Afternoon tea

A typical afternoon tea is a typical British story that I have had a raw model since I was a teen. I remember my English teacher giving me some recipe for the British scones. They did not look anything like those you see in England, but I guess I made something wrong. I would love to know where I put that recipe really. I used to bake those scones very often back then!
But well, without that recipe we managed to put together an acceptable Afternoon tea this time, anyways.
Following the recipes will give an afternoon tea for about 4-6 people depending on how hungry your guests are.

The classical British scones were there.

7/1-2012

We tried to do clotted cream for them, but it turned to nothing we can publish on the internet without making everybody disgusted...

Sandwiches are necessary. This time we went for different kinds.
Chicken curry sandwich was good even if not very original.

Turkey, blue cheese and bacon sandwich was a good combination even if it could have been more simple without bacon.
Lemon and chives salmon sandwich is necessary here to balance with "healthy salmon".
Tuna and mango chutney sandwich was really quite original to my taste buds.
Chevre, raisins and pecan sandwich topped with prosciutto was also very good. Keep it vegetarian if you prefer by skipping the prosciutto, but being an Italian, it was hard to do so...

We also added some "picks" utilizing the strawberries we had left from New Year's Eve's dinner and some pickled mushrooms my parents imported from Italy this year too. This time the Sacla' originals.

7/1-2012

Not very British, but well... All major chefs add their own twist, so this is a good way to start my way to becoming one I guess... :)

Enjoy... I know we did!

British Scones

I tasted the British scones in England and in Ireland and they were sooooo gooooood. I could eat bunches. They are normally served with clotted cream, which is a dangerous but wonderful ingredient. Clotted cream is impossible to get fetch of in Sweden. These scones have nothing to do with the classical scones people bake in Sweden. Those are more "American kind" and mostly suitable for savoury purposes. I actually have never got fetch of the original British scones recipe, but this is as near as it gets so far.
I tried to make clotted cream but it turned into a weird thing, so I will not publish the recipe this time. But I do not give up. To remember for my next time I try is the following. Try to only pick up the thick part from the top without getting any fluid cream in it. It is difficult to remove the fluid parts afterwards.

7-1-2012

Ingredients
2,5dl (5dl) flour
1/2tbs (1tbs) sugar
1/2tsp (1tsp) baking powder
1/8tsp (1/4tsp) bicarbonate
1/4tsp (1/2tsp) salt
50gr (100gr) butter directly from the fridge
1/2 (1) egg
1/2dl (1dl) sour milk (filmjölk)
1/2dl (1dl) raisins
For decoration:
1tbs icing sugar
1tbs cream
1/2 egg

Instructions
Turn on the oven to 250degrees Celcius. Mix dry ingredients. Cut butter in small pieces and mix it with the dry ingredients. Mix egg and sour milk and add to the mixture above.
Roll the mixture to 1,5 cm thick and cut out round pieces in wished dimention. The typical dimention would be around 3cm diameter.
Mix the remaining egg part with some cream and 1 tablespoon icing sugar. Brush the mixture onto the top of the scones.
Put them on a baking tray and bake for approximately 10 minutes. Eat warm for best result with clotted cream if you manage do do any.

Turkey, bacon and blue cheese sandwich

The basic recipe is the blue cheese one. Here it adds bacon, but you could as well skip it. It turns out it mosly added that "artificial tube paste" aura around the whole thing and the cream cheese mixture is good enough as it is. Also the smoked turkey is optional. You can use different types of blue cheese. Here I mixed Saint Agur and Gorgonzola as that was what I had at home. You can also use different types of cream cheese: normally, I use mascarpone, here I used creme fraiche, but the original recipe called for Philadelphia cheese.

7/1-2012

 Ingredients
100gr blue cheese (gorgonzola, Saint Agur or similar)
75gr creme fraiche (mascarpone or Philadelphia can be used)
Optional 50gr bacon
Optional 2 slices of smoked turkey

Instructions
Reduce the blue cheese to very small pieces
Fry the bacon to get rid of the fat so it gets very crispy. Cut it or break it then in very small pieces.
Mix the creme fraiche (or similar) with the blue cheese and the bacon crumbles.
Spread the mixture on 2-3 toast bread. Make sure that it is evenly distributed. Put the turkey if you like on it. Seal each sandwich with one toast bread. Cut each sandwich in four pieces.

Serve as is or decorate with a toothpick. I actually used the same ingredients at the top of the toothpick to make clear to the eaters what kind of food they are putting in their mouth, in this case turkey and blue cheese.

