Product Description

From the Ritz Carlton to the Four Seasons to the world's finest spas, tea is the new ingredient of choice in todays most delicious recipes. In Cooking With Tea, novices and seasoned chefs alike can create mouth-watering dishes like Duck Foie Gras with Tea-Poached Apricots, Waldorf Salad with Mango Scented Keemun, and Orange Pekoe with Grand Marnier Souffl from easy-to-follow recipes and gorgeous color photographs. In addition to the 100 sumptuous recipes for condiments, side-dishes, entrees, desserts, and tea beverages, readers will discover:

* The history and different types of tea

* How to brew their own tea for cooking

* Tips for buying and storing tea

* Techniques used for cooking with Tea

* How to pair teas with food

* Resources for teas and unusual ingredients, and much more

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #433258 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 164 pages

Review
"Cooking with Tea offers recipes and methods for the chef interested in using the leaf in his or her kitchen." -- Pastry Art & Design Magazine

"Another bonus: tea imparts a subtle complexity to foods without added calories, fat, or sodium." -- St. Joseph News-Press

"Tea makes a wonderful addition to creams, juices, and gravies." -- Hemispheres

"dazzling, remarkably accessible showcase of cooking with this dynamic new-ingredient." -- North Carolina Builder/Architect

About the Author
Robert Wemischner, an acclaimed chef, cooking instructor, and lecturer has worked in the test kitchens of Bon Appetit magazine. He has written for many publications, including Cooks Illustrated and Fine Cooking and is the author of The Vivid Flavors Cookbook. He has taught at l'Academie de Cuisine outside of Washington D.C., and at the James Beard House in New York. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Diana Rosen, a renowned tea expert, has been writing, consulting, and speaking about the subject for over ten years. She is the editor of more than thirty issues of the national consumer quarterly, Tea Talk, a newsletter on the pleasures of tea. She is co-author of The Tea Lovers Companion and the author of The Coffee Lovers Companion and The Book of Green Tea. She lives in Sausalito, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Tea Types

Yellow and White Teas

Yellow, white, and green teas are not oxidized at all but are lightly air or steam dried. Whites and yellows use only the tiny leaf bud. Whites are primarily made in mainland China, although some limited whites or silvertips are being made from Assam and Darjeeling teas to great effect.

Green Teas

Mainland China makes what are perhaps the world's finest greens-delicate, sweet, grassy, and palate cleansing-running the gamut from their famous Lung Ching (Dragonwell) to the fragrant, more intense tasting green Yunnan with hundreds, maybe thousands, of greens in between.

Japanese green teas are lovely and exquisitely made. Green teas use the tenderest, youngest leaves and are steam dried and lightly shaped to retain not only their color but their intense spring-fresh flavor. The range is subtle but broad. From the delicate, sweet Gyokuro to the everyday refreshment of Sencha, Japanese greens are available in countless variations. Ones to seek out are the delicate Fukuyu, the light-tasting roasted teas like Hojicha and Bancha, or the delightful Genmaicha, made with rice and popcorn. All go so gently with Japanese foods and are nice counterpoints to spicy meals of other cuisines.

Black Teas

All tea was green tea before tea marketers realized that by drying the teas they could preserve them and lengthen their shelf life. So, ironically, now that green tea has regained its popularity, the largest producers of black teas, India and Sri Lanka, are now producing green teas. India's "new" greens retain the wonderful bite that characterizes its teas, and one can find them in Assam, Darjeeling, and now Nilgiri in limited quantities. All of these "new" greens are processed in the style of Chinese greens without any oxidation whatsoever. Sri Lanka's Ceylon greens are clean tasting, have a nice full-mouth feel, and go wonderfully with all foods

Black teas are 100 percent oxidized and are the world's most commonly drunk teas as single estates, blends, or flavored teas. Their intensity makes them good foils for sugar and milk. However, the better made blacks are smooth, rich, and highly aromatic plain. Blacks are available in full leaf, broken leaf, and crushed or ground in the manufacturing process, called CTC (crush, tear, cut).

From the naturally fruity Cameroon to the never-clouding Indian Nilgiri, black teas are wonderful for iced drinks and hot cups of brew. Tea grows in more than thirty-five countries these days, so one can enjoy blacks like a crisp Kenyan, a rich, hearty Indonesian, a winey Keemun, or fragrant Yunnan (also available in green) from China and begin a fascinating journey around the world tasting teas.

Oolong Teas

Oolongs are oxidized from 2 to 80 percent, thus retaining an incredible fragrance and aromatic taste in the cup. Their leaves are usually quite large and flavorful and can be reinfused several times. Taiwan is a premier processor of oolongs, which are known by the former country name of Formosa. The Fujian Province of mainland China produces some exquisite oolongs, for example Ti Kwan Yin, and oolongs are being made from exceptional India teas, particularly Darjeelings from Makaibari Tea Estates and other prestigious farms in that country.

Customer Reviews

Incredible! Even better than I had hoped...
I am a big fan of tea. I also love meals that are both simple and elegant. I'm not your traditional "homestyle" cook. That said, I also hate fussy, pretentious food that requires a lot of time and fuss in the kitchen. This book was very much what I was looking for.
The ideas presented here are flavorful and innovative. The presentations are simple, but lovely. The color photographs are plentiful, and beautiful. There is a photo of every recipe in the book. I don't know about you, but I love to see what the final product looks like.
Some of the recipes are easier than others. None of them require hours of work and preparation. Also, some have a short list of ingredients.
Finally, there are a variety of ideas here ranging from Asian and Thai inspired dishes to some more "fusion" cuisine. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cooking and is looking for something "different" but not too complicated.

This book is the best of it's kind!
While many tea cookery books focus on foods to serve with tea, this book shows you how to use tea as a basis for cooking a variety of foods. Beginning with a general introduction of tea, the book goes on to teach the reader about various types of teas, how to brew and store them, and then how to cook with them.

This book is great for the newcomer or the experienced tea lover, the professional and not-so-professional cook. With beautiful pictures and recipes like Smoked Chicken Salad with Tea Vinaigrette, Tea Cured Salmon, (my favorite) Spring Rolls with Thai Tea Sauce, Tea Smoked Chicken, Earl Grey Truffles and Chai Ice Cream to whet the appetite, how could you go wrong?

Creative and Accessible
Robert Wemischner has created a cookbook that works. The recipes creatively use tea in an accessible form. This a a worthy successor to his "Vivid Flavors" cookbook. The author takes us beyond the standard fare, but in a way that a reasonable home cook can reproduce.