Charlie Grey Shortbread Sandwiches

One of my favorite parts of starting Tea Thoughts is all the other amazing small business owners that I've encountered on my journey. Most of these people I've met through instagram, and have formed bonds with. My IG tribe. These are inspirational women who like me, were not satisfied and have gone out on their own to start a business and pursue their passions. Kristen from Tea For Three is a one woman show creating organic tea blends in the big apple! 

I recently purchased her Charlie Grey blend of black tea and bergamot essence, my fav combo! I decided to create some shortbread with this tea and make it more savory than sweet. I have a whoopie pie pan and thought it would be fun to use that to make sandwiches! 

If you don't have this pan, you can always use a round cookie cutter to get the same effect. The other way you can get this effect is by refrigerating your dough in a log shape and cutting off thin pieces. I don't include refrigeration in my recipe because I like it better when the cookies are a but crumbly but if a cookie that stays together better I highly suggest refrigerating the log for 20-30 minutes. 

The downside to baking them the way I did without refrigeration is that they are more fragile but I enjoy the crumbly nature of them. You can see in the photo below the spices in the recipe are present in the cookie. The nutmeg and clove give the cookies a more savory flavor, as opposed to a sweet cookie!

I used two types of toppings for my sandwiches to see which went best with the flavor of the shortbread. I tried a jam and also a turkey and cheese combo. 

I thought that the savory taste of the sandwiches would mean that the turkey and cheese was better suited but I actually enjoyed the jam better on these! 

As sandwiches these are a bit messy once you bite into them but I enjoy a softer cookie to a tougher cookie!

Now, if you try these and decide you like them but want a sweeter version, the transition is easy enough! You could simply add more honey into the batter. I would also suggest substituting the cloves and nutmeg for something a bit sweeter like cinnamon. 

The charlie grey blend is versatile enough to go well with sweet or savory! 

Yaupon Soaked Chickpea Hummus

The other day on my facebook, took recipe suggestions. One of the suggestions I received was hummus, but something more exciting than chickpeas and tahini. I started looking up hummus recipes to see how I could incorporate tea into a recipe. After lots of thinking I decided that although it wasn't my normal method of infusion, the only way I could incorporate tea into the hummus recipe was to soak the chickpeas! 

I received a Dark Roast Yaupon tea from Lost Pines Yaupon in my sipsby box and originally I wanted to make something sweet with it because the notes suggest this tea would be good with honey! After thinking over the types of recipes I've made recently I noticed that I hadn't made a "food" recipe recently. I decided the dark roast Yaupon would definitely give the chickpeas a roasted flavor that would go well with the other spices in the hummus!

When I was deciding on my recipe I definitely tried to take into account ways that could spice up a normal hummus recipe. I rummaged through my fridge as I usually do when I make recipes and decided to add these ingredients to make this hummus a little different.  

• Shredded carrot
• LOTS of fresh garlic
• Lime 

I recently received some carrots through our CSA that had this wonderfully subtle sweet flavor and thought that they could give the hummus and tahini some depth in flavor. I've definitely had hummus with garlic which I love so I also decided to load up on that. Finally, lime came into the picture because I had limes and love the idea of the hummus being strong, a little sweet and a little tangy!  

A note on olive oil in the recipe, go with your gut! I start you off with 1/4 cup olive oil but I guarantee you that isn't enough. While blending the ingredients together I had to constantly add olive oil to get my desired consistency. After a while it was hard to calculate how much I've used so I suggest using the method I did. Start with the 1/4 cup then add little by little until the hummus and smooth and to your liking. You will also need extra for the top when serving. 

Salt and pepper as always should be used to your own taste. I think you can use as much paprika as you'd like too. I wouldn't use more than 1 or 2 tablespoons especially because you should have some for the top when serving, as seen in most of my photos. I really enjoyed making this hummus and the cost of the ingredients was low. It's a great choice for a party appetizer! 

