Lipton PureLeaf Event at Butter

I was recently invited to a press luncheon by Lipton PureLeaf as they announced their new drink; it boasts zero calories and all natural sweeteners.  Held at Butter in Manhattan, Alex Guarnaschelli (the executive chef at Butter) actually created a menu using the drinks’ two flavors, lemon and raspberry, in nearly every item we were served. 

The menu!

My lassi – pretty darn good. 

The executive chef explaining her inspiration for each dish.

Quite yummy housemade butter.

The totally delicious bread basket.  Those cheddar biscuits were OUTRAGEOUS.  I was ready to stuff them in my pocket and walk out.  Off to a good start. 

The only course without any of the featured product in it: arugual and leek soup with truffle butter toast.  They were a little heavy-handed with the butter on the very crunchy toast, but the combination went very well together.  The soup was not heavy at all, so the creamy, decadent butter really added a depth to the soup that made it that much better. 

Crispy Florida shrimp with pickled vegetable salad was a bit difficult to eat, whatwith the tail and all, but also very tasty.  The drizzle of sauce was a reduction of the lemon tea, and went surprisingly well with everything. 

Roasted squash caponata with celery root, mache and a lemon tea dressing – at this point, I was very curious how the dressing had been made.  It was light, refreshing, and didn’t taste like it came from a bottle iced tea at all.  Impressive, to say the least, but this was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Alex came back out to tell us about the next course, which was a whole roasted striped bass with tons of brussels sprouts (I could smell them from where I sat a bit down the table – heavenly, but you know how I love my cruciferous veggies!).  They’d then dressed it with some sort of sauce created from the lemon tea. 

This course absolutely blew my mind.  The meat of the fish was still super soft and succulent, not dry at all – quite a feat while roasting an entire 16+ lb. fish, I would imagine – and that sauce was amazing.  I really want the recipe for it, but it was unfortunately locked in a safe and I’m unable to access it, boo.    Actually I don’t know if that is the story, though I was not apprised of the recipe.  My goodness, though, it was just mind bogglingly delicious.  I could drizzle a shoe in that and it would be pleasant to eat (or, well, lick, since I don’t think you can actually chew through shoe leather, though those who eat their steaks well-done would have you think otherwise).  Mmm. 

Dessert was yet another revelatory experience, though in a manner you might not expect: the tea-soaked golden raisins.  I want to try just soaking golden raisins in this tea; they plumped up and were extremely pleasant to pop in my mouth along with the other items, but those stood out like no other.  We all remarked around the table how we should try doing this and adding it to random ice creams more often than not.  Nommy! 

Some chocolate petit fours.  I wasn’t too interested in these; nothing wrong with them but not really my thing, either. 

Overall, a very interesting experience; we got to listen to Gil the master tea blender at Lipton discuss the tea selection process as well.  I met Gilbert a little over a year ago, you may remember - still as knowledgeable and personable as ever.

Thanks again to Lipton for hosting such a fabulous event!!!  Now please hand over that that tea beurre blanc recipe…