High Tea Party

Creating a classic high tea set! The menu:
*Tea sandwiches: cucumber + dill sauce, alaskan salmon
*Craisin and raisin scones
*Buffalo chicken pizza bites
*Mini turkey and broccoli quiches

We had a few friends over to help cook! We started with the quiche since it was the most complicated and took the longest to make.

Yes, we need broccoli! Wash, chop, and boil!

Chop up some turkey and onion.

Simmer in a pan.
Then add the broccoli. This is for the quiche filling.Looks good to just eat like this!


Next, we prepare the dough for the crust by cutting butter in flour. The dough was wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge for half an hour to create a nice consistency.

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut into circles with a cookie cutter. The size will be perfect for the shape of our molds.


This mold is also used for egg tarts!
We used a mini muffin pan for the bite-sized quiches.

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Place some beans inside each crust to make sure they keep their shape.

Next, add the filling: broccoli, turkey, onion mixture and the egg, milk, and cheese mixture.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

They look so delicious!

The inside:

Next, we prepared some tea sandwiches. This was fairly easy. First, obtain some sandwich bread and cut off all the crust.

Prepare the mayonnaise by adding some dill, salt, and pepper. Chop up some cucumbers and other fillings of your choice.

Salmon sandwiches were the other variation. Cut into triangles.

Angela worked on her creation: Buffalo chicken pizza. She prepared the pizza by cooking some chicken breast and adding buffalo chicken sauce.
Add the chicken to the pizza dough. Dramatically sprinkling cheese onto the pizza:

Here's the pizza before baking:

And again after baking 20 minutes at 450 degrees:

We cut it up into smaller tea-sizes. :P
We next had Liz help out in making the craisin + raisin scones!
The dough was prepared and simply molded into the shape of your liking. We had hearts, a fish, a dog, and triangles! Don't forget to flour your hands when working with the dough.
Stick onto a cookie sheet to bake, and that's it!


Delicious! Best served with jam or butter.

The complete high tea set (scones on the side):

Of course, this was served with tea! We had a raspberry tea, and we discovered that with the addition of cream, it made a really delicious milk tea. This combination went just great with all this food. The high tea party turned into dinner for everyone due to the amount of food we made. One thing I forgot to add was the mini cakes - next time!

- Candice

Sweet and Spicy Octopus with Ginger Cod Fish Soup

This is my first time preparing octopus so I was extremely delighted when this was the final result-

This is my own recipe, so I dubbed it "Sweet and Spicy Octopus"- very to the point, no?

Here's a more generic Chinese dish, "Seafood Soup"- I'm horrible at name-giving. Anyways, I like to put my soups in tiny bowls so that the solids (vegetables, meat, fish, etc..) aren't visually overwhelmed by the vast body of stock. What do you think?

I was motivated to make this dish when I was strolling through the immaculate aisles of Asian grocery goodness at the local Korean market and saw this plastered against a freezer's glass window. It was leaning against the foggy glass glaring at me as if wanting to escape; so I decided to stir-fry it and free it of it's icy prison. Well, actually, I just got cocky and saw the picture of the dish on the box cover and told myself, "Pssh, I could do that!"- and indeed I could!

Somehow, after the octopus thawed and its floppy fleshyness became more apparent; I started to chicken out. But I treaded on..

This is where I got lost.. I wasn't sure how to gut the head..so I just yanked out all the insides (i think it includes the stomach and the brain..)...

I cut the tentacles into 1-inch pieces.

Sauce: 

1/3 cup Red Chili Paste

1/3 cup sugar or rice sweetener

3 tbs white vinegar

handful of chopped green onions (optional)

1 tbs sesame paste (optional)

Mix it all together thoroughly

Cook over a pan with some oil until it turns red-violet. Then toss in the sauce and lower the heat; add about 1/4-1/3 cup water (depending how thick you like it) and cook until the sauce thins and becomes homogenous.

Decorate with some shredded seaweed and toasted sesame seeds, and bam! 

Piglets'...Blood!

This past couple of weeks I ate soo much hot pot to the point where if you drew out my blood the amount of MSG in it would provide an excellent soup base in of itself. 

Speaking of which, I confess that pig's blood has got to be my all-time favorite hot pot dish.

When I went to Taiwan I noticed that the pig's blood there is less dense and lighter than the stuff sold here. Maybe it's the way the pigs are raised? They also prepare it al dente, that is, they tend to cook it until right up until it's fully cooked, so it's still slightly fleshy. I personally prefer to cook it to death so it's nice and thick and meaty. My favorite way to cook it is with some uber-fermented kimchi; the blood really absorbs the flavor well. If you've never seen raw pig's blood there it is glowing fire-engine red on top of the blue tray. 

Doesn't it look like it could burn right through your stomach? Heh, this dish is definitely for you spicy-lovers.

Here's the recipe for my "Kimchi Pig's Blood Stew":

Ingredients

- very fermented kimchi (at least 3rd-4rth week old kimchi is ideal)

- half 1/3 lb sliced tripe

- 2 bunches of enoki mushrooms

- 1/2 lb cubed pig's blood

- 1 tbs garlic

- 4 cups chicken stock, miso soup or anchovy stock

- 1 cubed tomato (optional)

1) Boil about 4 cups stock/soup and once it's bubbling toss in the kimchi and tripe.

2) Wait til it starts to bubble again and then toss in the blood, mushrooms and garlic.

3) Let sit for about 8 min. Add more garlic or seasoning according to how you like it.

Easy, no? And wah lah, top it over rice and you have yourself a delicious meal. I like this dish not only for its huge pact of flavor but because it looks more complex than it really is. 

- Angela