Ham With Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

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Ham With Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

A little ground cloves in the honey butter does make this sandwich different from other ham sandwiches.  The hint of cloves and underlying honey will remind you of eating honey glazed, cloves studded Christmas ham.

Deceptively simple looking sandwich which will surprise you and
your guests with its layers of 'chrismassy' taste.

Ham And Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches           

Besides serving these for Afternoon Tea, these make a nice addition to a picnic or potluck. Reuse a pretty biscuit tin and line it with your best linen towel. Not only does it make a great presentation, the linen keeps the sandwiches from drying out. Your friends will be impressed.

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	-
Inactive:	-
Level:	Easy
Makes:	8 finger sandwiches
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, a day ahead, well covered in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

Ingredients required to whip up honey butter.
Shaved ham and bread will complete the tea sandwiches.

Honey Butter Ingredients

4 Tablespoons soften butter

2 teaspoons honey

1/8 teaspoon mustard powder OR 1/4 teaspoon mustard of your choice
I prefer mustard powder as I don't want to risk having a runny spread. 

pinch of ground cloves (refer to picture above)
Do you really need to buy this? Yes. It does set this sandwich apart from other Ham With Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches. Look under 'Tips' at the end of this post for ideas to use up leftover ground cloves. Be conservative with ground cloves, it is strong. A little goes a long way.

pinch of pepper

Everything else

7 oz (200 g) shaved honey baked ham or Virginia ham
I use shaved ham as it gives a gentler bite to the sandwiches compared to a thicker cut ham.

8 slices of white sandwich bread

Directions

Mix all Honey Butter Ingredients well and use up all the spread to butter 8 slices of bread.

Trim ham slices to fit 4 slices of bread. Use up all the ham. Cover with remaining 4 slices of bread.

No need to refrigerate sandwiches to firm up before slicing. There is a relatively thin spread of butter so slicing is easy.

You will have 8 sandwiches.

Enjoy them before someone else does!

Tips

 What to do with leftover ground cloves?

• Churros

Sprinkle over that yummy sweet Spanish snack, Churros. Read my post 'Crispy Doughnut - like Spanish Churros with a Dusting of Icing Sugar' for the easy recipe. You should be able to have them ready in 15 minutes.

• Chai Tea also called Masala Tea

Recipe for 1 cup: 1 and 1/2 cup of water, 1 Tablespoon Black Tea Leaves. I like Taj Mahal which you should be able to find at your indian grocer. 1/4 cup of milk, 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of condensed milk, 5 cardamon pods, a small pinch of ground cloves (refer to picture). Boil water. Crack your cardamon pods. I use the bottom of one of my heavy base pots. Does a great job. When water boils, work fast. Add tea leaves, milk and condensed milk. Once it comes back to a boil, add cracked cardamon pods and ground cloves. Turn off heat and remove from stove. Let it steep 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and serve. I like it with churros.

• Pineappleade

Many years ago I read of a novel way of using the peel of pineapples to produce a refreshing drink. I believe the recipe is Jamaican in origin. It is especially good served on hot days and after a heavy meal.

Recipe for the peel and core of 1 pineapple: a pinch of cloves, 1/2" (1.25cm) of cinnamon (I add cinnamon because I like a subtle taste of it, you can choose to omit), 1/2 cup of sugar, 1" (2.5cm) sliced ginger, peel and core of 1 pineapple. 4 cups (1 liter) water.

You must clean the peel thoroughly with a brush under running water. Top and tail pineapple. Remove most of the outer peel and trash that. Reserve whatever remaining pineapple peel, eyes and core that you would cut off and normally trash before you get to the edible part of the fruit. Refer to picture below. Add all the listed ingredients into the pot. Bring to the boil, cover and turn off the heat. Set aside for 24 hours. I leave mine in the refrigerator. Strain and serve. You can reheat it for a hot soothing pineapple beverage.

