Currying favor at afternoon tea

According to the website Punchbowl.com today is Curried Chicken Day Curried chicken is a popular dish in Asia, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. The word "curry" is an anglicized version of the Tamil word “kari,” which means “stir-fried.”

While we usually associate curried chicken with a hot Indian dish served over rice, there are many other recipes that call for both key ingredients. Did you know that in England, curried chicken salad is called Coronation Chicken? Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume created the dish for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation banquet in 1953. It has been a popular sandwich filling ever since.

Here's an easy mock version from BBC Good Food to use in finger sandwiches:

• Shredded Chicken from a medium sized pre roasted chicken
• 3 tbsp Mayo
• Mild curry powder to taste
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tbsp Mango chutney
• sultanas - as many as you fancy (editor's note - may substitute golden raisins for sultanas)

The Telegraph news offers the original recipe along with further explanation of the historic dish:

The famous coronation chicken served at the Queen’s coronation lunch is usually attributed to Constance Spry. Popular lore has it that Spry based the recipe on its similarly rich and spicy royal relation, jubilee chicken, prepared for the Silver Jubilee of George V in 1935, which mixed the chicken in mayonnaise and curry.

However, it was Rosemary Hume who was actually behind coronation chicken, the recipe for which went on to appear in the first edition, in 1956, of The Constance Spry Cookery Book and is indeed still to be found in the modern edition. Serves 6-8

“One would not venture to serve, to a large number of guests of varying and unknown tastes, a curry dish in the generally accepted sense of this term,” wrote Spry. “I doubt whether many of the 300-odd guests at the coronation luncheon detected this ingredient [curry powder] in a chicken dish which was distinguished mainly by a delicate and nutlike flavour in the sauce.”

Method

Poach two young roasting chickens with carrot, bouquet garni, salt and peppercorns in water and a little wine, as well as enough barely to cover, for about 40 minutes or until tender.
Allow to cool in the liquid. Joint the birds, removing the bones with care.

Cream of curry sauce

• 1 tbsp oil
• 50g/2oz onion, finely chopped
• 1 dessert spoon curry powder
• 1 good tsp tomato purée
• 1 wineglass red wine
• ¾ wineglass water
• A bay leaf
• Salt, sugar, a touch of pepper
• A slice or two of lemon and a squeeze of lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp apricot purée 450ml/¾ pint mayonnaise
• 2-3 tbsp lightly whipped cream

1. Heat the oil, add onion, cook gently for 3-4 minutes, add curry powder. Cook again for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add purée, wine, water and bay leaf. Bring to boil, add salt, sugar to taste, pepper, and the lemon and lemon juice. Simmer with the pan uncovered for 5-10 minutes.
3. Strain and cool. Add by degrees to the mayonnaise with the apricot purée to taste.
4. Adjust seasoning, adding a little more lemon juice if necessary. Finish with the whipped cream. Take a small amount of sauce (enough to coat the chicken) and mix with a little extra cream and seasoning.
5. Mix the chicken and the sauce together, arrange on a dish, coat with the extra sauce.

Rice salad
The rice salad which accompanied the chicken was of rice, peas, diced raw cucumber and finely chopped mixed herbs, all mixed in a well-seasoned French dressing. For convenience in serving at the Coronation, the chicken was arranged at one end of an oblong dish and a rice salad at the other.

Literary Leaves

Siren School's inaugural school term commenced today, which, for tea lovers is teariffic news, as the ensuing year promises a variety of tea events to be hosted throughout the country.  Here are a few this Fall, to whet your tea kettle's whistle.

Sept 27 - The Language of Fan & Flower, presented by The Sirens of Cynthus salon in Southern California

Oct 19 - The Great Pumpkin Hunt and Witch's Tea, hosted by the Intrepid Ladies Adventure Club and Tea Society

Nov 1 - Medieval Brass Rubbings & Tea with the Sirens of Cynthus

Nov 8 - The nationwide Austentatious Afternoon Tea - boasting a Pride & Prejudice theme, to be celebrated by all Siren School salons simultaneously

Tea Test #1

Tea drinkers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and knowledgable.  As the interest in tea grows, so does the amount of misinformation foisted on the unsuspecting internet public.  I thought it might be fun to give us all occasional quizzes to ensure we stay on the straight and narrow and not be duped by spurious claims.  We'll start with some basics about the tea plant itself.

