Now You Can Eat Like Me Too!

I've been thinking about posting recipes I use a lot here, since family usually asks for them, and I never remember to e-mail them. Most of them are from a recipe book I have that cooks with tea, hence the number of recipes with tea in them. I figure I'd start with my popular BBQ Tea Chicken. I made it tonight and also tried yaki-onigiri with teriyaki and soy sauce.

BBQ Tea Chicken

This recipe was found in The Ultimate Tea Diet book that I got a while ago. I tried it since it was one of the easier recipes, and Mom and I liked it (even though we were crying because it was so spicy). I've since modified the recipe, adding ground chipotle to it (it adds another layer of smokiness) and taking away most of the chili powder. The tea in this recipe is Lapsong Souchong tea, which tastes like barbecue. It takes a certain type of palette to drink it as tea; it usually used like it is here, as a rub.

Rub:
• 4 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (originally 4!)
• 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chili pepper
• 4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons dry Lapsong Souchong Black Tea (You might have to go to a tea shop for this or order it online, but it's worth it)
• 2 teaspoons (kosher) salt (I've been using crazy salt)
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Plus:
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• chicken breasts (I lean towards boneless and skinless)

Put all of the ingredients for the rub in a coffee grinder (or, if you're low-tech, pestle and mortar) and grind together until a medium-fine powder. Trim the chicken breasts and marinate them in an even mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, starting with a tablespoon of each. (I sometimes go heavy-handed with the balsamic vinegar; it adds a delicious fruity flavor, but sometimes overwhelms the rub.) Sprinkle the tea rub generously over the chicken breasts. Cook the chicken as desired. (I usually grill it, either with an actual grill or the George Forman grill.)

Teriyaki Yaki-Onigiri

Okay, so I haven't mastered this one; it's only my second time making them. But I think I know how to fix my mistakes, and I'll put the corrected version here. I first ran across the yaki-onigiri (grilled rice ball) recipe on Lunch in a Box, and thought it looked good. It's usually made with just soy sauce, and that's what I did the first time, but I thought it would be good with a soy sauce/teriyaki sauce blend.

• Sticky rice (not sushi rice; don't add the vinegar mix to it!)
• Soy sauce (I use Kikkoman Low Sodium Soy Sauce)
• Teriyaki sauce (I used a thick marinade tonight, and kind of overdid it, so it was too sweet. Use a teriyaki sauce that's more of a thin baste. Again, I think Kikkoman's Teriyaki sauce is like that. It's been a while since I've used it.)

After you cook the sticky rice (and if you're lost about it, buy short-grain rice [Nishiki is a popular brand] and follow the directions on the package, something like 1 1/2 cups water to 2 cups rice), while it's still hot, form it into shapes, either with your hands or an onigiri mold (I use a mold because I'm lazy). You have an onigiri!

In a small cup/dish/bowl, mix equal parts soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. Set aside. Place the onigiri on a grill and leave for a few minutes until slightly toasted (I never leave it on long enough ). Flip it over and baste the toasted side with the soy/teriyaki sauce while the other side is cooking. After a few more minutes with the other side is toasted, flip it over again so the marinated side is toasting again and baste it again. Flip it over again after a couple of minutes and toast for a bit longer. In short, both sides are toasted twice, once without the sauce and once with it. You can toast and sauce the sides of the onigiri too, if you want. (I'm lazy and don't do it.) You can wrap it in nori/seaweed, but I don't do that (again, lazy).

And that's the recipes. I'm not turning this into a daily thing, just when I make one of my "signature" dishes.