Tuesday 14 August 2012

Madhatter’s Tea Party Recipes

Here are the recipes, as promised... serves 8-10. 

Warning - there are no shortcuts in this, since I believe that if you are serving sandwiches at a party they had better be the best.




SANDWICHES


I made 16 mini sandwiches of each type and they were gone by the end of the night.


the White Rabbit falls into a cucumber-frame


Cucumber and mint butter


Mint butter: chuck a couple of handfuls of mint from the garden/supermarket into the whizzer with half a pack of ‘slightly salted’ butter and taste to make sure its as minty as you like it.

The rest: I don’t need to tell you how to chop a cucumber but definitely use cheap white bread, i.e. Hovis – I usually hate that sort of bread but cucumber sandwiches wouldn’t be the same without it. Also, I like to cut these into 3 rectangles…


Chicken and basil mayonnaise with lettuce


Chicken: roast the chicken beforehand, following the advice from a free-range Cotswold chicken farmer at my local market: preheat the oven to 220C (200C if fan oven), rub the chicken over with fat and seasoning of your choice – stuff the cavity with half a lemon and half a bulb of garlic – roast, breast down, in the hot oven for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 170C and roast for a further 20 minutes before turning the chicken over, sitting breast up for a final 30 minutes for a small chicken (1.5kg) and longer if bigger (check after 30 mins and judge for yourself by cutting into the inner thigh and seeing if the juices run clear). Lastly, rest the meat and eat for dinner, preserving the breasts to be carved the next day.

Basil Mayonnaise: see mayonnaise recipe below, plus chopped basil (a very generous handful).

The rest:  This rustic sandwich was served up with Gail’s delicious crusty sour dough. Oh, and make sure to use a delicate, leafy lettuce.


Ham, mustard and cress


Ham: for a 2kg ham boil it for 2 ½ hours in flavoured water (leeks, carrots, cinnamon stick, peppercorn, coriander seeds and whatever else you fancy). Let it cool, score the fat and rub it with a mix of mustard, honey and soy (keep an equal ratio of each and make around a teacup full but only rub in half). I then roasted it at 190C / 170C fan for 30 minutes, with a little water in the roasting dish, basting it every 7 or so minutes with more mustard-honey-soy mix.

Ham for lunch: this is much, much cheaper per gram than buying nice ready cut ham, and a nice lunch with minty potato salad and rocket. When it comes out of the oven it will be hard to carve but do not fear, after a few hours in the fridge you can thinly slice it with ease.

Mustard butter: whizz up a load of Dijon mustard and butter to taste – I like it pretty peppery so add 3 tablespoons to half a pack of butter. For these I used the sour dough and a smattering of cress.


Humpty Dumpty mayo and chives


A Note on Eggs: despite those weird holey structures in your fridge, eggs are NOT supposed to be kept there. It ruins their ability to make mayonnaise or other sauces and increases the risk of salmonella – scary. For any recipe where you are using the egg yolk as a coagulant it is also essential that the eggs are as fresh as possible or they are liable to curdle.

Perfect Hard-boiled: Delia tells us to place the eggs in cold water, let it reach the boil and time 7 minutes from then for a creamy, fully set centre. Once done, run it under cold water for at least 2 minutes so it is easy to peel.

Mayonnaise: making your own is really, really worth it. It makes these sandwiches delicious and expensive tasting – though making mayonnaise is actually pretty cheap. Now that I am used to making it, this recipe only takes me about 8 minutes or so and has only gone wrong once out of about 30 or 40 times (I think the eggs were pretty old). 

Get out your ingredients:
2 Eggs,
Light olive oil/other tasteless oil (500ml)
Extra virgin olive oil (optional) (I put around 100ml)
Salt (to taste but a lot, 3 big pinches, Maldon is tastier)
Dijon Mustard (a very generous teaspoon / to taste)
Juiced lemon and/or white wine vinegar (see below for my quantities)
And an electric whisk…

Pour boiling water into a sauce pan (not over a hob) and leave a big glass/ceramic bowl above the water for a few (2-3) minutes. This is just to warm the bowl - don't let any water get into it. 

While the bowl is being heated, carefully separate 2 eggs and place the yolks in the bowl – whisk for at 1 minute (definitely with an electric whisk) until airy. 

Then, slowly drip the olive oil in whilst whisking (add too much at once and it could curdle). It should start to get thick and glossy.

After you have added about 300ml oil you can add it more quickly. It doesn't matter what order you add the extra-virgin or normal olive oil.  

After you have added around 400ml of oil you can add the mustard and a half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon, whichever you prefer, I usually do 50:50 but taste as I go along) and add the rest of the oil. 

Once this is done, add the salt and another half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. At this point you should really taste it and make sure it is salty and acidic enough for your taste. 

You can eat it plain or add whatever flavour you like – parsley, coriander, garlic, tarragon. If you like it thinner then you can add very small amounts of cold water at the end too until you reach your desired consistency. 

For Aioli change the olive oil: extra virgin olive oil ration to 300ml:300ml or even more extra virgin olive oil if you like the pepperiness... and add a crushed clove of garlic at the beginning. Make sure it is really well crushed though so it is spread evenly through the mayonnaise. 

The rest: add as much mayonnaise as you like to the egg. I tend to give a generous tablespoon per egg and sandwiched it between two slices of granary with a smattering of chopped chives. 

YUMMIES

Scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam


This was my first time making them so I consulted a woman who has devoted herself to writing a whole book on the subject, Genevieve Knights. I found her recipe in the Telegraph. You do need to be very precise about your oven temperature however and don’t take them out too early. Another note – they really aren’t very nice straight out of the oven, like shortbread, they definitely improve in the cooling process so resist the urge! Serve with high quality clotted cream topped with jam if, like me, you have any allegiance to Devon and the other way round for Cornwall. This recipe is particularly light and delicious. 


Red Velvet Cupcakes


I love the colour combination of the deep, chocolaty red cupcakes and the creamy white luxurious icing. It feels very queen of hearts. I used the Hummingbird bakery recipe but can see room for improvement so won’t cite a recipe till I find one I am happier with. I made them in cupcake cases rather than muffin cases. This means you make around double. I decorated them in card-like arrangements of little red hearts from the cake craft shop.  

Rose Cupcakes


Rose and violet have always been one of Elle’s and my favourite flavours – particularly in the form of Fortnum & Mason’s chocolate covered fondants. I wanted to create my own queen of hearts rose garden in the flavour of the cupcakes. I used the Hummingbird Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe, available at the Telegraph, substituting the vanilla essence for rose water, mmmmm.

Rose Meringues


Yup, there is a theme to all this. I used Ottolenghi’s pistachio encrusted recipe from The Cookbook which is not available online but is a must have for anyone who loves good food and doesn’t mind going the extra mile to get pomegranate molasses, lavender honey or nigella seeds.


Marbled Jelly Rabbits

I used a recipe from Bompass and Parr which involves making two fruit jellies, one red, one yellow, and a delicious honey and cardamom blamanche which you allow to cool sufficiently so that it is lumpy but not set, at which point you can mix in little cut up shards of the other coloured jellies. I don’t want to plagiarise so I won’t include the recipe here, but buy the book - Jelly - it is really, really beautifully photographed and full of inspiration. I wasn’t a jelly person before, now, I am a convert.



I am still gutted I forgot to have a caterpillar cake and shisha!


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