Tag: British

Afternoon Tea: A Brief History

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As Americans we believe tea to be a British institution back as far as we could possibly remember. As ingrained in the fabric of the United Kingdom as apple pie is to the southern United States. I was surprised to find out that Afternoon Tea is a relatively new custom. Thanks to the East India Company tea finds its way to England in the 17th century. It was popularized by King Charles the II and his wife Catherine de Braganza. Tea was such an expensive ingredient when it first made its way to England that the lady of the house often kept it and her tea making equipment under lock and key.

It wasn’t until 1840 that the idea of gathering for afternoon tea became a custom. Anna the 7th duchess of Bedford decided she didn’t enjoy that empty feeling you get when you’re hungry. The dinner meal was served kind of late, roughly around 8 pm and she got that empty feeling around four pm. So she requested a tray of tea, bread and butter and small cakes to be brought to her drawing room.

She soon began inviting her friends over to join her for tea. It became a fashionable affair. The upper class women would wear nice gowns and white gloves and join their friends for tea. They would go for walks in the garden afterwards to chat.

The traditional foods served with high tea were small sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam. Also served were small cakes and pastries. Afternoon tea now in the regular persons home tends to consist of tea and a handful of biscuits to dip into the tea. You can still have tea like the ladies of old at one of the many hotels that host a high tea. You can indulge in all the tiny cakes and tea out of gorgeous china. A proper good time.

Mincemeat Cake

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What is it?

Mincemeat pie is a British dessert filled with raisins, currants, candied peel, apples and brown sugar. It is normally cooked together with suet. If you are unfamiliar suet is a hard animal fat either beef or lamb. I’m not certain where to get Suet in the states so I used vegetable shortening. The pie has an origin that dates back to the 1400’s when the pie actually had mincemeat in it. It was a way to preserve meat without having to go through the usually methods of drying and curing.

Today Mincemeat Pie doesn’t have meat in it anymore. It is a spiced fruit pie served during Christmas time. I didn’t want to make pastry so I didn’t end up making pie. I made a simple square cake that made my whole house smell like Christmas.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups All purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. pumpkin spice
  • 3 tbsp. melted butter
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs beaten

Mincemeat Mixture

  • 1 apple diced
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup candied mixed peel
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. pumpkin spice
  • 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

Directions

  1. In a saucepan on medium heat place all your mincemeat mixture and cook until the apples have softened and the shortening and brown sugar melt together. Lower the heat and simmer while putting the rest of your batter together.
  2. Preheat your own to 370 degrees.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl whisk your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, pumpkin spice.
  4. Melt your butter in the microwave for a minute.
  5. Put oil and butter into the dry ingredients.
  6. In a small bowl beat the two eggs together and add to rest of your batter.
  7. Add your warm mincemeat mixture and whisk until the batter is well combined.
  8. Put batter in a 8×8 square cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

British Style Baked Beans

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British style beans you say? What does that mean? Well from what I can tell American baked beans tend to be a lot sweeter and the sauce tends to start with some sort of meat product. Predominantly pork product as I can tell.

British style beans tend to be a thinner tomato based sauce. They can have carrots, onion or celery in them. They are definitely less sweet then the American version but still have a little molasses or brown sugar in them. The recipe I based mine off of had both.

Ingredients

  • 1 can black eyed peas
  • 1 can Navy beans
  • 1 small can tomato sauce
  • 1 cup vegetable stock
  • 1 shallot, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, diced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tbsp Worcester sauce.
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • Salt/pepper

Directions

  1. In a medium size pot place oil and cook on medium heat till it moves in the pan like water. Place shallot and jalapeno and cook till the shallot gets translucent.
  2. Add the garlic and cook another 3 minutes. Add vegetable stock and tomato sauce. Add the cornstarch and stir to combine. Add tomato paste and stir to combine. It will thicken your sauce.
  3. Add your beans and the rest of your ingredients one at a time.
  4. Cook for roughly 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.
  5. Serve with barbeque or just on toast.

