THAI TEA TESTING & HOW TO MAKE ICED THAI TEA

A couple of weekends ago, I craved dearly for the THAI Tea I had at one of the restaurant. I observed carefully the color, the aroma, and taste of the Thai Tea served at local Thai restaurant. I did some web search on the Thai tea. Most of the tea listed were imported from Thailand. Some are in the form of instant Thai tea powder; also there is tea leaves form of the Thai Tea being sold with Thai tea making kit. Regardless, after first three tries with various tea listed on the web, my search for the better Thai tea took me to an interesting journey. I found three different brands Thai Tea on the market where I live. At first I purchased some Oolong Tea from Taiwan, Instant Tea from Thailand (pre-mixed), and both disqualified to come close to the taste I am looking for. The instant tea tasted good, but I had my concern with the artificial color yellow #6 that it contains. But it explains the reason why the tea served at the restaurant comes out so gorgeous when served.
So, the next quest for the right Thai Tea was solved at the Koreana Plaza, local Korean market located at Olson drive, Rancho Cordova close to my office. I purchased three different tea brands and flavors. Thai Tea by Sunlee has vanilin flavour, and FD&C Yellow #6. Then, the "THAI Tea" with Anise (Thailand), and Black Tea (China).
The control of the test is to brew the tea with hot water at the same temperatures and with the same number of bags of tea. The challenge is to measure the color. So, the color fused through the glass and camera is the only mechanism I have to measure the strength of the tea. Each group of tea is steeped three times. At the end of the test, the winner of the Thai Tea is the Black Tea.  If I am not so sensitive to the food color, probably I don't mind enjoy a cup of Sunlee brand Thai tea.
To make Iced Thai Tea, after steeping the tea bags--4 tea bags to 12 oz of hot water- make it strong as it will get diluted when added to the glass of ice, add a drop of Vanilla extract. Depending on your preference, you can add pre-sweetened coffee creamery; condensed milk; then top it with half and half, or evaporated milk.  Enjoy!

 

 

Update on 11/7/2020.  This store sales organic Thai Tea.  The best part is no artificial color.  https://www.arborteas.com/organic-thai-iced-tea.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8PGo-b3x7AIVFR6tBh3rEgNzEAEYAiAAEgIONPD_BwE

Your traditional blend Thai tea to make the Thai Iced Tea should be of strong black tea,  and contain vanilla bean, cardamom and anise.  So you could blend them at home the same ingredients and see if it will produce the same taste.  Have fun testing.  

 

MUFFIN TOPS

I baked some Almond Muffin Tops last week. The recipe is from my friend's Aunt. The ingredients are fairly simple. It was not until I found a set of reasonably priced Muffin Tops molds from Amazon.com that I tried it, though. Had to adjust the recipe a bit after the first two tries. Added 1/4 cup more liquid (milk), and made sure the packed flour is sifted to measure 2-1/2 Cups. Adding extra white sugar mixed with Cinnamon added a touch more to the topping taste. Cardammon and vanilla paste and a tablespoon of Lime Juice also added to its moist texture to the Almond Muffin Tops with Cranberries and Raisins.


 

 

Shrimp Toast

The first time I tasted the Shrimp Toast was at a family Christmas party.   My mother likes to cook "foreign" dishes and test new recipes for fun.   I loved the crispy fried bread with shrimp on top of it.  The UMAMI of fresh shrimp is increased with touch of ginger to give a bit of heat,  That was some 35+ years ago.   I decided to revisit the recipe with my mother one afternoon.

We used Asian Milk Bread as a base.   Its thickness and crumb density is ideal for this frying.  I think the "Texas Toast" would be a good substitute.  And of course, bake your own bread and cut into the ideal thickness for this shrimp toast.  Each slice was cut into 1/4 and center is scooped out half way to make the "well" to hold shrimp and pork mixtures.   The sliced bread can be also cut into round shape, a perfect base to hold the curled shrimp.  ( Save the scraps to make PANKO breadcrumb for future use.)

We are quite happy with the result.   It is a great addition to serve as appetizer, TAPAS dish.   We had fun spending time together cooking.

