Morning Tea

[Jaymes]

In a previous life, I entertained a great deal more than I do now, and here are some ideas that always went over well.

(Keep in mind that I have no idea as to what you can find locally, so I realize some of these ideas may not be practical. Also, I know that much of this you probably already know, but figured the best thing was just to toss it all out there, and you can take what might be helpful, and ignore what's not.)

Tea sandwiches: First, the bread. Keep in mind that you can use a variety of breads (white, wheat, rye, cinnamon and raisin, pumpernickel, mini-croissants, etc.), and that alone makes it look like you're offering up a large selection, even when you're not. A favorite trick in the US is to spread your sandwich filling on a flour tortilla (I like to grill them briefly first, just to get rid of that raw flour taste), then roll it up and slice into pinwheels. If you don't have flour tortillas, then take slices of white bread, flatten them, spread on your sandwich filling, roll them up and slice.

As for fillings: almost anything using cream cheese as a base can make a tasty tea sandwich but I had particularly good luck with cream cheese & sliced olives (with and without pimentos) (and with and without chopped nuts); minced candied ginger and rum; chopped eggs with minced green onions and a bit of mustard and capers or rinsed caviar; chopped dates and walnuts; sliced cucumbers of course, but don't overlook other vegetables. Very thinly-sliced or minced sweet red onions with cream cheese, a little mayo, and grated Parmesan is terrific. Truthfully, it's impossible to list all the potential combinations. If the mixture seems too thick, thin it with a little milk or cream or mayo. For seasonings, in addition to the obvious salt and pepper, try a favorite blend of seasoning salt, celery salt, bottled salad dressings (or mixes like Good Seasons "Italian"), various paprikas, favorite herbs like tarragon, oregano, basil, Tabasco or other hot sauces, lemon juice, rum or brandy or liqueurs (orange liqueur goes with many things; Khalua is good with cream cheese and chopped nuts), Worsty, soy sauce, Thai sweet chili paste, jarred pickled ginger, or any of the other thousands of Asian sauces, pickles, chutneys (I really adore Major Gray), pastes, whatever. Stand at the "Asian sauces and seasonings" section in your grocery store and just let your imagination run. As someone said upthread, a sprinkle of curry powder makes many things seem more interesting and tasty and I'm never without it. Think like a mad scientist in your laboratory and mix up small batches of whatever sounds appealing or whatever you have on hand. Peruse recipes for various dips, spreads, cheese balls, etc., that aren't specifically "fillings for tea sandwiches," but that would work perfectly.

Various salads: ham salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, Asian pork salad made with minced pork leftover from last night's dinner and some finely-chopped green onions and water chestnuts. Try various fruits, fresh or dried, mixed in - apples, grapes, raisins, craysins, chopped dried apricots, etc.

Meats: all sorts of potted meat spreads can be really good and an excellent way to use up leftovers of whatever was your main protein course the night before. If you want to do small sandwiches with sliced meats - ham, roast beef, turkey, whatever, it works much better to use those shaved "deli-slices." If you have a meat slicer that will slice it that thinly, that's best, but if you don't, buy it sliced that thinly. Nothing is worse than trying to take a bite of a ham or other meat sandwich, and getting a piece that you can't bite through, and you pull the whole slice of meat out and it flops onto your chin, dripping honey mustard sauce all over your tatas.

A wedge of tasty cheese always puts smiles on faces. Offer a selection of sliced cheeses, or put out a chunk of bleu, drizzled with honey and chopped walnuts. Serve one of those impressive brie or Camembert wheels baked in pastry.

In the American South, you're always going to get Pimento Cheese (most people just mix it up without a recipe, or buy it already made at their local market, and you can google for a plethora of recipes, but here's a start: Pimento Cheese ) either in small finger sandwiches, or spread into celery stalks, or scooped into bell pepper boats or something. But it's ubiquitous.

Also ubiquitous are Pecan Tassies for a sweet: Pecan Tassies. For many years, I seriously don't think I went to a single coffee or tea where there wasn't a pretty plate of Pecan Tassies set upon the table. The quintessential Southern ladies' gathering dessert.

Don't forget fresh fruit. It's always welcome. Cut up some apples or melons or pineapples or other seasonal fruit and put it into a Tupperware or other plastic container, toss with 7-Up or Ginger Ale or lemon juice or Fruit Fresh, or something to keep it from turning brown, chill and offer with a smooth dipping sauce made of yogurt or sour cream or Nutella or something. I don't know if you can get Bisquick over there, but good ol' American shortbread takes about 12 minutes to make with that recipe on the box, and it's not too sweet (similar to scones), and they're easy to slide off of your baking sheet, put into a ziplock bag, carry to the party, and then plate up with a ladle of sliced strawberries over, and a squirt or spritz or dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top.

