BLUE TEA

Blue tea, blue butterfly pea flower in English, is a caffeine-free infusion that in Southeast Asia is also used as a natural colorant. In Malaysia, for example, they prepare a dish by cooking rice and flowers together, obtaining a light blue/blue colored rice. But the characteristic blue color can be changed - by adding lemon it will become purple - and for this reason it is also widely used in the world of bartending (to produce ice cubes that change color in cocktails as they melt). If added to coconut milk and other basic dessert preparations it will transform your creations blue and purple. But even when fresh these tea flowers have a role in the kitchen: they are eaten fried after being dipped in batter! And for those interested in the health and wellness implications, it is worth mentioning that in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine they attribute various properties to it, including antidepressant, anti-stress, sedative, etc. Curious to try it?

If you scroll through the photos you will see how to use it in powder form to give color to foods. in this case to a Panna Cotta (to prepare itthe basic recipe here,I divided the panna cotta into two parts and colored one. I poured the blue panna cotta into the mold and after a passage in the freezer, I poured a part of the natural one and so on until the end to create the layers and then in the refrigerator until it hardens.

PS A tea and a good book, nothing better for me. The book I recommend by a good journalist and writer, Francesca Magni, is "Il bambino che disegniva parole" ed. Giunti.