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| Cooking with Tea |
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MOST PEOPLE think of green tea as a beverage to be sipped. It is occasionally spotted in ice cream. But Diana Rosen, author of "The Book of Green Tea" (Story Books, $16.95), is convinced that tea should play a much larger role in the kitchen. "Tea is perfect for using in cream sauces, soups, doughs and broths," she says. "What many people don't realize is that using tea in cooking provides that element of umami," rounding out the flavors in dishes. "By adding tea, you can amp up the flavor of all kinds of dishes without adding extra fat or salt." Rosen says that the practice of pairing tea with other flavors dates back thousands of years. "Since people have been drinking tea, they have flavored it with rose, lychee, chrysanthemum, orange and cherry blossom," she says. Tea is also a perfect match with nearly any kind of fruit. Rosen says the trick to cooking with green tea is to recognize its flavor possibilities, then to proceed gently. Here are her tips. -When cooking with green tea, always underbrew so that the tea is not overbrewed at the end of the cooking time. When adding green tea to sauces or doughs, aim to infuse tea for only about 30 seconds. -Always use the best quality tea you can afford. Even the best tea in the world, she points out, is less than the price of a glass of decent wine. -If you are not working from a recipe, be sure to match the heartiness of your dish with the heartiness of your tea. White tea, for example, has a delicate flavor that would be lost in beef stew. — Jolene Thym www.insidebayarea.com Article Last Updated: 04/13/2005 |
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