That's all you need to make pineappleade plus water of course.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                

I am almost there! I just have to post one last tea sandwich recipe and that of the Classic Victoria Sponge Cake and I will have completed posting all the recipes for the items for my English Afternoon Tea Spread! That is every single morsel you see on the 2-tier cake stand.

English Afternoon Tea. I wish someone would make the spread for me!

Top plate: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Checkerboard Cookies,
Sweet Milk Scones.
Bottom plate first layer: Egg and Cress, Roast Beef with Beetroot, Crisp Cucumbers.

Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with Beetroot, Salmon

with Dill Butter, Ham with Honey Butter.

Here's a list of the English Afternoon Tea recipes I have posted:

Recently posted:

Sweet Milk Scones

Checkerboard Cookies

Roast Beef with Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches

Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches

Current post:

Ham and Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

Soon to be posted:

Crisp Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Classic Victoria Sponge Cake

2 recipes to go!

Egg And Cress Tea Sandwiches

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Egg And Cress Tea Sandwiches

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

Creamy, wholesome and peppery fresh.  That's how I would describe this sandwich. I know of a few people who can eat a sizeable amount of these sandwiches whenever I make them.

EGG AND CRESS TEA SANDWICHES                               

Prep:	25 minutes
Cook:	5 minutes
Inactive:	5 + 20 minutes
Level:	Easy
Makes:	8 finger sandwiches
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, a day ahead, well covered in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoons diced onions

Dice them as tiny as you can manage. (Omit this if you must but it does give the sandwich an extra crunch and flavour.)

4 boiled eggs

1/2 cup lightly packed watercress/cress (the more tender leaves are found at the top ends) OR 1/2 cup of radish sprouts (use top 1"[2.5 cm] and snip into two 1/2" [1.25 cm] pieces) plus extra for those who like more of it

'Lightly packed' means you do not press down on the leaves as you pile it into the measuring cup. 

I have trouble getting hold of watercress/cress. I prefer to use radish sprouts. In my supermarket it comes in a conveniently sized (4 oz) 100 g punnet. I just snip off the top 1" into 2 and I am done. I save the bottom stems for salads. It has an almost similar peppery taste to watercress so I'd quite happily substitute that for watercress/cress.

Find out what to do with leftover radish sprouts at the bottom of this post under 'Tips'.

1 Tablespoons mayonnaise

1 Tablespoons light sour cream

When I use all mayonnaise to bind the ingredients, the sandwich becomes cloyingly heavy for my taste. I found that using half light sour cream and half mayonnaise lightens up the sandwich. What to do with the remaining tub of sour cream though? Read under 'Tips'. 

8 slices of sandwich bread

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt 

Butter for buttering

Directions

Sprinkle a good pinch of salt and fine grain sugar over diced onions. This helps the onions to lose some of its sharpness and flavours it at the same time. They will start to weep. Set aside for 5 minutes. Transfer onto kitchen paper towels. Gently pat and press on them until dry. Set aside.

Chop up the eggs into small dice or use an egg slicer to slice it length and breadth wise. I do not mash it up as it will get mushier once you start incorporating all the other ingredients. Set aside.

With a spoon, mix light sour cream, mayonnaise, pepper and salt. Gently mix in chopped eggs. Fold in onions and watercress/cress/radish sprouts. Set aside.

Lay out the 8 slices of bread and butter them thinly but well covered.

Distribute the egg mixture on 4 slices of buttered bread. If you like more greens like I do, this is the time to strewn some over the egg mixture. Cover with the remaining 4 slices of bread.

For easier slicing, cover sandwiches well in an airtight container and refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator, trim crusts and slice into 2 finger sandwiches. You will have 8 finger sandwiches.

Serve on a pretty tray.

Tips

What to do with the leftover greens?

• Use in a salad

• Use in pesto

This will require a separate post to properly run through a pesto recipe.  For those of you who are deft in the kitchen, you already know what to do, so just work with a ratio that you are happy with. It does make a nice change to ordinary pesto. I use just the leaves.

• Use in an omelette

It was a delicious dinner.

