Tantalising ideas for cooking with tea
From the teapot to the cooking pot
It’s not just coffee that goes a long way in the kitchen! Oh no – tea, of which some of us are partial to a cup of, is also an unsung hero in culinary adventures. According to NPR’s Bonny Wolf], tea is set to be one of the food trends of 2014
Around the word tea has been added into traditional savoury recipes stretching back hundreds of years. Generally speaking when adding tea as an ingredient you will want to take into consideration the taste of the final product – so chose your variety wisely!
With such a varied selection of tea on the market it is really easy to find a blend that will give you a fantastic finishing flavour.
The most common ways to add tea into your cooking are:
- Replace water with teas in soups or stews
- Infuse milk or other liquids with tea. Imagine some Darjeeling flavoured custard!
- Melted solids such as chocolate or butter could be infused with tea and then reformed. Think of homemade Chai Chocolate.
- Putting powered tea into a spice grinder. Or, use it as a meat rub.
- Use tea leaves in a smoking process. This is particularly good with chicken and other poultry dishes.
- As a simple marinade. Just make a pot of tea, allow it to cool and then submerge the meat. The brew also helps to tenderise the meat as well.
- Drop a pinch of tea into ‘boiling foods’ such as vegetables, rice, noodles or fish to add an extra layer of depth and complexity to the flavour.
Many of the traditional tea-infused dishes come from the Orient. Green tea has also been used medicinally for many centuries so recipes, especially including green tea, are not only in abundance but they will also be a great aid for digestion.
We would recommend a good, strong flavoured tea when cooking like Assam, Earl Grey or, if you want an extra kick, Teapigs’ Chilli Chai.
To view the wide selection of teas that we sell follow this link and happy cooking!