Don't overlook "Pigs in a Blanket" - which for years, I admit I shied away from because it seemed sorta "low rent" or something, I don't know exactly, but the truth is that people love them. Again, most folks just make them up without a particular recipe, but in case you're not familiar with them, here's a recipe: Pigs in a Blanket

And many seafood options, too. Salmon spread is always good, but smoked oysters, sardines, etc., can produce great snacks as well. Here's a crab spread that is great on tea sandwiches, or with crackers, or spread into celery stalks:

Crab Spread

8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp

1 can crab meat, drained, carefully picked through, or you can use some chopped imitation crab meat

1 tsp horseradish

2 T mayo

chopped green onions to taste

Salt & pepper & paprika & hot sauce & garlic powder & lemon juice or other seasonings to taste.

Combine everything and put it in a tightly-sealed container. Chill until firm. You can either mold this onto a plate for serving, or pat it into a log, or whatever other shape you find attractive, and surround with crackers. You can roll it in chopped parsley or almonds or something if you'd like. Or, as I said, you can serve it in celery stalks, or stuffed into cherry tomatoes, or as a filling in tea sandwiches.

Here's another seafood-based spread:

Shrimp Butter

8 oz cream cheese

1 US stick of butter (1/4 pound of butter, not "light butter" or margarine or other butter substitute because it won't work)

Put the cream cheese and the stick of butter into a med-sized mixing bowl and allow to come to room temperature. Combine well. Add:

1 can cooked cocktail shrimp, drained

1/4 C mayonnaise

1 tsp lemon juice

Salt & pepper & white pepper & Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste

1 Tbl grated onion.

Blend thoroughly and chill until serving time, to let the flavors marry.

To serve, you can either allow it to come to room temperature and serve with spreaders and crackers or toast points or crostini, or spread chilled onto bread for tea sandwiches.

And here's a personal favorite Tea Sandwich recipe (from Afternoon Tea at the Empress Hotel): Empress Hotel Shredded Carrot & Ginger tea sandwiches

Mini-muffins, of course, and cookies. Oatmeal cookies always went over well. Not so sweet as some. And the various "breads" that are more like cakes: zucchini bread, banana nut bread, brown molasses and raisin bread, carrot bread, applesauce bread. Take some softened cream cheese for spreading over.

You can even serve soups. Cold, smooth soups seem to work best - the ones that you can basically sip without needing a spoon. Take it in a thermos, and then serve by pouring into those small clear plastic cocktail or wine glasses. Cold avocado soups are so wonderful, as are fruit soups - cherry, peach, etc. I had a great cold apple soup served just that way, from a thermos, while attending a "formal picnic" (I know that sounds like a contradiction, but that's what it was) while visiting an apple hacienda in Mexico.

A few general tips: if you're serving tea sandwiches with some sort of mayo-based filling, like chicken salad, tuna salad, ham salad, etc., spread a thin layer of butter on the bread first to seal it and keep it from becoming soggy. White bread, in particular, can be difficult to spread with a thick filling. It can be easier if you freeze the bread, and work with it while frozen.

You know, I envy you. I haven't done this sort of entertaining in years, but I always thought it was so much fun. You can basically just mix up anything that suits your whimsy, that flits across your fancy, and give it a try. You're not investing much time, money or energy in it and if something doesn't turn out great, you can toss it away without a second thought. It's not like you've ruined an entire $50 standing rib roast and now you have nothing to serve the 12 hungry dinner guests becoming restless in your living room.

So have fun, and report back!

Edited April 7, 2012 by Jaymes (log)

[Darienne]

Wonderful post, Jaymes. It was so much fun reading it.

Best part: I hadn't thought about pimento cream cheese in decades. As I recall, my Mother used to buy it premade. I loved it in sandwiches. With chopped walnuts on it.

[Snadra]

You know, I envy you. I haven't done this sort of entertaining in years, but I always thought it was so much fun. You can basically just mix up anything that suits your whimsy, that flits across your fancy, and give it a try. You're not investing much time, money or energy in it and if something doesn't turn out great, you can toss it away without a second thought. It's not like you've ruined an entire $50 standing rib roast and now you have nothing to serve the 12 hungry dinner guests becoming restless in your living room.

