Tea Recipe

Lavender Mint Tea - Recipe More Healthy Food Solutions
Excerpted from Excerpted from 500 Treasured Country Recipes, by Martha Storey.

Lavender adds a pleasant but not too flowery contrast to the sweetness of mint in this herbal tea that is refreshing hot or cold.

There are teas for all occasions: for morning, afternoon, and bedtime, teas to soothe, and teas to stimulate. In recent years, our appreciation of tea has expanded to include herbal tisanes (some of which are centuries old) and a wide array of green teas, barks, and spices. Taking a break for tea or making a pot to share with a companion is somehow very relaxing.

Lavender Mint Tea

1 teaspoon fresh lavender flowers or 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves or 2 teaspoons dried mint
1 cup boiling water

1. In a teapot, combine the lavender flowers and mint. Pour boiling water over the mixture; steep 5 minutes.
Yield: 1 cup

Variation: For more interesting blends, add rosemary, lemon balm or lemon verbena, and rose geranium.

Three ways to Make Iced Tea Brewed Tea. Make tea approximately double strength and steep only 5 minutes. Pour into a pitcher over an equal amount of ice. (If you are using a glass pitcher, let the tea cool before pouring it in.) If you sweeten the tea while it is hot, you'll need only half as much sugar.

Refrigerator Tea. Follow the procedure for sun tea, except let the mixture brew in the refrigerator overnight. This method has two advantages: When it's done, it's already cold, and no matter how long it sits, it doesn't get cloudy.

Sun Tea. In a glass jar or pitcher, place 1 teaspoon of loose tea or 1 tea bag per pint or tap water (with sugar, if you wish). Cover and set in the sun for 1 hour or so. Timing is not critical - because the water doesn't boil, the tea will not get bitter.

Iced Tea

Ingredients
8 tea bags
Ice cubes
Super fine sugar (optional)
Lemon slices (optional)

Directions
In a large saucepan, bring 4 cups of cold water to a boil. Remove water from heat and add tea bags. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and pour into a pitcher. Add 4 cups of cold water and stir. Add sugar and lemon to taste. Seve over ice.

(The above cited from Everyday Cook, Inc.)

Bubble Tea
(Bubble teas are the latest fad to hit the Asian tea industry. Feel free to adjust this recipe according to your own tea and flavoring preferences)

3 ounces tapioca pearls
sugar syrup
1 cup brewed tea (Chinese black tea or lychee tea is good)
1 cup milk (or to taste)
Ice cubes

Directions
Prepare the sugar syrup for the tapioca pearls (see below).
Prepare the tapioca pearls (see below)
Place the tapioca pearls in the large glass jar
Allow the tea to cool to room temperature. Add the milk.
Remember the wild bar scenes in the Tom Cruise film Cocktail? Add the sugar syrup, milk and tea mix, and the ice cubes to a cocktail shaker and shake well. (Alternately you can process them in a blender, but that's not nearly as much fun!)
Pour the shaken mixture into the glass with the tapioca pearls. Serve with a thick straw.

Tapioca Pearls - these are the chief ingredient in Asian bubble teas.

Please note that the pearls expand considerably when cooked. Please ensure that you use a large pot.

1 part tapioca pearls
4 parts (or more) water
(as a rule, the more pearls cooked, the more water should be used: that is, the water to pearl ratio must be higher. For 3kgs of pearls, we recommend using as much as 6 times as much water)

Directions:
Boil the water. Add the pearls to the boiling water and boil for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the pearls are not sticking to each other or to the pot. Turn off heat and let the pearls steep in the water for another 30 minutes with the lid of the cooking pot on.
Drain the tapioca pearls and rinse with cold water to cool them down. Place them in sugar syrup (sugar and water solution - see below). Make sure that the pearls are covered. Stir the pearls well.
The pearls are now ready to enjoy.

Note: To prevent the pearls from sticking to each other and to the pot, there must be enough water and the pearls must be stirred.

Sugar Syrup

2 parts white sugar
1 part brown sugar
3 parts water

In a saucepan, bring the water to boil. Add the sugars. Reduce heat and heat until the sugar crystals are dissolved. Remove from heat.

Note: Please feel free to experiment with the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar, and the ratio of the sugar to water.

Both the Tapioca Pearls and Sugar Syrup recipes are reprinted with permission from the Bruce & Clark Bubble Tea site, an excellent resource for information on bubble teas.

