Sweet Potato Tea Bars and High Tea at Montage Hotel, Los Angeles

Almost every culture in the world has a tradition or relationship to TEA. So many people have stories about family gatherings, or moments with special people spent over a cup (or glass) of tea.

I grew up in the southern part of the United States and my relationship to tea was a tall glass of "sweetened ice tea". In fact, where I grew up you would have to ask the server if you wanted tea that was not brewed with a lot of sugar in it already. A cup of hot tea was usually made by the cup with a string attached bag of Lipton. It would be left in the cup too long which meant more Teddy Bear honey was needed.

Sweet Potato Tea Bars

If I went to a friend's house where they poured a cup of tea from a pot, with fresh tea leaves inside I assumed they were rich or from England.
I was in college before I was introduced to the whole "going to tea" or "taking tea" or "having High Tea" delightful pleasure. Since then, I seek out places that serve a great Tea.

For a couple years, I worked with a stylish Tea Salon in Los Angeles where I had the chance to learn about tea and developed many recipes that used tea as an ingredient or infused with the flavors. Our specialty was World Teas. We broke the mold of just the proper English Tea by creating recipes inspired by different countries and their flavors.

If you read my blog often, you know there are several recipes using tea to enhance the flavor base (ie. Cowboy Smokey Tea Tomato Jam, Tea Poached Shrimp Summer Rolls, Stove Top Smoked Fish, Green Tea Croquembouche, Matcha Green Tea Doughnuts. )

If I could pass on just 3 important ideas about tea it would be these:

1) Using real tea, not old flakes in a stringed bag, makes all the difference in the world.
2) Water temperature can make or break the flavor and the true taste of the tea.
3) Don't over brew - it's the same thing as burning food and that's why it taste bad.

When I have visitors to California, or visit a friend's city I almost always suggest going to a tea in the area. There is something very replenishing about sharing a plate of scones, a couple mini-sandwiches and tiny desserts while chatting over warm and fragrant tea pots.This month, my online Lets Lunch Bunch has the theme of High Tea for us to share across the miles in our virtual lunch date. When my daughter and a friend from Italy were here, we took the opportunity to seek inspiration by having tea at the exquisite Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. The room was quiet (until we started giggling and sharing stories) and the food was delicate, but plentiful. In case you are thinking this is just a "Ladies" tradition, there were more men in the room than ladies the day we were visiting. There were several obvious business meetings going on around the room, a family stopping for a breather during their busy day, and a couple who sounded like they were on a first date (not that I was listening.)When I returned home and pondered how I could combine the proper tea fare I had partaken in during the afternoon, yet give a nod to my much more casual background. I came up with Sweet Potato Tea Bars.Sweet Potatoes, packed with good healthy nutrients, make a good combo to the antioxidants in tea. The creaminess goes so well with a hearty smokey black, yet the earthiness pairs well with a grassy green tea. Also, they're just damn good.Tea is one of earth's most natural healing liquids. I recommend drinking more of it. Do it slowly. Do it often. Do it with people you love.

Also: Check out all of the inspired High Tea ideas with the Lets Lunch pals:

Charissa‘s Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches with Honey Mustard, Tomatoes & Basil at Zest Bakery

Emma‘s Brown Sugar Shortbreads With Hawaiian Jam at Dreaming of Pots and Pans

Grace‘s Taiwanese Sandwiches at HapaMama

Karen‘s Saskatoon Berry Tartlets at GeoFooding

Linda‘s Mesquite Hemp Cocoa at Free Range Cookies

Linda‘s Singapore-Style Ginger Tea & Kaya (Coconut Jam) Toast at Spicebox Travels

Lisa‘s Little Lemon Meringue Tarts at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Mai‘s Cougar Gold & Shallot Shortbread at Cooking in The Fruit Bowl

Patrick‘s Welsh Rarebit at Patrick G. Lee

Rashda‘s Spiced Chickpea & Sweet Potato Tidbits at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Rebecca‘s Millionaire’s Shortbread at Grongar Blog

Steff‘s Lemon-Lime Shortbread Cookies at The Kitchen Trials

Join us next time, have lunch with us online. Go to twitter and put in the hashtag (#letslunch) and leave us word you'd like to join. We're growing with every lunch. :D

Recipe: Sweet Potato Tea Bars

Crust-
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter (6oz.)
2/3 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla

1) Mix the crust ingredients in a large bowl. Press the crumbly crust into a parchment lined 9" pan.
2) Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 15 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then pour in the filling.

FILLING:

1 Large Sweet Potato (baked)
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 lemon juice and zest
1/4 cup milk

1) Beat all ingredients until creamy.
2) Pour into the pre-baked crust. Return to a preheated 350F oven. Bake for about 20 Minutes (until set.)
3) Cool and chill for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.
4) Garnish with chopped nuts or powdered sugar.