So have fun, and report back!

Thanks Jaymes for all the ideas! It's so true what you say about giving anything a try - that's pretty much my attitude. It gives me a chance to try out lots of new things without expanding my own waistline too much, and if the staff don't like it either Year 8 or the chickens can have a go.

[andiesenji]

Wonderful post, Jaymes. It was so much fun reading it.

Best part: I hadn't thought about pimento cream cheese in decades. As I recall, my Mother used to buy it premade. I loved it in sandwiches. With chopped walnuts on it.

I make my own pimento cheese but with the addition of a few spicy (preserved) peppers to perk it up a bit.

[rod rock]

I make my own pimento cheese but with the addition of a few spicy (preserved) peppers to perk it up a bit.

Me too, but without peppers.

Edited April 10, 2012 by heidih
Fix quote tags (log)

[Snadra]

So, my faculty has hosted two or three morning teas since I was last here. Yesterday was a bit of a disaster in some ways, because we are all in the middle of reports and a zillion other end-of-term things, so the last thing any of us wanted was a marathon cooking session. Still, we did well. There were home made brownies, little cheesecakes, party pies and spring rolls, oranges (because it's orange season now) and other things. I made shortbread, which was slightly overbaked, but still disappeared. I make the kind with rice flour after a friend introduced me to it. She pats the mixture into a pan, scores it, bakes it then cuts through agai Whe it's just out of the oven. No fancy shapes, etc, which makes it very quick! I also did homemade tzatiki (with fresh mint) and hummus with pits bread triangles and cut up veggies (my houseguest did the cutting while I whirled the dips). The tzatiki was a huge hit and I will do it again (as long as cucumbers don't go back to nearly $5 each). we had a lot of people out so it didn't all get eaten, but I put out the left overs at lunch and they disappeared.

At the one we hosted before some enterprising people brought out their crockpots, and put out some hot dishes. Unfortunately I was supervising a makeup exam so I completely missed out, but apparently they were really popular and totally cleaned out at the end of the 20 minutes.

When the weather warms up we have decided we will do an ice cream bar, with home made sauces and lots of different fun toppings.

[Darienne]

When the weather warms up we have decided we will do an ice cream bar, with home made sauces and lots of different fun toppings.

Surely you'll have homemade ice creams???

[Snadra]

When the weather warms up we have decided we will do an ice cream bar, with home made sauces and lots of different fun toppings.

Surely you'll have homemade ice creams???

Yeah....sure we will! I'd love to, but not to feed thirty people. Plus my ice cream maker died.... They will have blue ribbon and like it!

[Snadra]

So last day of school yesterday and the end of the academic year. At my faculty's last morning tea we did an ice cream bar, with purchased toppings, lollies, marshmallows and fruit (cherry season is in full swing!). It went down a treat, and my Year 7 class appreciated the leftovers in a cone in last period.

Some of my hits this year:

• cucumber sandwiches with herbed cream cheese
  
• lighter-than-air chocolate cake with vanilla whipped cream
  
• butterscotch squares with chocolate chunks, dried cherries and pecans
  
• mud hen bars
  
• mini brocolli and cheddar quiches
  
• cocoa brownies
  
• flourless peanut butter cookies
  
• tzatziki
  

Although the food I've brought in has always been appreciated, it is hard to keep up the momentum through the year, particularly this last term! As a few others predicted not everyone makes a full effort, but as a rule we've had some enjoyable teas.

I'm always on the lookout for more ideas, and we've recently had a stove and oven hooked up into the common room, so I'll be able to do a few more exciting things.

[Darienne]

Sounds delicious. But no photos? I wanted to see a photo of a Mud Hen Bar.

[SylviaLovegren]

Sounds delicious. But no photos? I wanted to see a photo of a Mud Hen Bar.

And I want to know what it is!

[Snadra]

Mud Hen Bars! I came across them on Pinterest: a cookie base with brown sugar meringue topping, and chocolate and marshmallow inbetween.

http://www.cookingwithk.net/2012/01/mud-hen-bars.html

This is the recipe I used, except I baked the base for 10 minutes before putting on the topping. They were quite a hit and completely devoured.

Of course the best thing for me at morning teas this year was the opportunity to eat lots of delicious sponge cakes, scones and pikelets with jam and cream.