Recipe for 1 person: 2 eggs beaten with 1 Tablespoon water, pepper and salt to taste. 1/2 cup of leftover greens, 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, 1 Tablespoon butter. Warm up butter in a pan, add eggs, on medium-high heat cook until almost set without breaking up the omelette. Add greens and cheese towards the end just to heat through. Fold omelette in half, make sure egg is cooked and remove from pan. Sprinkle with pepper and serve. I like this with garlic rubbed crusty bread and a side of tomatoes drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

What to do with leftover light sour cream and radish sprouts?

• Make a Smoked Salmon Pasta with a Radish Sprouts, Light Sour Cream Sauce

That was my dinner. A very pale green plate of light
tasting, refreshingly tangy and peppery pasta.

Recipe for 2 persons: Sauce: 1/4 parmigiano reggiano, 3/4 cup light sour cream, 1/2 cup radish sprouts, 1 small garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1/8 teaspoon salt. Cooked pasta for 2 persons. 1 cup of pasta water (water you used to cook pasta in). Smoked salmon slices. Salmon caviar or the Japanese version, ikura.

Blend all sauce ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a pan and simmer for 8 minutes. Stir while you are at it so it does not burn.  Turn off heat. Have the 1 cup pasta water near you. Transfer cooked pasta into pan of sauce and toss to coat. If you think the sauce is too thick, loosen it up with pasta water. Divide pasta into 2 plates. Strewn over smoked salmon, a few more radish sprouts and I like to top mine with ikura instead of bottled salmon caviar. I like that it is less salty, delicate in flavour and a little sweet. The taste of the peppery and tangy radish sprouts as a sauce on pasta with the savoury salty smoked salmon and sweet ikura is wonderful.

Stuck with more light sour cream?

Please read the post under, Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches for more ideas.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                  

English Afternoon Tea beckons.

Top plate: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Checkerboard Cookies,
Sweet Milk Scones.
Bottom plate first layer: Egg and Cress, Roast Beef with Beetroot, Crisp Cucumbers.

Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with Beetroot,

Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter, Ham with Honey Butter.

Only 3 more recipes to go before you can go off to make the entire English Afternoon Tea spread pictured above!

Here's what I have posted:

Recently posted:

Sweet Milk Scones

Checkerboard Cookies

Roast Beef with Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches

Current post:

Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches

Soon to be posted:

Ham with Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

Crisp Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Classic Victoria Cake

There will be another reason to invite people over to your home soon. Impress them with an English Afternoon Tea spread.  You can always replace items that you fancy more than those I prepared on the 2-tier cake stand. For instance, buying macaroons will pretty up your serving plate and you have one less item to prepare.

I should be posting the recipe for Ham and Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches next. Check again soon for that!

Smoked Salmon With Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Smoked Salmon With Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

When you use the best quality smoked salmon you have access to, this popular tea sandwich becomes truly wonderful. Very simple to prepare using minimal ingredients, it is a favourite in our home.

SMOKED SALMON WITH DILL BUTTER SANDWICHES  

Prep:	20 minutes
Cook:	-
Inactive:	15 minutes + 20 minutes
Level:	Easy
Makes:	8 finger sandwiches
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, a day ahead, well covered in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

2 and 1/2 Tablespoons finely diced onions.

Dice them as tiny as you can manage.

1 Tablespoon fresh dill. After cutting them really fine, you should have a 1/2 Tablespoon.

Use 1/4 teaspoon dried dill if you have no access to fresh dill.

3/4 Tablespoon light sour cream

This lightens up the butter dill spread. However, if you do not want to buy a tub of light sour cream just for this, skip the light sour cream. Look under my 'Tips' section, below,  for ideas to finish the tub of sour cream.

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Left out on your kitchen counter to soften. I use unsalted butter as smoked salmon is salty.

150 g smoked salmon

Buy the best quality smoked salmon you have access to. They are usually less salty, more moist and delicate in flavour. I would stay away from cheaper priced ones. Then again, expensive does not necessary mean good. You need to buy a few brands and decide yourself. Compare sodium and sugar levels if that information is available on the package. Personally, I like Scottish Oak Smoked Salmon. There are only a few ingredients in this sandwich and you can pretty much taste the quality of the salmon you put in the sandwich. 

