Tea Parties Vol. 4: The Prosecco Party

It had been nearly 2 years since my last tea party and I sorely needed to change that. For this party I went for an English high tea structure to the meal but with some fancy twists. Cucumber sandwiches, but Korean inspired. Chickpea salad instead of chicken or egg (bonus: vegetarians can eat it). Smoked salmon with lots of fresh vegetables. Plain scones, something of a rarity in America. Tiny desserts that taste as great as they look.

This was my first time having the party on Saturday instead of Sunday, and I normally work weekdays, so that meant preparing most of the food Friday evening after a full day of work plus Saturday morning. I am hashtag blessed to have awesome friends who came to help at both times. I significantly underestimated the amount of work this would involve, and I could not have gotten all this food made in time alone. Previously I asked people to arrive at noon but I quickly discovered I'm never actually ready to start then. Starting the party an hour later made a LOT of difference.

The schedule stars finally aligned for my sister to make it to one of these parties, and she let me dress her up! I have the same dress in two different colors and I put together matching outfits for us that didn't require a ton of hair/makeup preparation. It made me extra happy and I think she had fun.

We had 9 people this time, our largest group ever. Despite my best intentions, no actual tea was served (!) We started with sparkling wine and just never switched. Therefore, it was a prosecco party and not a tea party. We went through wayyy more than I thought we would but all the people I asked to bring sparkling wine did, and even some that I didn't ask! ha.

My husband threw on a city pop livestream neither of us had heard before, and it ended up being an incredible gem! It's good background music for frantic cooking working and we decided to just keep it on for the party too. Have a listen if you're into jazz, funk, disco, pop, and reggae from the 70s and 80s! He also took some fun photos to remember the afternoon.

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RECIPES

• SAVORIES
• Focaccia Sandwiches for a Crowd (Smitten Kitchen) -- I used this as the bread for all the sandwiches because I really, really wanted to try it ever since I found it several months ago. It was pretty easy to make and tasted quite good too! I did the quickest rising option, and it took a little more than 25 minutes to bake in my oven. I'd definitely consider making it again if I need to make a large amount of sandwiches where I also want to make my own bread and have enough advance time to make it.
• Korean Style Cucumber Sandwiches with Gochujang Mayo (Gather and Dine) -- we made a chicken version and vegetarian version with dry fried tofu (marinated after dry frying), and I think I like the tofu one a little better since it stayed together better and was a little more salty. The gochujang mayo was really tasty but some found it a little too spicy, so maybe I will dial it back next time. They fall apart easily so maybe keeping the chicken in larger pieces would work better if I made them again.
• Smoked Salmon Sandwiches -- Sarah made these completely differently from how I would have but they did taste pretty good. She blended the cream cheese and salmon and dill with some lemon juice, spread it on a big piece of the focaccia, cut it into squares and then we garnished each with a slice of radish and cucumber.
• Curried Chickpea Salad (She Likes Food) -- Paula made this so I don't have any notes other than that I might have chopped the celery and apple a little smaller than she did, but it significantly exceeded my expectations and I am looking forward to making it again! It's a good balance of curry flavor, creaminess, and sweetness, and it stays together nicely if you mash some of the beans really thoroughly but keep others in large pieces. A keeper for sure.
• Smoky Eggy Deviled Eggs -- for something without bread. This is my personal recipe, so of course I love it. Andrea and Paula prepared the eggs and filling the night before. Caroline stuffed the eggs in the morning and arranged them beautifully with some butter lettuce and sweet peppers from my work colleague's farm share.
• SCONES
• English Style Scones -- Sarah made these the morning of the tea party while I was asleep. She was not impressed with the recipe, and she makes a lot of scones, but I personally liked them. I served them with clotted cream (the Whole Foods in my city sells it), homemade strawberry freezer jam (pick yourself some strawberries and follow the recipe in the Sure-Jell Reduced Sugar Pectin box), and homemade lemon curd (from a frozen batch I made a couple of years ago so I don't remember which recipe I used). Oddly I feel like they tasted better (less bitter) the next day. I'd love to try making them myself.
• SWEETS
• Persian Love Cake (Broma Bakery) -- HOLY CRAP this was delicious. I have a separate entry on it since I did 95% of the preparation and have a lot of (happy) thoughts on it. I absolutely want to make this again.
• Chocolate Ganache Mini Tarts (Bon Appetit) -- I decorated them with edible gold glitter and fresh raspberries instead of the halvah and sesame salt. I will look for a different ganache recipe next time. My ganache did not fully set even after being refrigerated for many hours. The tart shells rolled out and baked nicely but tasted kind of bitter, though they did taste better the next day. I think if they were a little sweeter they'd have been perfect. It made 21 tart shells.
• Lavender Shortbread Sandwich Cookies -- a favorite of mine but with a new challenge: we rolled out the dough and cut them into large (2.5-3 inch) hearts, and were sparing with the filling so they wouldn't slide apart. It made about 4.5 dozen (54) hearts, enough for 27 sandwiches, with extra filling left over. I put about 1 cup more powdered sugar in the filling than the recipe called for and I think between that and the small amount of filling inside the cookies it actually set somewhat after being chilled in the refrigerator. I like these better as small, thick cookies with more filling. If I do make them heart shaped again, I will get a smaller cutter. I also think a firmer filling is the way to go and will continue to work on adjusting the recipe so it is firm but still has enough bright, fresh lemon flavor.

