We were at a nice event last night and were served summer squash that tasted as if it had been blanched in oolong tea (or similar). It tasted great I thought, and didn't have an opportunity to ask the chef.

Anybody use this treatment, and are there any tricks to doing it?

quote:

Originally posted by indybob:
We were at a nice event last night and were served summer squash that tasted as if it had been blanched in oolong tea (or similar). It tasted great I thought, and didn't have an opportunity to ask the chef.

Anybody use this treatment, and are there any tricks to doing it?

it's a chinese dish if you did it with eggs in black teas.

the japanese have dishes with green tea.

The only real trick is not to leave things too long otherwise the flavour of the tea can start overpowering the flavour of the food. Tea selection is fairly important as there is a big difference between Russian Caravan and Orange Pekoe

Tea also is a great stainer and will change the surface colour of white vegetables.

One dish that uses tea to great effect is marbled eggs which is a very good as a horse's doover.

Boil eggs to hard boiled normally. If you want to be funky you can use quail eggs or duck eggs.
Once boiled allow the eggs to cool. Take a teaspoon and gently crack the shells so that the shells are thoroughly covered in small cracks but the shell is still in situ.

Return to the pot and add strong black tea and some soy sauce and simmer very gently for 1/2 an hour.

To serve remove the shells and halve lengthways and place on a platter yolk side down.