8 slices of white sandwich bread

Directions

Soak the diced onions for 15 minutes in an ice water bath to crisp up and to get rid of some of its sharpness. Drain into a sieve, run it under running water and rinse gently. Drain as much as you can and transfer onto kitchen paper towels. Gently pat and press on them until dry. Set aside.

With a spoon, incorporate the light sour cream with the butter. Fold in the dill and onions. Be gentle. Do not press on the onions. They will start to weep into the butter and lose its juicy crispness. You have made Dill Butter. Set aside.

Minimal ingredients needed to make Dill Butter

Lay out the 8 slices of bread. Use up all the Dill Butter to butter all 8 slices of bread.

Use up all the smoked salmon by layering them on 4 slices of buttered bread. Cover with the remaining 4 slices of bread.

You need to firm up the Dill Butter spread in the sandwiches for easier slicing, by covering and refrigerating them for 20 minutes.

Remove from the refrigerator, trim crusts off and slice each sandwich into 2 finger sandwiches. You will have 8 finger sandwiches. I ate 2 before I knew it.

A literal bed of Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Sandwiches

These sandwiches are best served as part of an English Afternoon Tea spread comprising a variety of finger sandwiches and my two must haves, the Classic Victoria Sponge Cake and Sweet Milk Scones.  The Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter sandwiches are of course good as a stand alone with just a cup of tea.

Take a look at the English Afternoon Tea spread I prepared. Every item there does deserve its spot on those plates. They are delicious and so visually appealing!

English Afternoon Tea. Don't restrict serving this spread to tea time. 
Any time is a great time!

Top plate: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Checkerboard Cookies,
Sweet Milk Scones.
Bottom plate first layer: Egg and Cress, Roast Beef with Beetroot, Crisp Cucumbers.

Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with Beetroot, Salmon

with Dill Butter, Ham with Honey Butter.

Tips

What to do with leftover sour cream? 

• Bake bread

The bread will bake out soft and moist. Use my recipe under Hamburger Buns, Savoury Buns, substituting milk with sour cream.

• Top sour cream on baked potatoes (Makes 2 potatoes)

4 Tablespoons sour cream, 2 Idaho Russet Potatoes, 1 Tablespoon chopped spring onions or dill, pepper and salt to taste. Bake washed potatoes with skins still on directly on oven rack in a 175C oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer can be easily inserted through the potatoes. Remove and make a slit on top of each potato. With oven gloves, squeeze each potato inwards so that potatoes pucker and open up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Dollop 2 Tablespoons of sour cream on each potato and sprinkle a little more salt and pepper to taste. Finish off with chopped spring onions or dill. 

• Serve as a sauce over cooked salmon (Serves 2)

6 Tablespoons sour cream, 2 fillet of cooked salmon, 1/2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh dill, 1 Tablespoon diced onions, 1 garlic minced, 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything and dollop over cooked salmon.

• Make some Roast Beef with Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

Click on the link to get the recipe for a real beefy and easy to eat tea sandwich.

• Make a Radish Sprouts Light Sour Cream Sauce for Smoked Salmon Pasta

Recipe is filed under the Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches post. Look under 'Tips' section. It comes with a pretty picture of the said pasta. It is an especially useful recipe if you intend to make these Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter and the Egg and Cress Sandwiches at the same time. Click the link.

What to do with dill?

• Use the leftover dill as a bed to serve sandwiches.

• In salads or in salad dressings.

• Grow it! 

Dill makes an interesting flora arrangement.
Actually, it is just shoving the dill into a
vase, no arrangement required.