Berber Tea Noodles

Minty Noodles.

When I was younger I used to eat noodles all the time! Not just mac 'n' cheese but my mom would make this "green sauce" which wasn't really sauce just butter and basil which was SO GOOD. Nowadays I try to eat as healthy as I can, avoiding an excess of grains and noodles, with the exception of rice. I can't live without my rice!

After doing some research I kept finding "green tea" noodles but these were mostly pre-packaged noodles that were made with green tea. I decided that I wanted to infuse my noodles and although I couldn't find an exact method, I kept it really simple. 

I think that to make this recipe a success, you should use whatever noodle type you want. I used these flat korean noodles that I had in my shelves and they were great but I think this would work with any noodle and here's why. All you do is dump the tea into the water with the noodles and they will cook in the tea! The Berber blend from Tay Tea has Moroccan mint so it gives the noodles this fun minty flavor!

I love every part of tea and when I make recipes I often leave some of the leaves in it for fun because they don't bother me. If you cook the noodles in the tea you will have noodles with pieces of tea leaves on them, I really like this but if you don't you can do it a different way. If you want tea leaf free noodles, I would brew the tea first, strain it then cook the noodles in them! 

Now on to toppings and sauce. This would be delicious with a number of different sauces and I encourage you to pick your own. I like to use whatever ingredients I have so I whipped up a little stir fry of garlic, onions, salt and garlic chili paste! 

Mix your noodles and enjoy! The minty flavor is very refreshing! I Wanted to share really quickly a book that my friend Lu-Ann over at The Cup Of Life wrote, it's filled with inspiration and I often like to read it when I'm enjoying tea! You should also check her out because she recently had me on her monthly "at the tea table" ! 

So there you have it, another fun and simple way to incorporate tea into your day! I want to encourage you to give Sips by a shot, not just because I partner with them but I think that their monthly boxes are seriously a great way to discover new teas if you're into that! Also, this weekend 100% of their sales will be donated to Hurricane Harvey Relief! 

Tea Infused Biscuits & Butter

Tea Biscuits.

One of my favorite things to make when I first started baking was scones! They were one of my favorite foods to have with a cup of tea! When I was trying to decide what to make with my Sips by teas, I remembered that I have never made any biscuits when enjoying tea. The sunset red from teabook was perfect because its a darker tea and has sweeter notes. 

I was of course excited about brewing this tea in my gaiwan! I really love the little packets they came in, perfect for one serving! I wanted my tea to be really strong so that the flavor would be present in the biscuits so I used 3 of the packets but feel free to use as much or as little tea as you like depending on how strong of a flavor you want! 

I did strain the tea but I always like to leave a few leaves in there for fun :) 

This is a really dry batter that makes thick but yummy biscuits! There is baking powder in the batter so these will rise even if the batter is less thick. I think it would be safe to decrease the flour a little bit to get fluffier muffins. Next time I may also either infuse the tea into milk to use in the recipe or simply add milk little by little to loosen up the batter. 

As far as sugar, it's up to you on how sweet you want to make these. I used only one tablespoon in mine which made these slightly more savory and using up to 4 tablespoons would make them sweet, your choice!

Make sure to enjoy these sooner rather than later! I tasted these right when they came out of the oven and also later. They are good in both cases but I really liked when they were warm out of the oven. 

Tea infused butter! I've written about this on my blog before because it's an easy way to get tea into a recipe since most recipes include butter! All you have to do is melt the butter, throw the tea in to brew, strain and then let it cool, it will congeal. As far as brewing time, I always wait until the butter becomes fragrant. 

I used all sorts of delicious teas for my butter, here is the list! 

• Coconut Oolong

• Country Chai

• White Chocolate Somoa

• Lemon Wedge

The tea infused butter is a fun addition and would be a great party appetizer to have the biscuits and the different butter flavors! 

Garlic Jasmine Oolong Rice

Tea Rice.