[Snadra]

We are already 1/4 of the way through the new school year and there has been little to report on the morning tea front so far this year. My faculty hosted two teas in term one - cocoa brownies and blondes with chocolate were my contributions.

Yesterday we hosted our first for term 2 - there was a pumpkin soup, some party pies, mini quiches and individual cheesecakes amongst other things. My own contribution was a vaguely trashy warm bean dip with tortilla chips (a gluten free and vegetarian offering so it ticked two necessary boxes) and people went pretty mad for it. Given the cool weather, I'd like to try a few more warm dips next time - does anyone have any suggestions?

Here is the 'recipe' for the bean dip: combine two tins of refried beans with about two cups of shredded cheese, 1/2 cup of crushed tinned tomatoes a bit of garlic powder and some chiles (I used Vietnamese pickled ground chiles because I had them) and just enough water to make it a little loose. Microwave until cheese is melted then top with chopped tomato, avocado, green onion and fresh coriander mixed with a bit of salt and lime and sour cream. Stupidly simple and it took me less than 10 minutes to put together at home that morning, and just needed heating and topping at school.

[SylviaLovegren]

Mud Hen Bars! I came across them on Pinterest: a cookie base with brown sugar meringue topping, and chocolate and marshmallow inbetween.

http://www.cookingwithk.net/2012/01/mud-hen-bars.html

This is the recipe I used, except I baked the base for 10 minutes before putting on the topping. They were quite a hit and completely devoured.

Those look and sound delish. Will definitely give them a try.

Classic warm dips are artichoke dip and hot crab dip. A simple google search should you give tons of recipes for them. And there's always chili con queso -- which you sort of did with the bean/cheese/tomato already.

We had a tea luncheon the other day at church and I made little sandwiches -- white bread buttered with egg salad and brown bread buttered with tuna salad. They disappeared rapidly. We also had a cold zucchini soup (which I didn't make but was quite good) and I made an oldy recipe from the Joy of Cooking -- Brown Sugar Coconut Bars -- basically a brown sugar cookie base with eggs beaten with brown sugar, then coconut and chopped almonds stirred in, pour over the partly baked base and cook until brown. They come out nicely chewy and butterscotchy. They used to be popular when I was a kid and I see why -- easy and yummy.

[lesliec]

This topic hasn't seen much action lately, so let's see what we can do.

 

This morning I stepped out of the office and walked down the road to Paris:

 

 

OK, not quite.  But Wellington is fortunate to have Louis Sergeant, a real live French patissier.  One can order from an extensive range of teas (served in rather lovely china pots), one can browse the wine list, one can have the full high tea experience (I haven't, but it will happen).

 

For today I had Absolument:

Ganache sphere, caramel/coffee macaron-lke base.

 

And Wifey had a Religieuse J'adore:

Hazelnut praline in choux pastry, covered in chocolate and almonds.

 

Wonderful stuff.  If you can't manage April in Paris, April in Wellington isn't that bad.

[SylviaLovegren]

Yum!  

 

The spheres do look very silly though -- wonder how long that particular fashion will last?  Or does the sphere provide the ability to deliver something freestanding that ordinarily would have to be eaten with a spoon?

 

A rhubarb eclair sounds like my kind of heaven. 

[lesliec]

18 hours ago, SylviaLovegren said:

Yum!  

 

The spheres do look very silly though -- wonder how long that particular fashion will last?  Or does the sphere provide the ability to deliver something freestanding that ordinarily would have to be eaten with a spoon?

 

A rhubarb eclair sounds like my kind of heaven. 

 

We must disagree; spheres are enormous fun!

 

But that's not one of those spheres; it's a very nicely moulded bit of ganache covered with caramel.

[andiesenji]

For Morning?  Much too cloyingly sweet for me.  And I have never cared for "architectural" constructions in food.  But that's just me and probably dates back to an incident at a high end restaurant in Santa Monica that presented one of those "tower-like" desserts which was apparently unstable and the top broke off and fell into my lap before I even touched it.

Unfortunately, I was wearing an expensive silk pantsuit and we were supposed to be going on to the theater, which did not happen.

The restaurant did pay for cleaning my garment, I didn't even have to ask, the manager said, "have it cleaned and send me the bill."

 

But it left me with a deep suspicion of "tall" foods on flat plates.

 

[SylviaLovegren]

On 4/14/2016 at 3:19 AM, lesliec said:

 

We must disagree; spheres are enormous fun!

 

But that's not one of those spheres; it's a very nicely moulded bit of ganache covered with caramel.