May 2006 Archives

Some expensive oolong teas come with the whole tea leaves rolled into little dried balls. Since I'm not one willing to take things at face value, I've been thinking about this.

In our cynical age, one might be forgiven for thinking this is some kind of marketing trick to provide "product differentiation," but the Chinese have been doing this for hundreds of years—long before schools had Departments of Marketing. I've always suspected that the little rolled-up tea leaves had to do with the processing of tea where the leaves must be crushed to release enzymes for fermentation. It turns out this is true, but why roll the leaves into a ball... why not just roll them longitudinally between your fingers to break the plant cells?

Yesterday, while enjoying some Ti Qwan Yin at Samovar Tea Lounge in Yerba Buena Gardens, the answer appeared. The rolled-up dried tea leaves, when prepared using the traditional Gon Fu tea service of multiple short infusions, unroll a bit each time they are infused. As they expand they expose more surface area to the water, thus making up for the flavor leached out in the prior infusions. So, rolling the tea leaves into little balls allows constant flavor over multiple infusions, a sort of early application of organic nano-technology! The picture below shows some oolong tea after the first infusion, and after the fourth.

Francois Audouze, a well known collector of old (some are really old) wines was in California for some exotic tastings. He graciously agreed to be a guest at a dinner in San Francisco where about 27 wine enthusiasts showed up to share some bottles of older California wine.

The event ended up being a bit of a madhouse, but all of the inhabitants were friendly, sharing and having a good time. It would have been nice to have had fewer wines and to follow them over an extended period during a more formal dinner, but then we wouldn't have had the opportunity to taste some really rare and legendary California wines. There were more than sixty bottles opened and I think I managed to taste nearly thirty of them. The wines below were my favorites.

I will bet you don't think you need three pounds of peeled garlic? Am I right? Yes, I thought so. But I wouldn't be asking the question if there wasn't a catch. You need three pounds of peeled garlic, because that is the smallest size, and at Costco, the three pound jar of Christopher Ranch garlic is only about five bucks anyway, and when garlic is a convenience food (and when you have three pounds of it, it is VERY convenient) there are neat things you can and will do with it.

I know, I know, you don't have to roll your eyes at me and look away as though I were crazy. I'm serious. For instance, if you have three pounds of peeled garlic, you can make garlic confit. Actually, you can make a reasonable amount of garlic confit about twenty-five times.

Garlic confit is raw garlic that has been slowly cooked submerged in oil. It loses its harshness and becomes soft, mild and nutty. Take 30 to 40 peeled garlic cloves (see why a jar of peeled garlic is useful?) and put them in a small sauce pan. Cover the cloves with neutral oil like canola, and heat until you see small streams of bubbles rising through the oil. You will need very low heat to keep the oil from boiling -- a diffuser is handy. Cook the garlic until it turns golden and rises to the top of the oil. This will take about 40 minutes. Strain the oil into a container and save in the refrigerator for when you need some "garlic oil" for a salad dressing or a condiment. Save the garlic cloves in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Now what? Well, you can make Thomas Keller's "Spinach Sautéed with Garlic Confit." For four servings, start with about a pound of washed baby spinach (Costco is a great place to get this, too). Get your biggest skillet and melt three TBS of butter in it. Add one-quarter cup of minced shallots and cook for a minute or two to soften. Add eight cloves of the garlic confit and smash them up. Add as much spinach as will easily fit in the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Use tongs to turn the spinach while it sautés. When the spinach wilts enough to make room, add more spinach, tasting and seasoning as necessary. Don't overcook. Serve immediately. You'll love it.

(Spinach recipe adapted from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook).