Learn about tea with tea expert Tracy, Stern
Divya Gugnani: Hi I'm Divya Gugnani.
Carolyn Alexa Mcbride: I'm Carolyn Alexa Mcbride.
Divya Gugnani: And we’re getting ready for a tea party where we’re going to actually eat the tea and not just drink it.
Carolyn Alexa Mcbride: That’s right. We’re taking you inside the home of a tea maven where European style with tea dish is a name.
Divya Gugnani: So let’s go behind the burner and meet the tea goddess who uses her fragrant and luxurious teas to entertain her guests.
Hi, I'm here with Tracy Stern, author of Tea Party, Tea for You and creator of Salon Tea. Tracy, our tea expert is going to show us how to make a perfect cup of tea.
Tracy Stern: Yes, today what I'm really focusing because I have so many teas in my line. I'm focusing on the chai tea. It’s my favorite wake up tea, and I feel that a lot of times people don’t actually start off with a great breakfast and proper tea. And for anyone who’s trying to get off at coffee this is the best tea to start because it has the caffeine and has a lot of spices that energizes someone to start their day.
And this is the chai tea that I custom blend. It has a cinnamon, cardamon enclosed, so what I'm doing is I'm placing two large tea scoops, so I'm just going to pour our boiling hot water and I have to tell you that even though I have a lot of China made and I served and I collect China, I think nothing is more beautiful especially when you’re educating people about tea is pouring it through something glass so they could see the color, so I'm just going take the tea out.
Divya Gugnani So, Tracy looks like we’re having tea for breakfast not just drinking it but also eating eat it.
Tracy Stern: Right. This is the hot tea, so I'm thinking right now, I would love you to try some of the Chai tea and the way I prepare it is with milk. Also, this is a great tip for anyone at home. This is what I do just off the cup anytime what I do is take raw sugar and mix it with the Chai tea leaves I crunched it up and sprinkle it around, so this way I can bake with this. There’s a recipe that calls for sugar cookies that requires sugar. Now I have Chai tea infused sugar.
Divya Gugnani: So, it adds a little bit of spicy, earthiness of the tea into any sort of big prospect.
Tracy Stern: Yes, and the most of the chai tea pancakes today, and so this we can use it as a top or actually add to the mix which would be great. I’m leaving a little room for milk.
Divya Gugnani: This is a beautiful tea. It’s really just very warm, delicious you get that really fruity and spice characteristic that are coming through, so let’s make our tea pancakes.
Tracy Stern: Okay, this is our already, a pre-mix Chai and it’s cool down. This is room temperature and then I mix this up, so right away when I'm pouring this I can already see the Chai tea leaves
Divya Gugnani: It looks beautiful. Look at that golden color.
Tracy Stern: So here’s the trick, this is just a plating trick. What I want to do is remove this around and just create a square. Turn this side off. So what I'm doing right is just layering thin fused pancakes that are cut in squares, Napoleon style. I will stack them up individually with this beautiful vanilla yoghurt that’s kind of gives you that bit of creaminess between each layer.
Carolyn Alexa Mcbride: It smells delicious, Tracy. It looks beautiful. What’s for breakfast?
Tracy Stern: So these are Chai tea infused pancakes and they’re layered with vanilla yoghurt that actually sips into the pancakes, and there’s actually Chai in baking with the pancakes. So you get a full burst of Chai tea and last thing on top we have the caramelized bananas, and then I sprinkler a little bit of granola on there, too.
Carolyn Alexa Mcbride: What I really noticed is the contrast between the creaminess and the puffiness of actual pancake, and how the combination with the granola as the perfect crunch to it.
Divya Gugnani Behind the Burner members can enjoy this exclusive opportunity to purchase the world of luxurious and fragrant teas, custom blended tea infused beauty products and designer lifestyle accessories all ala Salon Tea’s. Stay tune to behind the burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.
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