The Prince Stops in For Soup

I've been making a lot of soups, like potato, bean and lentil.  I love these thick winter soups.  For some reason they brought to mind my mother.  Why, I don't know because her idea of soup was open a can or the box of Mrs. Grasso's noodle soup.  She was an okay cook.  She did some things well, mostly desserts and Sunday dinner type things.  But I do remember one spectacular failure which entered family legend.

You all know I grew up on a farm and most of us were on the poor side, so we shared equipment with other farmers - hay balers, wheat thrashers, silage makers etc.  This meant at harvest time there would be a large group of farmers at someone's house to help bring in whatever the current crop happened to be.  Mother had gotten a potato ricer and used it to do the potatoes for the 10+ men.  But she didn't add any butter or milk, so there were these hard little pellets of potato.  Not too popular, so she served them the next day!!!!!  My father suggested she serve something else and quietly threw out the dangerous tool.  But we all had many laughs about this over the years.

By the way, I put some Lapsang Souchong in my lentil soup, along with a smoked ham hock - yum, yum, yum.  The soup needed something and I thought that would do it and it did!.

I've been drinking Twinings Prince of Wales Tea.  I have been aging this for 3 years.  Or, since I really ought to tell the truth, I put it in a cupboard and forgot it for 3 years.  But the former sounds so special.  Oh well.  This is one of Twinings Classics, formulated many years ago.  A few years ago they tried to update this and Earl Grey, but there was such outrage from consumers that they now have "Classics" of these 2. 

The dry tea smells somewhat winey, somewhat of deep forests.  I suspect there is some spice there too, which all leads me to believe that the majority of this tea is Keemun, along with some Yunnan.  Fine with me, these are my favorites.  As it brews there is a touch of farmers' washing compound, steamy laundry and fresh air on a windy day.  The brewed tea does not disappoint.  It's a very smooth tea, quite at home either straight or with milk.  In spite of that there is a bit of a rough edge to keep it interesting.  To me, for some reason, it tasted something like granite or some other rough rock.  There was also a bit of deep wine barrel to add even more fun.

This morning was utterly gorgeous - we had fog and it froze on every twig, branch and leaf there is.  All silver and white.  Now there is blue sky and sun.  One thing I have learned in the Northeast, is to appreciate all the small things that are around in the late fall/winter seasons.  There is so much beauty if you look for it amid the gloom and gray.  Things may be small, but they can add wonderfully to a dismal day.

Baked Applesauce and Tea

The weather cannot decide what to do with itself.  The sun shines, but huge black clouds are chasing it and, for a while, they win and it rains and sleets!  Then it is 10 degrees warmer because the sun is back.  But it is clear that the thermometer is only really going in one direction, down, and we will have a killing frost tonight.  I am just as glad.  What few flowers are left are raggedy and worn, time for them to be put to bed in the compost pile.  However, I am left with one glorious nature picture.  A really brilliant maple, shining so brightly in the sun becomes back lit by the very dark clouds and suddenly, brightness is rendered in stark, glowing neon!  Just breath-taking.

The Downies seem to have settled their differences and peace is reigning in our little corner of the world, at least among the feathered.  The furred realm tells a different story - I have been feeding a stray, a really beautiful black male named Black Kitty - really creative, aren't I.  He looked terrible when I started 6 months ago, but now he is gorgeous.  He is very polite and just eats from his dish and generally either takes a short nap or goes right out again.  However, Sarah hisses, Bert swats, and Ernie whines at him.  Neurotic ol' Andy pretends he is terrified.  He ignores them all, being composed of heavy muscle while their laziness -es are pretty wimpy.

I made Baked Apples applesauce today.  I had only bland tasting apples, so as I added cinnamon and cardamom, I thought, hmm I bought these for baked apples, why not... So I added raisins, a little brown sugar and some butter.  Voila,  Baked Apples Sauce.  It's very good.   I had it with some chamomile tea and toast.  The chamomile picks up the apple and they play nicely with each other.  A fortuitous discovery.  If you make very strong chamomile tea and boil it down it makes a lovely addition to a custard, using some of it in place of milk. 

I also had a little leftover Lapsang Souchong and instead of milk in my scrambled eggs, I used the tea.  Just the nicest hint of smoke.  I also use it in beef stews, to replace some of the liquid.

