A La Cuisine!

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part VIII

Exactly one month after the actual event, we’re down to our final round up.  Needless to say, we’ve been around the world dozens of times, and have seen tea used in so many different ways.

We begin the farewell leg of our tasteTea tour in Seattle where Jason Truesdell experiments with different uses for matcha.  He concocts an elegant three course meal, beginning with green bean, lotus root, and carrot tempura garnished with matcha salt.  Next, Jason incorporates matcha into the sauce for a Matcha Cream Pasta that combines potato gnocchi, edamame beans, and matcha cream sauce.  For dessert, we’re treated to a decadent Matcha Cheesecake, garnished with a creative sour cream-matcha topping.  A truly wonderful meal showcasing the versatility of matcha.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part VII

We begin this morning’s round-up in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, UK where we visit Keiko of Nordljus.  An accomplished photographer and one of my favourite food bloggers, Keiko never ceases to amaze me with her creative and complex creations.  Today she’s made several wonderful desserts, the first being a gorgeous Matcha and Azuki Bean Mousse Cake that combines a base of matcha flavoured sponge with azuki and matcha mousses.  Next, Keiko combines flaky puff pastry with slightly bitter matcha custard to make a classic mille feuille inspired by Parisian pâtissier Sadaharu Aoki.  Our dessert feast ends with a decadent Crème Thé-Chocolat, a baked earl grey custard topped with an earl grey chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part VI

By now I’ve lost count of the number of places we’ve been to.  Basically we’ve covered all the entries that were submitted before 17:00 EST on July 31st, but I can assure you that we have many more wonderful tasteTea dishes to see.

Is Earl Grey the new Matcha?  Possibly, because for the second round-up in a row, we’re starting off with Earl Grey Cookies.  But this time we’re in Chicago visiting Linda of At Our Table.  Nicely speckled with tea, these cookies are easy to make and have “the certain je ne sais quoi that makes them special and unique without being overpowering.”  A quick reminder that Linda will be hosting August’s IMBB #18 on Sunday.  This month’s theme is Summer’s Flying, Let’s Get Frying.  Be sure to check it out!

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part V

Today is August 25th and IMBB 18: Summer’s Flying, Let’s Get Frying, hosted by Linda of At Our Table takes place on August 28th.  That gives me three days to finish the round-up, so it looks like I’m really going to have to pick up the pace!

Our first stop on today’s tour brings us to Heidelberg, Germany where Michelle of Oswego Tea has just arrived back from Brussels, Belgium.  While she didn’t have time to make us food, she tells us about some delicious Earl Grey Cookies she had during her trip that were “subtle and light, with a lemon and butter base.”  Thankfully Michelle has included a recipe for earl grey cookies to let us make and taste them ourselves.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part IV

Apologies for the delay.  Unfortunately our car broke down after our last tasteTea episode, and we were forced to walk 668 km (415 miles) from Reedville, Virginia to our next stop in Boston, Massachusetts.

After days of eating at roadside gas stations, we’re delighted to find that Stel of Baby Rambutan had prepared a succulent dish of Tea Smoked Duck Legs and Chicken Eggs.  It’s one of her signature recipes – in-law approved and smoked outdoors with aromatic Oolong tea.  For dessert, Stel serves us Green Tea Ice Cream - her favourite ice cream of all-time.  Its flavour is deep, smoky, and leafy, and is perfectly balanced with green tea Pocky and her brother’s madeleines.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part III

Twenty-one stops into our tasteTea tour around the world, you may think that we’ve seen it all.  But in reality, we still have sixty-nine more places to go to, and much, much more to see.

Before leaving Singapore, we make sure to visit Colin of Only Slightly Pretentious Food to indulge in his Mango and Green Tea Sorbet.  The bittersweet combination of green tea and mango purée is delicious, and is matched only by its vibrant orange colour.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part II

We continue our tasteTea trek around the world back in my home town of Toronto, Canada, where my friend Renée is waiting to serve us her Earl Grey Mixed Berries Cake (which I had the pleasure of tasting).  The tea makes her cake wonderfully aromatic, and the baked berries in the centre lend moisture to the dense exterior.  Although she doesn’t have her own blog, it was Renée’s passion for tea that inspired me to choose this month’s tea theme.  Her infatuation with good food, particularly with tea, bread, and Japanese snacks, makes me look almost normal in comparison.

IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part I

It was a tea party to remember.  Ninety wonderful participants and over a hundred tasteTea dishes!  As the entries poured in, my eyes were opened to a world I’d never known – cooking with tea?  I barely even knew it existed until this year.  But now there are dozens of tea-based dishes that I can’t wait to try.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this month’s Is My Blog Burning? event.  I was truly amazed by so many of the dishes, and I now wish that I’d asked everyone to send me a sample so I could taste each one.  As I previously mentioned, I’ll be doing the round-up in small segments, and I’ll try to post a new round-up each day until we’ve looked at every entry.

So now without further ado, our first entry comes from Faith from Pasadena, California who just started her food blog, WOG: Without Garnish last week.  She brings to the table a most elegant and delicious Tea and Rose Water Brined Duck Breast with Plum Vanilla-Bean Vinaigrette.  Semi-cured in a Lipton tea-rose water brine for two days before being rendered and roasted, the duck has an almost smoky flavour that’s softened with the subtlety of rose water.  She sauces her succulent duck with a freshly made Plum Vanilla-Bean Vinaigrette.

Oolong Smoked Quail (IMBB 17)

My kitchen is empty and its cupboards are bare.  Today I’ll be moving into an apartment with a sparkling new kitchen, but yesterday I feasted on tea-smoked quail.  The dish was very much an experiment for me; I had never cooked quail, tea, or smoked food of any kind before, so I was unsure of what to expect. 

Although I chose tea as the theme of this month’s Is My Blog Burning event, I can’t say that I know very much about it.  Until a few months ago, I only thought of tea as a staple.  I drank it regularly, but little did I know how many different types existed, and how much teas of the same name varied in flavour.  Thankfully, my friend Renée, who is very much a tea addict (err.. I mean, tea connoisseur) introduced me to the world of fine tea.  Three weeks ago, when it came time to pick a theme for this month’s IMBB event, tea was the obvious choice.  Cooking with tea would be both challenging and interesting.  The possibilities of infusing wonderful tea aromas into food seemed endless.