Summer Of Matcha: Matcha Ginger Zinger

I'm taking part in EatCleanTea's 'Summer Of Matcha' challenge to concoct a refreshing summery drink that isn't full of additives, sweeteners and stuff that is generally bad for you.  However true to form things started to go a bit pear shaped.....and not just because I was using a pear.

My recipe is based on the Matcha and Ginger  variety so I started things off by brainstorming flavours combinations for my juice and finally decided on  ginger (from the matcha) + lemon + carrot.  plus extra stuff but more on that later.

Ginger and lemon are both sialagogues meaning that they increase the flow of saliva and other gastric juices i.e. are good for digestion. These ingredients with the added goodness of the carrot make the juice good for cleansing plus its also a diuretic so go flush those toxins away.

This recipe took some trial an error to get it right; I mean first I put in too much lemon juice and it was too lemony so I added more ginger....

Yet as the name suggests the 'matcha and ginger' already contains the ginger so I actually just ended up with very a strong and spicy flavour. I tried to counteract this by adding spinach and extra water but nevertheless have a strong juice that whacks a punch to be quite honest (as long as you don't over dilute it)

Anyway to make this tart yet detoxifying juice you will need

• 2-3 carrots
• 1 pear 
• juice of half a lemon (or you could do what I did and use a whole rather large lemon and then panic and put lots of ginger in to cover u your mistake)
• 400ml water
• 1 tsp matcha and ginger
• a handful of spinach
• 4-6 ice cubes

Add all your ingredients to blender ( I used a Vitamix) and whizz until smooth. I have not peeled my fruit and veg (besides the ginger) and therefore my juice is a bit 'bitty'

Matcha Ginger Cheesecake

Eat Clean Tea’s new flavour combinations add that extra zing of flavour and I am totally loving the Matcha Ginger. As well as drinking it, matcha,which is ground tea powder is ideal for baking. 

I’ve never made a baked cheesecake before but they say go hard or go home so here’s my recipe for matcha ginger cheesecake with pear glaze. 

For the base you will need:

75g ginger nuts

75g digestive biscuits

50g butter 

For the cheesecake:

400g cream cheese 

2 eggs

2tsp matcha ginger

100g maple syrup

For the glaze:

1 pear

1 tsp sugar

a pinch of ground ginger. 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C

Grease the moulds or if (like me) you are making mini cheesecakes the mini cupcake tray.

I”m using half and half digestive biscuits and ginger nuts so the ginger flavour is not too overpowering. Grind the biscuits into crumbs in a food processor or go for the old school method and whack the biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin. 

Melt the butter and stir into the biscuits. Spread the base in the moulds and bake for 5 minutes

Turn the oven down to 150 

Place the cream cheese and most of maple syrup in a bowl and stir until fully combined slowly adding the eggs one at a time. 

Whisk the matcha with the rest of the the maple syrup. Fold into the mixture but be careful not too over mix. 

Bake for 20 minutes.

Chop up the pear and place in the pan with the sugar and ginger.  Boil for 10 minutes. 

Decorate the cake/s and enjoy. 

Berlin Take 2 - continued

Good Morning Berlin!

We started the day in what seemed to be the Turkish quarter (or at least one of them) of Kreuzberg with a glass of a fresh ginger infusion for myself and fresh peppermint for my mother.

When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 nearly 60,000 people were put out of work because they psychically couldn't get to where they needed to go as there was a stonking great wall blocking the way. The city therefore decided to invite foreign workers from around Southern Europe in to fill in their spaces. Lots of council housing sprung up around the city yet like the English ‘pre-fabs’ these houses were put up as a temporary solution and were therefore never intended to last. 

The owners of these houses took it upon themselves to pay for their own repairs and home improvements and therefore considered their places of resident as being their own.

Rents in the area had always generally been quite reasonable as can be expected of social housing yet with privatisation of these properties rents have significantly increased as private investors demand increasingly more money. Residents are being priced out of their own homes and this has sparked much controversy and rioting. 

Indeed the elderly Frau Rosemarie F. was evicted from her home and died only 2 days later. 

I learnt all this and a whole lot more at FHXB Museum on Adalbert Str. 

As we walked out of the museum a crowded restaurant caught our eye and it would be silly not to go and investigate further: 

Maroush , a traditional Lebanese restaurant serves a variety of mezzo plates including falafel, hummus and even donner kebabs. All of which are delicious! 

Kaffee und Kuchen is a German  past time that I can really get my teeth into. (a bit like the ritual of Afternoon Tea) For our K&K stop we took a trip to the Five Elephant cafe on Reichberger Str. 

The small, quaint cafe is slightly tucked away from the hustle and bustle but it would seem that this little gem has got itself quite a reputation. 

Whilst my mother drank a chai tea latte  and ate the blueberry oat cake (both totally divine) I meanwhile supped on Rwandan coffee which had a fruity (somewhat berry like) undertones and ate the devilishly good toffee and peanut butter tart.  

For dinner we wondered to Markthalle Neun for ‘Street Food Thursday.’ Every week the market hall is over run with street food trucks offering all kinds of cuisines from dim sum to vegan burgers, fresh kässpatzle and pulled pork sandwiches. Street Food Thursday offers a totally delicious selection that has something for everyone. We would recommend the kässpatzle from Heisser Hobel or the pulled pork. 

Matcha Tea, the newest super-food on the block was also in abundance as we spotted no less than three stalls selling containing matcha including Vietnamese waffles, cheesecake and even doughnuts. 

Matcha and Almond Christmassy Shortbread

To achieve green Christmas tree biscuits I find that you either have to use ridiculously bright icing or indeed lots of food colouring, (unless you are actually using paste because that stuff is STRONG…I mean it did stain my tongue once.)  In the battle to try and cut down on the number of E-numbers and artificial stuff that we injest. Cue the matcha tea.  