Lemon and chives salmon sandwich

7/1-2012

This was much of a new invention. Also went original with najad salmon (a mix of smoked and marinated salmon). Regular smoked salmon would do it too, I believe.

Ingredients
100gr smoked salmon (2 slices)
50gr creme fraiche
4 straws of chives
Grated lemon zest (about half a lemon or less)
Cucumber slices

Instructions
Mix creme fraiche with the sliced chives, the grated lemon zest. If you wish you can taste with salt and pepper, but we didn't as the salmon already brings the "salt" in the sandwich.
Spread the mixture on 4-6 toast bread. Make sure that it is evenly distributed. The amount should not be too thick as you have the same mixture on both sides of the sandwich. Distribute salmon on each side so that you have one layer of salmon all over the toast bread. Again, do not put too much salmon as you have salmon on both sides of the sandwich. Put sliced cucumber on 2-3 of the slices. Put the slices without cucumber on those with. This implies getting a sandwich with following layers (mixture, salmon, cucumber, salmon, mixture).  Cut each sandwich in four pieces.

Serve as is or decorate with a toothpick. I actually used the same ingredients at the top of the toothpick to make clear to the eaters what kind of food they are putting in their mouth, in this case salmon and cucumber. 

Chevre cheese, raisins and pecans sandwich

7/1-2012

The basic recipe does not require any further ingredient than the mixture below. Here though, I decided to add some prosciutto as I had purchased it and did not know what to do with it otherwise. But that was not necessary if you want to keep it vegetarian.

Ingredients
75gr chevre cheese
50gr creme fraiche (you can use philadelphia cheese if you prefer)
1tbs yellow raisins
2tbs pecan nuts

Instructions
Wash raisins with hot water and let then soften up a while.
Cut raisins and pecans in very very small pieces.
Mash the cheese if possible (or cut it many times in multiple directions if you prefer).
Mix all ingredients together.
Spread the mixture on 2-3 toast bread. Make sure that it is evenly distributed. Seal each sandwich with one toast bread. Cut each sandwich in four pieces.
As I said above, I also added a thick layer of prosciutto.

Serve as is or decorate with a toothpick. I actually used the same ingredients at the top of the toothpick to make clear to the eaters what kind of food they are putting in their mouth, in this case chevre cheese and the prosciutto.

Tuna and mango chutney sandwich

This was a rather original sandwich. It is indeed rather sweet, so if you are not a fan of sweet stuff, you might want to reduce the mango chutney amount. It might also be a good idea to reduce possible "big pieces" of fruit in the mango chutney into smaller ones before mixing everything together. This is the recipe as I prepared it this time. Next time I will probably invert the amounts of mayo and chutney.

7/1-2012

Ingredients
1 can of tuna (remove the liquids before adding it)
3/4dl mayonnaise + plus some for the decorations
1dl mango chutney
Salt and pepper
1dl roasted sesame seeds

Instructions
Mix tuna, mayonnaise and mango chutney. Adjust taste with salt and pepper if you feel it is necessary.
Spread the mixture on 2-3 toast bread. Make sure that it is evenly distributed. Seal each sandwich with one toast bread. Cut each sandwich in four pieces.
Decorate each slice of bread by distributing a thin layer of mayonnaise on one of the sides and dip the side in roasted sesame seeds. This makes for decoration and taste at the same time. If you want, you can use a toothpick to decorate and you can use the same ingredients at the top of the toothpick to make clear to the eaters what kind of food they are putting in their mouth, in this case a good suggestion would be to put a piece of tuna and a mango piece on the top of it. This time I forgot to keep some tuna on the side and I was too hungry to bother about the mango piece. But maybe next time?!

Chicken curry sandwich

Chicken curry might not be the most original of  combinations, but sometimes, you just feel like eating it anyway.

7/1-2012

Ingredients
200gr chicken breast
2tsp olive oil
1/2 apple
1dl mayonnaise
1tsp or a little more curry spice

Instructions
Fry chicken in small pieces in a pan with about 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
Fry apple in the same way as the chicken.
Cut the pickled cucumber in very small pieces.

Mix the above prepared ingredients with mayonnaise and curry spice. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.
Spread the mixture on 2-3 toast bread. Make sure that it is evenly distributed. Seal each sandwich with one toast bread. Cut each sandwich in four pieces.

Serve as is or decorate with a toothpick. I actually used the same ingredients at the top of the toothpick to make clear to the eaters what kind of food they are putting in their mouth, in this case chicken and pickled cucumber.