All About Tea

Will, Kate, and the family have arrived in Victoria (I happened to catch a glimpse of them accidentally which was kinda cool and very memorable) so we are in the British mood and are continuing on with our British blog posts. Today our focus is on something very British, tea! Nicole is a tea expert, she loves everything tea, and I do like tea a lot too so we are going to have a fun time with this post. I have broken down the blog post into four categories, tea etiquette, things you have tea in, kinds of tea, and how to make tea. So grab a cup of tea and read on about all things tea!

Tea Etiquette

I’m going to first start off by saying look at the links to these pages. They have some very helpful hints to help guide you through a proper afternoon of high tea.

http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/blog/the-afternoonteacouk-team/afternoon-tea-etiquette-top-10-do's-don'ts/

http://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/tea_etiquette.html

In North America it is common to have tea between 3-5pm with 4pm being the best time for tea. Along with a variety of teas; you should serve little sandwiches, scones, and pastries and in that order. As you have seen in the links above, there are guides in how to invite people to tea; you can be as informal or formal as you want to be.

Also included on the websites are supplies that you will need in order to have your tea.

There are lots of suggestions how to run your afternoon tea time, but you can be as proper or as informal as you would like. These are only guidelines. 

Things You Have Tea In

Nicole apparently loves tea cups just like she loves tea so she found a website that has the history of tea cups that she is sharing with everyone.

http://demiq-demitasse-cups-saucers.blogspot.ca/2011/03/history-of-cup-saucer.html

 

She also found some neat tea cups that you can serve your tea in. Take a look.

Kinds of Tea

Typically tea is broken down into 4 types, white, green Oolong, and black. Follow these guides to see the benefits of each type of tea.

http://www.octaviatea.com/pages/tea-guide.html

You can also have tea bags or loose tea. Tea bags are easy to use and easy to clean up. They are also relatively inexpensive and come in many types of flavors. Loose tea has more flavor because the leaves are still intact and are larger. They have all of their essential oils and aroma left. Loose tea does require some extra tools and time. Both are popular and in the end it is personal preference when it comes to making yourself a cup of tea.  

If you are into different flavors of tea check out these websites...

 

http://www.tetley.ca/en/our-teas/our-full-range

http://www.twinings.ca/templates/group_ProductGroup.aspx?GroupGuid=100

http://www.twinings.ca/templates/group_ProductGroup.aspx?GroupGuid=101

https://www.davidstea.com/

How to Make Tea

 Here’s how to make a perfect pot of tea.

First start off with a clean tea pot and then swirl around some hot water in the pot before you begin making your tea.

Decide if you are making black tea or green tea first of all.

For black tea, you want to make sure the water is around 97 degrees and for green tea around 70 degrees.

If you are using a tea bag it is best to steep for 2-3 ½ minutes and if you are using loose tea they recommend steeping for up to 7 minutes. The Twinings website says that “the larger the leaf, the longer the brewing time. Earl Grey and Lady grey need five minutes while smaller leaf teas will only need about four minutes.”

After steeping, pour into cups and then add your milk, honey, sugar, or lemon wedges. 

*Some people will put the milk/cream into the cup before adding the tea; apparently this was done in the past to protect the bone china that tea cups were made from, but now, it is a personal choice.

http://www.twinings.com/int/l2c_perfect_cup.php

Roast Beef Dinner

“Classic Recipe for Roast beef: 1 large roast of beef. 1 small roast of beef. Take the two roasts and put them in the over. When the little one burns, the big one is done.” – Gracie Allen

This week for our Royal themed blog posts we are focusing on one of the most popular British meals, and that is the roast dinner. When we went to England, my friend’s family took Nicole and I out to a restaurant that specialized in roast dinner. How cool is that? You could pick what kind of roast you wanted and all of the toppings and side dishes as well. I myself love roast dinners so I am super excited for this post. So here we go.

There are many types of roast dinners out there...roast beef, ham, chicken, pork, and turkey are the ones that I can think of. All are very yummy, but our focus this week is on the roast beef dinner (this one is my favourite). I have found a few recipes online that have some very delicious sounding roast beef dinner recipes, so we’ll refer to those as we go through this blog today.

First you have to choose your cut of roast beef. Some people like prime rib which can be expensive and some will go with a rump roast or top sirloin. To help you pick what kind of roast you want I have a little guide below.

