Cooking With Tea

Just as fine teas are marvelous for drinking along with a meal, they can add depth and wonderful flavor to the meal itself. More chefs are bringing teas into the kitchen. Tea’s innate flavor is easily transferred in many recipes. Experimenting with tea in recipes is catching on in restaurants around the country. Teas are waking up traditional fare from appetizers to desserts. Techniques of cooking with tea use dried leaves or brewed tea for rubs, infused juices, sauces, creams, stocks, smoking and garnishing. Both loose leaf and teabags can be used to brew the tea for cooking purposes, but the highest-quality ingredients will always yield the best product. In this case, teas should be treated like herbs and aromatic spices. Brewing tea for cooking is slightly different than brewing for drinking. The main difference is that cooking with tea calls for steeping the leaves in cooler water, since boiling water increases astringency. Use water at a temperature of 185 degrees F or lower, and infuse the tea for three to five minutes. Or, brewing the tea leaves at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes eliminates residual bitterness and excess astringency. Cooking with brewed tea can add a richness of flavor and color to gravies, stews, marinades, stocks and cream- or fruit-based sauces. The dried leaves may be used to add punch to a spice rub encrusting meats and fish, provide tinder when smoking foods and add crunch to salads. They can even be used as a pretty, delicious and unique garnish. Teas enhance menu items with their flavor and texture. Whether used in the meal or as an accompanying beverage, tea offers a wide variety of flavor profiles to excite the senses. ?Innovative recipes for professional chefs can be found in COOKING WITH TEA by Robert Wemischner and Diana Rosen. About the Book COOKING WITH TEA: Techniques and Recipes for Appetizers, Entrees and more. Published by Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 9-789625-938165 Hardcover, 146 pages, $35.00 Available on www.amazon.com. Or Call 1-800-526-2778 to order About the Authors Robert Wemischner is a chef, baker, culinary instructor and writer. In addition to his two cookbooks, "The Vivid Flavors Cookbook" and the new "Cooking with Tea," he writes for a variety of publications. Diana Rosen Co-writer of "Cooking with Tea", Rosen provided tea expertise gleaned from 11 years as editor of Tea Talk, a newsletter on the pleasures of tea. She has penned four books on tea including "Chai: The Spice Tea of India" and "The Book of Green Tea." Recipe from the Book CHAI ROS MALAI This substitute for the fresh sweet cheese of India, paneer, is augmented by the addition of masala chai concentrate. The extra sweet spices lend an intoxicating aroma to the sauce for this delectable cream. Ingredients: 1 lb. ricotta cheese (whole milk or part skim) 4 cups milk 1/2 cup granulated sugar 5 whole green cardamom pods 1 stick cinnamon 4 whole cloves 2 T masala chai concentrate Directions: Remove excess moisture from ricotta but setting it in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and refrigerate overnight, covered. Make creamy sauce by bringing the milk, sugar, spices and masala chai to a boil in a saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently and deeply into the bottom of the pot until the mixture reduces enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from pot and pour through fine meshed sieve to remove solids then place in a bowl. Cool, then refrigerate, covered until thoroughly chilled. Remove ricotta cheese and sauce from the refrigerator. Pour a small amount of the sauce on each place. Using two large soups spoons dipped in hot water, form the ricotta into oval shaped portions. Center one ricotta oval on each plate and cover thoroughly with the remaining sauces. Serves six.