Nigel Williams...

It is always nice to be spoilt, or given unique and thoughtful gifts. For my birthday this year Peter commissioned a choral work for me, based on Psalm 89. This is one of my favourite psalms for obvious reasons...

... Thou spakest in visions unto Thy saints, and saidst:

"I have laid help upon one that is mighty, 

I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

I have found David my servant, 

with my holy oil have I anointed him.

My hand shall hold him fast, 

and my arm shall strengthen him.

The enemy shall not be able to do him violence, 

the son of wickedness shall not hurt him.

I will smite down his foes before his face, 

and plague them that hate him.

My truth also, and my mercy, shall be with him,

and in My name shall his horn be exalted.

I will set his dominion also in the sea,

and his right hand in the floods.

He shall call me, Thou art my father, 

my God and my strong salvation.

And I will make him my first born, 

higher than the kings of the earth.

My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, 

and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

His seed also will I make endure forever, 

and his throne as the days of heaven...

Above: King David playing the Lyre.

The composer is Nigel Williams, a New Zealander specialising in choral church music and organ music. He has worked extensively in the UK, and was at one time Director of Music at St. Peter's Cathedral where Peter and I worship. He is now based in Tauranga. 

His forte is choral music of a traditional flavour. He has a fair catalogue, accepting commissions from around the world. The piece Peter has commissioned will be composed around traditional English plain chant, but more than that we will not know until it is finished. We hope that it will have its debut at the consecration service for the chapel.

High Tea Survey Results and Recipes...

Well the results are in:

• There was a lot of support for that last sandwich being egg, so egg it is.
• Strawberry jam is a must as an option
• Lots of votes for fruit tarts, esp lemon tarts.

Thank you for all your opinions, which were all considered and informed. They have been a great help. Here as promised are some recipes which I hope you'll try...

Recipe for Scones

This is my fail safe recipe for scones. I first tried it years ago. I was skeptical initially, but they turned out so well and with so little effort that I have never tried another recipe since. The scone mix turns out plain scones, but you can add cheese and herbs to the mix for savoury scones or a pinch of sugar and chopped dates or raisins to make sweet scones.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of self raising flour, sifted.

1 Cup of whole cream.

1 Can of lemonade (Sprite or 7up, not old fashioned lemonade).

A pinch of salt.

Pre-heat a fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius (390 F) (200C if not a fan oven)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.

Turn out onto a floured surface. Knead lightly and then flatten dough to about 3cm tall.

Cut with a scone cutter and place on a tray covered with a sheet of greased baking parchment.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until scones are golden brown.

Serve with whipped or clotted cream, and jam.

Recipe for Damson Jam

3 Lb (1.5kg) fresh Damsons
3 Lbs (1.5kg) Sugar
1 Pint (550mls) Water

Wash the damsons and place them in a large saucepan. The stones are hard to remove, so don't bother trying to remove them at the preparation stage, as they will float to the top during the cooking and you can skim them off then.

Ensure you have a decent jam saucepan. The crucial component is a nice thick bottomed pan so that you can ensure the heat is evenly distributed across the pan. Mine is also non-stick (once you have burnt jam once you'll never use a non-stick pan again!).

Add the water and gently simmer. Gentle push on the fruit with a potato masher or similar to help them expel their stones. Skim stones.

Once the mixture has reduced by about half, add the sugar, stirring until fully dissolved. Once fully dissolved bring the mixture to the boil and boil for 10-12 minutes.

Test its ability to set by smearing a small amount on a refrigerated plate and see if it sets. Once it has reached this point remove from the stove and allow to cool. Remove any surface froth with a tea strainer.

Decant into six warm sterilized 1 Lb jars. Cover with wax discs, cellophane, or sterile lids.

Making Clotted Cream

Take several pints of whole cream (unpasteurized or lightly pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized)). The amount is entirely dependent upon how much clotted cream you want to make. Four pints is probably a good starting amount. Pour it into 1 or 2 shallow dishes - the key here is to find a pan with a large surface area. You want the cream to be poured to a height of about 3-5cm in the dish.

