Tea

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional sitting time.

Spoon this over vanilla ice cream, or serve it with dollops of Mascarpone Cream or sour cream.

Freezing the steak for about 30 minutes makes it much easier to slice; using a grill pan is the simplest way to cook the slices.

This German drink, called Grossmutters Punsch (Grandmother's Punch), is usually enjoyed warm at midnight on Christmas Eve. It can also be served as a refreshing chilled drink. For a festive touch, add a cinnamon stick to each glass.

These creamy custards feature the flavors of chai, a spiced tea that's enhanced with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger.

A lovely change of pace from café au lait, cappuccino or hot chocolate, and lower in fat and calories, too.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Pear Charlottes with Chamomile Crème Anglaise .

Here's a warming drink for a chilly day.

Look for the heart-shaped cake ring at cake and candy supply stores, or call Jane's Cakes and Chocolates at 800-262-7630. You can also use a buttered and floured 8-inch round cake pan with 2-inch-high sides.

Brewed green tea is a delicious, aromatic broth for scallops in this refined rendition of Japan's ochazuke, or "tea rice." The comforting soup-like dish evolved from using hot tea to rinse out rice bowls at the end of meals. Serve this as a light lunch or as an appetizer, followed by teriyaki-marinated chicken or salmon and some steamed Asian greens.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

This is one of those recipes that has pretty much disappeared in the United States, but those who remember it rave about it. A fluden, which comes from fladni or fladen, "flat cake" in German, is just that, a flat, double-or often multilayered flaky pastry filled with poppy seeds, apples and raisins, or cheese. It was originally common to southern Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, later spreading east to Hungary, Romania, and other Eastern European countries. Often flavored with honey, it was eaten in the fall at Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot and is symbolic, like strudel, of an abundant yield. I have tasted apple two-layered fluden at Jewish bakeries and restaurants in Paris, Budapest, Tel Aviv, and Vienna, sometimes made with a butter crust, sometimes with an oil-based one. But only in Paris have I tasted the delicious fig rendition, a French fig bar, from Finkelsztajn's Bakery. (Figs, my father used to tell me, were often eaten in Germany as the new fruit on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.) This recipe is a perfect example of the constant flux of Jewish foods. Today, with the huge population of Tunisian Jews in Paris, it is no wonder that the Finkelsztajn family spike their fig filling with bou'ha, a Jewish Tunisian fig liqueur used for kiddush, the blessing over the wine on the Sabbath. You can, of course, use kirsch or any other fruit liqueur instead.

Loose tea leaves tend to be of higher quality than tea bags, giving the truffles a fresher, more distinct flavor. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 2 3/4 hr

Be sure to serve the aromatic sauce with each portion of soufflé. The sauce can be prepared one day before the soufflé is made.

Tea-marbled eggs are a time-honored part of Chinese cuisine. The outer shell of a hard-boiled egg is cracked (but not removed), and the egg is then soaked in tea, which gives it a lovely marbled appearance and subtle smoky flavor. We found traditionally cooked tea-marbled eggs — usually simmered for an hour — were too tough for our taste; this method yields more tender whites.

This delightful custard sauce-infused with black currant tea for a unique accent-is made with milk instead of cream. Begin preparing it a day ahead.