Cooking with tea

tea butter is a very simple and effective way to cook with tea without having to pick tea leaves out of your teeth. all the flavor, none of the mess. what could be better?

melt 1/2 stick of butter in a small pan. remove from heat. add 1-2 tablespoons of tea leaves to the melted butter. allow to infuse for 3 minutes or whatever time the tea is normally infused in water. strain the butter to remove the leaves, your usual fine mesh tea infuser works well for this. refrigerate until hard.

use with recipes that call for butter. a dark oolong seems to work well with most recipes. try a lapsang souchong for some smoky flavor. try tea butter on toast or muffins for a real treat.