Veuve Clicquot Brut with Wild Hibicus
It was my sister's birthday at the beginning of the month, and because we went away and couldn't have a birthday dinner with her, so it got postponed to yesterday. And I said I'd do a high tea for her at her place!
For the past week, I was busy doing the Thomas Engine Cake, but at the same time I was thinking about the menu for the afternoon tea. Yes, it was definitely a brain teasing week for me!
I had to think of things that I could make beforehand, because my sister's house has such small kitchen which is not good for doing any sort of extravagant cooking!
Menu
Lemonade Scones (how can you not have scones in an afternoon tea menu!!)
Orange & Almond Macaroon
Cream Brulee
Smoked Salmon & Camembert Frittata (my sister always like some savory)
a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Brut (yummmmm.... fantastic bottle of champagne)
I say that it's not so traditional because there was no sandwich and no english breakfast tea! Didn't want to make sandwiches because they need to be made fresh to be good, and as I was saying, there's no room in my sister's kitchen to do any preparation, so I decided to go with fritata which I could make beforehand, and re-heat later.
rustic lemonade scones with fresh cream and saffron citrus marmalade
Lemonade Scones
Ingredients:
2 cups of self raising flour, sifted
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup thick cream
1/2 cup lemonade
40ml milk for brushing
1) Mix all dry ingredients together with 1/2 tsp salt. Then add in the wet ingredients
2) Roll out the dough to about 2cm thick. Cut out the dough with cookie cutter. Brush with milk and bake in 220C preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.
Mine turned out a bit rustic because I made this at my sister's place (love fresh warm scones!!!), and her kitchen has hardly any bench area to work with, plus she has no cookie cutter! (As you can tell, she's not a baker!) so I had to just roll the dough into balls with my hands!
These lemonade scones are my favourite scones! It's relatively low in fat - no butter in the mixture, plus it's easy to make and it's very fluffy which I like!!! =) I also bought a jar of saffron citrus marmalade from Thomas Dux to go with it. It has a beautiful citrus taste from probably orange and lemon, however, I couldn't taste the saffron though!
macaroon shells fresh from the oven
Orange & Almond Macaroon
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
1/4 cup caster sugar
orange food colouring
200g icing sugar
120g ground almonds
1 tsp grated orange rind
2 tbsp flaked almonds
1/3 cup of orange marmalade
1. Beat egg whites until soft peak form. Add caster sugar and a few drops of colouring, beat until sugar dissolves.
2. Fold in icing sugar, ground almonds and rind in batches.
3. Spoon mixture into pipping bag with plain tube. Pipe rounds with 2 cm apart onto lined tray.
4. Tap tray on bench and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Stand 30 minutes
5. Preheat oven to 150C and bake for 20 minutes. Cool on tray.
6. Sandwich with marmalade.
The look of my macaroons didn't turn out as smoothly as it should be. Not sure the reason why, but I think it might be because I didn't rest it for 30 minutes... I overlooked this step! =P However, they still tasted good, with a thin crusted top, and chewy inside! I think I might try doing an earl grey flavour next time!
Cream Brulee
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 vanilla pods
300ml double cream
200ml full fat milk
8 egg yolks
80g sugar
1. Run the knife up the pod to remove the seeds. Scrape these into the pan with the pods, cream and milk and slowly bring to the boil then remove pod.
2. Beat yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add the cream mixture into the yolk little by little, whisking continuously. Then strain the mixture.
4. Divide into serving dish, and stand these in a roasting tray filled with water half way up the dish.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for around 25 minutes until the custard mixture set, but is still wobbly in the center.
6. Cool and refrigerate. Just before serving, cameralise it with blow touch.
Cream brulee is always divine to eat, but not so sure about the extra inch on the waistline! I very rarely make cream brulee because of the naughty ingredients. Oh well... it's my sister's birthday, so it's a special occasion!
frittata before going into oven
Smoked Salmon & Camembert Frittata
Ingredients
100g smoked salmon
100g camembert, thinly sliced
1 leek, chopped (I used onion... cos that was what I had in my fridge!)
1 clove of garlic
8 eggs
40ml of milk
1 tsp chopping dills (I used the left over thyme at home, again I couldn't bother going out to get some dill! Yes I'm lazy!)
1. Stir fry the garlic and leek with a little oil until soft. Then spoon it into the bottom of a baking dish.
2. Layer it with smoked salmon and camembert.
3. Whisk the eggs together with milk, and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the smoked salmon and camembert. Bake in a preheated 190C oven for 30 minutes.
This dish was delicious!!!!! Something I definitely would make again, it was full of flavour, and everyone at the table had their thumbs up! The smell of smoked salmon, and thyme filled the whole house, and I was so tempted to dig a spoon in after it came out of the oven, of course I resisted, because I knew that it was for the next day! But I couldn't resist myself from keep on taking deep breaths and sniffing the beautiful smell!!! =P
After two nights of making Mr. Thomas The Tank, I just really wanted to make something simple for this afternoon tea. Actually not just simple, but quick and with variety! I made the macaroons, cream brulee and frittata on saturday night within 3 hours including all the clean up done. Not bad!
Everyone enjoyed the afternoon tea at my sister's place. Although it was only a small and intimate celebration, but it was awesome. And my sister has a real fireplace at her house, and we had that going to keep us nice and cosy! I love real fire place!!!! I wish I have one in my house!
Happy birthday dear sis!
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