I've probably mentioned on my blog or instagram before that I LOVE rice. It's pretty difficult not to when you grow up in a Persian household. Like tea, rice is very central to our culture. Rice is an essential ingredient in most dishes and I've always thought it was something that held together our stews. 

That being said, my favorite rice is definitely basmati. Basmati rice is what I grew up eating and it's my favorite to cook as well. A while ago, I got a Blue Apron meal where there was a garlic jasmine rice recipe. I don't often use jasmine rice but it was a simple and delicious recipe that I have recreated almost every time I marinate meat with Japanese inspired spices. Most times when I cook I think to myself, how can I incorporate tea into this dish? ENTER Alishan Oolong from Terroir Tea Merchant! 

I hear so many people talk about how cooking is so difficult and that's why they don't do it. I totally disagree, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! Unlike baking, cooking gives you a lot more room for experimentation and that is the best part. I like to share simple recipes so that anyone can try them at home. This recipe doesn't get much easier!  

Essentially, you are replacing the water used in the recipe to cook the rice with brewed tea. The tea cooks the rice and also infuses it with the oolong flavor.

Again thanks to Sipsby I got to create a unique dish! The Alishan Oolong is described as buttery, floral and nutty. These flavors cut the garlic the perfect amount and give the rice a little more depth than when it's cooked with plain water. 

Pair this rice with your fvaorite dish! I suggest someting either slightly sweet or slightly spicy :) 

Holy Basil Pesto

Tulsi Pesto. 

Tulsi tea or "holy basil" is a sacred herb of India. Due to it's nickname, I thought it would be fun to include it in recipe that is majority basil! 

These tea bags are very easy to incorporate into an already simple recipe. All you need to do is cut them open and use what's inside! 

The flavor of the tulsi blended perfectly into the basil. You wouldn't even be able to tell that you're having a pesto with a superherb packed into it!

Sorry for anyone with a nut allergy but I really love the hearty taste that pine nuts add to the pesto. I've made pesto without pine nuts and it's just not the same!

Feel free to use whatever salt you'd like but I actually used a salt that I brought back from my trip to Italy! I bought this salt in Amalfi. The salt is from the mediterranean sea and it's flavored with lemon and herbs grown on the Amalfi coast! 

One tip for the pasta is to stop the blender or food processor and mix up the pesto to make sure that all the pieces get blended well. 

Fusilli is one of my favorite pastas and I like to buy this vegetable infused fusilli from my local grocery store. 

In terms of the amount of olive oil used, I put a range because I think the wetness of pesto is a personal preference. I put more olive oil because I like to be able to toss the pasta and have it be coated easily in the pesto. 

This recipe makes about 1 1/4 cup of pesto and is a great gift to give to family and friends. I made a batch to give to my family and it was a huge hit! 

The tea used in this recipe is a Pukka tea which I received in my Sips by box! Sips by is adding new brand partners all the time and I highly suggest the box to any tea lover. I've given my preferences and haven't gotten a tea I didn't like yet! 

Do you have a favorite pesto recipe?! 

Wuyi Oolong Lamb

Lamb Tea.

I was super excited to get an oolong tea in my Sips by box. I've been wanting to cook a savory dish with a good oolong tea. I've experimented with chicken, shrimp and tuna. I had some lamb in the freezer and decided to give it a shot! 

First things first, white2Tea has such cool packaging :) The clover patch tea that was in my box is described as having an intense floral fragrance and a mineral mouth feel. Growing up in an Iranian household, lamb is very familiar to me and I like it very much. Lamb is very intense because it's rich and fatty. Although this oolong is also described as intense I thought that the floral fragrance and it being a rock tea would be a great addition to the lamb. 

I went back to my roots a bit and combined some of my favorite flavors for this marinade. Turmeric and dill are central to many Iranian dishes and I love how they taste on meat. 

