I posted this almost 2 years ago (wow, can’t believe I’ve been blogging for that long). Anyway I dug it out of the backwaters of this blog for Meeta’s Monthly mingle “Coffee & Tea”. Take a look at her site for this great tea and coffee inspired recipes.

Here are some other tea inspired recipes on this blog:

Green tea & raspberry ice cream sandwich

A nice cup of tea & biscuit

Scones & clotted cream

Post from November 2006:

So I thought it was just the English who are crazy about tea. Pas vrai! This week I went to ‘Le festival du Thé’. Tons of tea, non of your cheap stuff. Lot more upmarket, hand picked in moonlight…Well you get my gist. Anyway in honour of all the free tea bags I got. I thought I’ld make something more than a cup of tea. I tried doing this with a fancy green tea but the flavours didn’t work so well. Go with your bog standard English ‘black’ tea, even PG tips will do. The tea flavour complements the creaminess of this dessert well.

Thé crème brûlée

2 x tea bags
2 x tbsp caster sugar
400ml double cream
4 x egg yolks
caster sugar for topping

Set oven at 170°c. Boil some hot water enough for the ‘bain-mairie’.
Bring cream to boil, switch off heat. Add tea bags, brew for 5 – 8 minutes, depending on how strong you liike your tea. Meanwhile ‘blanche’ = whisk yolks with sugar. Add hot tea/cream mixture to yolks. Whisk at the same time otherwise you’re get scrambled eggs.
Pour mixture into 4 ramekins or 4 small tea cups. Place in tin and pop it into the oven for 10 minutes. Chill overnight. Before serving sprinkle even layer (about 5mm thick) of sugar and set under grill on the highest heat. Watch carefully. Turn ramekins if the caramel isn’t browning evenly. Wait for caramel to set before serving.

Tags: tea

When I saw the recipe/photos for the sweet sushi in two books in the same week I thought they definetly must be worth making. We so happened to be launching the book “Humeur Gourmande” at La Cocotte two weeks ago which has this recipe. For the launch we served a La Cocotte adaptation of the recipe, made with dulce de leche. They went down a treat. I’m not much of a fan of dulce de leche since I bake all the biscuits at La Cocotte with it.

The other recipe appears in Sushi box which is very well illustrated by Hisayuki Takeuchi (founder of the nouvelle japanese cuisine in Paris) with photos showing every step. His recipe for sweet sushi is slightly more “haute cuisine/japanese” with the use of nori (dried seaweed) paper and plain sushi rice.

I’ve gone with the Humeur Gourmande recipe but used the traditional hand method of making the forms. I was also lazy and made the rice pudding with my rice cooker (I love my rice cooker, it’s so useful!). Once you have the rice pudding base which you could flavour with vanilla, almond essence, orange flower water, cinammon, cocoa powder…You can combine the rice base with any kind of fruit you fancy. Although mangoes, tinned peaches, apricots and pears look more “raw fish” like.

Sweet sushi

inspired by Bruno Viala from Humeur Gourmande – serves 6

250g sushi rice or short grain rice (risotto rice will work too)
500ml milk
100ml double cream
50g sugar
3 tsp almond essence (but you could whatever flavour you like)
selection of fruit – I used tinned apricots

Wash the rice well. Combine the rice, milk, cream, almond essence and sugar in a pot. Place on a medium heat and stir occasionally as the sugar may cause the rice to stick to the bottom and burn. This should take approx. 15 minutes. Leave the rice to cool slightly but keep it covered with a clean tea towel.

For the easier option:

Pour the rice into a rectangle dish/container which is 2/3cm deep and chill. When the rice has set solid, run a knife around the edge of the container and then turn it upside down onto a board. Cut into rectangles and place slices of fruit on top.

For the more traditional option:

Leave the rice until it’s cool enough to handle. Have a large bowl of cold water and a plate to place the sushi on next to you. Dip your hands into the water and take a small amount (a little less than the size of a golf ball) of rice and form into the sushi shape. It’s important that your hands are wet otherwise the rice will stick to them. Make sure you press the rice together well. Once you have all the sushi shapes made, add the fruit slices on top.

Tags: Rice, Sushi, Twist, Unusual

Here’s a toast to a new flat, new job opportunities and plenty of new adventures. All this has kind of  been keeping me away from blogging the last several months.

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Tags: champagne, party

Apparently it’s fashion week something I’m quite oblivious to. I only really notice it when I see the super skinny, super tall girls in the metro with their books and paris maps in hand. I’m really tempted to point them in the direction of the nearest tasty bistro

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Tags: lychee, Panna cotta, snowwhite

I’m very sorry for the slight absence recently. Lots of things happening (some good, some bad). As you can see I’ve been busy doing some coding. I decided to give my blog a little “facelift” and decided to host the site myself which has given me the plus of being able to add more images. Let me know what you think.

Keep reading…

Tags: basil, Pavlova, pepper, strawberries, Wimbledon