What is Tea?

lesson #01 quiz

Real tea comes from

• Anything you brew in water
• Tisanes
• The Camellia sinensis plant
• Tea leaves

Camellia sinensis is used to produce

• White tea
• Green tea
• Black tea
• All of the above

Infusions made without tea leaves are sometimes called

• Tisanes
• Herbal teas
• Rooibos
• All of the above

Unorthodox tea is

• Hand picked and processed
• Green tea
• CTC tea
• Powdered Japanese matcha

Most of the health benefits of tea come from

• Polyphenols
• Caffeine
• Essential Oils
• All of the above

* * *

The answers can be found in the following introductory lesson from Adagio Teas:

Welcome to the Beginners course of TeaClass. This training program is designed to give you the foundation of information that will allow you to begin your journey through the world of tea. In this first lesson, we will define tea and examine the most common varieties.

What is tea?
Tea is the second-most consumed drink in the world, surpassed only by water. An often-surprising fact to tea novices is that all teas (Black, Green, Oolong, White, and Pu'erh) come from the same plant. The scientific name of this versatile plant is Camellia sinensis (it's actually related to the lovely camellia flowers seen in botanical gardens and landscapes). Camellia sinensis is a sub-tropical evergreen plant native to Asia but now grown around the world. The tea plant grows best in loose, deep soil, at high altitudes, and in sub-tropical climates. So, in short, "tea" is anything derived from the Camellia sinensis plant. Anything else, while sometimes called "tea", is more accurately referred to as an herbal tea or tisane. Tisanes include chamomile, rooibos and fruit teas.

How is it grown?
The tea plant, which grows naturally in the wild throughout much of Asia, is cultivated in a variety of settings from small family gardens to giant estates covering thousands of acres. The best tea is usually grown at elevation, and often, on steep slopes. The terrain requires these premium teas to be hand-plucked, and it takes around 2,000 tiny leaves to make just one pound of finished tea. If that sounds crazy, keep in mind these methods have been around for several millennia. Many of the teas produced for large scale commercial production are grown on flat, lowland areas to allow for machine harvesting. However, it should be noted that some of the finest, hand-plucked teas in the world come from flat fields and lower altitude. So, how the tea is grown is just one of many factors to be considered.

Teas which are processed in the traditional fashion are called Orthodox teas. Orthodox teas generally contain only the top two tender leaves and an unopened leaf bud, which are plucked carefully by hand and then processed using five basic steps, creating the thousands of varieties of tea we know and love today (note: While tea plants do have small flowers, the "buds" tea people refer to are the young, unopened leaves, not flowers). Most Orthodox tea production these days involves a unique combination of age-old methods, such as bamboo trays to allow the leaves to wither on, and modern, innovative machinery, like leaf rollers carefully calibrated to mimic motions originally done by hand. A true art form, the tea is handled by artisans with years (often, generations) of training from the moment of plucking to when the tea is finished. For some teas, one batch can take several days of work.

The other way of making tea is the Unorthodox method, of which the most common type is CTC (crush-tear-curl). This much faster style of production was specifically created for black tea. These teas may or may not be plucked by hand. For commercial production, large machine harvesters are used to "mow" the top of the bushes to get the new leaves. CTC production uses a leaf shredder which macerates the leaves (crushing, tearing, and curling them, hence the name) into fine pieces, then rolls them into little balls. The result looks quite a bit like Grape Nuts cereal, actually. These teas will brew very quickly and produce and a bold, powerful cup of tea. CTC is usually used primarily in the tea bag industry, as well as in India to create Masala Chai blends (due to their strength and color).