Put them in a vase of water. For a week, it can serve as a rather pretty flora arrangement. It will soon start bearing roots. Give it a few more days for the roots to develop further. Then transplant them directly into your garden soil or into flower pots. It needs sun and grows easily. Remember to change water in the vase every 2 days.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                               

I wish I could spit up posts faster than I can. There are only so many hours in a day and too much to do already. At the back of my head is the nagging countdown that has been going on with some urgency, "Four recipes posted, four more to go." So let's do a little recap.

I am posting a series on an English Afternoon Tea spread. It was propelled by my greed for Cornish Clotted Cream.  Read my previous post titled Devil Curry, Curry Debal, under the last section 'What's Coming Up Next' and my posts thereafter to understand what I am going on about.

What you see displayed on the 2-tier cake stand (pictured above) are the recipes you would expect to see me post.

Recently posted:

Sweet Milk Scones

Checkerboard Cookies

Roast Beef with Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

Current post:

Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches

Soon to be posted:

Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches

Ham with Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

Crisp Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Classic Victoria Cake

I have eggs and ham in the refrigerator. Then again, I have cucumbers. I might just post the recipes for all three tea sandwiches at the same time. Let me find time.

Roast Beef With Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Roast Beef Tea Sandwiches With A Sliver Of Beetroot.

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

Buttery beef tenderloin, a sliver of sweet beetroot, dollops of a light sour cream and mayonnaise mixture in between slices of white bread. That's a rather nice Afternoon Tea Sandwich.

The idea for this sandwich came from an afternoon spent in The English Tea Room at London's Brown's Hotel. It was a roast beef and beetroot sandwich. I did not think the pairing worked. It was visually pretty but it was just another beef sandwich. 

My ideal roast beef tea sandwich. Beefy tasting,
 tender and moist.

That sandwich needed a touch of moisture, something to lighten it up and the beef needed more flavour. I politely declined a second helping. I was saving tummy space for more Cornish Clotted Cream with Sweet Milk Scones anyway.  Now, that's my all time favourite English Afternoon Tea item. Read more about it in my earlier post. I digress.

English Afternoon Tea. I could have this all over again!

Top plate: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Checkerboard Cookies,
Sweet Milk Scones.
Bottom plate first layer: Egg and Cress, Roast Beef with
Beetroot, Crisp Cucumbers.
Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with Beetroot, Smoked Salmon
with Dill Butter, Ham with Honey Butter

Back home, images of that sandwich would not leave my head. I had to make the sandwich work I thought. It was just too interesting a food combination to let it pass. So after roasting four rolls of beef tenderloin, yes four, I have my perfect roast to make those sandwiches. 

We need to balance the flavours of the roast beef and the beetroot. Beetroot is hearty and earthy.  To bring out its underlying sweet flavour, you need to roast the whole beetroot in its skin and use only one slice per sandwich. Anymore and it will overpower the beef. 

The beef had to be melt in the mouth tender so you can bite through the sandwich delicately with each bite. This is English Afternoon Tea after all, one needs to or at least try to be elegant. You do not want to be caught trying to chew off sinewy beef in mid-sentence. Then again, one should not be talking while eating. 

Slices of buttery madness!

So the beef had to be a tenderloin which when cooked properly and that means only cooking it to medium rare, promises slice after slice of buttery tender madness. The beef must be seasoned well not once but twice to ensure flavour. Salting and peppering alone is quite inadequate. 

These two individually strong flavoured ingredients needed something moist to bind the flavours together as well as to lighten it up. If you use only mayonnaise, it would be too heavy. Using the right proportion of light sour cream and mayonnaise was the answer. The sandwich does not need anything else. The beef is the star. I kept it simple. 

If you are not into sandwiches, just roast the beef tenderloin and eat it as it is. No sauce required as it is so moist and tasty it really needs no further embellishments.

I hope you try this recipe. It is rather good. 