Ingredients:

Ground Pork1/4 lb

Coarsely chopped shrimps 1 lb

(Optional) 24 shelled whole deveined shrimps without tail

salt 1 tsp  and pepper  1/8 tsp

Slurry - 1/8 C

Minced ginger - 1-1/2 TB

Some cilantro leaves

6 slices of Asian whole bread without crust cut into quarter or into round shapes, then center cutout, but not through the bottom

Enough vegetable or peanuts oil for deep frying - 2-1/2" to 3" deep

Cutout                                                       Minced ginger                                 Add Slurry

 

Fill the center with shrimp mixture, then smear the mixture over the surface.   Top it with whole shrimp, if you would like, then, place a single cilantro leaf.   

 

Place in preheated oil 350'F presentation side down.   Fry for 4 minutes (or until golden brown).   Tip:  As everyone's stove BTU maybe different, the cooking time may vary.  Take one out and see if the shrimp mixture is cooked all the way through.  Then fry the rest for the same period. 

Turn the shrimp toast over and take it out after a minute.

JOE'S TIRAMISU

Finally got around making the TIRAMISU.

It was not easy to find the Italian Vicenzi Ladyfingers.  Luckily found it at a Asian market - SP Market at 65th Street, Sacramento.

The recipe is from http:\\www.joyofbaking.com - TIRAMISU

What I did differently is the amount of coffee and spirit the recipe called for.

I used 1/4 Cup of Meyer's Dark Rum instead of Marsala because that's what I have in my kitchen.

I used 1/4 C Burger King's "Joe" (Coffee) Black with some cream in it.

If you can get hold of strong ESPRESSO coffee, go for it.  I like my TIRAMISU with distinct flavor.  Remembering the bland coffee taste of TIRAMISU cake previously made in our pastry class, I modified the  Coffee mixture.  I took advantage of the strong aroma of BK Joe coffee and added additional 6 Teaspoon of Decaf dry instant coffee (Kroger brand.  Imported from Spain).

The recipe also called for 1/4 C Dark Rum or Marsala in the Coffee Dipping Syrup.

I used Coffee Liqueuer instead.

Instead of 1/3 C of sugar to sweeten it, I used 1 Tbsp of Regular sugar and the rest with TRUVIA to cut down on the calories.

I used one 6 inch round removable bottom cake pan and one 5 inch round springform cheesecake pan.

And, don't forget to line the side of the pan with 3" clear acetate band to help with perfect ease of removal out of the cake pan.

TIRAMISU

from http:\\www.joyofbaking.com

Serves 6-8

Some of the basic equipment I can remember of : Medium and Large Saucepan, Whisk, Heatproof bowl, Spatula, Mixer, Thermometer, Wooden Spoon, 3" clear acetate band, round cake pan or as in the joyofbaking site's recipe, a rectangular cake pan.  Cake cardboard for the bottom of the cake pan.  One 6 inch Tiramisu served 8 people and have plenty left for more.  I froze the other 5 inch Tiramisu to save for later.

JAPANESE MATCHA KASUTERA #3

I baked Matcha KASUTERA tonight.  I was going to do it without adding any MATCHA - Japanese Green Tea Powder, but I like the flavor, so I added two teaspoon to the KASUTERA recipe.

This particular recipe I used is quite involved in its "baking" process.  Like CANNELES DE BORDEAUX, the ingredients are very basic and simple, but the baking technique is quite involved.  The recipe instruction even call for wet newspaper to drape over the cake to bake the last half hour.  I couldn't follow that in fear of "fire" hazard.  I think this batch #3 turn out quite as good as the 2nd one I posted previously.  It would still be better if I can have the same type of mold with correct dimention to bake in, however.
I think the Maltose is very challenging to handle.  Yet, combination of MALTOSE "MAYA-TAN" and honey, milk and Japanese MIRIN (cooking wine) gives that special KASUTERA flavor and aroma that I've always remembered since I was young.
Even though I am quite satisfying with this batch's result, I will continue to quest for the SPONGE look... maybe by 10th batch... Yaiks!  I hope by 6th batch testing.
I didn't write down the recipe and baking method tonight, but here is the picture of how it turned out.  I will post the recipes and method when I have more time.