indian tea party
Originally published at b e t h m a h e r . c o m. Please leave any comments there.
The week of Mother’s day, I was pretty busy. I threw two dinner parties - one for some vegan friends, the other a Mother’s day bash for my mother of course! So as you could imagine, I spent a lot of time baking, and cleaning, and cooking, and doing dishes… and then I did it all over again!
I was so busy, I didn’t get the chance to post the recipes and pictures of the food from my Mother’s day party - and I came up with a big themed menu from scratch.
I wanted to have a tea party as a bit of a tribute to my mom for bringing us along to England for a family wedding last year. While there, we had tea in a little, ridiculously-named tea-house tucked into the beautiful, cobblestone lane-ways of Canterbury. I thought it’d be nice to recreate something similar.
But, of course, I live in Little India, not England. And there is (of course) a cultural connection between the two. So why not, I thought, do a little bit of fusion? So we had an Indian inspired, afternoon tea.
The menu consisted of the following
Sandwiches:
- Tandoori pork tenderloin with mango chutney
- Curried egg salad with corriander and crasins
- Cucumber with green chutney
- Iced chocolate chai tea
Desert:
- Coconut-banana scones w/ double cream and preseves
- Chai spiced shortbread
- Fruit salad (with mangos, dragon-fruit, pineapple and watermelon)
- Lady Grey tea
The big star of the evening was, I think, the cucumber sandwiches. People always underestimate a good cucumber sandwich. It seems so simple - cucumber, butter, white bread. But there’s something about it that’s heavenly.
These cucumber sandwiches in particular were made even more heavenly by the addition of a Indian condiment - green chutney: a tart, verdant, cilantro-based, fresh sauce (apparently the traditional topping for a cucumber sandwich at Indian cricket matches). It definitely added a kick to the classic canape - and to everything else we ate that week - rice, noodles, other less cucumbery sandwiches. It’s become something I love to have around. It makes a large quantity, but since there’s salt, sugar and acid in it, it’s stay fresh for a while (and it’s a great way to use up the rest of those huuuuuuuge bunches of cilantro they sell in the markets).
Green Chutney
- 2 cups cilantro (chopped)
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup flaked coconut
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- 1 tsp dry ginger
- 1 tsp siracha (hot sauce)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend.
- Store in air-tight container in fridge.
- If using for cucumber sandwiches: drop a spoonful of chutney on slices of buttered, white bread; cover with a couple even layers of lightly-salted, thinly-sliced cucumber; top with another slice of buttered bread; cut off crusts, and into four triangles.