Yorkshire Puddings

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I figured out what’s been missing from every roast dinner I’ve ever had. It’s Yorkshire puddings! Yet again I found a reason to love British food culture. These delicious morsels are a baked pudding with a batter consisting of eggs, flour, salt and either milk or water. They are baked in a muffin tins with either oil or the drippings from your roast heated in the tin to help with the rising of a batter that has no raising agent in it. You can also bake them in a square baking dish and create one large pudding instead of individual ones.

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup oil

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In a muffin tin divide half a cup of oil in between all sections. If using a baking dish just pour all the oil in. Heat the oil in the baking dish or muffin tin for about 10 minutes or until it starts smoking.
  2. While the oil is heating you want to make your batter. You can just chuck all the ingredients into one bowl and whisk until well combined. You don’t want any lumps in your batter.
  3. When the oil is ready pull your pan out of the oven and quickly put the batter in the tin. It will quickly react to the heat from your oil. That’s helping the eggs in the batter raise your little puddings.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown and well risen. Serve with whatever delicious roast you’ve put together.

If you’re using the drippings from your roast then after the roast is cooked you want to put it on a cutting board to rest. I tend to tent mine with aluminium foil. You then want to dish up your veggies into whatever serving bowl you’ve got. You want to make sure after you pull your roast out you put the temperature of your oven up to 450.

You can make the batter up to an hour ahead of time so that you’re ready when he roast is out to put the puddings in.

Baked Scotch Eggs

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A scotch egg is a British dish that consists of a soft boiled egg wrapped in sausage and covered in a herbed bread crumbs coating. Its then either baked or fried till the coating is crisp. I baked mine because home frying is a skill the eludes me.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound pork sausage
  • 4 soft boiled eggs
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tbsp fennel seed
  • Salt/pepper
  • 2 tbsp basil, chopped
  • 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 egg, beaten

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Place sausage, onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper and half your chopped herbs in bowl and combine well.
  3. In two smaller bowls put the beaten egg in one and in the other put your bread crumbs and herb mixture.
  4. Divide your sausage mixture into four equal parts. Flatten each sausage portion into a 4 inch circle.
  5. Place an egg in the center of the sausage party and wrap the egg entirely. Make sure no egg shows through. Do all four eggs like this.
  6. Dip each egg into the beaten egg bowl and let the excess drip off. Then roll in the panko and herb mixture.
  7. Place each egg on the baking sheet a couple inches from each other. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Flip half way through to get even browning.

Faux Gregg’s Steak Bake

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Puff pastry cases filled with savory meat and vegetables are the thing of beautiful dreams. The way warm herby gravy coats the inside of the pastry case and combines with the abundance of butter in the crust and holds onto your perfectly cooked meat and veg filling allowing you the perfect bite every time. It’s glorious.

There is a bakery chain in the UK that I had never heard of till about five or so years ago called Gregg’s. They do a range of savory hand pies in roughly the shape of a pop tart and they look amazing. Unfortunately I would have to travel many miles and a whole ass ocean to get one. So I made one at home.

Ingredients

  • Puff Pastry
  • Thinly sliced steak, diced
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 1 tsp. rosemary
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • cornstarch slurry: 2 tsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water
  • salt/pepper
  • 2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
  • egg wash: 1 egg and 1 tsp of water
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 395 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Put oil in a pan on medium high heat until it shimmers in the pan. Sizzle your steak in the pan until it gets deeply browned.
  3. Add onions and cook until they start to color which will take about 5 minutes.
  4. Add onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add beef stock, cornstarch slurry and rosemary and cook until gravy reduces by about half. Salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Roll out your puff pastry into a big enough square that you can cut at least 8 rectangles. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Lay two pastry rectangles on each sheet and spoon your filling into the center of the square. Leave room on the sides of the pastry.
  7. Using a pastry brush egg wash around the edges of the rectangle. This will help seal your pockets together. Top each with your other pastry rectangles. Using a fork crimp the sides of your pastry. Then egg wash the top.
  8. Score the tops of each pocket once to give them steam some place to escape. Not a hole big enough for your gravy to escape when you eat it though. That would be awful!
  9. Cook for 20 minutes until pastry is golden brown and flaky.
  10. Serve with chips(french fries) or roasted veggies like I did in the picture.

