Cooking with Tea: part 1, risotto with houjicha

As promised, I made my first, partially successful attempt at cooking with tea. The other night I made up some risotto with roasted garlic and roasted kuki houjicha. The tea flavor was a little weak, but that's because I added steeped tea instead of the actual leaves. The dish had a beautiful color and the roasted garlic added to the smoky flavor. The basis for the recipe I used was from Feed Your Family Fast, Healthy Meals on $10 A Day by Linda West Eckhardt. I know it's not the most authoritative source, but we happen to like it. So here's the recipe as I modified it:

Ingredients:
one head of garlic
a dollop of olive oil (maybe 2 tablespoons)
one onion, chopped
a dollop of olive oil (maybe 2 tablespoons)
one cup arborio rice
kuki houjicha
water
1 teaspoon Pensys Spices Chicken Soup Base
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
spices to taste

Slice off the top of the head of garlic to expose the individual cloves. Peel off the outermost paper layer of skin. Place the garlic on an oven-safe pan and pour a dollop of olive oil over the top. Throw the thing in an oven to bake for 30-45 minutes at 400 F. Since ovens are uncommon in Japanese apartments, I had to make do with a toaster oven which worked much better than I expected. Saute the onion in another dollop of olive oil. Once it's a little brown around the edges dump in the rice for about three minutes. While all of that is going on, prepare a large pot of the houjicha. You'll need 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Once it's steeped, dissolve the chicken soup base in the tea. Dump it all in on top of the rice. Pop out the individual cloves of garlic, they should almost squish into paste in your hands, and toss them in too. Put a lid on it, and turn it down to a low simmer for 15 minutes. At this point the rice should be cooked, and the liquid evaporated. Turn off the heat and add spices to taste. In my case, it was a bit of salt. I was going to add pepper too, but the grinder fell down behind our kitchen shelves at an inopportune moment. Mix in your cheese, and enjoy!

This was my first experiment cooking with tea. If you have any suggestions or recipes, please let me know. Thanks!