This tea can be steeped 5x so after my steep for the marinade I decided to steep the leaves a few more times for myself! P.s. this GORGEOUS, hand painted dish is something I scored in Amalfi. It's actually an olive dish but I thought this was a great way to show off it's beautiful design. 

A warning about turmeric which you may or not know: do not overdo it. Turmeric has become really trendy due to it's health benefits but on meat too much can be a bad thing. It has a potent flavor and you don't want it to take over all the other flavors! I used a bit more than a teaspoon in my recipe but I think that's a good amount to use. 

This is a quick rice called "cateh" that I eat with most of my meals. I think I'll share the recipe one day but because I don't do much measuring except with my eyes and nose it's hard to explain how to cook it!. Also, I know this is like the third recipe I've posted with green beans. I don't just eat green beans, I actually love all vegetables it's only a coincidence! :) 

The tea is very subtle in this recipe and If I were to do it again I think I may steep the tea several times and compare the bases! All in all, it was delicious and a simple dinner for any lamb lover!

Sencha Ahi Tuna

Tea Tuna.

I have another fun recipe for you using one of the samples that came in my Sips by box! This recipe is for seafood lovers who want to spice up their dinner menu! I've used a sencha green tea from Yunomi to create an ahi tuna steak marinade! 

I've noticed that green and puerh teas have such a rich and often earthy flavor so they pair so well with savory dishes. If you remember my Gyokuro Shrimp recipe, this is a similar idea but with some different spices and a longer marinating time. Tuna steaks are often seared quickly both sides and enjoyed with a somewhat rare inside. The key to this recipe for me is the hours it is marinated. 

My marinade is fairly liquid due to the tea and lemon juice so the tuna is literally soaking it all up. Even if you cook these steaks to be rare or medium rare that meat will have the delicious flavor of the marinade packed into it. 

I decided that I would go with tart and spicy on this marinade with the lemon juice, peel, fresh garlic and ginger. I also used a little bit of basil to cool it down, especially if you choose to use some red pepper flakes like I did. 

I've recently been watching The Great British Baking show and one episode they had to make tea loaves. I thought this was fun because I had recently made tea infused bread (recipe coming soon). I was shocked when one of the judges said that he was impressed with everyone's bread because tea is a difficult ingredient to incorporate into baked goods and food. EXCUSE ME? If you've noticed that my blog has been dominated by recipes lately it's because I'm here to prove that notion wrong! 

When I think of a recipe, it's basically anything that includes water or an ingredient of some sort that I can either use tea as a substitute or brew the tea into the ingredient. Marinades are often liquid so I simply brew my desired tea and use some of it to marinade the tea! You can also use the entire leaves as well as the brew but it's important to pay attention to how bitter the tea will become. Give the leaves a taste before you incoporate them into the dish.   

I grew up brewing tea not paying any attention to brewing times. Persians like their tea dark, or at least my family did and it was always more about color and aroma than how long it had been brewing. Green teas are different. As a general rule, you should follow brewing times carefully so that your tea does not become so bitter, especially if you are using it for food! 

The first brew time suggested 60 seconds which is what I followed. I think that because the meat is raw, it's better if you allow it to cool before adding it to the marinade. If you add hot tea in right away you risk the heat from the tea cooking the ingredients as well as the meat while it marinades. 

Instead of plopping the tuna into the marinade I think it will turn out better if you really soak the tuna. I spooned the liquid over the meat a few times and made sure some of the spices were sitting on top of the tuna. In my directions I mention turning over the tuna during the marinade time, don't forget to spoon the liquid over the tuna again at that point. 

I think the tuna turned out delicious but I didn't SEAR it like you see in many recipes because I poured the marinade over the tuna in the pan. If you want a crisper outside, simply place the tuna into the hot pan without the liquid! 

We enjoyed these steaks with sushi rice and some baked green beans. I have made this sushi rice recipe many times and it's so easy to follow. I only suggest using 1 tablspoon of sugar instead of 3...unless you like super sweet sushi rice!

