It’s great to be back for Round Two of the @docsmith handcrafted knife contest by @cookwithus. I can honestly admit that I can feel the pressure mounting a notch. Over the last 24 weeks or so of participating in this contest I’ve learned a lot about myself, my culture, my cooking skills, and at another level, my husband’s culture. In the latter case, most cultural memories appear to be linked to food! So when I saw the list of ingredients for this week I thought: “No way he can have an anecdote about tea?” But he did!
Of all the ingredients in this week’s challenge, tea was definitely one that I didn’t expect. I love drinking tea every now and then; black tea mostly. When I am on a diet I would try green tea or Oolong tea or even Camomile tea to calm myself before sleep. But I can’t remember incorporating it in my cooking. I’ve thought a few times of giving Matcha a go but haven’t quite master it. With this week’s challenge I thought it was the best opportunity to really give tea a try. I mean from a culinary perspective! I just needed the right recipe to definitely convince me. I did a search on social media and other culinary sites and found a few interesting recipe. Eventually I’ve settled on this week’s recipe. However, before getting on to this let’s go back to my husband.
As I’ve written here a few times, he appears to have a history for most dishes I’ve presented. So what could he come up in relation to tea? Well it appears that Mauritius used to be a small player on the big tea market. They didn’t compete in the same category as Sri Lanka and the Dilmah family but they had a couple of good blend; namely Bois Chéri and La Chartreuse. Bois Chéri, it appears, was created in 1892 and are still in activity to this day. According to my husband, ithe tea factory is located in a small village in the south of Mauritius with a breathtaking view over 250-hectare. As a kid, they would have tours of the plantation and even get to delicately pick the tea leaves. Later, when he worked as a journalist, he would attend car rallies at the same location. And last tip from him, if you do venture to tropical Mauritius add the Tea Tour as part of your trip!
Back to this week’s contest. I saw this beautiful chicken and tea recipe that I’ve been willing to try. The chicken is poached in honey, ginger, chilli, and freshly brewed tea. I didn’t take me too long to prepare the dish and get everything in place. And funnily enough the tea wasn’t that big a hurdle after all. And it blended beautifully with the chicken and the honey was great in balancing all the different taste together. The hard part was to try and find a good way of adding the strawberry to the mix. I then remembered being at a party where I had a nice salad with Strawberries, Bocconcini cheese, and cherry tomatoes. So I thought it would be great to present the honey tea chicken as a salad with strawberries and tomatoes. And I think I was right to do it this way as at the combination of flavours was great. Together the dish was well balanced and relatively light. I will definitely try it again in the future.
I hope you enjoy it too!
Bon appétit!
And good luck to everyone.
INGREDIENTS
For Honey Tea Chicken
- 1 cup black tea
- 2 tbs honey
- 2 tbs soy sauce
- 1 clove fresh garlic, crushed
- 1 whole fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger
- 540 g skinless chicken breast, fat trimmed
For Strawberry Salad
- Strawberry
- Bocconcini cheese
- Cherry tomatoes
- Peppermint basil
- Rocket Salad
METHOD
- Combine tea, honey, soy sauce, garlic, chilli and ginger in a deep non-stick frying pan over high heat. Bring to the boil.
- Add chicken. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, turning occasionally, for 14–16 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer chicken to a plate. Cover chicken with foil and set aside to rest for 5 minutes before slicing thinly.
- Meanwhile, boil tea mixture for 5 minutes or until reduced.
- For the salad, slice the strawberries and cherry tomatoes on a plate and add in the cheese, basil, and rocket salad.
- Plate everything and serve the chicken drizzled with sauce.
It's still early morning here and scrolling through my feed I come across your post & now I'm hungry!
Not an easy mystery basket but you've done so well again @foodforsoul, this looks delicious!
Hahaha oh that’s good at least you won’t gave to worry about lunch. The tea ingredient was a bit of a challenge but it tasted so good once it’s all done. Can’t wait to see your dish!
Excellent post, I like you have never used tea in cooking but was pleasantly surprised on what it added to the end product. I'd just like to say I am in awe of your photos! Great stuff all around, good luck this week!
Thank you. It was a real challenge not knowing what to expect or whether the tea would overpower other elements. But I think for a first attempt it turned out pretty nice!
That sauce looks so delicious! The tea must have given it a wonderful depth of flavor. Reducing it was a great idea to give it a nice thickness and boost its flavor.
Wonderful plate and mystery basket entry @foodforsoul!
Congratulations on making it to the last round. Looking forward to your dessert entry!
Thank you. It has been a great experience so far and hopefully I can come up with a stunner for the dessert.
By the way, hope you play with matcha. I love it and use it in different recipes, one of them being matcha ice cream.
Will give matcha a try at some point just need the right occasion.
I have never had poached chicken before as I always thought it would be difficult; but after seeing yours here.. it looks manageable.
GOOD luck with the final round!
Thank you @goldendawne. I’ve had poached chicken before but not in tea. So that was definitely something new for me too.
Great salad @foodforsoul - wow - would love to tuck into it - looks beyond amazing
Oh thank you. Unfortunately it was our lunch today and it’s all long gone! Maybe next time ;)
What a beautiful dish. Perfect for a light meal that will not make you feel lethargic afterwards. I really like the flavor profile of you marinade and the resulting reduction sauce. I do like chilies in just about everything! The salad, with sweet, sour, peppery and creamy elements, is the perfect partner for this chicken. Great job and good luck in the dessert round!
Thank you @chefsteve. Currently working in my mind what dessert would best fit the previous two dishes and how it can play on the palate.
This looks so delicious @foodforsoul - definitely going to try this one out sometime in the future. "The chicken is poached in honey, ginger, chilli, and freshly brewed tea." - this won me over straight away
Thank you @pandamama. To be honest this won me as well to choose this particular recipe. I wasn’t sure about the tea but I thought that in combination with ginger and honey it will taste amazing. Let me know how yours turn out.
Will do - definitely
It looks so beautiful and fresh!
Thank you.
This might be one of my favorites so far. I would not have thought to include tea in a recipe. I love all of the colors in the salad...and your final presentation. Nice!
Thank you and I must admit I didn’t think it would turn out that yummy.
What a beautiful and vibrant salad! I love getting a little piece of your husband's story in there, as well. It really is wonderful how much our cultural traditions are tied to meal times, and how fun it is to create new traditions through sharing our meals with others!
It is indeed and food appears to be one thing that link all of us. I reckon you have one special dish that can take you to a happy time when you were little!
This really looks amazing - you go girl :)
Thank you @docsmith and thanks for supporting @cookwithus for this contest.
@foodforsoul just came back from gym and it's looks so tasty
Congratulations @foodforsoul! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Beautiful entry @foodforsoul! Please send a proof photo so your entry will be valid. Thanks!
Oh so sorry I did it against the @cookwithus post. Nevertheless here is the proof. My apology.
Great, thank you! 🙏🏽