Other things we served that were not made from scratch:

• Sparkling wine (mostly prosecco, some rose)

THE TEA PARTIES

• Vol. 3: An End of Summer Feast
• Vol. 2: Spring Up Speed Up
• Vol. 1: A Birthday Party, and Being Unapologetically Yourself

Italian Manhattan

Look at this beautiful drink from my friends' wedding. It is bourbon, amaretto, and cherry juice. The glass is apparently supposed to have a bunch of ice in it too but we forgot that part. Oops. That pick with a gummy heart on it is an adorable touch! The bride's father claimed he made up this recipe himself, but knowing him, I'm taking that with a truckload sized grain of salt.

I loved this drink, and ever since the wedding two years ago I have been wanting to try to make it at home. We had scheduled a dinner date with these friends just after their anniversary, and I thought that would be the perfect excuse to try. They may live on the other side of the world and it was evening here and morning there, but through the wonders of modern technology, we cooked dinner and they cooked brunch, made these to drink after the meal, and we chatted for a good long time. We even set up our computer on the other side of the table so it was almost like they were actually there.

It still needs a bit of tweaking to get it to look and taste as good as the one in the photo, but I think we're off to a great start with the below.

Notes:

• I tried the liquid that maraschino cherries are packed in and 100% pure cherry juice, and neither was really the right flavor or sweet enough. (I only tried maraschino cherry liquid in the original ratios and not 1/1/1.) I will try cherry juice cocktail the next time.
• The original drink calls for different ingredient ratios, but I found it most pleasant with a 1/1/1 ratio, especially with 100% cherry juice.
• A friend suggested higher quality amaretto would make a difference (I went for a middle of the road brand).

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RECIPE:

Italian Manhattan
adapted from The Intoxicologist
Serves 1

1 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey
1 1/2 oz amaretto liqueur
1 1/2 oz cherry juice cocktail
Maraschino cherry (optional)

Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a maraschino cherry if desired. Serve immediately.

Honey-Lavender Scones

I was inspired to make these by a gathering I recently went to for my alternative fashion club. It was a small afternoon tea at a pink Victorian house, and the host had made scones with honey and lavender. I inadvertently bought some of the ingredients several days later and then when I went looking for recipes I realized I had everything I needed to make them. I settled on this one from Better Homes and Gardens, mainly because it was the only one I saw with reviews, and the ones that are not on their site are the same recipe anyway.

Notes:

• These are less sweet than many American style scones (there are only 2 tablespoons of honey in the entire batch) but this is OK because they are meant to be eaten with sweetened whipped cream and/or clotted cream and/or jam. Lemon curd is also really tasty on these.
• The dough was still quite sticky even after stirring everything together and kneading. I used a buttered knife to cut them, and a metal spatula to scrape them off the kneading surface and transfer them to a cookie sheet and this worked well.
• Despite having an entire tablespoon of dried lavender in them, the lavender flavor and scent is pretty subtle. If you like lavender a lot you could probably add more.
• My scones ended up measuring about 3x2 inches after baking.
• I froze some of these after baking them to eat later, and I thought the lavender flavor tasted stronger after freezing, which was interesting.

Verdict: Pretty good but could be improved a little. I want to make them slightly sweeter to match the ones I had, maybe with one more tablespoon of honey or sugar or if I had coarse sugar I would have sprinkled it on top of them after brushing with the extra cream (I believe the ones at the afternoon tea had crunchy sugar on top that had melted a bit). I would love to try these again with some tweaks.

RECIPE: Lavender-Honey Scones

Beef Marinade

My family has made this for holidays and special occasions for as long as I can remember. Filet mignon is not really something that needs this kind of preparation to taste good, but it definitely tastes good this way to me.

