Even fish like tea

Have you tried cooking with tea? It's fun to use tea as an ingredient in a dish, and I've cooked seafood and tea breads using tea with pleasant results.

A favorite recipe at our house is this salmon dish. I got the basic recipe from the book "Eat Tea" by Joanna Pruess with John Harney, although I make the recipe a little differently than they do (I never could find juniper berries, for one thing). So here's the recipe as I make it for two. I hope you enjoy it!

Earl Grey-Crusted Salmon

2 salmon fillets (3/4 to 1 pound total)
1 medium navel orange
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons butter
More salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate the orange and save the zest. Then, remove remainder of skin from orange and cut fruit into 1/4-inch slices.

In food processor, combine about two tablespoons orange zest, the tea leaves, salt and pepper. Process for about a minute.

Melt butter in iron skillet over medium to high heat. Season salmon with salt and pepper and saute, flesh side down, for about 5 minutes. Turn salmon over in pan, sprinkle with any remaining butter, then spoon tea/orange zest mixture equally over fillets. Top each fillet with two orange slices (I removed one slice for the photo), and bake in oven for about 8-10 minutes. Delicious!