Culinary Tea: Seared Tuna with Tea Spice Crust

By mlb, on April 10th, 2011%

This recipe is from my newest cookbook acquisition, Culinary Tea by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern. It’s basically a whole cookbook full of recipes that use tea. Delightful! I really love the idea of using tea as a seasoning or ingredient in recipes and this book does not disappoint at all. This is the first recipe I’ve made out of the book and I loved it. I found some beautiful wild Pacific Albacore Tuna at the Zupans on Belmont that worked just perfectly here.

I have to say, I’m always surprised at how well tuna and cinnamon seem to got together. It’s a combination that seems so very, very wrong on paper but in reality it just really works. In fact, all of the tea spice crust just blends together so well with the tuna here. I also loved how the sliced tuna looked almost like sushi, with the dark, spicy crust that seemed to resemble nori. Very, very pretty.

Anyway, it may seem like there’s a lot of ingredients here (and there are) but it’s really worth it. For a lighter dinner just the . . . → Read More: Culinary Tea: Seared Tuna with Tea Spice Crust

And The Fish Continues: Seafood Chowder

By mlb, on February 5th, 2008%

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This was an experiment that turned out pretty well — fish, herbal tea and…other stuff. I am trying to come up with some new recipes for work and this is one of the first ones.

I used Stash Lemon Blossom Herbal Tea but you could also use maybe some lemon zest and Old Bay seasoning or any other seasoning mix or combination you like. I’d even try throwing some lemongrass in there perhaps. Or, just use the tea, because I know that works very well!

Lemon Blossom Seafood Chowder
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp AP flour
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek, white part cleaned well and diced
3 Lemon Blossom Tea Bags
1 sweet potato, diced into bite sized pieces (keep potato cubes in water until ready to add to soup)
1/2 cup dry white wine (chardonnay, Pinot grigio, Pinot gris, sauvignon blanc)
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 lb assorted seafood, (cut into bit-sized pieces — 1/2 lb peeled shrimp and 1/2 lb firm white fish like halibut, cod or tilipia work well…I used turbot)
1 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
fresh herbs for garnish
lemon wedges for garnish

Heat the olive . . . → Read More: And The Fish Continues: Seafood Chowder

Heart Healthy Oatmeal Green Tea Pancakes

By mlb, on January 8th, 2008%

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The original recipe called for vanilla soy milk. We didn’t have any so I used fat-free milk plus some vanilla and a bit of honey. I also messed up the ratio — I was doing a half recipe and I accidentally did not halve the whole wheat flour, which was actually no problem. The batter looked and worked just fine. In fact, if I had used the amount of flour that the recipe originally called for, I think the batter would have been too runny. So, the recipe below is exactly how I made my pancakes. Double the whole recipe to feed more than 2-3 people.

Taste-wise, I really enjoyed these. The ginger-peach green tea added just enough flavor in the background to make them interesting, while the texture was rather light and fluffy. These are, of course, healthy pancakes and you can kind of tell that while eating them. So, just, uh add a side of bacon and you’re in business. Oh! And fruit. Fresh fruit. See, healthy again!

Heart Healthy Oatmeal Green Tea Pancakes
Recipe adapted from one appearing in the Orlando Sentinel, which in turn was adapted from WomenHeart’s All Heart Family Cookbook: Featuring the 40 Foods Proven . . . → Read More: Heart Healthy Oatmeal Green Tea Pancakes

Green Tea Halloween Sugar Cookies

By mlb, on October 21st, 2007%

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Monday night, the WCC round-up* will be up but for now…it’s cookies. I altered a recipe I found at the Whole Foods web site to include matcha (powdered green tea). Where can you get matcha? Try here!

I rolled them out and used my new, cool Halloween cookie cutters for some great shapes — a bat, a ghost, cat, jack o’lantern and a witch boot. But, you could also just roll the dough into two logs, chill and slice into rounds. That would work just fine too.

I really liked the fact that this recipe calls for brown sugar. I think that it held up to the green tea taste really well.

Green Tea Halloween Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp matcha
1/2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2-3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp granulated sugar

In large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well blended.

In a separate bowl combine flour, matcha, baking powder and salt; then, with mixer at low speed, beat into butter . . . → Read More: Green Tea Halloween Sugar Cookies

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