My dad told me about the reaction this got the first time my grandma made it. I'm not sure where my grandma got the recipe. It was for some sort of family party. He helped her prepare a large amount of venison (something like 10 pounds) and mix the marinade, and then ended up needing to go somewhere for a few hours. He came back to find that it was all gone. All of the meat had been cooked and eaten before my dad could have some. Maybe this is why he always makes so much of it, so that he and we will always have as much as we care to eat.

Part of me thinks he'd be upset with me for sharing it here because he's told me not to share it before (I don't know how serious he was) but honestly, what is the point of secret recipes? Who are we keeping it a secret from and why? I sort of get why they were a thing before the internet but not anymore. It's not like we run a restaurant where we stand to gain financially from a proprietary recipe, or have friends that only like us for our delicious food that would stop coming to see us if they could make it themselves. Personally, I love sharing good recipes because then more people can enjoy the delicious things we make.

Notes:

• I realize some things could probably be executed better, but this is how you get it to taste like family nostalgia. If you like doing things a little differently, absolutely go ahead and improve upon it.
• This would probably work well with other cuts of beef and other kinds of meat. My grandma first made this with venison.
• Grilling is by far the best way to cook this. If you can't grill it, broil it.

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RECIPE:

Beef Marinade

from my grandma

Serves 4-6

1 lb beef tenderloin

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp molasses

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 large onion, chopped

Cut beef tenderloin into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. Stir remaining ingredients together in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add beef and marinate for 6-18 hours. Grill over medium-high heat for about 1-2 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Mexican Spice Blend

I first came upon this while trying to recreate food from Chipotle. I'm not normally into fast food type restaurants but theirs has vegetables and beans and stuff that tastes like actual food. However, I now live kind of far away from one and don't always want to make the trip there.

I usually put this on chicken for taco seasoning/Mexican style meals but have also used it on pork, ground beef, ground turkey, and even sauteed summer squash for vegetarians/vegans. I bet it would taste good on sweet potatoes too.

Notes:

• I have a huge stash of Korean red pepper flakes and that's usually what I use here because the standard red pepper flakes in the US are too spicy for me in this large an amount.
• I have used both chili powder that is meant for use in the soup (such as Mexene) and one that is just a straight roasted and ground pepper like ancho chile powder. Both are good.
• Sometimes I use kosher salt to make it a little less salty. You could also omit the salt.
• If using as a dry rub, the flavors are stronger if you let it stand for a couple of hours after rubbing it on the food of choice.

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RECIPE:

Mexican Spice Blend
Makes about 1/3 cup (40 g)

1 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp mild chili flakes
2 tsp Mexican oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Stir together all ingredients in a bowl or shake together in a glass jar with a lid.

Salted Chocolate Halvah (Sesame Fudge)

My first experience with halvah was several years ago when I bought Joyva chocolate covered halvah from the international food aisle on a whim. I knew that some Asian countries use sesame in desserts, but I had not heard of this before. It is a common dessert item in the Middle East and is also enjoyed by Jewish people.

I loved it. It reminds me a little of Butterfinger candy bars, but not quite as sickly sweet and also easier to bite into. Why are Butterfinger candy bars so hard?

Anyway. Fast forward to last week when I knew I was going to an afternoon tea potluck, and the hosts had dairy and gluten allergies. I had been wanting to try to make halvah for the last couple of months and also wanted to bring something both of the hosts could actually eat, and this fit the bill!

Notes:

• If you use tahini from a jar, make sure you stir it very well so there are no lumps. Very small ones will melt when you mix in the hot sugar syrup but larger ones will stay in pockets and mess up the texture.
• I made this vegan by using dairy free chocolate.
• Upon researching recipes for halvah I noticed that different ones tell you different final temperatures for the sugar syrup, ranging from 240 (soft ball) to 248 (hard ball). Some said you want the texture to be crumbly, others said it should be chewy like caramel. I don't know if the differing texture is a regional difference based on what country it's made in, personal preference of the person writing the recipe, or not making it correctly.
• It is important that the sugar syrup does not crystallize or it will be especially crumbly and may not form a solid mass. I got most of it mixed in just fine but then made the mistake of scraping the sides of the pan and I think that set off the crystallization. This is also probably why the finished brick of candy was more fragile than in the original recipe's video and broke into two large pieces when I transferred it to the rack to put chocolate on it. It did still taste good, though, which is ultimately my most important metric.
• I did not use the vegetable oil spray and was fine. I used a nonstick coated pan and only the parchment paper, and had no trouble releasing it from the pan.