ROAST BEEF WITH ROASTED BEETROOT TEA SANDWICH     

Prep:	15 minutes for beef and beetroot + 30 minutes to assemble sandwiches
Cook:	1 hour to roast beetroot. 4 minutes to sear beef plus 25 minutes (+/- 5 minutes) to roast: about 5 minutes per 3 and 1/2 oz (100 g) of beef @ 250F (125C).
Inactive:	None
Level:	Intermediate
Makes:	12 finger sandwiches
Oven Temperature:	For the beetroot: 400F (200C) For the beef: 250F (125C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes. Roast 2 similar size rolls of tenderloin and not one big roll. Cooking time would be somewhat the same give or take 5 to 10 minutes.
Make ahead?	Beef and beetroot can be roasted and refrigerated one day ahead.  I actually prefer to roast both a day ahead. The beef will have rested well and upon slicing, look like something bought from a top end delicatessen but only much better. Moreover, it means it leaves me time to casually assemble the sandwiches and look like a pretty cool unfrazzled hostess. I wish! Refrigerated sandwiches do keep well through the next day and stays soggy free.

Ingredients

7 oz (200 g) whole beetroot

Wash well and leave skin on.

1 and 1/4 lb (550 g) beef tenderloin

Try to get a cut of beef that is more or less evenly sized throughout its length (ask for the centre cut), do not get the end cuts as those tend to taper off. If you can, have your butcher tie the roll of beef tenderloin.

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp oil

1 and 1/2 tsp of Soy Sauce/Tamari/Bragg

Tenderloin beef while very tender is milder in flavour compared to other cuts of beef. Rubbing Soy Sauce/Tamari/Bragg gives it the extra depth of flavour that it needs. Do not skip.

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 Tablespoon oil

For searing beef if you are not using a nonstick/cast iron pan

1 Tablespoon oil

If you are using a roasting/baking tray

12 slices of white sandwich bread

Butter 

For buttering bread slices

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise 

6 Tablespoons light sour cream


Directions

The beetroot

Two hours before your are ready to roast the beef, heat up the oven to 400F (200C) oven rack adjusted to middle position. Wrap the beetroot in aluminium foil. It should look like a UFO.  Hot air circulates within the package and helps speed up cooking. That is what I am told anyway.

Bake in heated oven for 1 hour. Beetroot is cooked when you can easily insert a skewer through it. Unwrap and when it is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin which can be pretty fun. Slice the beetroot as thinly as you can manage. Cover and set aside.

The beef

Bring your beef to room temperature and turn on the oven to 250F (125C), oven rack adjusted to middle position.

If you have an oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan this is the time to use it. If you do not have one, you need a skillet/frying pan that is preferably nonstick as well as a roasting tray or a baking tray that will fit the beef tenderloin. Place your roasting/baking tray in the cold oven to heat up at the same time as your oven heats up.

If you were unable to have the butcher tie up the beef, it is easy to do it yourself if you have butcher's twine. The simplest way is to tie a dead knot at 1"(2.5cm) intervals.

The reason for tying the beef is to get your beef into a somewhat uniform size for even cooking, especially if you were unable to get a centre cut. If you have no butcher's twine, you should be fine without tying the meat. With such a small roll of beef, the beef should be fairly even in size throughout anyway.

Mix the soy sauce, mustard and oil. Set aside.

Just before your are ready to cook, salt and pepper the beef.

Heat up your skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan until it is very hot. If your are not using a nonstick pan, grease the pan with 1 Tablespoon of oil.

In that very hot pan, sear each side of beef for no longer than 60 seconds. There are 4 sides so that means no longer than a total of 4 minutes. I would usually take only 45 seconds to sear the last side as the beef would have sat a little longer (hence have more cook time) in the hot pan when you transfer it to the work surface to slather on the soy sauce, mustard and oil mixture. Remember, you do not want to sear the meat any further then required. Otherwise, you might not achieve the nice pink centre on the tenderloin.

Remove skillet/grill/cast iron/frying pan from stove and onto work surface.

Use a spoon to slather soy sauce, mustard and oil mixture all over beef, bottom side included. Transfer the oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan into the oven. If you are not using an oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan, before you transfer the meat onto the preheated roasting/baking tray, grease the tray with 1 Tablespoon of oil.

