Norway
For the longest time I didn't think that I would have anything for Norway. I found bubble tea, generic references to herbal tea, and then a very interesting video about tea smoked salmon. They take a smoker, put tea and rice in the bottom, and use that to smoke their salmon. I don't have the equipment for that, nor do I have any desire to buy the equipment to do that. I thought that I wouldn't come up with anything for Norway. Then last week I picked up my tea books (I have 3 of them), and found inspiration.!
Thank you HBP clearance section. This book is full of recipes utilizing tea. While a lot of the recipes are sweet, some are also savory. I found a recipe for tea smoked chicken. That recipe involved lining a pan with foil, putting the tea in the bottom, and turning on the exhaust fan, and the heat until whisps of smoke started coming out of the tightly covered pan. That was obviously not going to work for me. Then I found THE recipe that inspired the tea for today's post.
Lapsang souchong is a smoked Chinese black tea. I actually have a bag of it right now! While I can only drink about 4 ounces at a time (it has an intense, smoky flavor), I do like it. When you open the bag, you get well rounded smoky scent. The smell reminds me of my grandfather, and walking through the woods in spring checking the sap buckets. Anyway, the recipe I found used this tea to marinate seafood (mussels). I decided to make lapsang souchong salmon.
I made a half batch of the marinade. 1.5 cups of water, and 1/4 cup of tea.
That's a lot of tea.
Check out that thick layer of tea leaves! I steeped this for the regular 5 minutes, and then strained out the tea leaves.
Check out this pile of wet tea leaves. Of course, after I strained the tea out, a few damp leaves clinging to the measuring cup plopped into the water when I was putting the cup down, but holding the strainer over the bowl to drain. I figured oh, well. Then I let it sit out for a while to cool.
I used the Midwest favorite, frozen salmon for this recipe. I set the fillet in the fridge the day before to thaw. There weren't any ice crystals in it when I put it in the tea. The book said to marinate 30-60 minutes. I set a timer for 30 min, and eventually got to cooking it sometime after the timer went off. Please note, I did marinate this in the fridge, not on my counter (I could tell you so many food safety horror stories from my grandmother...)
After marinating, the salmon is slightly darker. Per the directions in the book, I steamed my salmon (I actually steam fish quite frequently, so I have the system down. I use an oven safe dish - make sure to check the bottom, it should say oven safe there. Then I cover it with foil.
The instructions say to use the tea to steam your fish. I wasn't sure how much value this would add to the flavor of the fish, but I figured it was worth a try. I frequently use the steaming rack from my Instant Pot for sauce pan steaming. I do fold the handles underneath it, because they are slightly taller than my pan.
Once the tea was boiling, I put in my salmon, and steamed for 5 minutes. Salmon is tricky because it cooks so fast, and tends to weep albumin while cooking. 5 minutes was a complete and total guess. My plan was to yank it out of the pan, and see how done it was...
As it turns out, 5 minutes was PERFECT! It was done with minimal albumin weeping (there is a little around the edges if you look closely.
Here it is plated up. The verdict? It was really good. The salmon had a mild smoky flavor, but I think it could have marinated longer, possibly overnight. I don't think the steaming over the tea made much of a difference, but after 2 washings, that pan still smells like smoke. That said, I plan to use this as a marinade again. I have problems tolerating fake smoke flavoring (I know that it usually results in an hour and 45 minutes of cramps and other unpleasantness). In addition to fish, I think this would also work well for chicken, turkey, and oddly enough, I think tofu marinated in this would taste great. Again, I would speculate that my sister might even like this use of tea since wood smoke is the main flavor involved.
So what do I know about Norway? I've lived among Norwegian descendants the last 24 years. I know Uff-da is the generic phrase for surprise, dismay, or bafflement. I would also be remiss if I did not mention that everyone knows about the Vikings being from that region of the world (and that they discovered North America long before Christopher Columbus, and respected the people who were already living here).
