Tea and Milk: the first application

It dawned on me this morning that right before I went down for the count, we were working on a hot tea and milk jelly.  The jelly base was made with milk, condensed milk and Lapsang Souchong tea.  We ended up pairing portions of the jelly with roasted scallop, cinnamon toast crusted onions and miner's lettuce leaves.  The smoky nature of the tea went well with the scallop and the sweet milk added a richness to the dish.  The miner's lettuce added a crisp green flavor to the combination and the cinnamon toast crumbs balanced the roasted onions.  What is important here is the integration of the hot jelly, it comes closer to a warm structured pudding, as well as the use of the crumbs as a seasoning agent and a textural element.  The dish works.  It is tasty and I enjoyed eating it.  However, the dish is the result of the products on hand rather than a sought out construction.  What does that mean?  It means we used a number of ingredients and techniques easily available to us to integrate the idea at hand--the hot tea milk jelly.  We can now use this dish and these applications as a springboard for further ideas and refinements with the milk jelly concept and the infusion of flavors.  Similarly, the fine cinnamon toast crumbs provide a variety of pathways in which we can integrate flavors and textures into our cooking.