Here is a brilliant idea to help even the most rubbish cook elevate a dish to a gourmet level with hardly any effort but amazing results. Like all great ideas it is simple, straightforward and almost foolproof. I do not claim any fame or fortune for conceiving the idea I am merely the messenger helping to spread the word so that all can enjoy this technique.
As you can probably tell by now I am enthusiastic, correction very enthusiastic about tea smoking. Readers of my blog will know from historical posts that we are big smokers of food, but until now it relied on a massive effort to clean and fire up the Primo cooker in the garden and like all humans sometimes the will is willing but the flesh is weak. Now we have a quick and easy way to imbue our food with a vast range of smoky flavours inside, on the cooker!
So what do you need in the kitchen to join us in total appreciation of this technique? Not much as it goes….
- A vegetable steamer or a saucepan with a colander that fits snugly on top with a lid and can be put on a hot cooker ring. Plastic isn’t going to get the job done it does need to be metal.
- A strip of tinfoil
- A small packet of loose leaf tea leaves (best quality you can find). We used Earl Grey Bravo from Adagio.
- Something to smoke, we used peppers in this example but anything can go in…
Method:
Place the base of you steamer or saucepan on to the cooker.
Next you need to tap into you creative side and build a holder for the tea leaves out of the tinfoil.
We have learnt to use a small bowl as a mould as this helps a lot. The key part here is to form it in such a way as to have 4 legs to stand on as we don’t want the part with the tea leaves touching the base of the steamer.
Place you creation into the steamer base or saucepan, DO NOT be tempted to put any water in there!
Put your tea leaves into the bowl part of the tinfoil, a small handful is enough.
Place your colander or upper section of you steamer on top of the base.
Place in a single layer whatever you have chosen to smoke in the upper section, don’t stack them up if you can avoid it as this will impact on the ability of the smoke to get everywhere.
Lastly strap on the lid and turn the heat up to medium.
As the colander gets hot the tinfoil and in turn the tea will get hot and soon it will start to smoke and fill the house with wonderful tea smells. As the heat works its way up it will heat up the veggies and help cook them. It will also help release essential oils that will greatly enhance the flavour of the vegetable, these oils help trap the smoke from the tea resulting in awesomeness.
Go have a cup of tea or prepare whatever you are going to have you lovely, tasty, smoked veggies with.
After 20 minutes turn the heat off, leaving it for longer will make the smoked tea flavour more intense if you prefer that, concurrently cooking for less time will make the flavour much more mellow. Only practise will give you the right level of flavour that suits your palette.
Place in your sandwich, or add to pizzas, with scrambled eggs, or as a topping with your favourite cracker, whatever your mind can dream up, and trust me you will be dreaming of countless ways to involve this technique in even the simplest meals from now on…
Go on… you know you want to try it…
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wow Ive never heard of tea soaked peppers! They look so good! x
Wow! Nice! Never try it before but I guess my mom can! Hope she’ll try… And I’ll eat xoxo
Oh wow! Those look soooo good. I wish I was patient enough to try them out. I bet they’d taste so good on a nice salad!
giglove xoxo
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Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. My mom will definitely enjoy it. 🙂 GIG
you learn something new everyday .. I should try this sometime **book marked**
These look absolutely amazing!! I’m always looking for new ways to spice up my veggies - I’m definitely going to have to give this a try!! <3 GIGLove
this is great! ive always wondered how to smoke stuff. will definitely try this
ooo look deliciousss…..i nvr try smoked pepper before….
I’ll surely try this one soon enough. Hope it does work, it sure looks simple.
GIG Love
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such a brilliant idea..
i never try it before. and i think it sounds good to try 😀
Something i have not tried before, it looks kinda a simple…. might try it GigLove
Never tried before but It look so tasty <3
Wow. It seems so easy to make my own smoked pepper. I thought it needs very complicated steps. Thanks for sharing! Giglove
Never tried tea smoked peppers before! I’ll try to make some when I have the time! Thanks for sharing!
This is a new way to cook. Such a unique way! Will try it soon =)
Great post, I’ve never heard of smoked peppers tea. Seems like an interesting recipe, I’m not a massive tea fan though.
GIG LOVE | The Life of Leeshastarr
It sounds really interesting and seems like super easy! Thanks for sharing.
GIG
I still a bit confused about what it is ‘-‘) maybe because I’ve never heard of it xD
Thanks for sharing ^^
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ooh this is fantastic, I’ve beenr eally into peppers at the moment, and this will be a great alternative, thank you! x
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I am a tea addict but I did not realise you could do this. How interesting. Liska xx
I’ve never heard about this before but it sounds really good. You are so creative
I love peppers especially the red ones.. this recipe sounds very interesting. I will try it 🙂
I love this idea!!! I’m such a tea snob
I’m not a big fan of pepper, but this is a really interesting recipe! My sister’s a healthy eater, so she’ll be glad to find out about this recipe.
Wow, how very creative. Will save this.
OOh this sounds right up my street and you made it look so easy x
WHat a great idea! I bet this really gives your cooking an edge!
Ooh I love peppers and this sounds really tasty - had never thought of home smoking!
mmm tea infused! It looks interesting, i’ll have to try it out so I can taste it for myself. I bet it’s going to be yummy. x
oh i will be trying this tomorrow! sounds yum!
This recipe for tea smoked peppers is so very unique. I had never heard of this before. I am going to have to try it out. Thanks:)
Adding them to scrambled eggs (or an omelet) sounds really good!
I never knew about tea smoking. But I bet it would be a great way to get flavorful food smoked.
My goodness, this is amazing & looks like a different idea altogether. I am surely going to give a try with Mushroom & few more. Nice share.
I have never heard of smoking tea before, but I know people who smoke their food. I can see the combination of both making meals very tasty…like the use of dried herbs.
Are you serious? Tea and vegetables? I love tea. I love vegetables. This is genius! Does Chef Gordon Ramsay know about this?!
This I am not sure about. I will ask him next time we have a chat 😉
What an interesting and brilliant way to cook vegetables. I’d love to try it!
Different tea will give different smokey flavour. We use Earl Grey as this is one of the mellow ones.
This looks very interesting. My Mum and Dad would like this. Thanks for sharing, this is something I’ve never thought of doing before.
How unusual, something I would never have thought of trying out. An interesting technique Agata 🙂
Thank you. It is saving us a lot of time comparing to a proper smoker. Just a shame we can’t do the same with wood chips.
That is so interesting and definitely something I am willing to try!
These sound delicious. I love peppers but have never tried anything like this with them!
This sounds really interesting and unusual! xxx
Wow. I have never tried tea smoking or any smoking, but you make it look so achievable.
It is really easy. Just remember to form some legs for your foil dish, otherwise the tea will simply burn.
Neat idea. I may try it with another veggie.
It works great with onions and mushrooms too 🙂
It is looking awesome. I will try to make it once definitely. Thank you for such a nice post.
I have not heard of this before either but it sure is worth a try, looks good. Probably great to add to a salad as well.
It also works great as a soup ingredient. If smoked for about 30-35min the flavour will be much more intense, which will later transfer into a soup.
I’ve never heard of this before but it sounds really delicious and a great idea to make and keep in the fridge to add to sandwiches and lunches 🙂
this is genius, sounds so unusual I’m determined to give it a go.
I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do.
yes, I want to try it…. that sounds interesting and I love this experiments :o)
Let me know how it went. Tea smoked meat for Easy maybe? 🙂