Photo courtsey Lepiaf.Geo

There is a old tradition of high tea in England and other parts of the United Kingdom where one relaxes in the afternoon with a pot of tea and some delicious finger sandwiches. If you are visiting UK this summer, please do plan ahead to take tea at Ritz or one of the ubiquitous tea rooms. For others who are not planning on travelling, an alternative is to create the experience at home. Our friend, Ms. Margaret Johnson, at Pitsburgh Live has published an article with some great recipes of food served with tea at some of the most famous hotels in UK. Please do try these out and let us know how you liked it. If you have recipes of your own, please share them with us. We would love to share them with our other readers!

Below is a shortened version of the Goat Cheese & Fig Sandwich on Raisin Bread… For more recipes, please check out the article here…

Afternoon tea at Dublin’s Four Seasons Hotel includes a lovely fruit-and-cheese sandwich on raisin bread.

Boil 1 ten oz pack of figs in 1 1/2 cup of water. Add 2-3 tsp sugar and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Add lemon juice (1-2 tsp) and blend the tender figs in a food blender until it becomes a smooth paste. Separately, breakup the goat cheese (4 oz) and add 2 tbsp milk, whisk until smooth.

Making sandwiches: Cut the edges of raisin bread slices with a knife and toast them lightly. On one slice, spread the goat cheese and on the other spread the fig paste. Bring the two slices together and cut across to make four small triangles. Serve with Hot tea!

Be sure to visit the article for the Salmon Mousse Pinwheels and Truffled Wild Mushrooms Tartlets

Photo courtesy: http://www.thebittenword.com

Just as ground hog day heralds the arrival of Spring, Memorial day heralds the arrival of “barbecue” season. THa annals of cooking are filled with lore about Southern barbecue ribs served with ice cold tea. But this memorial day, why not add some flair to your barbecue and introduce your friends and family to a variation of barbecue that includes tea.

There are several ways to include tea into your barbecue. One quick way is to brew some very strong tea, and mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce. Our Ananda tea is perfect for this quick method. Here is how you would prepare the sauce:

• Allow half cup water to come to a boil.
• Add two tea spoon of Ananda tea, and allow it to boil for 4-5 minutes
• Strain the tea using a regular tea strainer
• Mix one part of tea to two parts of your favorite barbecue sauce
• Rub the marinade over ribs or chicken or tofu per your preference and barbecue as per your favorite method

Another method is a variation of the Chicken Tikka dish, and utilizes lighter darjeeling tea. Here is my receipe, which you can try out this barbecue season.

• 4 tea spoon Rungmook Cedar Tea
• 1 Cup Yoghurt
• One bunch fresh coriander leaves
• 2 Tea Spoon Ginger paste
• 2 Tea Spoon Garlic paste
• 4 Tea Spoon Garam Masala (Can be purchased here)
• 1 Tea Spoon Chillie Powder (less if desired)
• 4 Tea Spoon Lemon Juice
• 1 kg chicken (breast or thigh) skinless and cut into 2″ chunks
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped capsicum
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots

• Soak tea in just enough warm water.
• Mix yogurt, soaked tea leaves, chillie powder, garlic & ginger paste, Garam masala in a bowl
• Rub marinade on chicken breast(s) and leave overnight in the refrigerator to marinate
• Next morning, drain the excess marinade off and grill chicken breast on medium flame for 10 minutes or more until well cooked
• Spread chopped carrots, chopped capsicum and onion on a plate to make a bed. Place grilled chicken on the bed and sprinkle lemon juice and salt over it. Serve hot

Of course, no barbecue is complete without iced tea. To make iced tea for a large number of people, its often better and cheaper to make iced tea with loose tea. Here is how to make iced tea.

• Bring two cups of water to boil
• Add six tea spoons of Mangalam Estate Assam Tea and boil for 4-5 minutes
• Strain tea into a large container and dissolve two cups of sugar (or Splenda - for diabetics)
• Allow to cool and add six cups of chilled water
• serve chilled on ice cubes

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Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi, President, Jaya Tea
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Click this link to check out this article from Nutrition & Metabolism.

Marc Winnefeld led a team of researchers from Beiersdorf AG, Germany, who studied the biological effects of an extract of white tea – the least processed version of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. He said, “In the industrialized countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem. We’ve shown that white tea may be an ideal natural source of slimming substances”.

