Curried Egg Salad Sandwiches and Lemon Scones with Maple-Blueberry Fool
Made high tea today for donors attending the Family of Hope Tea at the Alberta Children’s Hospital; wee sandwiches with the crusts cut off, lemon scones with berry jam and cream, my Mom’s nut balls, vanilla bean meringues and lemon curd tartlets. I made it home (through rush hour) by 5, but after milling about with the neighbours out front it was suddenly 6, and so we had the last of the egg salad for dinner.
Egg salad, in my opinion, must be eaten on soft white bread, spread with soft butter. Crusty bread and rolls are the natural enemy of egg salad, causing it to squirt out the other end upon biting. All teas must have small sandwiches, and among them must be egg salad and cucumber (I did mine with chives and fresh mint from the garden), but plain old egg salad, though I love it, seemed dull. So along with the mayo I stirred in a bit of curry paste (powder would work as well), a handful of finely chopped red pepper, tore in some cilantro and snipped in some chives. It was pretty fine, if I do say so myself. Luckily, having made a batch using 18 eggs, there was enough left over.
For dessert – now here is an example of how a few sad leftovers quickly reassembled turned into something that when you describe it sounds downright fancy – I had a few extra lemon biscuits (or scones – pretty much the same thing – scones tend to be sweeter and denser, with an egg added, but these are sweet too – scones without the density and egg?) and a bit of whipped cream, but no berries save for frozen wild blueberries. So I thawed them with a drizzle of maple syrup and swirled that into the small dish of leftover cream, which had sort of deflated after several hours, and then got a bit watered down from the juicy berries and maple syrup, and made a kind of fool, albeit a sloppy one. A sloppy fool on a flaky bun. You are what you eat, I guess.
Large-Batch Lemon Biscuits/Scones
I used a small biscuit cutter to make mine, but the open end of a tomato paste can is perfect. Or for square scones, which look very cool, simply cut them into squares using a pastry cutter or knife. If you like, add fresh or frozen blueberries as you stir the milk into the dry ingredients – if they are frozen don’t thaw them, or they will turn your dough greenish and wet.
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup butter, cut into chunks (I used roughly a third of a pound of butter for each of three batches – it doesn’t have to be exact)
1 cup milk, plus a little extra for brushing on top
coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)In the bowl of a food processor (or a large bowl), combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Add the butter and pulse or work with a pastry cutter, fork or your fingers until the mixture is well combined and crumbly, with bits of butter no bigger than a pea – you want to leave some larger bits, rather than blending it completely – the larger chunks are what will make them flaky.
If you used a food processor (this is my favourite way) – dump the mixture into a bowl. Add the milk and stir just until you have a soft dough (you may need to use your hands). Pat the dough out about 3/4″ thick and cut into small rounds with a biscuit cutter, glass or open can rim, or a knife. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray, spacing them an inch apart. If you like, brush the tops lightly with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 30-35 biscuits.
Header update: Thanks, really, for all your input. The cookies were a place holder really, I didn’t want to spend too much time on this if the consensus was a big thumbs-down. I thought I’d use this template and do up several with different images, and then add some sort of plug-in to make them automatically rotate. Or change it altogether. Or something.
Any thoughts on a different tag line? Some of you may have mentioned in passing that it’s stale and cookbooky, which is definitely not what I want to portray. You all know this site better than me even, being on the other side of the screen.
It’s difficult to encapsulate yourself in a graphic design format, particularly when a) you’re not a graphic designer and b) you can’t figure out this stupid new computer program. And yes, it had occurred to me to call an artist/graphic designer friend (and I’ve had some offers- thank you!) for help, but I wouldn’t want to presume that dinner might be a fair trade for their time and skill. Plus – graphic designers all have their own sense of style too. What if they don’t jive? I’ve worked with many (not friends!) that came up with things I just didn’t like, or that didn’t quite grasp what I wanted. Of course, I don’t even know what I want, except that it be hip/fun/current/usable as a header with elements that could be used on their own for a logo. Like a header transformer. I would hate to not like what they do, or be ultra high-maintenance and force them to do a dozen different things and then go back to the first, or change my mind and do something completely different. I don’t want to be one of those people.
One Year Ago: Tim’s Everything Bagel, Old Cheddar Cheese
Print Post
May 28 2009 | cookies & squares and eggs and sandwiches | 51 Comments »
