BY: ROCHELLE BILLOW
http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/how-to-cook-with-tea
We love a good, hot mug of matcha, tisane, or Darjeeling, but lately we’ve been thinking about ways to get a little more creative with tea. Our favorite teas are fast becoming one of our favorite ways to add grassy, herbal, sweet, and even smoky notes to our cooking repertoire. From silky puddings to buttery cookies and even stir-fries and butter, here’s how to eat more tea.
1. Bake Cookies
Tea is a perfect complement to the buttery, sweet note of shortbread and sugar cookies. Instead of the more traditional vanilla, flavor your cookie dough with matcha powder, or looseleaf tea leaves that have been ground into a powder (you can use either a mortar and pestle, or electric coffee or spice grinder). Don’t have access to looseleaf tea? Just rip open a few teabags. And don’t stop with the dough: The Matcha-White Chocolate Sugar Cookies (pictured above) are flavored with double the tea. Two tablespoons of matcha go into the dough, which is then rolled in a tea sugar, made with half a teaspoon of matcha and half a cup of granulated sugar.
2. Infuse Dairy
Infusing milk or cream is simple. Just add a sweet or savory flavoring agent to milk or cream, then slowly heat it to just below boiling. Let it cool completely, and strain out the solids. This process works with vanilla beans, garlic, and cooking herbs, to name a few. With tea, there are just as many possibilities. Using looseleaf tea to infuse your dairy is a sneaky way to add flavor and fragrance without the tragedy of a mouthful of bergamot—don’t forget to strain the leaves. Earthy, grassy sencha can add a savory note to béchamel or cream sauce for pasta and rice, while herbal tisanes (think rose, lavender, and chamomile) are perfect for crème brûlées and sweet ice creams.
3. Flavor a Stir-Fry
Nutty-tasting genmaicha (a mixture of green tea and puffed rice and corn) is great used as a seasoning. When the leaves hit the hot pan, they unfurl and become toasted. Meanwhile, the corn and rice picks up a golden, roasty flavor that’s an excellent addition to quickly seared greens, root vegetables, and meats. Stick with heartier, more savory teas, and save the sweet tisanes and fruit blends for dessert.
Looseleaf teas have a more robust flavor than bagged varieties. Photo: Gisel Florez
4. Use It As a Rub
Adding tea leaves to the usual rub suspects, like salt, brown sugar, and garlic, adds a savory “Whoa, what is that?” note to quick-cooking meats like flank or skirt steak, as well as low-and-slow cooked cuts like pork shoulder and ribs. Try smoky lapsang souchong to infuse the meat with a “cooked over the campfire” scent and flavor.
5. Work It Into Pasta
Adding green tea powder to homemade pasta dough imbues it with a pretty pale green color and an herbaceous flavor that’s ideal in noodle soups. If you’re not up for the challenge of homemade noodles, dried green tea soba noodles, traditional to Japanese cooking, are readily found at many supermarkets, health food stores, and ethnic food shops.
6. Make Tea Butter
Consider this a G-rated version of herb butter. To make it, let unsalted butter sit at room temperature until very soft and pliable. Mix together the butter with tea leaves (either whole or ground; ground will change the color of the butter completely, while leaves will add streaky abstract designs). Shape the mixed butter into a log and wrap well in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge to firm back up, or keep it soft and slather it on freshly baked bread and biscuits.
7. Swap Stock for Tea
Cooking grains, like rice, barley, buckwheat, or quinoa? Use a lightly brewed tea instead of (or in addition to) stock.
le bon oeuf 