We have known this for a while, but its good to see the results reaffirmed.

White tea is made from the buds and first leaves of the plant used to make green tea and the black tea most commonly drunk in Western countries. It is less processed than the other teas and contains more of the ingredients thought to be active on human cells, such as methylxanthines (like caffeine) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) – which the authors believe to be responsible for many of the anti-adipogenic effects demonstrated in their study.

While they are right, fact remains that processing tea doesn’t really diminish the EGCG, it merely oxidises them. So if Green tea or Oolong or Black tea is your fav, do not despair. You will get very similar results from those teas as well. Just don’t add any SUGAR to your tea, please! Adding sugar is like working out for an hour and then consuming a six pack of beer - negating the whole point of working out!

A tea afficianado will tell you that it takes time to learn to brew great tea. True, but its also fairly easy to learn how to brew good tea. Just learn the Five “T”s of brewing good tea, Tea, waTer, Temperature, Time and Taste, and you will be brewing outstanding tea in no time! Let me walk you through the five Ts.

1) The first “T” is “Tea”. This may sound silly, but really, more than 90% of the quality of the brew is going to depend on the quality of the tea that you select. Fortunately today it is easy to buy outstanding tea. Compared to the yesteryears, when you had to be in a big city like Philadelphia, New York or Boston to get really good tea, today in North America there is almost a rennaisance in the tea culture, and you can find really outstanding teas just by going online.

In your vendor selection, try to be very selective about who you choose for your tea purchase. Read the reviews, email the owner and learn as much about the vendor as possible before buying from them. Be aware that there are two types of vendors, A speciality tea vendor that specializes in tea from certain parts of the world - China or India or Celon etc, or a general vendor who sells every thing under the banner of tea, including the crazy fruity blends to Yerba Mate to Roiboos. Generally speaking, the specialist vendor tends to know more about their tea and will in fact point you in the right direction rather than try to sell you a lot of different types of tea. So select the vendor carefully and with a good tea, you are already on the way to making an outstanding brew.

2) WaTer: The second biggest factor that influences tea brew is waTer. Heavily chlorinated water from the tap completely destroys the flavors in tea, so avoid the chlorinated tap water. Distilled water is fine, but in my experience tea tastes better with spring water than distilled water.

Beware though, that not all spring waters are created equal. My advice is, buy four or five different types of spring waters and brew the teas in them separately to see which one brings out the tea flavor the best. You may even want to test the “filter” water from one of the home filter companies. These filters not only filter the water, but also add some trace amounts of salts, and do a pretty good job in brewing tea. Bottom line, avoid chlorinated tap water and choose filtered water or spring water.

3) The third tea is “Temperature”. The general rule of thumb is, lower temperatures for Whites and Greens, and higher temperatures for Oolongs and Black teas. Mind you, the puritans go crazy over this “T” buying a kitchen thermometer and being really precise about it, but brewing good tea is not about precision, its about enjoyment. So follow this simple advice. If you are brewing a green tea, bring the water to a boil, turn the stove off, and wait for 4-5 minutes before pouring it on the green tea. For Oolong, wait 2-3 minutes, and for black tea, use boiling water. This should take care of “temperature”, but feel free to experiment around with the wait times and I am sure you will arrive at the temperature that is right for you!

4) “Time”. In my opinion, this is the most flexible “T” that you can work with. Again, the general rule of thumb is, lowest amount of time for “Green teas and Oolongs”, and most amount of time for “black tea”. So, start out with 30 seconds for green tea, and increase it in 30 second increments to arrive at the right time. On the other hand, for black tea, start with 2.5 minutes, and experiment it by going up till you come to the right amount of time.

5) And the final T is “Taste”: When we started selling teas in United States, one of the most common complaint we heard was that our teas were too astringent. I found that very surprising, because in India and other countries like Germany the astringency of tea is found to be quite welcoming! Slowly we learned that Americans prefer mellow and sweetish tea. So, when you are buying tea, be sure to ask the vendor about the astringency profile of the tea. If it is very astringent and you prefer sweet tea, you might be better off selecting a different tea.

On the other hand, you will realize that if you modulate the first four “T”s correctly, almost any tea will produce a satisfactory brew - even the most astringent one.

