I decided to push the envelope a little this year, and served 23 courses for ten ladies. Some suggested that they didn't really need to frock up, but were soon put straight - even if Clare forgot grown up shoes, and had to wear her slippers!
I cooked through the week, and was up until after midnight on Friday. I was on track, but had to start again at 0500 if I was to make the start time. In addition to the tea menu, I also prepared a 'peposo notturno' (peppered by night) beef shin dish for dinner, and danish pastries and an apple tea cake for breakfast. Leigh and Ian were over, and the boys enjoyed the opportunity to sample the foods as they went out to the girls.
The menu - as I wrote it, and not in service order follows: (there were essentially two menus being served in parallel with both platters and individual serves. One of the girls said the juxtaposition of flavours was almost an emotional journey with the inevitable onset of a sugar coma pulled back with the timely introduction of savoury bites!)
- Angels on horseback
- Scones, with strawberry jam and whipped cream
- Potato raclette croquettes, with tomato chilli jam
- Pork and caraway sausage rolls
- Yorkshire pudding with potato and parsnip skordalia and tea smoked beef sirloin
- Chocolate and salted caramel mousse teardrop
- Sticky Chelsea buns
- Cauliflower veloute, with prosciutto shards
- Goats cheese and cherry tomato tarte tatin
- Beetroot carpaccio with whipped Persian feta
- "Fish and Chips" - Gaufrette potatoes seasoned with malt vinegar salt, fried flathead and aioli
- Smoked trout and scrambled eggs
- Mature Brie, caraway apple crisps and honey caviar
- Deconstructed prawn cocktail
- Esrom (cheese), wrapped in prosciutto and baked
- Peppered pineapple crisps with white chocolate and Bacardi mousse and candied rhubarb
- Chocolate quenelles, mint caviar
- Black currant and cinnamon 'rugelach'
- Chocolate croissants
- Passionfruit and brandy curd meringue tart
- Ginger shortbread napoleons, lemon mascarpone cream and fresh raspberry
- Caramelised bacon ice cream, hazelnut and pistachio praline wafer
At some stage I must have wondered what I was doing... The picture below tells a story!
Sisters and best friends - what you can't see is that only one of them has 'proper' shoes on...
We have made friends with our neighbours next door, who are brilliant people. Dave decided that he couldn't let Elise come on her own, so turned up during the afternoon with his guitar to provide some live music. I am really not sure how I can top this one in years to come - still, I have at least eight months to plan for the next one!
One of the girls told me that she tried really hard to find a dish that she didn't like - and couldn't. Either easily please, or a reward for the hard work at my end! The girls struggled to come up with a favourite dish, but all loved the fish and chips, the croquettes and the yorkshire pudding. Given that potato is the common ingredient with all of those dishes, maybe the next high tea needs to be a study in potatoes?
I really liked the effectiveness of the two caviars, and the choc mint mousse cake was also a favourite. Jane took the leftovers to work today, so it will be interesting to see the response that it gets from her work colleagues.
Would you believe that as soon as the girls defrocked they sat down and ate more food? All up they partied/ate/chatted/laughed for about eight hours!
