I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other, but the great
question is what?
I’m a sucker for a proper English “high” tea, and wish I lived in a society civilized enough to take time for an elegant meal in the middle of the afternoon. When she was still young enough to play pretend games, I was always trying to get my tomboy daughter to have tea parties, but she was more interested in hot wheels and building elaborate cities out of blocks--both of which are swell but don’t involve food (and there were no prop cookies at my tea parties).
Anything to do with scones, little crustless sandwiches, and cake washed down with tea in a porcelain cup sends my happiness meter into the red zone. I designed my culinary school final project around themes and images from Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland andThrough the Looking Glass, creating and photographing a six-course grown up tea that featured such things as tomato madeleines, bacon scone sandwiches, rabbit consommé and playing card tarts. At the Mad-Hatter’s tea party it's always 6 o’clock and always tea time. It’s a pity that American colonists didn’t carry on the English tradition of afternoon tea, because it allows for my favorite way to eat, enjoying little tastes of many delicacies, able to try this and try that without seeming gluttonous. So when my best friend asked me to cater her sister-in-law’s baby shower I knew that we were headed to wonderland.
It was time for some fresh inspiration, and found it in Alice's Tea Cup, the new cookbook from the same-named New York City tea salon, written by owners Haley and Lauren Fox. The restaurant’s mantra is “tea turned on its ear” for good reason; they’ve put the traditions through some clever gymnastics to consistently yummy results: Lapsang Souchong Smoked Chicken Salad and Cucumber, Watercress Lemon Chive Butter Sandwiches; PBJ on Banana Bread; Red Queen’s Pink and White Chessboard Cookies; Peanut Butter Ganache Cake. There’s a chapter on their tea-based cocktails, mar-tea-nis, for the times you want to take an express trip down the rabbit hole, and others on how to brew the perfect cup, throwing tea parties and even tea-dyeing linens. A fun book inspired by a fun destination.
So with a bit of thought and a cup of PG Tips, this was the menu I came up with:
Sandwiches
Roast Beef, horseradish crème fraiche and watercress on pumpernickel
Irish cheddar and tomato chutney on whole grain
Herbed egg salad on Pullman white
Radish on buttered French bread with sea salt and parsley
Curried chicken salad with Marcona almonds on fennel raisin bread
Ham and cucumber with chive Dijon butter on rye
Cookies
Polenta cookies with lemon and golden raisins
Pain d'amande
Orange madeleines dipped in chocolate
Baked Treats
Currant buttermilk scones with butter or clotted cream and jam (strawberry & kumquat ginger)
Cranberry orange bread
Lemon squares
Zucchini cake with ginger and hazelnuts
Mimosas
Holiday punch
Tea and Coffee
Sounds pretty good, right? Delicious fun woulda been had by all, no? Notice the past conditional or whatever that tense I just used mighta been? Because the father-to-be’s boss (the bossfather?) co-opted the location of the party (to be fair, it was great to have it in his spacious home) and then the menu, suddenly we were having chili, spicy peel-and-eat-shrimp, guacamole, and clam dip. No comment.
What to make now on our end? Reluctantly, my friend and I had to come up with something that would work with superbowl food. What does chili need? Easy--cornbread, and we would make ours with some roasted poblanos for flavor. I’d recently suggested to my co-blogger Amy Zavatto when she was in search of untraditional baby shower ideas that she might consider these hand pies I’ve made a number of times from a recipe in one of my most used cookbooks: Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. Martha makes me want to break things most of the time, but she has put out some spectacularly great books, and this one is filled with recipes I use all the time. The pies, for instance, are filled with sausage, tomato, fennel and feta and taste like pizza but in a flakey pastry—need I say more? I’m glad Amy didn’t end up making them because they are fairly time consuming, and deep into my fourth batch, I was all “shoot me now and call it a mercy killing,” but I have to say they were the hit of the party (ha ha!), and went beautifully with the salad of baby winter greens and lemon caper dressing. A deep,rich flourless chocolate cake with orange whipped cream for dessert, and Bob’s your uncle. Or you’re baby if you are fantastically funny.
Do you ever sit down for afternoon tea? What are your favorite things to pair with it?
Although Carolyn Grifel has been cooking, baking, and devouring cookbooks since she was old enough to read, it took her four decades to finally devote herself to professional cooking. She received a degree from The French Culinary Institute in 2009, while working at Epicurious.com. Since graduating she’s been a chef for Sweet Deliverance, as well as the executive chef at the historic TA Ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming. She’s currently a private chef for a family of four in NYC, and the enchanted mother of a 10-year-old named Stella.
