Eating Tea

Eating Tea

I like tea.

My first post on LTHForum.com was about tea.

My most recent piece on WBEZ was about tea.

Years ago, I started getting interested in tea as an ingredient in food. At that time, all I could find on that topic with was a relatively obscure Burmese recipe that incorporated tea with, I think, chicken, and of course tea-smoked duck at Lao Sze Chuan.

I am glad to say that tea is coming into its own as a flavor agent in food and cocktails.

Few days ago, The Wife and I went to Marion Street Cheese Market for a kind of vendor fair. Chef Lenoard Hollander prepared a salmon cured in green tea, which conveyed a mild, complementary herbal note.



We also had shiitake mushroom caps marinated in pu-erh, one of the few “aged” teas on the market, with deep, dark tastes that worked well with the mushroom.

Tea has such an incredible range of flavors, much like wine only subtler, and I’m excited to see it used as an ingredient in food and drink.

Adam Seeger did a cool drink of Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, and Hum, which felt disarmingly bracing, invigorating and healthy to drink.



I'd love to hear about other tea-as-ingredient preparations you may have come across.

In L.A. circa 1990 I was approached by John Harney of Harney Tea to use his product @ the hotel I was running (the Sunset Marquis). Forever the punk, I told him I wanted to cook with it as well as drink it. He suggested using Lobsang Souchong because of it's smoky flavor profile. I ended up poaching wild salmon in it w/some aromatics, sauced it w/a hoisin glacage that we finished under the salamander (broiler) to brown and plated it w/Chinese long beans that we tied in knots. The smoke flavor and the salmon are classic (lox) and the poaching lent itself very well to the less fatty wild salmon, keeping it very moist. Great dish.

Laphet is a common dish in Burma which is made from pickled tea leaves. I had it once at Taste of Burma and really enjoyed it. A friend of mine is Burmese and when he told his mother I liked it, he brought me a tupperware full of the stuff. I ate it when I got home that night, and while it was absolutely delicious, I couldn't sleep that night because of the ridiculous caffeine rush. Lesson learned.

Perhaps you would be interested in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Tea-Reci ... 183&sr=8-1

I haven't made anything in it yet, but the photos make everything look delicious.

Though not real tea leaves, I have a pretty delicious style of grilling a fish. Blackberry Celestial Seasonings. Liberally sprinkle it on your cut of fish (the parts where there is exposed flesh will make for better flavoring, obviously,) and let the fish absorb the essence / flavor for a few hours at least. Then season and grill as normal. I normally pair this with a very light fruit salsa, cucumber salsa, or a tzatziki.

You left out tea-smoked duck. I've used the same technique on chicken wings, and it's outstanding.

I've had a liqueur called Tiffin, flavored with tea, that would work very nicely for flavoring cakes and cookies.

The Bigelow website has a treasure trove of recipes using tea.

http://www.bigelowtea.com/recipes.aspx

One I wanted to try is Constant Comment Tea Cake or Spice Cake

http://www.bigelowtea.com/recipes/desse ... -cake.aspx

I am intrigued at the idea of cooking with tea.

I've made jasmine, Earl Grey and matcha green tea-flavored macarons recently.

Ate at Xmark pop-up called Flour & Bones at Dodo last Friday with other LTH'ers

There was a smoked tofu app, that I thought was tea smoked. It was delicious.

pairs4life wrote:Ate at Xmark pop-up called Flour & Bones at Dodo last Friday with other LTH'ers

There was a smoked tofu app, that I thought was tea smoked. It was delicious.

That seems like an excellent combo. Tofu is so neutral, and tea smoke so light, that I could see how they'd work together well. I'd love to try smoking tofu with tea, but I'll have to give some thought to how I might do that.

I do love Earl Grey, chocolate, not so much, but I adore this Chocolate Earl Grey cake. It's been a simple standby forever in our home.

Hi,

Burmese eat tea. I have in my cupboard a Burmese tea salad (I think it is salad) kit from Burma, a gift from CrazyC.

Regards,

There's also the beautiful Chinese tea eggs.

English Breakfast Tea gelato at Publican, over a springtime rhubarb clafoutis = love.

Cooking Channel is re-running Gale Gand's fine "Sweet Dreams" series at present, and the show this very morning was devoted to tea desserts/confectionery:

"Tea-riffic Treats"