British Tea Party

We are on our mid-summer 4-week break right now, so I haven’t had much to post about! I thought I would share a few highlights from our British Tea Party, which we did just for fun.

We all love British Tea Parties, so we have this meal several times a year, either for lunch or dinner. This is a simple meal to prepare, and not very time consuming, especially if you are efficient with the order in which you make the dishes.

The centerpiece of the meal, and the element which should be made first, is Scones. I have adapted a recipe from Southern Living which we all like.

Scones
It is imperative to use cold butter, to work quickly and to handle the dough as little as possible.

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking poweder
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit (I use dried cherries and diced apricots)
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. I have used my Kitchenaid mixer with the regular mixing blade with no trouble, though mixing by hand will probably produce flakier scones. Stir in dried fruit. Pour in the 2/3 cup milk and the beaten egg. Gradually stir with a fork (or mixer blade) just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead by hand 3 or 4 times. (I put my dough on a floured cookie sheet or serving tray, so cleanup is a breeze). Pat dough into one inch thickness by hand. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place scones on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush with 1 tablespoon milk and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar.
Bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until barely golden. Cool slightly. Serve warm with preserves and clotted cream (or whipped cream).

The scones only need to bake for about 15 minutes, so now the race is on to prepare the rest of the meal. We are not British, so we feel no compulsion to do this meal in a traditional way. We just pull from what we have on hand.

I’ve lived in four different European countries for anywhere from 3 months to four years, and traveled to many more. One thing that seems consistent is that Europeans love fresh food, and they often prepare it with a minimum of fuss. Translation: you can put a meal reminiscent of Europe on the table fairly quickly if you follow their style.

For example, instead of putting sandwiches on the table, they will often put a tray of crusty rolls, a tray of meats and cheeses and a tray of tomatoes on the table and let everyone construct their own sandwiches. There are often bowls of fresh fruit (not fruit salad, but individual fruits) and single vegetable salads (like cucumber salad or tomato salad). Another option is to put a whole loaf of bread on a breadboard with a knife, and cut slices at the table as you eat.

For this British tea party, I put a kettle on to boil once I put the scones in the oven. I also started some hard boiled eggs at the same time. We recently inherited a few European egg cups, which I just love! This was a fun chance to use those.

Next, I put a Marie Callendar’s Chicken Pot Pie in the microwave. With everything else I was serving (and my husband gone for dinner!), one pot pie was enough for us to share.

Then, I put some spreadable cheese on bread and cut off the crusts (British style!) This spread-cheese is made by Laughing Cow and comes in round cardboard containers in the cheese case at the grocery store. My kids LOVE it. Sometimes I serve Nutella Hazelnut (chocolate) spread for the bread and they adore that, too.

I put a bunch of cherries in one bowl and a bunch of green grapes in another. I set two dishes of jam and some home-made Clotted Cream on the table for the scones (well, it’s not really clotted cream, but it passes for it in our home!)

Homemade Clotted Cream
Combine equal part Cool Whip topping and Sour Cream. Stir thoroughly to combine. If you want it a little more sweet (or sour) adjust ratio accordingly.

By this time, the eggs were ready to be drained and cooled, and the water was boiling. The British like to put hot water in the tea pot before making the tea, just to warm it up. Fill the pot with hot water from the tap, then empty it, and then fill again with boiling water to make the tea. Add one tea bag per person plus one for the pot. NEVER make individual cups. As I understand it, the common pot is a crucial part of the British tea party!

We use Bigelow’s Earl Grey Decaffeinated for our British tea. I always put a small pot of milk and a dish of sugar cubes on the table, too. The children love adding some milk and sugar to their steaming tea! Each child also had a glass of milk or juice on the side.

Another fun thing about British Tea Party is the chance to use real dishes. My kids eat almost exclusively off plastic dishware, it seems, so they enjoy this opportunity to eat off china. I put a nice tablecloth on the table, lit some candles, and set the table with real dishes. They loved it!

When the timer rang after 15 minutes, alerting me that the scones were finished, the table was already laid with tablecloth, jam, clotted cream, hard boiled eggs, cheese sandwiches, pot pie, fruit, tea and drinks. It took a few moments to lay out the dishes and the meal was ready. From the moment I decided “Let’s have a British tea party tonight” until the moment we were clearing away the dirty dishes after a satisfying meal, less than an hour and a half passed. It takes about 15 minutes to mix up the scones, another 25 minutes to lay the table with the food (including time spent on tablecloth and nice china), and that is it!

Colin loves fruit. The way he devoured the cherries, with no thought toward propriety or manners, prompted one of his brothers to compare him to Denethor from the movie Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

I just used the food I had on hand. As long as there are tea, milk, sugar cubes, scones, jam and clotted cream, it seems like a British tea party to us! Everything else is “extra”! If we have cooked, shredded chicken on hand, I often serve chicken salad sandwiches (no crust!). Hard boiled eggs and fruit are common for us, or a tray of cold cuts and rolls. Sometimes we have pie or chocolate cake for dessert, but only if I have it on hand. The scones are usually enough to satisfy a sweet tooth!