Monday, November 14, 2011

Daring to do it: Cooking with Tea

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I feel like I owe Sarah an apology - I don't feel like I did this challenge the justice it deserves. I love the idea of cooking with tea. It is something I would have never thought to do, and yet now I have ideas bubbling away like crazy! Unfortunately, though, I never seemed to get around to most of them... I hope that I will keep this idea in mind, though, and keep using tea for more than just a warm and relaxing beverage!
I did create two tea inspired dishes. Here are my variations:
Pasta with sauteed cabbage, onions, and lentils cooked in green tea with lemon:


Cranberry oat bread, oats cooked in decaf chai tea:




Both of these dishes were delicious. The tea flavor was much more pronounced in the cake, which was amazing. The light lemon flavor in the lentils, though, added a great, fresh touch which is something I will keep in mind in future lentil dishes!
Thank you, Sarah, for such a great challenge. I love the creativity you inspired with your recipes, and the freedom you gave us to explore on our own! I recommend that you look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks created!

10 comments:

  1. Ruth, I love what you did, specially the cake. I never thought the tea flavor would be so pronounced! I really felt sorry I had to sit this one out. There were so many things going on at the same time I just couldn't manage.
    You did a wonderful job, as always :)

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  2. Great job! It is so fun to see how many new and unexpected places we can put tea! That cake looks amazing!

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  3. Great ideas! The chai oat cake sounds fantastic. I love the idea of that warm spice coming through with the oats. Yum!

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  4. Great Ideas! I love the bread, can't wait to try it. I think you did good!!

    Come see me at http://www.willcookforsmiles.com/

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  5. Love the tea-cooked lentils on their own - then adding to pasta with cabbage must take it over the top. Sounds really wonderful!

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  6. Yum, the pasta must've tasted delicious...your cranberry cake looks yumm! Great job Ruth!

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  7. Both your creations look and sound delicious - brilliantly done!

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  8. You may not have felt like you did the challenge effectively but you certainly have me craving creamy pasta with peas and lemon!

    - Heather at www.teawithmeblog.com

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  9. You did a great job as always Ruth, I really love both your recipes and can't wait to give them a try.

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  10. No apologies needed, for sure! (Although I would love to hear more about what you create in the future.) Cooking lentils with lemon green tea seems like a superb idea and I imagine the lentils would be really lifted by the lemony flavour. And soaking the oats for the bread is also a new idea for me that seems brilliant. Thank you so much for taking part this month!

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