Tea Sippers

Today, we will add a bit more about cooking with tea, both the infusion and the leaves themselves. One thing the co-owners of the Numi Tea Garden in Oakland found while creating recipes and tea pairings over the last couple months, was that different teas work well paired with cheeses. Examples offered were goat cheese with green tea and sharp cheddars with rich black teas.

In addition, when Chef Craig Patzer at the Jardiniere in San Francisco was asked to create a three course meal that was based on tea paired with Tazo tea cocktails, he got a real education. He learned there are a lot of similarities between cooking with wine and cooking with tea. However, since tea is not as acidic as wine, an acidic component had to be added to prevent a flat tasting food. Choosing what tea to use because of all the different types, black, green, and white as well as the herbals, is what made the process difficult.

One thing he discovered that he really liked was smoking meats, especially chicken, with tea leaves as opposed to using wood chips. He said it has been done for 2000 years in China and gives the meat a sweeter more complex flavor than does wood.

And Molly Zahner of Farmer’s Village cookies provides tea enhanced cookies for the Numi Tea Garden mentioned above. She had to experiment to get things right and found that baking cookies with tea means you should treat the tea as a spice, perhaps like cinnamon. She would grind the leaves and add the powder to the cookie recipe. During baking, she realized that the oils that had been released during grinding were further released in the heat of the oven, especially using a chai tea. Lastly, she said not to serve the same tea as a drink that is in the cookies.

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/living/ci_9015070