.


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  • 5 months later...

Here's a special Tea Dinner being done by The Cooks' House in Traverse City, Michigan, on May 17. The teas are from Light of Day Organics, also in TC.

The menu (I've corrected a few typos):

Jasmine Oolong Consommé with Potato Gnocchi

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Walleye with Soba Noodles, Asparagus, and Mountain Green Tea Vinaigrette

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Stuffed Chicken Leg served with Pickled Wild Leeks, Baby Carrots, and Lemony-Ginger Sunshine

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Rabbit with Spinach, Morels, and Lapsang Souchong Sauce

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Arugula and Rose Petal Salad with a Creamy Strawberry Ice Dressing

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A Selection of 5 Michigan Cheeses with Honeycomb and Dried Fruits

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Panna Cotta with Hummingbird Nectar Sauce

Hummingbird Nectar tea is described on Light of Day's web site as a blend of "Montmorency Cherry, Hibiscus, Blueberry, Grape, Currant, Elderberry, Maple Syrup bits." Lemony Ginger tea is a blend of organic"Cinnamon, Coriander seed, Chicory root, Ginger root, Lemongrass, Lemon Balm, Orange peel, Hibiscus."

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My mother used to make a sauce for liver by adding leftover tea to the pan drippings, sometimes with a bit of sugar or onions. I remember thinking it was a bit too bitter but I was a kid with a strong dislike for bitter flavours then.

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For savoury, how about Dragon Well Tea Shrimp (龙井虾仁)? It's a traditional recipe from Hangzhou and while I've never tried it myself, I'd imagine it's delicious in a delicate, subtle way. Famous dish too so there must be something special about it ;)

Recipe here (gorge pictures included) http://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-dragon-well-tea-shrimp/

For sweet, here's a home recipe

'Gai dan cha' (tea soaked eggs) would be considered a traditional family recipe for my family :)

A lovely, simple dessert.

All you need is eggs (chicken eggs), Ceylon tea (black tea), water, ginger, palm sugar and a bit of white sugar.

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A couple of months ago I served lamb seasoned with lapsang souchong. I made a rub with the tea leaves (ground to powder), salt, black pepper, butter, and a bit of red wine and red wine vinegar. The rub went on the full lamb racks about 2 hours before roasting. The flavor picked up from the rub was subtle ... enough to taste on bites of the outer part of the meat, but not the middle.

I also used lapsang in the sauce. The sauce was lamb coulis (jus made by multiple emersions / slow reductions of veal stock and lamb bones and trimmings). The tea was steeped in right at the end, for four minutes, with the sauce held below a simmer.

I'm a whore for lapsang souchong and have been looking for ways to cook with it. My dessert experiments haven't gone so well ... this lamb is the first thing I've been happy with.

Notes from the underbelly

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  • 2 months later...
I have heard of tea leaves being ground up and used as a rub for meats, but have never tried it myself.

I've done this with lapsang souchong, to infuse that smoky flavor without doing any actual smoking. It also worked beautifully as an herb in the sauce.

I've tried lapsang souchong with less success in desserts. Green teas of course work in all kinds of desserts ... I prefer herbal tasting ones to the stronger, grassier ones.

Notes from the underbelly

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I have this bookEat Tea that I bought several years ago when first published.

Also this book Tea Cuisine that I bought last year around Easter.

I have prepared dishes from both and find them equally useful for ideas, not always using the recipes exactly as written but using tea in similar recipes with usually excellent results.

One of the tea books I have has a lovely recipe for jellies made with tea - very pretty as well as very tasty.

Also one has a recipe for Chai tea ice cream that is excellent.

I have noted on other threads that I often use  lapsang souchong to impart a smoky flavor to various foods.  It gives a more subtle flavor than the concentrated commercial smoke flavoring and works with delicate foods that would not take to actual smoking. 

I find that many of the fruit-based tea blends work well as a base for marinades or dressings for fruit salads, pasta salads, etc.

These books sound very interesting. Who are the authors?

Just click on the links in my post to see. They are both by Joanna Pruess and John Harney (of Harney & Sons Tea)

and Tea Cuisine is actually an updated version of the first book.

It was my error to post both of them. I meant to include Cooking With Tea by Robert Wemischner and Diana Rosen. It is out of print but available from ABE Books

From Tea Cuisine one of my favorite recipes is Peach and Ginger-Glazed Chicken Legs.

A favorite side dish is Curried Potatoes, Cauliflower, and Mushrooms, which is prepared with Lapsang souchong tea.

And there is a Candied Ginger and Green Tea Bread that is very easy and very tasty whether made for breakfast, lunch, tea or an evening snack.

And for hot weather, there is Buttermilk-Vanilla Tea Sherbet - which requires an ice cream freezer but even the small hand-cranked ones with the bowl that is chilled in the freezer, works very well.

There is a Gravlax recipe that uses Lapsang souchong tea, however I'm allergic to many seafoods so have never tried it but one of the people on the tea list did and reported it was excellent.

The recipes in the books gave me ideas on how tea could be incorporated into other recipes so I experimented and found several that worked for me.

There are other books on cooking with tea, cooking with green tea, but I have not examined them.

Thanks, so much for this information. I would love to know more about your experiments.

I just ordered both books from Amazon.

The link "Cooking - Food - Recipes - Cookbook Collections" on my site contains my 1000+ cookbook collections, recipes, and other food information: http://dmreed.com

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  • 3 years later...

Hi, I drink green tea and I've heard you can use it for cooking. Just curious if anyone has had any success with this and if there are any recipe recommendations?

You can make a green tea panna cotta by soaking (optional - cardamom and) green tea in bags in the milk when you dissolve the sugar. Ice-cream could be flavoured in the same way, soaking the tea in the heated milk. Green tea can be the base of a jelly, gel or granita too.

You can also use the tea powder as a garnish or marinade for oily fish like mackerel or salmon, or add it to the cooking water for rice.

Edited by Plantes Vertes (log)
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