Cooking with tea.

Great topic! I’ve only used tea a couple of times in cooking so far. One was a green tea steamed cake made using matcha. Recipe can be found here: http://justonecookbook.com/blog/recipes/green-tea-steamed-cake/.

The other was poached pears with some Stash Green Chai tea bags I was trying to use up. I added the tea bags to the poaching liquid to infuse the pears with the spices from the tea.

Both came out pretty good however I was expecting a more dominant green tea flavor like in mochi and ice cream and the tea flavor in both was somewhat muted. I still like the idea of cooking with tea though so I’ll keep experimenting till I get it right. If anyone has any recipes using tea, please do share.

I love making matcha pudding, which I guess really isn’t cooking :)

Another option that I have seen done, but never tried, is a tea infused oil.

Brewed tea makes a great marinade for tofu, imparting subtle flavors like in this recipe for Crisp Genmaicha Tofu with Shiitakes and Savoy Cabbage. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/crisp-genmaicha-tofu-shiitakes-50400000119089/

I also really enjoy Green Rice, made by mixing used Gyokuro leaves in with white rice.

I recently tried putting a loose leaf tea in some basic oat cookies. Not brewed, just the leaves. I was pleasantly surprised with how nice they turned out, though I think a key is adding plenty of the leaves. Next time I’ll be adding more!

I love doing early grey cake. I usually steep enough tea for two pots in 1/2 C. water or milk and add to a plainer recipe (or just throw everything into a bowl and see what happens).
You either need a sweater earl Grey, like our Kathryne Earl Grey (which has citrus notes that go well in cakes) or add extra sugar. Or start with a sweeter cake or have a less sweet cake if you like.

I’ve used a few teas as flavouring for bread and cookies.

My inspiration was to cook for a friends family gathering, all Native Indian. I have cooked many an Indian meal but I felt hard pressed to go outside the limits of 6th St. little India in NYC. I made the Patriarch of this family a dish of spiced chickpeas, where I used Darjeeling tea for the water to cook the chickpeas. It rounded out the flavors of the savory spices as well as the garam masala to make every one wonder what was done different than the usual spiced chickpeas. Beyond humbling was it when he appreciated a foreigners interpretation of his cuisine in its intricacies. The power of TEA.

I cook with tea all the time, I cooked a roast the other day with Lapsang Souchong tea it added a really nice taste to it, my hubby loved it!

My favorites are tea leaf eggs.
I also use tea as a marinade…
Love Ochazuki dishes as well.

Wow, these are all great suggestions and recipes. We especially enjoyed your story, BigDaddy. We’ll also definitely be trying the green tea steamed cake recipe, LuckyMe. Thanks for sharing!