I love drinking tea and typically have at least one or more cups a day. However, until I saw the tea contest on my friend's Victoria @ Mission:Food blog, I have not used tea as a cooking ingredient. It is a terrific idea as different teas can bring unique interesting flavors to both savory and sweet dishes.
In this dish, I infused Earl Grey tea together with blueberries, honey, and ginger. The wild salmon fillets, gently poached in this tea broth, absorbed the wonderful tangy and sweet flavors of blueberries and honey and the hints of smokiness of Earl Grey tea. It was excellent accompanied by the soba noodles tossed in sesame oil and soy sauce.
Ingredients:
4 cups water
Earl Grey tea from 3 tea bags
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon dried ginger
Salt, pepper to taste
2 Sockeye salmon fillets
Soba Noodles, cooked according to instructions
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Black Sesame Seeds
Mint
Directions:
Pour water into a large pot. Empty the tea from the bags and pour into the pot with water. Add blueberries, honey, and ginger. Bring to boil and cook for a few minutes. Take off the heat and blend with immersion blender. Strain and pour back into the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to simmer over medium heat.
Place salmon fillets in the tea broth. Poach for about 5 minutes. Take the salmon from the broth, take the skin off if desired. Reserve the tea broth.
Toss soba noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce to taste (I used about a tablespoon of each per bunch). Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
To assemble: Place the salmon on the center of the plate. Carefully surround with soba noodles. Pour some of the blueberry Earl Grey broth around. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
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We enjoyed this salmon dish very much, and also used a similar preparation for sablefish, or black cod.
The poached sablefish was so "melt-in-your-mouth" tender and flaky! I didn't have that many blueberries for the tea broth this time so the predominant flavor was the Earl Grey tea with only hints of fruity flavors, which was actually just perfect in combination with black cod.
To accompany the tea poached sablefish, I also made homemade soba noodles! Please tune in on Saturday night for the International Incident Noodles Party to read all about my soba noodles adventures!
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Friday is the last day to enter the Magic Bullet Giveaway. For more details about the contest and to submit your recipe, please click here!