This green tea powder works well in baking and will give my Christmas trees a lovely shade of green….well hopefully.  

So first things first, let's gather the ingredients together. I shall be making almond shortbread so will need:  

• 175g mix of flour and ground almonds. You can use this in any ratio that you want to i.e. 125g flour and 50g almonds or indeed 100g flour and 75g almonds. I will be using the latter quantities however you will need to use flour on a roughly half and half basis to keep the consistency and to make it easier when rubbing in. 

• 125g caster sugar or light brown sugar if you prefer 

• 55g butter 

• 1/2 tbsp matcha green tea 

• 25g goji berries (optional) I'm adding some goji berries to my mixture to create baubles on my Christmas tress.  

So I haven't even started yet and I've already encountered my first problem: I have no ground almonds. Alas fear not as I have a bag of whole almonds and using my trusty Bamix can use the wet and dry grinder to make ground nuts.  I'm leaving mine a little rough for the texture. 

 

Next put all the ingredients bar the matcha and goji berries (if using) in a large bowl and rub in. I am using a knife to cut my butter into small pieces before starting to make the process easier. 

 As you are not making a crumble it doesn't matter how fine the mixture is, the most important thing is that the butter is thoroughly combined with the dry ingredients. 

When you are happy with the consistency add half a tbsp of Matcha (I'm using Eat Clean Tea Morning Matcha) and after rubbing this in squish all your mixture together to form a dough. 

Similar to any shortbread you will need to let it rest for half an hour so wrap it up in some cling film, stick it in the fridge...and to sit back and plan the next phase.

Those beady eyed amongst you may have noticed that I haven't added the goji berries yet. This is because after I remove the dough from the fridge I shall be giving it a bit of a knead (to warm it up, it should not need to be kneaded long) and I will add the goji berries just before the rolling it out.

Oh by the way you may want to preheat the oven at this stage: 180c or gas mark 4. 

Ok so I have a star cutter but last time I checked stars don't have baubles so for my first batch I'm not using goji. In total I have 30 stars. Place the rest of the dough back in the cling film so that it doesn't dry out whilst getting the stars ready.  

I'm ready for the berries are you?  

Roughly roll out the dough into a rectangle and place the berries in the centre. You could also do this with anything else that you felt like adding. Make it a double almond whammy be adding chopped almonds or try different coloured baubles with the addition of mixed peel or dried fruits. 

Anyway whatever additional ingredient you add place it in the middle of your dough and fold your dough into the centre enveloping whatever it is in the middle. Give the dough a little bit of a knee and you re ready to flour the surface (or silicon mat) and ready, set, roll! 

If your Christmas tree cutter is anything like mine i.e. small and fiddly be prepared to lose the tops, bottoms or sometimes both of the biscuits as you struggle to get the dough out of the cutter. 

 

upside down Christmas trees anyone?

Bake for approximately five minutes and leave to cool on the tray for a bit before you try to move them as your biscuits will still be quite soft when you first remove them from the oven. I tried taking them from the tray to the cooling rack before they were ready andthe biscuit just crumbled....so I won't be trying that again. 

So there you have it; Christmassy Matcha Almond shortbread. yummy.

Matcha, pistachio and goji berry biscotti

In the second week of this year's Great British Bake Off the signature challenge was biscotti. An Italian tea time treat that is twice baked and super crunchy and delicious. As for many of my bakes however I opted for a bit of experimentation rather than just sticking to a recipe. 

The original recipe that I based my biscotti on is as follows and can be found on A Pocket Full Of Rye

50g whole almonds
50g pistachio nuts
200g Plain Flour (ideally organic)
150g caster sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 grated lemon rind

Whilst I used this blog post as a guide my recipe was somewhat different:

25g Matcha green tea
25g Goji berries 
100g Pistachio nuts (shelled)
200g Ground almonds 
1 Lemon rind
150g Honey 

It can therefore be seen that my biscotti are gluten free - no flour and contain no refined sugar. 

The first step to biscotti heaven is to roast the pistachio nuts in a preheated oven for 4-5 minutes. Whilst these are becoming lovely and crisp in the hot furnace I like to find a super smashing great playlist on Spotify and dance around. 

Anyway onto phase two: whilst you leave your nuts to cool - the pistachio nut guys, spot snickering- place all the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl. 

You may have noticed that with the matcha and almonds combined I seem to have a lot more dry ingredients than the original recipe calls for. This is because my version contains no gluten and is therefore makes a fairly wet dough. Therefore I have added a little bit more almond to compensate.

Stir in the pistachios, goji berries, honey and eggs until you have a violently green dough.

Transfer the dough to a greased baking tray using a spatula to work it into a rectangular shape so that it will bake evenly.

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Place your baking tray in the centre of the oven preheated at 200 degrees C / 180 fan for approximately half an hour. I had a slight mishap at this stage as I realised bit too late that my oven was actually at 200 rather than 180 because it is indeed a fan oven - idiot. 

Its fine though, just a little brown.

It doesn't look very appetising at this stage (maybe its the green) but you need to wait until the dough is completely cool before cutting the biscuits otherwise they will crumble. Again I took to dancing madly around the room whilst my 'not quite biscotti yet' cooled.

Using a sharp knife  cut the biscuits to roughly 10mm  in thickness, if you want to be super precise use a ruler for this stage or if like me you aren't that bothered - don't. The biscuits should however be roughly the same thickness so that they cook evenly.

Put your biscotti back in the oven for 5-10 minutes for a second bake, this seals the extra crunchy yumminess. 

Leave to cool if you can wait that long and enjoy with a cup of tea. 

They still look a bit weird though.