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Here's a wonderful salmon recipe that uses tea leaves and wood chips. It is best done on the bbq as it creates a lot of smoke.

Green Tea Smoked Salmon

4 x 6 boneless, skinless salmon fillets
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 c soy sauce
1/4 c port wine
1/4 c slightly damp green tea leaves
1/4 c slightly damp wood chips
In a food processor place the garlic, honey, ginger, soy sauce and the port wine. Blend for 15 seconds. Place the salmon in a shallow pan or bowl and cover with the marinade.
Let rest in the fridge for about 1 hour. Turn over and let rest for 2 more hours.
To make a homemade smoker, you will need a cast iron pan with a lid or an old roaster lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle mixture of tea leaves and wood chips together in bottom. Place salmon pieces on a samll wire rack. Cover roaster with another layer of tin foil and then the lid. This will help to keep the smoke in.
Turn bbq to medium high and cook the salmon for 20 - 25 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let rest in the smoker for an additional 10 -15 minutes.

If you are doing this indoors, turn the burner to medium high. DO NOT PEEK, as your house will fill with smoke!! Cook as directed above.

To make the perfect cup of tea, you need to be patient but also to keep your eye on the clock. You need to be able to manage time...the ability to appreciate and manage time is crucial not only for a great tea, but also for a harmonious and fulfilled life.
TEA BLISS

Chai simply means "tea" in Hindi. Therefore, all teas are technically chais.

TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD WITH JASMINE TEA AND CHILE SYRUP

3/4 c just-under-the-boil water*
2 tbsp jasmine tea leaves
6 tbsp superfine sugar
freshly squeezed juice of 1 lime
1/2 red chile, seeded and shredded
20 fresh lychees, peeled, or 1 can of drained, and pitted lychees
1 mango, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced
1 papaya, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced

Put the hot water and tea leaves in a heatproof pitcher and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain into a saucepan and add the sugar. Cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until syrupy.
Stir in the lime juice and chile. Remove from the heat and let come to room temperature.
Put the lychees, mango, and papaya in a dish and pour over the syrup. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to let the fruit absorb the flavours of the syrup.
This is a dessert salad.
*A very good quality of white wine can be used with the jasmine tea to make the delicate fruit salad. If you feel that the syrup is not scented enough use more tea leaves. The chile will vary in strength too, but make sure that you use enough to be able to taste it-it serves as a good counterbalance to the jasmine as it would be sickly on its own.

EASY DEVONSHIRE CREAM

Beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1/2 tsp cream of tarter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla until stiff. Refrigerate and serve with scones and jam.
Tamera Bastiaans,
Tea Time Recipes


Another novelty is the tea party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment.
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,
The Physiology of Taste

Celestial Seasonings began when founder Mo Siegel and his friends picked wild herbs in the Rocky Mountains. By 1969, the same year as Woodstock, they packed 10,000 muslin bags with Mo's 36 Herb Tea and sold them to a Boulder, Colorado, health food store.

Dragon Well, grown in China, is undoubtedly the most famous of green teas. It was first recognized in the West when President Nixon was served it during a visit with Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972.


ALL PURPOSE FISH/VEGETABLE TEA RUB

4 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp finely ground dry oolong tea

Mix all ingredients together. Use generously.
Makes 8 tsps.

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.
Catherine Douzel

Black tea is the best blending tea for beginners, because its strong flavours make it the easiest to mix-you almost can't go wrong. Black tea leaves blend well with scented oils, especially rose and bergamot orange oils, lavender, dried lemon peel, peppermint, cassis, orange-tree flowers, chocolate and almond.
 

Lavender-Almond Black Tea

8oz black tea leaves
2tbsp dried lavender blossoms
1tsp almond extract
2 tbsp ground toasted almonds

Combine the tea leaves, lavender blossoms, almond extract, and ground almonds in a 16oz glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Cover and shake gently to combine, then set aside in a dry, dark, cool place overnight. Use boiling water to brew the tea, and let steep for 4-5 minutes.
Makes enough for one hundred 6-8 oz cups. Try this recipe for sun tea and iced tea.
*1tsp per 8oz cup..if making a single serving.

It is a common mistake to brew the tea until it looks a particular colour or shade. The colour is a poor indicator of a tea's taste.

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.
Samuel Johnson

Tea-Marinated Chops

2 tbsp any brewed fruit flavoured tea
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp Dijon mustard
1tsp black pepper
1tsp ground ginger
4 4oz boneless pork chops or lamb chops

In a small bowl, stir together the brewed tea, brown sugar, cinnamon, mustard, pepper, and ginger. Pour the mixture into a large resealable plastic bag. Add the chops. Allow to sit in fridge overnight.

Place in crock pot and turn to low setting, cook approx 6 hours.
Can be also be roasted in the oven with the marinade, or grilled on the bbq, (discard the marinade).


Steam rises from a cup of tea
and we are wrapped in history,
inhaling ancient times and lands,
comfort of ages in our hands.
Faith Greenbowl

Launched in 1869, the world's only surviving tea clipper is the Cutty Sark. Today, more than 15 million people have visited the restored ship at a custom-built dry dock in Greenwich, England.

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Thursday, September 01, 2011