Showing posts with label chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese. Show all posts

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Ham With Honey 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:
Link to my newest and old recipes, click:


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!


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:


Ham and Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches

Soon to be posted:

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Dim Sum Mango Pudding


Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've edited this post there, reformatted it so that it is much easier to read & follow my recipe. This link will take your directly to the recipe:
Dim Sum Mango Pudding
Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

Have you been looking for a mango dessert that actually taste like mangos? This is it! Best of all, it is easy to churn out and you need only 5 ingredients.
As you might have read in my earlier post, my home is bursting at the seams with mangos. For the first time in seven years, our mango tree is bearing lush succulent fruit with a vengeance. Take a look at the photo of our mango tree that I posted in my previous post. It is really quite a pretty tree, dressed in a slinky sheen of green dragon scales (a creeping fern) up and around its otherwise chocolate coloured trunk.

So our family has been going through a prodigious amount of mangos in the form of chilled mango salads, mango salsas, thai mango salad, mango lassi, mango panna cotta and I am going to try a mango chiffon cake in the next few days.

This Dim Sum Mango Pudding is really by far my favourite way to eat mangos.  You might see it on the menus of Chinese restaurants and more often at Chinese restaurants serving dim sum.
They taste as good as it looks. Sweet but not cloyingly so with a good bite. In case you are wondering, they are from the same tree. The orange coloured one is riper whilst the yellow one is still sweet but with a slight hint of sharpness and a firmer bite. Yum.
DIM SUM MANGO PUDDING                         
I know some of you might not like evaporated milk but I would not replace that with cream in the pudding. At least try the recipe once as it is.  The pudding comes out tasting more of mangos than dairy. The soft texture of the pudding coupled with generous cubes of real mango... this is a real Mango Pudding!

When the pudding is ready to be served, you help yourself to some evaporated milk by pouring about 1 - 2 tablespoons over the pudding. I tend to drown mine in it.


Prep:
10 minutes
Cook:
5 minutes 
Inactive:
Overnight in refrigerator 
Level:
Easy 
Makes:
4, 1 cup size servings. Take a look at the photo at the top of this post.
Oven Temperature:
-
Can recipe be doubled?
Yes
Make ahead?
Yes, up to 2 days
                           

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon gelatin powder

4 Tablespoons room temperature water

7/8 cup (210ml) boiling water

1/4  to 1/2 cup granulated sugar (50 to 100g)  
Depends on how ripe/sweet your mangos are. I tend to like my dessert not too sweet and use 1/4 cup most times.

1 cup (250g) mango puree

1/2 cup (125ml) evaporated milk

1 cup (190g) cubed mango

1/4 cup (60ml) evaporated milk for serving

Directions

Put gelatin powder into a large bowl (4 cup/1 litre capacity) in an even thin layer. If you do not even it out but pile it up, some of the gelatin might clump up and not dissolve. Sprinkle the room temperature water over the gelatin. Set aside for five minutes.

Now, if the the gelatin does clump up on you, do not worry. Break it up with a whisk or fork as best as you can and let it soak a little longer. The above method works for me but here is another to dissolve the gelatin which works better for others.  You add the room temperature water first and then sprinkle the gelatin over it in an even layer.

While waiting for the gelatin to turn spongy, you should start to boil the 7/8 cup (210ml) of boiling water. I would boil 1 cup of water and then measure out the 7/8 cup that would be used. The idea is not to boil the gelatin with the hot water but to loosen up the by now spongy looking gelatin.
This is what the gelatin powder looks like after sitting in water for 5 minutes.
With a whisk, whisk as you add the hot water into the gelatin. It should dissolve in a minute or less. Lightly whisk in sugar, mango puree and evaporated milk until the sugar dissolves. You do not want too much bubbles/air in your mixture.  I use an immersion blender. You could use a blender/liquidizer. 
Before
After
Pour into four cups. Divide the cubed mangos amongst the cups. It is best to cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the puddings to properly set.

Remember to drizzle evaporated milk which should be chilled over the puddings before you eat them.  Lukewarm evaporated milk over chilled pudding just does not taste right.

Keeps well for 2 days covered in the refrigerator.

This pudding is not meant to be unmolded as it between a soft and firm set pudding.  It would not hold its shape if you tried to unmold it.  Eat it straight from the serving cups.

Tips:
  • Once puddings are served, eat them as soon as you can or they will start to soften.
  • Choose mangos that are at different stages of ripeness to cube and add into the serving cups.  It provides visual, taste and textural contrast.

Let me know how your puddings turn out!