A ritual, an appetizer, a drink tea is different things for different people; I am a passionate tea drinker and madly in love with this wonderful beverage. Black, green, oolong, infusions {well not exactly tea technically} I love them all and have one full cabinet in the kitchen that is dedicated to my love of tea. I was not a tea lover in the first half of my life, after getting married to a man who loved his morning cuppa { ginger chai in those days} I started my journey and learned to appreciate fine teas.
It’s so amazing to brew variety of tea plain
, or in combination with herbs and spices that transforms it into something else altogether. What I love most about tea is its
delicious taste and aroma comes packed with goodness of health and almost every tea has got some medicinal and healing properties attached to it.
And for connoisseurs there is a variety of tea for every occasion and complement any meal, only thing you have to do is attune your taste buds and olfactory senses to a particular meal and you will know what meal works with which tea {I mostly select pairing like this}.
My mornings start with simple black tea with few drops of lemon {of course with some crazy days in between when only milky tea works} and always no sweetener {natural or otherwise} and after that I am ready to take on day as it comes, sending two big guys for office and collage, shooting pictures, catching up on writing, cooking and all this with endless cups of tea in-between.
When I got invite for Ty.phoo tea and Food Pairing Event that was to be conducted by Celebrity Chef Vikki Ratnani at
The Park Hotel, New Delhi, Was there any scope for not attending it
.We were served some
iced teas and infusions prior to actual
cooking demo. Orange tea with cinnamon sticks in it that worked like a charm, I loved the taste of tangy orange with warm spicing
of cinnamon just a perfect pairing of flavours for a wintry afternoon. Spiced vodka for those who were interested.
Chef Vikki Ratnani started event with cooking a non vegetarian dish named Adrak ki Chai ka Kukkad , chicken breast poached with few spices and Assam tea, and served over a bed of mashed masala mash potatoes and topped with ribboned cucumber and some fresh pickled vegetables. Being a vegetarian I did not taste it but few people liked it very much and others not so much.
In appetizers we were served assam tea with cocktail samosa for vegetarians and chicken tikka for non vegetarians. Robust flavours of Assam tea paired very well with rich food. Mint couscous served with harrisa spiced hummus worked very well with a refreshing Moroccan mint tea, and plate was polished within minutes of course with a second helping of tea.
Main course was Masala tea steeped cottage cheese encrusted with crushed black peppercorns and a hint of mustard served over a bed of masala potato mash and topped with pickled cucumber ribbons was star of the day and though I was not feeling particularly hungry I ate it all.
I have tried few teas from ty.phoo and liking what I have tasted so far, though I really wish they really should get rid of paper tea bags and start packaging their teas in muslin cloth bags. I love my tea loose; it is better quality, fresher and tastes much better than tea-bagged tea and makes for a perfect cup for that precious ‘me time‘.
Cooking with Tea is a concept that we all have done in past too { choley is a great example}. After attending this workshop I am exploring new possibilities in my new kitchen {Am I a show off: D} and have tested 3-4 new recipes that involve cooking with tea and two of them came out wonderfully well. So stay tuned for more tea tales in coming days where I am cooking few dishes with tea.
A good post.Photographs are really awesome.Have you done some specialisation in photograhy.? You are correct tea bag tea does’nt taste as good as loose tea..