It's on the western side of the Scandinavian peninsula (the Atlantic ocean side). The country has a rugged, sparsely inhabited interior. Half of the population lives in the far south of the country. I can understand that. From knowing someone who lived at a high latitude for several years, there is a big difference in the amount of daylight you get during the winter from moving relatively small distances south. Thanks to differing currents in that part of the world, Norway is warmer than Alaska even though they are at a similar latitude. In spite of the high latitude, Norwegians enjoy one of the highest qualities of life in the world. They have an extensive welfare system, and comprehensive healthcare system. School is mandatory for 10 years from age 6 to 16, with an optional 11th year. Their schools offer vocational training to students, and apparently offer 3 additional years of high school for those wanting to go to college. Apparently most students choose to go to a vocational school rather than college, and continuing education and life long learning is encouraged for all adults. I know that in my 20's especially, I fantasized about the European systems of employment that I heard about somewhere. My understanding was that people got matched to the right type of job for them, and then trained to do it, rather than being told to go to college and hope that you can find a job after you are deeply in debt.
With all that said, I had to give my "smoked" salmon one more try. I brewed my tea as before. Then since I was in a hurry, and had not thought ahead about preparation, I plopped 2 frozen salmon fillets into the still warm tea, chucked it in the fridge and went to work. When I pulled them out roughly 21 or 22 hours later, I had beautifully marinated fish.
Now that looks better, I think we'll get some good flavor here. I actually steamed these a little longer because I had to stack the dishes (and they were a little taller than my pan, so the lid didn't seal tight. I steamed them for 3 minutes, then rotated top and bottom, and steamed for another 3 minutes. This is what I got.
I could have steamed it for a slightly shorter period of time, but again, I wanted to make sure the fish was done. The flavor was much more developed after a 20 some hour soak. I also used plain water to steam the fish, rather than the tea. My house didn't smell nearly as smoky as last time, and the flavor was perfect. All thanks to the inspiration from Norway.
Thank you HBP clearance section. This book is full of recipes utilizing tea. While a lot of the recipes are sweet, some are also savory. I found a recipe for tea smoked chicken. That recipe involved lining a pan with foil, putting the tea in the bottom, and turning on the exhaust fan, and the heat until whisps of smoke started coming out of the tightly covered pan. That was obviously not going to work for me. Then I found THE recipe that inspired the tea for today's post.
Lapsang souchong is a smoked Chinese black tea. I actually have a bag of it right now! While I can only drink about 4 ounces at a time (it has an intense, smoky flavor), I do like it. When you open the bag, you get well rounded smoky scent. The smell reminds me of my grandfather, and walking through the woods in spring checking the sap buckets. Anyway, the recipe I found used this tea to marinate seafood (mussels). I decided to make lapsang souchong salmon.
I made a half batch of the marinade. 1.5 cups of water, and 1/4 cup of tea.
That's a lot of tea.
Check out that thick layer of tea leaves! I steeped this for the regular 5 minutes, and then strained out the tea leaves.
Check out this pile of wet tea leaves. Of course, after I strained the tea out, a few damp leaves clinging to the measuring cup plopped into the water when I was putting the cup down, but holding the strainer over the bowl to drain. I figured oh, well. Then I let it sit out for a while to cool.
I used the Midwest favorite, frozen salmon for this recipe. I set the fillet in the fridge the day before to thaw. There weren't any ice crystals in it when I put it in the tea. The book said to marinate 30-60 minutes. I set a timer for 30 min, and eventually got to cooking it sometime after the timer went off. Please note, I did marinate this in the fridge, not on my counter (I could tell you so many food safety horror stories from my grandmother...)
After marinating, the salmon is slightly darker. Per the directions in the book, I steamed my salmon (I actually steam fish quite frequently, so I have the system down. I use an oven safe dish - make sure to check the bottom, it should say oven safe there. Then I cover it with foil.