Update on World Tea East

World Tea East is going to be very exciting this year, with a multitude of excellent classes from top-notch tea pros and so many exhibitors!  One of the really neat things is that all the finest teas, tea accessories and specialty tea items that won this year's competitions will be showcased.  Won't it be fun to see and hopefully  taste what's on the cutting edge in the tea world?  There will be things like a BUNN at home tea and coffee maker, tea infused ice cream, Northwest Glass's fine Euro cup and saucer, exquisite packaging winners, such as Vintage Tea Works, just for starters.  And, of course, lots of teas to taste.  I hope you have all made plans to attend.  If you get tired of tea, there is Philadelphia to visit, as well.  Hop on a purple bus and hit the highlights.

You've probably all heard of the Slow Food Movement, well Italy has founded a Slow Tea Movement, dedicated to preserving tea cultures around the world, as well as working to improve the working conditions  on tea estates, including biodiversity.  Raise your teacups to them!  Did you know that there is also an Italian Association for Tea Culture?  Check it out at www.aictea.it

I was making a salad that called for grilled red peppers I didn't have and I wanted that smokey flavor - what to do?   Lapsang Souchong to the rescue!  I ground some up and added it to the dressing until I liked it - carefully, of course.  Yum.  It's also wonderful in a rub for grilled meats.  Oh yes, you can drink it, too. 

In fact, I think that is what I will have today, since I have a lot of it and it is again cool.  All I need to do is decide which one.  I am using a mix of Traditional and Superior, as there is not enough of either for more than a cup.  They are both from Life in Teacup.  Both come in small red sample packets, the traditional a dull, somewhat plain red, the superior in a highly decorated shiny foil.  The traditional is darker, with smaller leaves and  heavily smoked.  The superior one has longer, more twisted leaves and the barest hint of smoke overlying a leather/woodsy aroma.  I brewed them at 212 degrees for 3.5 minutes.  To do them justice, I know I should have brewed them separately and compared them, but I am impatient today.

The taste is so different from what I expected.  It is very smooth and delicate, with only the barest whisper of smoke.  The body is somewhat thin.  There are hints of vegetativeness about it and all in all it is a lovely tea.

This Lapsang Hits a Sour Note

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Part of a monastery courtyard. It's hard to tell, but that is a 5 ft
tall rosemary bush. I about died of jealousy.

The next several posts will all have the same dates, as I can't copy things to here from my document store. Sometimes computers are very annoying.

I love good Lapsang Souchong tea. However, the sample I tried from Golden Moon doesn't fall into that category. As soon as I opened the packet I thought, uh-oh. The tea absolutely reeked of heavy smoke. I followed the directions to brew it for 5-6 minutes with boiling water and as it brewed the kitchen filled with that heavy scent. But, sometimes, aroma can be deceiving. Well, folks, this time it wasn't. The tea was awful! awful! awful! Probably the second worst one I ever had. Upton's won top honors for that, but they no longer carry the ghastly stuff, so you're safe if you order theirs - try the samples first.

Golden Moon teas are generally quite good, but everyone has flops or things not to our taste. I am glad I got that basket of sample that Golden Moon offers - it is a great way to see what I like or don't like. More and more companies are offering samples and I would much rather pay a dollar to try something I don't like than spend $20 and hate it. That would be very expensive compost!

I got a new shipment of Yunnans from Upton's! Oh yum, yum, yum. I bought 4 different ones. I also got some Keemuns and some other samples.

Black Dragon Lapsang Souchong

The perfect day for a Lapsang Souchong. Nasty, cold, rainy. I brewed
up a pot of Upton's Black Dragon for 5 min at 212 degrees. What a love-
ly tea. The dry leaves were beautiful, large and dark brown, with long silvery buds, covered with down. The scent of it brewing was definitely smoky- that wonderful dark pine fire scent. But there was a hint of sweetness there, too. The liquor was not nearly as heavy as many Lapsang I've had. The blend was, of course, smoky, but there was that sweetness again, with a good, complex tea under it. With it I had some fine mellow bleu cheese. Someone in a sidebar on a teablog I was reading mentioned pairing the two and since I love them both, I thought, why not? I am so glad I did. The two together are wonderful. The cheese smoothed away any rough edges of the tea and the tea seemed to add dimensions to the cheese. Definitely a fortuitous pairing.

For those of you who sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed by tea terms that are thrown around, In Pursuit of Tea's website has a Tea Glossary listed under "About Tea". It is a fairly long list that is certainly helpful.