Verdict: I love how it tastes and despite it being something people in my area probably haven't heard of, the people that tried it at the potluck seemed to like it. I'd definitely like to try making it again and avoid the pitfalls that made the execution of this batch less than stellar. I also need a new candy thermometer that A) fits under my microwave range hood thing and B) goes down low enough in the pan to sit in the candy syrup.

RECIPE: Salted Chocolate Halva (it includes a really helpful video!)

Risotto Milanese

I first learned about risotto as an adult. The closest thing I had to it as a child, which I LOVED, was what my mom called "souped-up Minute Rice" which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like -- Minute Rice (the instant microwaveable parcooked rice) cooked in canned soup, usually cream of chicken (my favorite) or cream of mushroom (ew). (Side note: I made this as an adult and it sadly did not live up to the childhood memories. I'm going to pretend I didn't and choose to just remember that it was delicious.)

My first experience with actual risotto was when my boyfriend (now husband) made it for me in college. He would buy the packaged just-add-water-and-butter kind since it was something he could cook quickly and easily in his apartment. He mixed in sausage at the end. Once he met me and started having me over for meals, I cooked vegetables to mix in too -- while he didn't go to the effort to buy and cook vegetables for himself, he would gladly eat them if they were there, which is more than a lot of Midwestern college boys would do. We watched Hell's Kitchen because that was a thing at the time, and I laughed when I saw that it was served in their restaurant. Would macaroni and cheese be served in Hell's Kitchen? Probably not. So is risotto not fancy or really fancy?

Then one of my college roommates clued me into the fact that you could make it from scratch. She gave me some that she had cooked. Mind blown. This also opened me up to the world of alcohol as a food flavoring (AMAZING). While the packaged version doesn't taste bad, the process of cooking it from scratch is not really any harder than the packet version (though you need to have more ingredients on hand), and it tastes much better.

Risotto is what you make of it. You can make it fancy, or not. You can serve it all by itself as a side, or mix in meat and/or vegetables for a one-pot meal.

Notes:

• Using Arborio rice is important. It will not turn out the same if you use a different type of rice.
• If serving it as a side, the package I got the recipe from says it goes well with meats in a red sauce or wine sauce such as osso buco.
• The saffron is what makes it authentic Milan-style risotto. You can leave it out if that's not what you're going for, especially if you're mixing other stuff into it.
• If possible, use cheese that is not already grated; the cellulose on pre-grated cheese that keeps it from clumping will interfere with the creamy texture you want.
• Suggestions for add-ins: cooked meats/seafood (shredded chicken, browned link sausage, chopped ham, bacon crumbles, cooked shrimp), vegetables (cooked/prepared: broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, peas, asparagus, zucchini, cubed winter squash, chopped sun-dried tomatoes; fresh: chopped tomato, spinach leaves), fresh herbs (parsley, basil, marjoram). If you cook frozen vegetables, make sure they are well drained before adding them to the risotto. The version pictured above has chopped ham and peas mixed in.
• This can be made vegetarian by using a mild flavored vegetable based broth instead of chicken broth.
• You might like to vary the type of broth based on what kind of add-ins you are using (for example, a seafood broth if adding shrimp).
• You may not need extra salt. I find that Parmesan cheese and especially salty add-ins like sausage or ham lend enough salt to the dish on their own. If you plan to add salt, I recommend waiting until after the cheese is added, then tasting to see if it needs more salt. 

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RECIPE:

Risotto Milanese

adapted from a recipe I found on a box of arborio rice

Serves 2-4

2 cups chicken, seafood, or vegetable broth

Water, if needed

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp onion, finely chopped

1 cup uncooked arborio rice

1/3 cup dry white wine'

A pinch of toasted saffron

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated

Salt to taste (optional)

Place broth in a medium sized saucepan and keep heated on low on the stove. Keep a small cup of room temperature water next to the stove in case it is needed. In another larger saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When the butter foams, add onion and cook for several minutes, until it is translucent. Add rice and stir for about 30 seconds, until everything is completely coated in the butter. Add the wine and saffron to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the wine is completely absorbed, about 3-5 minutes. Pour in just enough broth from the smaller pan to cover the rice and cook until the broth is absorbed, stirring often. Repeat with the rest of the broth until the rice is cooked through but still firm to the bite, about 20 minutes. If you run out of broth and the rice is still not ready, continue the above process with more broth or water until it has reached the desired  texture. When the rice has reached the proper texture, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese until it has melted slightly. Taste and add salt if you think it needs it. At this point, if using additional ingredients, stir them in until mostly evenly incorporated. Serve immediately with additional Parmesan cheese.