Blackcurrant shortbread bars

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Had you ever heard of a blackcurrant till right this minute? I had never heard of them until I started looking into flavors common to British food and desserts. It’s commonly used like Americans use grape.

I managed to come across a jar of blackcurrant jam at my local big box store and decided I wanted to add something with this flavor profile to our Tea Week. It came together very easily and was a hit even with my husband who doesn’t have that much of a sweet tooth.

Buttery and delicious

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup blackcurrant jam
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp. Oil
  • 2 tsp. Baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Combine 2 cups of the flour and the rest of your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
  3. Mix butter, eggs, oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl until well combined.
  4. Combine your wet and dry ingredients together until you get a moist shortbread consistency.
  5. Line a greased square cake pan with parchment paper and put half of your shortbread mixture in the pan. Smash it into the corners and make sure it’s even.
  6. Spoon your jam over the shortbread and make sure it’s an even layer.
  7. Using the other half of your shortbread mixture combine it with the last 1/2 cup of flour and combine until you get a mixture of large and small chunks of dough. This will be your topping.
  8. Sprinkle your topping liberally over the top. It should cover most of the jam layer while still allowing some of it to peak out. (See the pics to see what I’m talking about)
  9. Bake for 20 minutes until the topping gets brown and crisp.
  10. Cool for about 10 minutes before cutting

British Cranberry Scones

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tbsp. Sugar
  • 4tsp. Baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Salt
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 tbsp. Unsalted cold butter
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberry
  • Egg wash: 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp. Milk

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Combine all the dry ingredients (not the cranberries) and butter. Using your fingers combine the butter into the flour until you have a bread crumb like consistency.
  3. Add your milk and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
  4. Fold in your cranberries until well combined.
  5. Onto a floured surface turn out your dough and knead your dough 2-3 times until flour has coated the whole surface.
  6. Using a dough cutter cut your dough into 8 equal triangles.
  7. Lay them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and egg wash the tops of them all.
  8. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
  9. Serve with jam and our amazing clotted cream for the traditional experience.

The Difference between American and British scones

The biggest difference between American and British scones that I have found is the amount of butter. American scones have upwards of a stick and a half of butter while the British variety have only 2-3 tablespoons.

The American scone recipes that I have seen also contain a lot more sugar in the form of mix ins and icing. They are more akin to a pastry then a biscuit. British scones tend to be plain so they can pile the sugar on with jam and clotted cream. A strategy I can definitely get behind.

Clotted Cream- slow cooker method

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Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of English Tea Week here at bottomless chips. We are starting off the week with something I had been trying to make at home and not doing so well at until I tried it this way.

Clotted cream if you’ve never had it before is a cross between cream and butter. It’s an English condiment from the counties Devon and Cornwall. Both claim they invented it. It’s the perfect addition to an afternoon tea.

Ingredients

  • 1 pint heavy cream( not ultra pasteurized)

Directions

  1. Put the pint of heavy cream in your slow cooker.
  2. Set your slow cooker to low and cook for one hour. Check the temp of the cream. It should be around 165 degrees Fahrenheit but not above 185.
  3. If the temp is correct then put the lid back on and cook for about 4 hours.
  4. By now a crust should have formed on top of your cream. Don’t be alarmed. This golden brown beautiful deliciousness is what we want.
  5. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the bowl from the heating element. Don’t shake it or stir it or disturb the crust at all. Let it cool on the counter.
  6. After it has cooled let it cool longer in the fridge. Anywhere from 3 hours to overnight.
  7. After it has cooled find an airtight container (I used a mason jar). Use a slotted spoon and scoop the crust off the top and put it in the container. Leave the muddy watery substance in the bowl and just take the cooked cream.
  8. It will be good in a sealed container for about a week.