What is in tea?
The three primary components of brewed tea (also called the "liquor") are:
1. Essential Oils - these provide tea's delicious aromas and flavors.
2. Polyphenols - these provide the "briskness" or astringency in the mouth and are the components that also carry most of the health benefits of tea.
3. Caffeine - found naturally in coffee, chocolate, tea and Yerba Mate, caffeine provides tea's natural energy boost.

How the leaves are processed will determine their final classification as black, green, etc. We'll discuss these styles of tea in the next lesson.

Although tea is one of the most enjoyed beverages worldwide, its culture can be very "local." For example, most tea drinkers in Darjeeling, India have never had (or even heard of) a Taiwanese Pouchong. In China, most people do not drink black tea. The centuries-old Japanese tea ceremony uses powdered, rare Matcha tea, which most folks in black tea-loving Sri Lanka have never tasted. Tea is a truly special, uniting thing, especially when you imagine how so many tea-drinking cultures developed all on their own. America's own newly found tea culture is unique because we actually enjoy all types of tea (white, green, oolong, black and pu'erh). No other country can claim that distinction. The amount of knowledge to be shared and tea to be enjoyed is tremendous. TeaClass seeks to help in this process by providing accurate and insightful tea knowledge.

Afternoon tea in northeast Pennsylvania — how sweet it is

Adding the spice to Sugar's, owner Cheryl Roman

review of Sugar's Tearoom & Gift Shoppe 
Forty Fort, PA

by Joy de Vivre

I decided to 'go green' by getting rid of my car 3 years ago this week.  If I'd realized how drastically it would've limited my freedom to go to afternoon tea, frankly I may have opted to continue guzzling gas.  It had been far too long since I'd been to a tea room for the first time, when at last I got my fix by visiting Sugar's Tearoom last week.  And I couldn't have chosen a better place to end my unintentional abstinence.

Sugar's is delightful in every way, as is its staff.  Server April, shop girl Linda and owner Cheryl are all gracious and lovely, genuine and sincere. And it is clear they all love being part of the tearoom experience.  From the moment we walked into the wonderland that is the gift shop, we were greeted with warmth, color and creativity.  The merchandise is diverse and plentiful and the polka-dotted, black and fuchsia shop itself set the tone for whimsy and a wonderful, jovial time!

The tearoom is comprised of multiple adjoining rooms of a house —my favorite set-up!  Each space has been lovingly decorated with an eye to feminine fun, down to the details, including borrowable hats.  And the home in and of itself is beautiful.

In short, Sugar's does everything right!

My enthusiastic companion and I order 'the works' as I am wont to do when going to a tea room for the first time.  It included generous portions of:

• SCONES - 3 types —buttermilk, white chocolate cherry, and cinnamon — all delish, served with festive blue whipped cream and coffee flavored whip 
• SOUP - they had 2 flavors so, of course, we split both — chicken rice and tomato basil. Yum!
• SALAD - mixed greens with carrot shaving, cucumber and tomato, with our choice of dressing being the house raspberry poppy seed
• TEA SANDWICHES (5) - tuna, egg salad and chicken salads, cucumber cream cheese, and olive —all served open-faced with adorably piped colored cream cheese flowers as garnish 
• DESSERT - we opted for 2 types of cake that I can't recall as I was too darn full at the time to notice!  Suffice it to say, they were scrumptuous
• POT OF TEA - I ordered the chocolate almond tea du jour and my tablemate selected the Versailles Lavender Earl Grey

The amounts served were more than ample, and from the first course, I saw a 'to go' box in my future.  Even the burly, manly man who joined me was surprised at how full he was, to the extent that he had no room left for dessert... which dessert I cheerfully added to the crammed to go box and enjoyed with coffee for breakfast the next morning.

Whether you'd like to steal away for a simple cuppa, or plan to attend one of their frequent oh so special theme events, Sugar's is sure to satisfy more than your sweet tooth.  In fact, I've already put a second visit to the tearoom at the top of my Christmas list.

Sugar's Tearoom & Gift Shoppe site
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{This is #410 of different tearooms I've visited}