Maple Mousse in Sweet Potato Chips with Bacon Crisps

Did I have you at "Maple Mousse"? Or was it "Sweet Potato Chip"? If one of those lip-licking titles got you, then I bet the "bacon" part made your finger hit the "go to" key, right?

Maple Mousse in Sweet Potato Chips

w/ Bacon Crisps
The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container.

I've been having a blast cooking along with the Daring Cooks and the Daring Bakers every month for almost 2 years. This month, for the first time, the two challenges worked together and asked us to create "edible containers." For the Daring Cooks we make savories, and now for the Daring Bakers we're making sweets.

Mousse is a very simple and validating dessert to make for yourself, family or guests. There is just a bit of prep, then you toss the whole thing in the refrigerator for when you need it. Mousse can be served in a glass by itself or garnished, and you can also use it as a filling for chocolates, cakes, cookies, or tarts.
I make a lot of small appetizers or nibbles in my catering life, and Sweet Potato chips are handy and healthy (not to mention delicious) edible containers. Bacon crisps for a garnish seemed like the perfect topper to the combo of maple and sweet potato. I'd love to say that I ate a few of these, but that would be a giant understatement.

RECIPE: Maple Mousse

1 cup (240 ml/ 8 fluid oz.) pure maple syrup (not maple-flavored syrup)
4 large egg yolks
1 package (7g/1 tbsp.) unflavored gelatine
1 1/2 cups (360 ml. g/12 fluid oz) whipping cream

Directions:
1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup in while whisking (this is to temper your egg yolks so they don’t curdle).
3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatine. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in a microwave for 45 seconds (microwave for 10 seconds at a time and check it in between) or place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir to ensure the gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.
7. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Chips

1 large Sweet Potato (peeled and thin sliced with a mandoline)
1) Preheat oven to 350F, place slices on parchment lined baking sheet.
2) Bake for 8 minutes, remove slices to a small muffin tin or an egg crate ceramic (as seen above) and continue to bake for about 4-8 more minutes until crisp (they crisp more while cooling.)

(There is also a quick way to make Sweet Potato Chips in the microwave.)

Allow the Sweet Potato Chips to cool, then fill with cooled Mousse (using a pastry bag and star tip), then garnish with crisp bacon pieces.

Thanks for stopping by :D

Sweet Potato, Apple & Cider Pancakes

I'm a sucker for a bright Sweet Potato. Sometimes when I'm shopping I'll add a couple to my bag and assume I'll figure out what to make with them later. It's hard to go wrong with these terrific tubers.

SWEET POTATO, APPLE & CIDER PANCAKES

Sweet Potatoes have tons of Vitamin A, and Fiber and are very low in calories. They are so naturally sweet, you don't need a lot of sugar, even when you use them in dessert recipes. I love adding them to pancakes as a way of increasing nutrients at breakfast and they freeze so easily. Make a stack of these, freeze them individually, then bag them and take out the amount you need when you need it - toast 'em, and you've got hot potato pancakes with chunks of apple. They even make a great snack for kids who love having them in little silver dollar size like the ones I made here. The butter on top makes a good picture (and let's face it, butter is fatty-fun-tastic), but these are so moist with the apples and sweet potato bits, the tang of buttermilk and the apple cider that you don't really even need butter or syrup.
RECIPE: Sweet Potato, Apple & Cider Pancakes

1 1/4 Cups Flour
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbls. Brown Sugar
1 Tbls. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 cup Apple Cider
2 eggs
1 Apple (peeled, cored, chopped small)
1 Med. Sweet Potato (Baked or Microwaved)

1) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2) In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and apple cider 3) Stir together (the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients). Then fold in the apples and soft cooked insides of the sweet potato.
4) The batter should be thick, but loose. If too thick, add more cider or water. 5) Heat a griddle, or flat bottom non stick skillet on Med/High. Brush on a tiny bit of oil or butter if needed. Don't let the butter burn.
6) Ladle a small amount of batter onto the hot skillet and cook until the sides form tiny bubbles, flip and cook the other side of that pancake until set and cooked through.

** If freezing, allow the pancakes to cool completely - then freeze spread out on a sheet pan until firm, then bag for later and return to freezer.

To reheat - heat in toaster oven or oven for about 6 minutes on 300F.

Sweet Potato Microwaved Chips w/ Cinnamon & Fleur de Sel - Simple Saturday

Here's what happens when I go to the Farmer's Market and my eyes are bigger than my week.

Sweet Potato Chips
w/ Cinnamon and Fleur de Sel

This past week, I fell in love with a few Sweet Potatoes (don't judge) and I wanted to take them all home. Then after making soup, casseroles, pies and muffins - I was still staring at several beautiful tubers, but not a lot of time left to use them.