Dry Roasting Cuts

These are the types of roasts that you think of when you think about roast dinners. They cook for a few hours in the oven and are juicy and flavourful when they are done. You can rub these with your favourite spices and make a really nice gravy for these as well. These are perfect for when you have some time on your hands. They may be a bit expensive, so they are a nice treat to make for your dinner guests every once in awhile.  

Regular Roasts:

Sirloin tip

Eye of round

Outside round

Inside round

Rump roast

Bottom sirloin tri-tip

Premium Roasts:

Top sirloin

Tenderloin

Wing

Prime rib or standing rib

Rib eye 

Quick Cooking Roast Cuts

You can easily make these or weeknight dinners or if you want to add them to another dish as well. They cook much quicker and aren’t as time consuming to make and prepare. 

Sirloin tip

Eye of round

Outside round

Inside round

Bottom sirloin tip

Now that you have your roast picked out you can finding a roasting pan to place it on and then cover it in your favourite spices. Some people will rub garlic on their roast beef, some just put a little salt and pepper. Some people will use a roast beef rub that you can purchase from the grocery store or some people like to use fresh/dried herbs like rosemary or thyme. It is up to you and what you like. You can always experiment and try things out. What we usually do is rub our prime rib roast with salt, pepper, and a little bit of dark soy sauce. It’s always very flavorful and it’s simple to do as well. There is no exact science to it, just rub on the spices until it looks coated evenly.

Place in the oven bone side down and cook at 350 degrees for 1 ½ hours or until it’s medium rare.

While your roast is in the oven, you can make some potatoes to go with your dinner. I love to have garlic mashed potatoes with my roast beef, but roasted potatoes or baked potatoes are good as well.

When I think of veggies and roast dinner, I think of mixed veggies like peas, carrots, beans, and corn, but you can also do things like steamed broccoli or green beans tossed with a bit of butter. Mushrooms pair well with beef also so you can cook some with butter and garlic and put it on the side. You can also start off with a salad, Caesar salad is always good with roast beef. 

Yorkshire puddings are a must when you have a roast dinner. Here is an awesome recipe that I found...

No-Fuss Yorkshire Pudding by Eric Akis

These are no-fuss because you don’t have to preheat the pan. Use a good-quality, non-stick muffin pan to make these Yorkshire puddings. If you use an old, battered pan, they’ll stick. You can bake the puddings a few hours in advance, cool them a bit, remove them from the pan, set them on a baking sheet and cover them. When ready to serve, quickly reheat them in a 350 F oven about 5 minutes.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 45 to 50 minutes

Makes: 12 puddings.

6 large eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup water

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

vegetable oil spray

Set an oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Place the eggs in a bowl and beat until well blended. Whisk in the milk, water, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Whisk in the flour until just combined.

Very thoroughly grease a non-stick, 12-cup muffin pan with vegetable-oil spray. Pour in the batter, filling each slot almost to the top. Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 325°F (160°C) and bake 35 to 40 minutes more, or until the Yorkshire puddings are puffed and golden and almost dry in the centre.

Set on a baking rack and cool a few minutes. When the pan is cool enough to handle, carefully remove the Yorkshire puddings.

 Last but not least, comes the gravy. I haven’t had the best of luck making gravy, but here’s a pretty simple recipe that I may try one day.

Roast Beef Gravy

Remove the roast from the pan. Remove excess fat leaving 4 Tbsp of fat plus juices and browned drippings in the pan. Use a metal spatula to scrape up any drippings that are sticking to the pan. Place the pan on the stovetop on medium high heat.

Sprinkle 4 Tbsp flour on to the drippings. Quickly stir with a wire whisk so that the flour gets incorporated into the drippings. Let the flour brown a bit if you want, before adding liquid in the next step. (You can also start with a slurry of flour and water if you want.)

Slowly add stock, water, milk, cream, or a combination to the pan, whisking vigorously to dissolve the flour into liquid. Allow the gravy to simmer and thicken, and continue to slowly add liquid until you have about 2 cups of gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Always taste first before adding more salt! It may not need it.)

 http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_gravy/#ixzz4Kwn3n8nm

If you prefer au jus here is a recipe for that...

Au Jus

3 cups water

4 teaspoons beef bouillon (or 4 cubes)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

¹⁄₄ teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper

Directions:

Place the water in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low; whisk in the beef bouillon.

Whisk in the soy sauce, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.

If you like a thicker Au Jus gravy, you can also whisk in a little flour to thicken it.

Happy roast dinner!