A 2014 food trend that caught my interest is cooking with tea. After doing some exploring of this trend, I found a few recipe ideas that intrigued me. One that seemed pretty easy and like something I might actually make is tea salt. The idea is that you grind up loose leaf tea in a spice grinder, then add coarse salt and whirl it a couple of times to blend. My experiment included trying this with matcha powder, an oolong tea and a black tea. The matcha gave a fairly distinctive green tea flavor to the salt, and would be good to use on a variety of foods. But the oolong and black teas were really subtle. I wanted a tea salt with more flavor.
Enter Sherlock Holmes! Rumor has it that his favorite tea was lapsang souchong, a smoky tea that gets its flavor and aroma from smoke-drying over pine wood. So off to the tea store I went to get some of this mysterious tea.
The smoky aroma of the tea is pretty strong, so it seemed like it would make a great salt, but for what? Right about that time, I came across a recipe for tea-boiled edamame. Inspired by that idea, I made a recipe for edamame with lapsang souchong tea salt.
It’s easy to put together. First, make tea salt by grinding up lapsang souchong tea leaves with kosher salt. Then boil edamame pods in brewed tea until the beans are tender. Drain and toss with some of the smoky tea salt.
We found the tea salt made the edamame irresistable! I will be making this for a party appetizer soon. I’m already thinking about different uses for the smoky salt like sprinkling on popcorn or roasted veggies.
Edamame with Smoky Tea Salt
Ingredients
Lapsang Souchong Tea Salt
1 teaspoon loose leaf lapsang souchong tea
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
Edamame
1 tablespoon loose leaf lapsang souchong tea
1 bag (10 ounces) frozen edamame in the pod (we used Cascadian Farm)
Directions
In a spice grinder, grind 1 teaspoon tea leaves to a fine powder. Add salt; pulse two or three times to blend thoroughly. Set aside.
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In a 2-quart saucepan, heat 1 quart water to boiling. Add 1 tablespoon tea leaves. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes to steep tea. Remove tea leaves by pouring mixture through a fine strainer, reserving brewed tea. Return brewed tea to saucepan. (You can keep the leaves to reuse for a cup or two of tea if you like the smoky flavor.)
Add edamame to tea in saucepan; heat to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered 3 minutes or until tender. Drain the edamame and place in large bowl. Immediately sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the tea salt mixture; toss to coat. Serve the remaining tea salt mixture on the side for extra sprinkling.
Prep Time: 25 Minutes | Total Time: 25 Minutes | Servings: 6
A few fragrant tea infusions to try:
- Matcha Nama Chocolate from Just One Cookbook
- Osmanthus Tea Pork Ribs from Table for 2
- Jasmine Tea Madelines from Kitchen Heals Soul
- Longan-Oolong Tea Cakes from Ancoo Journal
