I hope everyone is well. Here in Massachusetts we've been "enjoying" some snow. Yes. Snow. Two nights ago it snowed for about 2 hours. I must admit my relief when I woke up to see grass and not snow. I don't think I'm ready for shoveling yet.
I'm happy to announce the winner of our 2009 Blog-i-versary contest. The winner of the Mighty Leaf mug is my loyal reader, Dorothy (D). If I'm not mistaken, Dorothy won one of the Aura Teas gift certificates earlier in the year. She must have a lucky star. (Dorothy - Please e-mail me your mailing address so I can get it shipped out to you - teapages(at)gmail.com.) Congratulations and thanks for entering!
The tea dinner finally happened - a belated 2 year anniversary to Tea Pages. The menu was not cohesive in the least, nor was it meant to be. I simply perused some of my favorite tea cookbooks and chose what sounded good.
We started with a fantastic recipe from Sarina Jacobsen's "Tea" cookbook - Creamy Potato Chamomile Soup. (Bottom left) This rich soup will definitely be made many times in the coming winter. Chamomile tea is steeped and then the potatoes are cooked in it. Herbs are added as well as some sauteed leeks and celery. Some cream (I used half and half) and nutmeg round off the flavors. Spectacular.We followed with a variation on Joanna Pruess's Green Tea Dumplings from her book "Eat Tea." I must admit that I punted here. I didn't take on making the green tea dumpling dough this time. I bought wonton wrappers at the grocery store - which of course lacked the green tea flavor. I did make the filling, but admit to making one substantial substitution. The filling is a flavor-packed combination of ground pork, cabbage, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and green tea. Instead of ground pork I actually chopped some left over roast pork from the previous night's dinner. My BIG substitution was using red cabbage instead of napa. This decision was solely dictated by the fact that I couldn't get napa cabbage when I was at the store and I didn't have time to get to another store. It was definitely successful switch, though. For green tea I used Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea Dragonwell. I'm interested in making these again, following the full recipe to see how much more green tea flavor will emerge. The leftover filling made great wraps the next day.
For the main course we tried the Shrimp Linguine with Fennel Tea and Citrus Butter from Tonia George's "Tea Cookbook." OK. I made it without the fennel tea. Apparently, I didn't have any left. I made do. The linguine was cooked in a pot with Yogi Lemon Ginger teabags. Then I sauteed shrimp and scallops with garlic and shallots. A sauce was made from lemon juice and orange juice and I threw in the some Yogi Ginger tea. The citrus flavor of this dish was outstanding and the "tea" definitely came through. I'm anxious to see how the fennel will influence the flavor next time. (Of course I just remembered that I DO have a fennel chai. I wonder what that would have done...Hmmm.....)
Dessert was (another variation) of Tonia George's Green Tea Panna Cotta. Her version is a gorgeous rich green - melting and lovely. Mine was very different, but sweet and flavorful. I didn't have matcha, the main ingredient. Instead I ground some of Upton's Japanese Hongyokuro with a mortar and pestle. Because it wasn't a powder, it didn't color the "custard" as matcha would have, it instead added flecks of color. I also made a minor error with the gelatin (true confessions here) so I don't believe it set quite correctly. It was firm like Jello where int he photo it seemed more softly set. The other side effect of using the ground tea was that much of it sank to the bottom of the cup. But it was kind of fun to scoop it up with the spoon as we dipped into our panna cotta.Our beverage for the evening was Sarina Jacobson's Thai Iced Tea recipe. I steeped Tealuxe's Assam Organic with anise, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger and then added sugar. I didn't have orange blossom water so I added a touch of orange juice. (Different, I know. Orange blossom would have added some floral notes, but I wanted to add a little citrus flavor.) I topped the cups with coconut cream. Heaven.
So, that was the great dinner. The other thing I've been doing of late is celebrating an even greater event. My husband and I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary on Saturday. We decided to treat ourselves to a little trip. We enlisted the grandparents for some babysitting and headed to Chicago. More on the tea side of that trip later, but for now, here's a picture of the happy couple ON VACATION ALONE!!!Enjoy the rest of your work.
Taken from http://teapages.blogspot.com/
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