Bon Appétit !

I would LOVE to know if you try this recipe, feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email :) 

Green Tea Kale

Kale Tea.

Every time I cook or bake something I like to see if there is a way to incorporate one of the many teas in my cabinet! Basically anytime there is a recipe that has milk, water or butter, there is a simple way to incorporate the tea! 

I got this Kenya Green Kapchorua tea in my Tea Tim Box. When I first sampled the taste I knew it would be great for cooking. It's low in caffeine and high in Antioxidants! 

I started eating kale in college after I watched a TED Talk about how kale is great food for your mitochondria. Because the mitochondria are the power houses of the cells, it's important that they get something nutritious so that they work well. Kale was difficult to get used to at first but overtime I found out that it really soaks up the flavor of whatever you cook it in. 

I usually add a broth of some sort to the kale to help it cook through and soften. I decided that instead of adding broth, I would add brewed tea and it would have the same effect. It was a huge success! 

Not only is this a fun way to consume tea but its also an easy way to enjoy both the health benefits of tea and kale at the same time!

Just like broth, the tea gave the kale a flavor boost and made it much easier to stomach. Kale gets a bad reputation because of its texture but when prepared well, I think it's very similar to spinach, which I love!

Trader Joe's sells kale already chopped and it's really easy to separate the leaves from the thick stems. I've never really been able to enjoy the stems so I stick with the leaves! 

The combination of sauteed garlic and tea bring out this powerfully savory flavor in the kale. I added mushrooms to my dish because I love them with kale but feel free to add your favorite pairing. I would choose something that can cook fairly quickly. 

Green Tea Shrimp

Green Tea For Dinner. 

I've been sitting on this Gyokuro imperial sample from Zhi Tea for a while, not knowing if I wanted to just taste it as is or be a little more adventurous. One Thing that was mentioned by several people on my 2017 Tea Thoughts survey was that it would be fun if I incorporated tea into food! I created a marinade/sauce for green tea shrimp using the Gyokuro!

After taking in the aroma of the Gyokuro I knew that it would be great in a savory dish. After researching a bit I also found out that green tea is often used in seafood dishes! 

Gyokuro is a special tea. The name of the tea means jade dew and it is a very high grade tea. I learned that like Matcha, Gyokuro is grown in the shade which increases it's nutritional benefits. This similarity to Matcha gave me an idea about the recipe. 

Matcha differs from other teas because the leaves are ground up and you are actually ingesting all parts of the tea as opposed to brewing and throwing out the leaves. That is why I decided to not only include the brewed tea in the recipe but the leaves as well! Double the power of the tea!

I've created a simple graphic to help you create the sauce to cook the shrimp in! 

This is a very simple sauce and I will also go through the process of cooking it with other ingredients but feel free to cook with it however you'd like! For this recipe I bought large raw shrimp. 

I decided to use yellow and orange peppers as well as asparagus. I chopped up all of these ingredients as well as some garlic. 

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat, once hot, throw in the garlic and let it simmer. Once the garlic is browned or has become aromatic, add in the raw shrimp. Stir the shrimp until it becomes slightly colored. 

Add in all of your vegetables and stir with the shrimp. Pour the sauce over the shrimp and vegetables. Make sure that it is all mixed in and covered well.

Cover your skillet with a lid and turn it to low. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes checking on the shrimp to make sure it's not overdone. To check to see if the shrimp is done, cut it open and make sure it's opaque. 

This pairs really well with garlic jasmine rice. I have been making this recipe a lot and it was all inspired by a blue apron diner we tried!

This combination was so good because there is a lot of sauce in the shrimp and veggie skillet to pour over your rice. I suggest serving rice and adding a bit of the sauce and sesame seeds. Top it all off with shrimp and veggies! The green tea tastes great with shrimp! Do you incorporate tea in your recipes?