Cooking with Tea

[Stanley Stephan]

In a tea tasting today, it was mentioned that in China people toss tea in soups and use tea leaves as marinades.

Does anyone do this? How do you use tea leaves in cooking?

Searching the web, there's a book called Cooking with Tea. Does anyone have this? Is it any good?

Looking on the web I found a recipe for green beans with garlic and Keemum tea leaves, the very popular Chinese marbilized eggs, tea marinated pork chops, and a pot roast in jasmine tea (that sounds really nice and I have a major stash of cheap jasmine tea I've been wanting to get rid of).

One site says to add a heaping teaspoon of green tea to spagetti sauce, soups, stews or stir fries. Another suggests mixing into salads (dry?) or putting in meatballs. Anyone tried this?

In tonight's class it was said that Chinese people mix brewed tea with rice. Really.

I'm looking for savory ideas rather than sweet. Also, given my cooking skills, I'm never going to make tea leaf smoked chicken. The words ... make sure you have a good exhaust system ... terrified me.

I'm not into poaching stuff, but suggestions of poaching fish or chicken in tea sort of intrigues me.

The Stash tea site has some disgusting sounding recipes using their flavored tea bags ... lemon blossom tea bag chicken ... rasperry tea bag pork ... not my cup of tea.

Cooking with teajust sounds like such a good idea to me (and a potentially low calorie healty way to flavor food). Also, given my new over-enthusiasm for tea, I have more tea than I'm ever going to drink before it goes bad. Using it in cooking seems like a good and easy idea, so I'd appreciate any ideas.

[Celine]

There is a type of meal called "Thunder rice" (?) that is either fukienese, hainanese or hakka... I'm afraid memory fails me. Perhaps someone else can help you with this.

From what I can recall, the meal involves diners placing cooked rice, meats, vegetables and peanuts in small quantitites in big bowls, and pouring tea into the bowls to make an almost Vietnamese pho-like soup. Just with rice instead of noodles, if you know what I mean.

In other cuisines, e.g., Korean, I've had servers pour tea into our encrusted rice pots, which made a very nice and refreshing end to the meal; think a savoury and light tea soup with smoky-tasting rice bits in it

If you're thinking of using tea in western cooking, in "A New Way to Cook" , Sally Schneider recommends blitzing lapsang souchong tea in a blender till it's a fine powder, and using that as a rub on grilled/seared meats to add a smoky, almost bacon-y flavour. It works quite well. Apparently you can also add some to stews and soups to amp up, or even add, smoky flavour. She mentions that she does this often with vegetarian friends who don't take bacon or ham.

[Celine]

Just remembered.... there's a restaurant in NYC that specializes in tea-brined chicken. Use a mixture of tea and orange or pineapple juice in place of water for your brining mixture.

[chibi]

Here's one for shrimps in longjing tea...

Link: http://www.nicemeal.com/seafood/seafo...

[m'th'su]

What about throwing wet tea leaves on hot coals? I'm thinking of something like tea smoked duck cooked indirectly on a grill? I wonder if the tea would burn too fast though. Or would you just rub the meat with the tea?

[Simon Majumdar]

I put a recipe on here a while back for tea smoking in a wok

Very easy, just line with foil ( lid as well ) to protect the wok. pour a cup of rice, some tea ( i use lapsang for added smokiness ) and heat well.

place the food to be smoked on the steaming rack in the wok and place the lid on and smoke for 30 mins

great for meat, fish and even things like corn

Other ideas are a green tea ice cream, tea bread and tea soaked chicken ( just soak chicken breasts over night in lapsang or earl grey )

S

[Limster]

I've braised lamb in da4 hong2 pao2 (big red robes, a red tea) once and it worked pretty well, comparable to the times I've braised stuff in red wine. Added some fruit jam (prune maybe, can't remember) to the braise for a tiny bit of fruit and sweetness.

[david in NOLa]

Occasionally I'll deglaze with herbal iced tea (usually a mint echinacea blend) when making a pan sauce.

[Jonathan Saw]

I wouldn't shy away from the tea smoked chicken. Do a search at epicurious.com for tea smoked chicken. You'll find a recipe that does not require a restaurant grade ventilation system. I've made it before and I've never had problems. Also it makes your entire house smell like lapsang souchong (which is not a bad thing) for a few hours.

Another thing is to deglaze like David in Nola said, although I prefer a stronger black tea or a hibiscus flavored one. Gourmet also had a recipe for marinating lamb in hibiscus tea then grilling it, which was fantastic! I think a mint tea marinade would also work well with lamb. My rule of thumb here is that if the meat is usually or "classically' preapred with a sauce that has prominent herbal flavors, the corresponding herbal tea or a mixture of the herbal tea with black tea makes a great marinade.

Wish i had recipes but I usually just do this on the fly.

[Stanley Stephan]

Thank you Sister Tea (I couldn't resist)

Just curious. Do you use Chowhound's Hot Posts? It displays everything posted on the current day. I'm only asking since you mentioned the post being late. Wzsn't sure if you were loading the general board and searching down,

I made green beans tonight. In some olive oil I sauteed some garlic. I then added a cup of lapsong souchong tea to the garlic and simmered. After steaming the beans, I poured the liquid over the beans. It was wonderful. Added almost a bacon like flavor to the beans.

Will try the Earl grey and some of the other great suggestions from other posters.

[SisterT]

A little late on this one but...

I've used Earl Grey and honey on chicken before. Yummy!

and here's a link to a feature on tea with 4 links to recipes you might find interest.

Link: http://starchefs.com/cgi/ro.cgi?http:...