The instructions say to use the tea to steam your fish. I wasn't sure how much value this would add to the flavor of the fish, but I figured it was worth a try. I frequently use the steaming rack from my Instant Pot for sauce pan steaming. I do fold the handles underneath it, because they are slightly taller than my pan.
Once the tea was boiling, I put in my salmon, and steamed for 5 minutes. Salmon is tricky because it cooks so fast, and tends to weep albumin while cooking. 5 minutes was a complete and total guess. My plan was to yank it out of the pan, and see how done it was...
As it turns out, 5 minutes was PERFECT! It was done with minimal albumin weeping (there is a little around the edges if you look closely.
Here it is plated up. The verdict? It was really good. The salmon had a mild smoky flavor, but I think it could have marinated longer, possibly overnight. I don't think the steaming over the tea made much of a difference, but after 2 washings, that pan still smells like smoke. That said, I plan to use this as a marinade again. I have problems tolerating fake smoke flavoring (I know that it usually results in an hour and 45 minutes of cramps and other unpleasantness). In addition to fish, I think this would also work well for chicken, turkey, and oddly enough, I think tofu marinated in this would taste great. Again, I would speculate that my sister might even like this use of tea since wood smoke is the main flavor involved.
So what do I know about Norway? I've lived among Norwegian descendants the last 24 years. I know Uff-da is the generic phrase for surprise, dismay, or bafflement. I would also be remiss if I did not mention that everyone knows about the Vikings being from that region of the world (and that they discovered North America long before Christopher Columbus, and respected the people who were already living here).
It's on the western side of the Scandinavian peninsula (the Atlantic ocean side). The country has a rugged, sparsely inhabited interior. Half of the population lives in the far south of the country. I can understand that. From knowing someone who lived at a high latitude for several years, there is a big difference in the amount of daylight you get during the winter from moving relatively small distances south. Thanks to differing currents in that part of the world, Norway is warmer than Alaska even though they are at a similar latitude. In spite of the high latitude, Norwegians enjoy one of the highest qualities of life in the world. They have an extensive welfare system, and comprehensive healthcare system. School is mandatory for 10 years from age 6 to 16, with an optional 11th year. Their schools offer vocational training to students, and apparently offer 3 additional years of high school for those wanting to go to college. Apparently most students choose to go to a vocational school rather than college, and continuing education and life long learning is encouraged for all adults. I know that in my 20's especially, I fantasized about the European systems of employment that I heard about somewhere. My understanding was that people got matched to the right type of job for them, and then trained to do it, rather than being told to go to college and hope that you can find a job after you are deeply in debt.
With all that said, I had to give my "smoked" salmon one more try. I brewed my tea as before. Then since I was in a hurry, and had not thought ahead about preparation, I plopped 2 frozen salmon fillets into the still warm tea, chucked it in the fridge and went to work. When I pulled them out roughly 21 or 22 hours later, I had beautifully marinated fish.
Now that looks better, I think we'll get some good flavor here. I actually steamed these a little longer because I had to stack the dishes (and they were a little taller than my pan, so the lid didn't seal tight. I steamed them for 3 minutes, then rotated top and bottom, and steamed for another 3 minutes. This is what I got.
I could have steamed it for a slightly shorter period of time, but again, I wanted to make sure the fish was done. The flavor was much more developed after a 20 some hour soak. I also used plain water to steam the fish, rather than the tea. My house didn't smell nearly as smoky as last time, and the flavor was perfect. All thanks to the inspiration from Norway.
You've got to love recipes that leave your pans smelling like the ingredients no matter how many times you wash them afterwards. I now have two bread pans devoted to making cinnamon raisin bread as holiday gifts and separate pans for all my other bread-making needs. The recipe is so strong that there is no way to wash out the cinnamon smell and any other bread I try to make in them tastes off.
ReplyDeleteThankfully my pan now smells normal again. While I do like cinnamon, I can imagine that vaguely cinnamon flavored bread would be off-putting.
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