(The Above cited from the website "Chinese Cuisine")

Green Tea Potato Salad

Green tea is non-fermented tea. Green tea has always been one of the most famous tea in ancient China, Japan and Korea. It has been scientifically proofed that green tea may prevent cancer. Green tea provides natural tea flavor and beautiful color of soup base. The disadvantage of using green tea is taht green tea can't be cookedin high temperature and can't be over-cooked.

Ingredients:

2 eggs, mayonnaise
2 tea spoon of green tea powder
1 tea spoon of green tea powder
a few cherry or strawberry (for decorating)

Directions:

1 peel potoatoes, boil potatoes till done.
2 boil two egges to well done.
3 make potato and egg mash while they are still hot. put mash into container and put in refrigerator until it's cool.
4 put mashed potato and egg into a bowl to make round shape pastes
5 sprinkle green tea powder on potato paste (uniformly cover the surface of potato paste). put mayonnaise on potato and egg mixed paste with cake decroating bag and tip to decorate the potato and egg mixed paste.
6 put cherry of strawberry on top before serving.

(The Above cited from the website "Anything about tea")

Green Tea Chicken Noodle Soup

From Cooking With Green Tea by Ying Chang Compestine

In this soup, the green tea-marinated chicken is paired with rice noodles. The soup is fresh and cooling. This nurturing dish is ideal for a cold winter day, a new mother or a sick friend. Bean thread noodles can be quite slippery, challenging your skill with chopsticks, so keep a fork handy.

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken. Cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1/2 cup brewed green tea
5 ounces dry bean thread noodles
4 cups chicken stock (see below)
2 (1/2 inch-thick) slices ginger root, lightly mashed
1/2 cup oyster mushrooms, cubed
3 cups packed spinach leaves, large stems removed
salt and white pepper, to taste
1 Tablespoon fresh mint leaves or cilantro leaves

Place the chicken in a large bowl and add the green tea. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour to marinate.

Cover the bean thread noodles with warm water. Soak until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain.

In a big pot, bring the stock, ginger, and mushrooms to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the chicken, including the tea marinade, and noodles. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the spinach and boil for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowl and garnish with mint leaves.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Green Tea Chicken Stock

From Cooking With Green Tea by Ying Chang Compestine

Many chicken stock recipes call for chicken bones or the whole chicken, which require 4 or 5 hours to cook. I have come up with this healthy and simple way to make the chicken stock. This stock not only has less fat than traditional recipes but is more flavorful than the commercial brands.

6 bags green tea
2 cups boiling water
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons (1/2 inch) ginger root chunks
5 cloves garlic, minced
5 green onions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch long pieces
1 pound skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch-long pieces
6 cups canned chicken broth
3 cups fresh or frozen whole-kernel corn
1 teaspoon white pepper

Place the green tea bags in a large pot. Add the boiling water and simmer over low heat for 3 minutes. Use a spoon to press the tea out of the tea bags. Discard the tea bags.

Heat a wok or chef's pan over medium heat and coat it with the oil. Add the ginger, garlic and green onions and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken. Sauté until the chicken browns, 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken mixture, chicken broth and corn to the tea. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer. Covered, for 40 minutes. Season with white pepper.

Strain the liquid through a colander, pressing out as much liquid as possible. Let cool. Pour stock into a container and refrigerate or freeze.

Makes 5-6 cups

Peppermint Chocolate Cake

From the Cooking With Tea Cookbook by Jennifer and Mo Siegel.

Is there anything better than the taste of mint and chocolate together? This recipe came from Patty, of the Celestial Café.

6 Peppermint tea bags
1 cup water
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup salted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Boil water in a small saucepan and add Peppermint tea bags. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, squeezing excess liquid into the pan. Return the tea to a boil. Place the chocolate and butter in a large bowl. Pour Peppermint tea over the top. Whisk until melted. Stir in sugar and egg yolks. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda and yogurt. Add to the chocolate and butter batter, and mix well. Sift flour and baking powder into the batter, and mix well. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the batter. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8" round pans or one 9" X 13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Serves 8 or more.

Chilled Apple Tea

for a taste variety, substitute with Devonshire English Breakfast

2 Celestial Seasonings Golden Honey Darjeeling tea bags*
1 cup water
1 Tbsp honey
Ice
1 cup apple juice
Lemon slices

Bring water to a boil and pour 1/2 cup over tea bags. Steep for 5 minutes; remove and squeeze tea bags. Add honey, stir well. Cool down by adding ice and bring up to one cup. Combine chilled tea, apple juice and lemon slices. Serve over ice.