So, there you have it, five “T”s to help you prepare an outstanding tea. Easy to remember, easy to implement - Tea, Water, Temperature, Time and Taste. Its really not that complicated!

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Article Title: Five “T”s of Brewing Good Tea
Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi
Authors website: http://www.jayateas.com
About the author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi is the President of Jaya Teas, LLC. Dr. Pareek grew up in India in a family steeped in tea industry and tea lore. Many of Dr. Pareek’s uncles and cousins are involved in the Indian tea industry and so, although a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Pareek decided to use her family connections for the benefit of US tea customer, by starting a tea company . Jaya Teas, which specialises in teas from India, has been open for business since 2004. Dr. Pareek invites readers to contribute their comments on her blog Chaiwalah, which can be found at http://www.jayateas.com/blog/
You are free to replicate this article else where, as long as this box remains intact, including the clickable links in this box
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My dear friend Supriya Raman wrote today drawing my attention to her weblog, Ode2Food which again highlighted for me how far Indian cooking has come in the United States! Once there was a time where you couldn’t find a Indian recipe book in the local library. But today, there has been a tsunami of Indian cuisine weblogs, each showing the reader that there are a myriad Indian ways in which food can be cooked and enjoyed. Power to the people!!

Alas, some one needs to tell this to my local Indian restauranteurs in New Jersey, for despite how many restaurants I visit, I find the same run-of-the-mill food that goes under the all encompassing “Punjabi” cuisine! Or go to the south Indian restaurants and you will find the same “Idli” or “Dosa”! So frustrating, to say the least.

But Supriya’s weblog demonstrated for me once again that one need not look too far to find delicious ways of enjoying Indian cuisine. Take the Sesame seed powder recipe that Supriya discusses on her blog. Would it be so difficult to offer this in the restaurant?

So why is it that Indian restauranteurs don’t want to offer the authentic Indian cuisine? I think there is one and only reason…restauranteurs are mortally afraid of veering away from the true and tried formula. If the clientele doesn’t like what is served, they may never return, so why take a chance on something new when the run-of-the-mill will earn you a quick buck? I sympathize with the restaurant owners, but come on, some body’s got to lead the way out of this!

Fat chance of that happening. So, I say to my American friends, if you want to taste the “real” Indian cuisine, don’t expect much from the local Indian restaurant. Instead, head over to the speciality Indian food blogs that discuss how food was “really” cooked in their household by their mothers and grand mothers, and try it out in your own kitchen. You may make a mistake or two, but once you have mastered the alchemy of Indian cooking, you will never need to taste the bland food that passes up for “authentic Indian food” in your local restaurant.

Thank you Supriya, for making my life just a bit more interesting with the Sesame Podi. I will try it immediately with my family.

BTW, I googled Gingelly Oil, and learned that its Sesame Oil, of which I have plenty in my kitchen since I use it in Chinese cooking.

What is tea without a snack. So, today I will share with you a simple recipe which would help your afternoon tea a pleasant one. Todays recipe is called Dhokla.

Ingredients: You can find most of these ingredients in an Indian ethnic food store. If you cannot find them locally, email me, and I will try to help you in sourcing them.

• Two cups of chick pea flour
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds
• Freshly grated coconut - 1/2 cups
• Green chillies - 5 cut lenght wise
• Coriander - one cup chopped
• Eno fruit salt
• Sugar - 4 tsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Make batter of the chick pea flour to the consistency of pancake batter. Add turmeric powder to it, and salt to taste. Prepare a wok for steaming. When the water starts steaming, add Eno fruitsalt, Sugar, and lemon juice to the batter and mix it well. Immediately, pour the batter into a oiled heat resistant plate, and steam the
batter for 12 minutes.

Once the batter is steamed, remove the plate from the wok and allow it to cool. With a knife, cut the dhoklas into small 1 x 2 inch pieces.

Separately, heat three teaspoons olive oil, and add mustard seeds. Continue to heat till the mustard seeds start popping. Remove the oil from heat, and add chopped chillies. Allow the oil to cool. Once it is cool, spread the oil with mustard seeds and green chillies on to the puffed dhoklas. Spread grated coconut & chopped coriander on the dhoklas. Serve with tea.