With a teenage son, and a husband who works late hours I'm always looking for snack items that have at least a tiny bit of healthy in there somewhere. Plenty of people have done Sweet Potato fries and chips, but often they are fried (not against it, but time consuming.) I've done baked sticks and baked chips, but right now my ovens are constantly taken up with holiday baking. So...I just quickly slammed out a few thin slices on the mandoline, tossed them in light olive oil, microwaved them on a large plate and half way through sprinkled them with a salty-cinnamon blend. Were they good? I have no more potatoes. They were all eaten in one sitting by several teens who had no idea they were getting their daily requirements of iron, fiber and potassium while snacking and yaking.

RECIPE: Sweet Potato Microwaved Chips w/ Cinnamon and Fleur de Sel

Sweet Potatoes (peeled and sliced thin- a mandoline works best)
2Tbls Olive oil
2 Tbls Cinnamon
1 Tbls. Fleur de Sel (or another coarse salt)
1) In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon and salt and hold to the side.
2) In another bowl, toss the Sweet Potato slices in the Olive Oil.
3) On a microwavable platter, lay the slices out without touching or overlapping
4) Microwave the chips, turning them over half way through. Depending on your microwave - this should take 3-4 minutes on each side.
5) While they are still warm, sprinkle the cinnamon salt combo liberally over the chips. They will crisp while cooling. Remove and store in a paper bag, or on parchment until serving.

* Sprinkle more cinnamon salt to taste.

**Optional: Also fabulous with a mixture of equal parts: Chipotle Chile Powder, Sugar, Salt**

Real Dill Eggs (Baked w/House Ricotta & Sweet Potato Petals

I obviously enjoy challenges and meeting deadlines, and I really could have used a little of that, years ago, when I was in school. In 7th grade Science class I remember writing up my "Every 6 Weeks Report" the night before it was due... every 6 weeks. It's not like I didn't know it was coming up, so why did I wait til the last minute? I'm making up for that lack of spirit, by joining all kinds of online food challenges now and here's another one.

Real Dill Eggs: Baked w/ House Ricotta & Sweet Potato Petals

It's time for the 50th Anniversary of Paper Chef (one of the longest running food events online.) Last month I was the judge and chose the winner: Prospect: The Pantry. So, this month she's choosing.

Here's why it's fun to do Paper Chef: You're given 4 ingredients and a theme, kinda like a Quick Fire Challenge or a Chef's Mystery Box. The freedom is fun, and no matter what happens you have an original recipe of your own when you're finished.
The ingredients randomly chosen were: Dill, Honey, Ricotta, Eggs and a Feeling of Rejuvenation for the theme. Since Daylight Saving's Time is getting ready to start here, (and can't begin soon enough for me) I thought of mornings and light, and flowers beginning to bloom. These baked eggs are surrounded by my version of sweet potato petals hugging a spoonful of honey infused homemade ricotta with fresh dill.

These are easy to create ahead:

~1 Large, long Sweet Potato will make at least 4-6 ramekins.

~Prick the potato lightly with a fork all over and place in boiling water for 3 minutes to par-boil (partially cook), then drop in ice water to stop the cooking and drain dry.

~Peel, and slice the potato very thin (a mandoline works best).

~Butter (or oil) each 4 oz. ramekin or baking dish very well.
~Place a potato slice in the bottom center and then circle the slices around the inside, overlapping.
~Add a heaping Tablespoon of the *Honey Infused and Dill Ricotta and spread evenly. (recipe for **Homemade Ricotta below)
~Season with salt and pepper.
~Add a Large egg and season, again.


~Carefully place the ramekins into a deep sided baking pan on the middle oven rack, then very carefully add boiling water up to half-way around the ramekins (creating a bain marie).

~Cook in a preheated 350F oven for about 12-17 minutes (depending how you like your eggs). Finish for a couple minutes with the oven on broil to crisp the potato edges.

~Remove the pan, and very carefully remove each ramekin. (These will be very hot, and surrounded by extremely hot water, so use care.) Cool on a rack for a moment.

Serve in the ramekins or loosen the sides and gently remove from the dish and place on your serving platter.
~Garnish with more fresh dill, or fleur de sel.

*Seasoned Ricotta - For every 1/2 cup of Ricotta, gently stir in 1 Tbls. honey and 1 Tbls. minced fresh dill


** Homemade Ricotta - 32oz whole milk heated in a saucepan til just before simmering. Add 2 Tablespoons of White Vinegar or Fresh Lemon Juice and remove from the heat. As the milk curdles, stir gently for 1 minute. Leave the pan, covered and off the heat for 1 hour as the curds form. Pour the milk and curds through a double layer of "wet and squeezed out" cheese cloth over a fine mesh strainer. Pull the cheese cloth up and tie on a wooden spoon and let drain into a bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, remove the fluffy Ricotta and put in a container and keep in the refrigerator - good for several days.

Quote from my husband - "These look all elegant, but taste real homey"

Please consider this your invitation to join Paper Chef for the next challenge, I'd love to see your creations!