Twenty ideas for using tea in cooking

Tea can be used in cooking in all its forms: whole-leaf or crumbled dry leaves, infused leaves, or as a liquid infusion. The infusion often needs to be stronger than you would make it for drinking tea, in order to obtain more robust tea flavours.

1. Steam the tea leaves Japanese-style to savour their chewiness and fresh vegetal quality, similar to spinach or watercress.

→ Salad of Shincha, bonito and soy sauce

2. Roast Chinese tea leaves to bring out their crispy texture and notes of fresh hazelnut with a touch of astringency. Whether they are just infused or sautéed in a wok, plain, with pickles or as a tempura, choose young shoots of spring green tea.

→ Scrambled eggs with green tea leaves

4. Infuse the leaves in water for cooking grains or pulses.

→ Lentils with Lapsang Souchong

5. Steep the leaves in water to add interesting flavours and aromas (smoky, grilled, tangy, spicy, etc.) to a soup

→ Cream of pumpkin soup with Earl Grey

6. Infuse the leaves in cream or milk , which capture flavours like tea really well.

→ Chai cream, smoked tea potato purée

7. Steam your food on a bed of tea leaves

→ Steamed monkfish with Bancha, steamed cod with jasmine tea

8. Make a marinade to flavour and/or tenderise poultry, game or fish.

→ Chai marinated chicken skewer

9. Make a jelly with tea by adding gelatin or agar-agar to the infusion to bring out the flavours and create interesting textures.

→ Red fruit aspic with jasmine tea

3. Infuse the leaves in water, alone or combined with a bouquet garni, to flavour a stock.

→ Ochazuke rice with Sencha Ariake (Bruits de Palais no. 87, page 28)

10. Make an emulsion to harness the flavours of the tea.

→ Pu Erh espuma

11. Sprinkle or rub with powdered tea to enhance a dish.

→ Fleur de sel with Lapsang Souchong or sel gris with Matcha

12. Reduce to concentrate the tea’s flavours through evaporation.

→ Robust veal jus with Second-Flush Darjeeling

13. Deglaze to add character to the burnt, caramelised flavours of the juices.

→ Wok-fried squid deglazed with Sencha

14. Make a concentrate by brewing a large quantity of tea leaves in a little simmering water for 1 to 2 minutes.

→ Caramel with Grand Oolong Top Fancy

15. Push tea leaves into cuts in meat, fish or vegetables to add flavour and aroma.

→ Duck breast with smoked tea

16. Add smoked notes to food by combining it with smoked tea leaves, immersing it in a smoked tea infusion, or adding smoked tea to the dish.

→ Smoked salmon with Lapsang Souchong

MATCHA, THE PASTRY CHEF’S FAVOURITE TEA

17. Rub the leaves into fish to impart the subtle flavours of the tea.

→ Sea bass in a Bao Zhong crust

18. Sprinkle infused tea over roasted meat to add moisture.

→ Chicken sprinkled with Long Jing, roast beef with Yunnan buds, lamb with Assam Maijian

19. Infuse a tea according to whether you want a honeyed, brown or green tinge.

→ Whipped cream with Matcha

20. Flavour a cocktail with an infusion or concentrate or steep the leaves directly in alcohol.

→ Champagne with Thé du Hammam

Thanks to its elegant colour and its ease of use, Matcha has become popular with pastry chefs in recent years. Financiers, madeleines and other small cakes are now well known in their Matcha varieties. Consider using this delicate, bitter powder in savoury dishes. For example, dust a white fish fillet with Matcha before dipping it in tempura batter or create a melting Matcha filling for a savoury cake.

→ Find more details and recipes in Tea Sommelier page 76 ff.