Cooking with Tea

Now I will be the first to admit that I'm not altogether behind the idea of cooking with tea. Oh, I find it all fascinating and get very excited every time I stumble across a recipe, but I've really never had much success with it all. I would love to tea smoke a fish or tea poach a chicken, but the flavours never seem to come out properly.

Baking, on the other hand, is a hobby I spend far too much time indulging in. Tea and sweets seem made to go together. I've had varying degrees of success when trying to incorporate tea right into my baking, and I will share some of these with you at a later date. However, I thought today I would share with you a little something is a little easier, a lot more foolproof, and tastes enough like tea that you won't mind it's really tea free!

Chai Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour
2-3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
125g butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 180. Prepare some muffin tins by lining with pattipans (or if you are very lucky, someone will have given you a delightful set of tea cupcake moulds).
Beat the butter and brown sugar until pale and creamy. Add in eggs, one at a time, while beating.
Add the spices and 1/2 a cup of flour. Mix this all together, then add 1/3 cup of buttermilk and mix again. Add the rest of the flour, mix, and then the rest of the buttermilk to finish the batter off.
Fill the muffin tins with the batter, about 3/4 full.
Bake in the pre-heated oven until a skewer comes out clean. This should take between 15-18 minutes, depending on your oven. Don't forget to rotate the tins half way through!

Eat them while still warm, or if you can resist the temptation, let them cool and dust with cinnamon. I like to ice them with a light honey buttercream, but they are especially decadent topped with a chocolate ganache.

Side note: For those simply desperate to incorporate tea into this recipe, may I suggest infusing the buttermilk with an Assam. I would say 3-4 teaspoons for this recipe, in about 3/4 a cup of buttermilk to yield the correct amount. Heat gently and infuse for around 5 minutes.

Faux Pas and A Nice Cup of Tea

Oh dear. Dear readers, just yesterday I made the most unforgivable of tea-related faux pas. Let me relate the tale...

My fellow tea lover and great friend, we shall call him Master M, called by my house yesterday. I have been a bit lax with my shopping this week, so all I could offer food wise was half a chai tea cupcake before we journeyed off to Prahran to support a friend's band.

Imagine my horror when Master M pointed out, as we were lining up for the gig, that I had failed to offer him tea! Without fail, when I have visited his house I have always had tea (granted this is mostly at my own insistence). I am a terrible host!

 To soothe my anquish, Lady J sent me through this piece this morning which I thought I would share with you all. It is from Mr George Orwell...

A Nice Cup of Tea

A Quest for Scones - Winchelsea Tea Rooms

I have a dear friend, let's call her Lady J, who is a knitter. A voracious knitter, you could say. You will rarely find her without a half-knitted something in her bag. I will admit I've taken advantage of this over the short time I've known her, having acquired a pair of socks, gloves and two hats (all very cosy).

As it would happen, Lady J's birthday is coming up and there was a particular wool shop she wanted to visit near Colac, so as a bit of a pre-birthday expedition we set off on the weekend on a quest for wool and scones. Because every good road trip should include scones and tea at some stages, no?

Return and Covet

Alright, I will be the first to admit - after the amazingly heavenly experience of Monk Bodhi Dharma, which I really didn't think I could top, I put the blog on hold. In the year I've been away I've moved, travelled to China and drunk a whole lot of tea.

The Melbourne tea scene surely seems to be heating up in my absence, with a new tea cafe in Fitzroy and plans for ones in Northcote and West Brunswick. It is to these ends that I am back, navigating the oft times disastrous path of the tea connieseur in the hopes of easing the way for those that follow.

So! Where will we start today?

The problem with so many cafes in Melbourne is that they go to the effort of sourcing a nice tea, and then pour scorching water from the espresso machine over it. I have to say, I'm guilty of a similar crime at work where the only hot water comes out of a dual boiling/chilled filter. So when I was reading a magazine and stumbled across this all I could think was "WANT". What am I coveting this week?

The TeaTotal

Ok, not actually finished development yet, and more for the cafe scene, but can you imagine how this little baby will change the tea drinking experience?

Cambridge Consultants, the brains behind this device, say: Users, in the form of cafe patrons, home consumers, or those at a vending machine, select the preferred loose-leaf tea variety, temperature, and strength level. Instead of walking away with a tea bag attached to a string dangling out of a to-go cup, the tea drinker becomes witness to the process itself: the tea is introduced to the water, where a stirring mechanism facilitates consistency and steeping efficiency. When ready, the finished tea is funneled into a waiting cup

What a completely brilliant idea. Never again would a tea drinker be served a burnt, over brewed tea bag. Fantastic!
Check out more on the TeaTotal here

Just died and went to tea heaven - Monk Bodhi Dharma

Cafe Review: Monk Bodhi Dharma
Where: 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava

Wow. Just...wow. I think I've actually found a really good tea house (slash cafe) in Melbourne. Seriously THE best cup of tea I've had in a long time.

It started with a 1 and a half hour drive to Balaclava (damn you Hoddle St, are you ever not crowded?) and then a good ten minutes of searching. Monk Bodhi Dharma. It's like a little converted two room house down an alley way off Carlisle St - I don't think you'd know it was there if you weren't looking for it.

The first thing I'd like to say about Monk Bodhi Dharma is: it rocks. I don't know about you, but there are some places I walk into and I think "wow I am SO not cool enough to be here" (mostly because it's full of hipsters) but this place isn't like that. It's got an eclectic clientele - we were sat between some hipsters and and two lovely old ladies. There is a great atmosphere, everyone seems really happy and there are fantastic solid wood tables and orchids everywhere.

Secondly, I recommend turning straight to the last page of the menu. Oh sure, they have your regular english breakfast, earl grey etc selection on the second page, but the last page is where the amazing teas are. I've been to tea houses that have 200+ teas, and I had more trouble choosing tea today than I've had anywhere else.

Each tea is accompanied by its estate of origin, an almost wine review of its flavour characteristics (think along the lines of "melon flavours with a crisp after taste") and an approximate brewing time. This turns out to be very helpful because there appears to be only one kettle boiling. My friend's tea comes out a good 5 minutes before mine. But you know, I don't mind because both pots have been brewed perfectly. Brewed to the right temperature for the right time. I am almost left speechless by the care taken with this.

My friend orders the long well, while I get the jin xuan. Oh. My. God. This tea comes with subtelties. It takes me a few minutes, but finally identify plum flavours under the earthiness of my tea. My friend's comes with a sort of rosemary, almost roast lamb, scent and refreshing floral flavour. I am in absolute heaven.

We also notice that Monk Bodhi Dharma has an amazing breakfast menu, and a coffee list to rival their tea selection. I highly recommend checking out this little hide out. I'm only sorry I didn't get any photos, but hey, that's just a reason to go back again.

The Rating
Atmosphere: 5/5
Available food: 4/5
Tea range: 5/5
Tea had: 5/5
Overall: 19/20