Matcha Cake

Matcha Cake
This simple, moist green tea cake is subtly sweet. You can adjust the amount of sugar you add if you prefer a sweeter cake, or you can top your green cake with some cream cheese icing.
You need natural green tea powder to make this cake, which you can find in Asian supermarkets, specialty tea shops and online. The Korean label might say: “Nokcha Karu” and Japanese brands will say “Matcha”.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cups vegetable oil or butter
3/4 cup plain Greek-style yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
6 tsp green tea powder (nok-cha karu, matcha)

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and in a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil/butter together until resulting mixture is fluffy and light.
Gently stir the Greek yogurt into this mixture.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and green tea powder together and fold this into the wet mixture.
Pour resulting cake batter into greased caked pan, smoothing out top until level and bake for 35 minutes, or until the top becomes golden-brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the middle.
If using cream cheese icing, wait for cake to cool before decorating.

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Longjing Tea

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Longjing Tea

(serves 2 people)

Longjing Tea, also known as Dragon Well Tea, is a famous high quality Chinese green tea. Dragon Well Shrimp is authentically made with fresh river shrimp and newly harvested Longjing tea to appreciate its fragrance and color.

Ingredients:
1lb. large shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 tsp. Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine)
1 egg white
Salt to taste
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Sauce
2 tsp. Longjing tea or green tea leaves
1 cup hot water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch

 Method:

Brew Longjing tea with hot water and strain leaves. Reserve 1/3 cup of the brewed tea and the strained leaves and let cool.
In a bowl, combine the shrimp, Shaoxing wine, egg white, sesame oil, salt and cornstarch. Marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Add vegetable oil when the pan is hot. Saute marinated shrimp for about one minute on each side.

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl, then add to the pan with the shrimp, mix well and cook for 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the shrimp are cooked through.

Mix in strained tea leaves to the griddle, then serve while hot.

Citrus Bite Tea

Citrus Bite Tea.
(serves six people, or one very thirsty one)

A zesty marmalade tea that will help you wake up in the mornings.

Ingredients:
5 cups water
3 tablespoons of loose black tea
1/2 cup of orange marmalade
2 tbs lemon juice
sugar, to taste (optional)

Method:
Heat water until it is almost boiled and steep the tea for five minutes.
Add the marmalade, lemon juice and sugar and stir the tea until all marmalade has been dissolved and blended through.
Strain, and serve.