The Royal Wedding

British Scones

The Royal wedding will soon be upon us. Many people think it’s the event of the year and others couldn’t care less. I heard on the BBC radio 1’s news beat programme that many Brits will be taking advantage of all the bank holidays and take an extra holiday abroad. There’s always someone to benefit from these occasions.

Never mind them, there will be the thousands, nay millions thronging the streets of London to catch a glimpse of the happy couple.

Below is the weather forecast from the London weather center.

UK Weather Outlook for Friday 29 Apr 2011 to Sunday 8 May 2011:

Southern and central regions will tend to be often rather cloudy and unsettled with showers or outbreaks of rain, heavy at times, through next weekend and during the early part of the following week. Generally drier and brighter to the north and west, though some showers may develop over parts of Northern Ireland and western Scotland later. Often rather windy, especially in southern, eastern and central parts. Whilst temperatures will be near or just above average it will tend to feel quite chilly when conditions are rather cloudy and windy, especially in North Sea coastal areas. The rest of the first week of May looks likely to continue in a similar vein, unsettled and windier to the south and brighter to the north, temperatures largely near or just above average.

Were any of you watching or even at the Chelsea v. West Ham soccer match on Saturday? Before the game they had watered the pitch, the temperature was 27°C about 80°F for those who haven’t joined the modern world.

Then. Whoosh, the heavens opened, I thought I was back in India for the Monsoon season. It all ended well with Chelsea winning and Torres sliding in the rain to score his first goal for Chelsea.

For those of you sensible enough or like us in the USA, watch it all unfold on television. Probably recorded because of the time difference. You would have thought, because of the popularity and love of the British Royal family the wedding would have been at a more friendly time for the USA.

I have a number of American friends who are going to record the whole event and invite friends around for afternoon tea.

To help them out, here is a very good recipe for “British Scones”. This recipe comes from the Marks and Spencer cookbook “The Best of British”.

If anyone is under the impression you can’t get good food in the UK, they should try the recipes in this cookbook. They’ll be more than pleasantly surprised.

I’m still trying to find a good dish that originates in the USA, not including bad coffee.

After the pre-amble here’s the recipe:

British Scones;

Scones are originally a Scottish delicacy. There are some really nice Scottish tea parlours along the Whisky trail of Scotland, they serve excellent afternoon teas.

This recipe should make about twelve scones, it will depend how big you make them.

INGREDIENTS

450grms/1lb plain flour;                                    ½ teaspoon of salt;

2 tsp baking powder;                                                55grms/2ozs butter;

2 tbsp caster sugar;                                                250ml/ ½ pint milk;

Milk or beaten egg for glazing;

Strawberry jam/jelly.                                                Devon clotted cream.

METHOD

Pre-heat your oven to 220°C/425°F.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Make a well in the centre of the dough and Stir in the milk. Stir in using a round-bladed knife and make a soft dough.

Turn the mixture onto a floured surface. (Ideal for this a marble pastry board ‘cos it’s cold). Lightly flatten the dough until it is of an even thickness, about ½ inch. Cookbook advice, “don’t be heavy handed, scones need a light touch”.

Use a 6-cm/2½ inch pastry cutter, (my Mum would use an old cup) to cut out the scones and place on the baking tray.

Glaze by brushing on a little milk or beaten egg and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden and well risen

Cool on a wire rack and serve freshly baked. Traditionally British served with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

In Scotland I’ve also been served with a small jug of the local single malt.

There must be a thousand different ways to make scones from a thousand different Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers recipes. Some say let the dough rest somewhere cold for maybe an hour. Other recipes even use milk just as it starts to turn sour. Whatever is your recipe choice or preference it will usually work out fine.

Depending where you live it may not be easy to get the clotted cream or quality strawberry jam. Here in Las Vegas, Fresh’n Easy have the best strawberry jam, it has big pieces of strawberry in the jam. It’s made in Canada, so probably has an English influence. You can get proper Devon Clotted cream at the Wholefoods market. The British store on Durango also stock the jam and cream as well as frozen scones.

If you live in London, there’s always Harrod’s or Fortnum and Masons.

Selfridges is just as good and far cheaper. Of course there’s also the brand supermarkets.

If you want a marble pastry board and live in Vegas, Williams-Sanoma stock them.


The Pot of Tea 


Loose leave tea makes the best pot of tea. Depending where you live, you'll have to find the best tea shop. If you're in the UK it's very easy. Believe it or not, if you are in India it's not that easy. I'll tell you about it one day.
Here in  Las Vegas we're not too badly off. The British store and the International World Market stock good quality. If you can't be bothered with loose tea PG tips tea bags make a good pot of tea, Fresh'n Easy stock them.
I buy my loose tea from Teavana, their Earl Grey is very good but even better is their Assam Golden rain. It makes perfect afternoon tea. One thing I don't agree with Teavana on is their advocating not to use fresh boiling water. They sugggest putting a handful of ice cubes in the water when it's boiled. That really is a load of cods' wallop.
Tea has to be made with fresh boiling water.
You'll need a nice roomy teapot and if you can, proper bone china tea cups.
Warm the pot before you pit in the tea leaves, generally 1 teaspoonful for each cup and one for the pot. Pour over the freshly boiling water, give it a brisk stir and let it stand/brew for 3 to 4 minutes. With practice you'll work out what suits your taste best.

Take the day off and enjoy the “Pomp and Circumstance” of a British state occasion. No one does it like us Brits!

© John A Bromley April 2011