For a meat this size, you want to roast it for about 25 minutes (+/- 5 minutes) to medium rare. It works out to be about 5 minutes per 3 and 1/2 oz (100 g) @  250F (125C). It will continue to cook when you take it out from the oven and tent it under aluminium foil.

After 20 minutes, use a meat thermometer to check that the meat registers an internal temperature of 135F (55C - 60C) at its thickest part. If you do not have a thermometer, carefully prod the meat at its thickest part with your index finger.  It should feel the same way as when you prod the fleshiest part of your open palm. For me that would be the flesh that sits 3" (8cm) down from my pinkie finger. This is my personal finger test for beef cooked to medium rare. Read the 'Tip' section below to find out how you can accurately get meat cooked to the level of 'doneness' that you like each and every time.

Always transfer the beef onto a plate, when it is done cooking, tent loosely with aluminium foil and leave it alone for at least 20 minutes before slicing.  Do not leave it on the roasting/baking tray or skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan or it will continue to cook.

You do not want the beef tenderloin cooked any further or worse still, until 'well done'. It is a very lean cut of meat and your meat will be very dry at 'well done' stage and quite tasteless as well. Better to cook it medium rare where you can still salvage the meat with brief cooking if you find it too rare.

When the roast has rested its 20 minutes, I usually leave it for 30 minutes, slice into thin slices. This roll of tenderloin was left overnight in the refrigerator. Try a slice and tell me you were able to stop at one slice. It is so buttery smooth, it will just slide down your throat.

It looks and taste much better than any roast beef bought from a delicatessen.

Assembling

Mix the light sour cream with the mayonnaise. Set aside this cream mixture and have a teaspoon ready.

Lightly butter all the bread. The butter acts like a protective barrier to prevent the bread from becoming soggy after you add the sandwich ingredients.

To assemble sandwich, start with one layer of beef and top with one round slice of beetroot. With the teaspoon, top that off by lightly dolloping 1 to 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of the cream mixture. Do not add too much cream. The sandwich does not need it and you will have soggy sandwiches.

With a serrated bread knife and with a sawing motion, trim off the crusts and slice sandwich into two rectangles. Do the same with the rest of the bread slices.

Invite people over and serve as part of an English Afternoon Tea spread or just brew yourself some tea and enjoy it with just that cuppa.

Tips

• The best advice I can give you to get meat done the way you like is to purchase a meat thermometer.  Think of it this way. Beef is expensive. Beef tenderloin is one of the more expensive cuts of beef. It would be a pure waste of effort and money to have beef not done to your liking and worse, overcooked and inedible because you lacked a thermometer which is cheap compared to the price you paid for the meat. Get a thermometer.

• Invest in an oven-proof thermometer. You need only insert the thermometer once into the thickest part of the meat at the beginning of cooking. 'Oven-proof' means you can leave it in the meat throughout the cooking process and check on how the meat is fairing whenever necessary. You can not leave an instant-read thermometer in the oven. As its name suggest, it reads the meat temperature for an instant and then you have to remove it. I do not recommend instant-read thermometers as that repeated skewering into the meat draws out a lot of meat juices and dries up the meat. Go for an oven-proof thermometer.

• If you have any leftover beef, which I doubt you will have, they are great for salads or to top on ramen but I really just eat them straight off the plate, sometimes with a little Dijon mustard.

• You will have left over beetroot slices. We roasted such a small beetroot, you will only have enough to make a salad. This is the salad I made. That is my '20-minute Pickled Onions' strewn on top. That recipe can be found under the post, Mango Salad with Salmon and Scallops Ceviche. There are also capers, lemon zest, gorgonzola, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice over it. Very good with crusty bread.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                  

It has to be the recipe for Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches!

This is part of a series I am posting on an English Afternoon Tea spread. The selection you see on the 2-tier cake stand at the top of this post would be the recipes I will be posting. Recipes for Sweet Milk Scones and Checkerboard Cookies have recently been posted. Take a look at those. The Checkerboard Cookies can be rather fun to put together.