Place the dish in an oven and set to 80 degrees C (180F). Leave for 12 hours - I usually do this about 7pm at night so that it is ready in the morning. 

Remove the now clotted and reduced cream from the oven and allow to cool on a bench for half an hour before placing in the fridge to cool for a further couple of hours (until well chilled).

Skim off the clotted cream from the surface. If it has reduced down a lot you may be lucky enough to have mainly clotted cream and very little liquid cream left.

Put in an airtight jar and keep chilled for up to 3 days. Use on scones, or to make delicious clotted cream fudge. Yum! Any left over liquid cream can be used for making pancakes or for the startup culture for sourdough bread.

Afternoon Tea & Reader Survey...

Dear Reader, please come and join us for high tea at Willowbrook! 

We would like to know what you would like to see on the menu.

We plan to serve a traditional English afternoon tea, displayed on a three tier silver stand, with the lower tier being savoury finger sandwiches (with the crusts carefully cut off of course); the middle tier being freshly made scones with home made jam (recipes for both to follow soon); and the top tier being pastries and petit fours. 

Above: Someone's got the order wrong!

My choice for the sandwiches would be a selection of the three English staples:  Salmon and Cream Cheese on wholemeal bread; Cucumber sandwiches on white bread (always plenty of cucumbers to be had at Willowbrook, especially for ready money!); and a lastly another savoury sandwich. Many people choose egg, but I am not a fan of egg sandwiches. I would much prefer to see a savoury chicken sandwich on my plate. What, dear readers, would you like to see on yours?

Scones

These should not be savoury for a high tea, but rather plain, possibly slightly sweetened, served with freshly whipped cream and lashings of fruity jam...

I prefer blackberry, cherry or raspberry jam, not being a big fan of strawberry jam.

A few too many scones ,someone's forgotten the sandwiches...

Now what would you like to finish? This is a chance to really set a standard, as apart from having the freshest sandwiches and lightest scones, the first two parts of an afternoon tea are fairly well prescribed. The chance to really go to town is with the final course. Macaroons have carved out a place at high end teas thanks to the promotion of La Duree...

Meanwhile I'm still a fan of the humble (but ever so prettily decorated) cupcake...

Then there are a variety of petit fours. I wasn't really sure why they are called petit fours until I looked it up the other day: It comes from the French meaning "small oven" (my high school French taught me that oven was cuisinière).

Please do let us know what your favourite sweet treat would be.

Of course, an afternoon tea would not be complete without the actual tea!

Most people would be happy with a lovely cup of tea from our selection. We will carry Twinings, Fortnum and Mason, and TWG. For a special high teas guests may also request something a little more effervescent...

So, please let us know what you would like to see in our sandwiches and for the final course. I will be back with the results of the survey soon, along with the family scone recipe and our recipe for home-made Damson jam.

Addendum - We have now purchased a dozen 3-tiered silver trays. These are what we shall serve your teas on...

Happy Easter 2015

Happy Easter from Willowbrook Park

Feeling Hot Hot Hot...

Today we picked some fresh horseradish from the potager and made home-made horseradish sauce to go with our home grown Hereford steak. 

 It was delicious. Here is the recipe I use..

• 50g of Grated Horseradish
• 1 Tsp white wine vinegar
• Ground rock salt (I prefer pink Himalayan rock salt)
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 Tsp of mustard powder
• 50-100mls of double cream lightly beaten (or sour cream if you prefer)
• Squirt of fresh lemon juice if you wish

Clean...

Peel and Chop...

Grate peeled roots then soak in 5 tablespoons of hot water for 10 mins. Drain off the hot water prior to mixing through the other dry ingredients... 

Mix through the cream. The less you use the hotter and firmer the sauce will be. 50-100mls is usually correct for 50g of grated horseradish. Start off with less, you can always add more.

Chill and Serve...

Best if used fresh after chilling in refrigerator. May be kept refrigerated for a couple of days.