all recipes below

Mock Chicken Salad

Chai Scones
Peach-Tea Jam
Awesome Assam and Lemon Tarte
Tea and Lemon Curd Filling
(Robert Wemischner)

Homemade Mayonnaise
(Julie Hawkins)  

Chai Tea

Mock Chicken Salad

- 4 ounces hickory tofu, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped cashews
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1/4 cup black olives, chopped
- 1/4 cup green olives, chopped
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 4 slices of whole grain bread

Chai Scones (Robert Wemischner)

Sift all of the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder and spices).

Place these ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the butter. Mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  

Combine the egg yolks, heavy cream and chai concentrate in a small bowl. Add this to the dry ingredients.  Mix just until combined.  Do not over mix.  Remove from the bowl to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Divide into two equal parts and flatten each into a round measuring about 7" in. diameter by 1/2" thick. With a knife dipped in flour, score each round into eight equal wedges. Brush with egg wash, score decoratively with a fork, if desired.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and place in preheated 425 degree oven for about 25 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool slightly on a cooling rack and cut into eight wedges each. Makes 16 scones.

Peach-Tea Jam
(Robert Wemischner) 

This brings out the fruity character of good Darjeeling tea.  It's great served with scones, shortbread or the morning toast. And it can be made in advance and stored, refrigerated, for at least a month. If it is peach season, use the freshest, ripest, most fragrant fruit you can find. 

Otherwise, canned peaches in fruit juice based syrup (no extra sugar added), or frozen peaches will do.

Place all the ingredients except the crystallized ginger into a heavy 3 quart saucepan.  Bring to the boil, skimming frequently during the first few minutes of cooking.  Reduce heat and cook just until the mixture flows slowly when dropped from a spoon and coats the spoon. Add the ginger. This mixture will not appear thick when hot. When it cools, it sets to a thick sauce consistency. It is not designed to be as firm as commercially made jams.

Awesome Assam and Lemon Tarte  
(Robert Wemischner)

Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a food processor, using steel knife attachment) until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and zest and mix to blend, aerating the mixture until light in color. In a separate bowl, break the egg and stir lightly. Use only half of the egg and blend it in with the mixture,  about 1 minute. The mixture will look somewhat curdled. This is normal. 

Add the flour all at once and mix just until the flour disappears. Remove from the mixer (or processor bowl) and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead briefly and flatten into a disk about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap and refrigerate until firm. While the dough is chilling, make the Tea and Lemon Curd filling. 

Tea and Lemon Curd Filling:

In a small non-reactive(not aluminum) saucepan, heat the lemon juice and tea leaves to 185 degrees. Remove from heat, allow to steep for 1 minute and sieve the mixture into a small bowl, pressing hard on the tea leaves to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Reserve the liquid, discarding the leaves. In a three-quart saucepan, bring 3 inches of water to a boil. Place the sieved liquid, lemon zest, eggs, egg yolks, sugar and butter into a stainless steel bowl large enough to fit snugly over the saucepan.  Reduce the heat to medium so that water is just simmering. Whisk constantly until it is the thickness of mayonnaise, making sure to scrape the mixture well from the sides of the bowl. Put through fine-meshed sieve to remove any lumps. Set aside at room temperature.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a 14" round, about 1/4" thick.

Slide a metal spatula under the dough to be sure that is not sticking to the rolling surface. Roll up over the rolling pin and ease into 8" diameter false-bottomed tarte pan, pressing dough firmly into the fluted sides of the pan.  Prick with the tines of the fork at 1" intervals all around the base of the tarte. Chill until frozen, about 30 minutes.  If you have extra dough, make a few cookies! 

While the dough is in the freezer, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the dough on the middle rack of the oven for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool. Spread the filling evenly in a 1/2 inch layer and decorate as desired, with chopped pistachios, a few shreds of crystallized ginger, or thin slices of lemon which have been cooked in a sugar syrup until tender and then caramelized. Serve at room temperature. Serves 6.

All recipes are excerpted from  "Cooking with Tea" by Robert Wemischner, Tuttle,

Periplus Editions, 2000 available online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com or in bookstores for purchase or order.

Ingredients:

- 3 3/4  cups all purpose flour
- 1/2    cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground cardamon
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4    pound or 1 stick sweet butter
- 2 egg  yolks
- 6 oz.  heavy cream or half-and-half 
- 5 oz.  chai concentrate (premade or recipe follows)

Egg wash:
- 2 egg yolks mixed with 2 Tb. heavy cream or milk

Peach-Tea Jam

- 4 pounds fresh aromatic peaches, peeled and pitted, roughly chopped (if using canned, drain well before using) 

- 2 pounds granulated sugar

- 2 cups brewed tea made from a Darjeeling tea (steep the tea leaves in 180 degree water for 3 minutes and drain)

- 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Short dough

- 1/4  pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

- 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- Zest of 1/2 a lemon (yellow part only)

- 1 whole large egg

- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Tea and Lemon Curd Filling:

- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

- 5 tablespoons Assam tea leaves

- Zest of 1 lemon

- 2 whole large eggs

- 2 egg yolks from large eggs

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1/4 pound unsalted butter

- Optional garnishes: Natural, unsalted pistachio nuts, finely chopped or

- Crystallized ginger, thinly sliced or

- Candied lemon slices

Homemade Mayonnaise   (Julie Hawkins)

Place the egg yolks, egg, mustard and lemon juice in a food processor. And mix until no clumps are present.  Pour the oil slowly into the spout of the food processor while mixing constantly until the desired consistency is reached.  The rule of thumb is about a maximum of 2/3 cup of oil per egg yolk.  When done, add about 3 pinches of salt (to taste) and pulse again quickly to mix.

- 2 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 1-2 tsp. mustard
- 2 cups organic oil (any oil of choice)
- 1 Tb. lemon juice

Chai Tea

Boil in 2 cups of water for 8 minutes:

Then add:

2 black tea bags and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Strain out the spices when done steeping.

- 1 stick of cinnamon
- a pinch of cardamom seeds
- 3 to 4 cloves
- 3 to 4 black peppercorns
- a slice of fresh ginger

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