The DESSERTed Dinner Party presents 'An Oriental High Tea Party'

      An Oriental themed high tea, who doesn't like the sound of that? For our third and final DESSERTed Dinner Party for 2013 last November, this is the theme we decided to do. As it was a high tea, we changed it from a later 'dinner' time start to a lunchtime/early afternoon start.

      I kept the decorations simple this time around, a few pretty paper lanterns from the discount store and some pretty parasols.

      And of course I had to make a special trip to the flower markets early on my day off to grab a few bunches of my favourite flowers. I love love love peonies and they were perfect for the theme, I was so glad they were in season.

      The other half of our dream team, Jess and Celine also helped with the decorations, redoing our chests and giving them an oriental spin with some pretty paper they had bought from Japan. They made signs with different Asian translations for 'feedback' and 'donations'.

      I was going to just grab some red envelopes but ran out of time to go buy them so sent one of our mates out to buy some for me. He returned with a couple of packets of red pockets from the local Asian grocers - such a smart cookie!

      Some more hanging paper lanterns and Ryan's dad also excitedly contributed with the hanging red things that he had in storage when he heard that we were holding an Asian themed party.

      We were worried that it was going to rain that weekend but luckily for us the weather turned out perfect. Even though everything is undercover the weather can have an impact on the ambiance.

      Individual place settings. Celine made some gorgeous name cards for our guests, I was very impressed at all the effort that was put in :) It doesn't show here but she even wrote out each person's name in Japanese characters too.

      And what's an oriental themed party without some origami? Some beautiful paper cranes (also made by Celine) to decorate the tables. It was a little breezy so we hid a few of the smaller cranes under the tea cups as a little surprise for our guests.

      Box of paper cranes and name cards that Celine and Jessica beautifully hand crafted for our high tea.

      I bought some mini bamboo steamers and filled them with fortune cookies and lychee jellies. There were meant to be some kopiko (coffee) candy too but I forgot to pack them.

      Ryan and I did a lot of brainstorming for this menu. We felt that the last menu for our Winter Warmers dessert party fell a little short of our expectations (mainly due to technicalities), so we made sure that this menu would be a winner not only with the way it read but also that it would be items that we would be able to pre-prepare in mass. We had to have to have everything ready to be served when the guests arrived (and an earlier start time), compared to the last two dessert parties where everything was served up by course (and a later start time).

     The menu was made up of flavours and things that we liked to eat so it was quite a personal composition. I wanted an Asian flavoured tea to go with the food and chose the T2 blend of China Jasmine which is one of my absolute favourite teas to drink. It's a very mild green tea base which has been infused with the delicate flavour of Jasmine. An homage to the Jasmine tea that you would get when you have Yum Cha. I also decided to make an iced tea blend as it was a warm spring day. Ryan suggested that I make my famous Honey Lemon Earl Grey iced tea but as I wanted to keep with the Oriental theme I decided to replace the Earl Grey with an Oolong tea instead.

Lychee and Rose Cake.

      Lychee butter cake with rose buttercream. I first made this cake for food blogger Jenius' wedding, it was such a hit and these are such great flavours for an oriental themed party that I had to recreate the cake.

Mum's Cassava Cake.

      I am addicted to this cake that my mum makes and I thought it was only fitting that I asked her to make it for our high tea. It is so heavily fragrant from the coconut cream and mung bean and cassava that she uses, I always find it hard to stop at one piece. 

Leche Flan and Miso Caramel Macarons.

      Ryan raves about my Leche Flan (Filipino Creme Caramel) and his mum even said that my version is 'almost' as good as the Filipino one so I suppose I should take that as a compliment. I felt a bit disappointed with this time though because I was baking them for the first time in these Chinese tea cups so was a little off with the baking time resulting in quite a firm custard. Also too much sugar syrup at the bottom because I misjudged the depth of the cups. Most people didn't seem to mind though which is a good thing I suppose.

      The Miso Caramel Macarons were made by Jessica this time. I had taught Jessica how to make them and was confident enough to ask her to contribute an item to the high tea :) She was nervous on how they would turn out but I thought they were pretty perfect. They tasted pretty awesome and the miso caramel was a great balance of sweet and salty. And look at how perfect they look.

Pandan Waffles.

      These were a MUST HAVE item on our menu. Our waffle maker had died a few years ago and I only had a Belgian waffle press so had to go out and buy a waffle maker especially for this high tea. It had to be the heart one as it's the signature look of the pandan waffles that most of us South East Asians grew up eating (or you may have eaten these on the streets of Cabramatta). You can find my recipe here.

Matcha Scones.

      Scones with jam and cream are an integral part of any high tea/afternoon tea in my books so I wanted to give them an Asian spin to fit with the theme. I decided to make matcha flavoured scones but these could have done with a bit more matcha (green tea) powder in them. I had to put some green colouring in as they were looking a bit grey green which wasn't very appealing. I also reduced the sugar a bit but that may have been a bit of a mistake combined with the weak matcha powder it meant the scones were a bit on the bland side.

Azuki Bean 'Jam' and Coconut Cream.

      A winning flavour combination is matcha (green tea) and azuki bean (red bean). I made a red bean paste and whipped up some coconut cream to go with the matcha scones. First time ever to try whipping coconut cream and the result was amazingly light and fluffy. To make it you just pop an unopened can of coconut cream in the fridge over night, shake it before opening and then pop it in a mixer with some icing sugar and use the beater attachment to whip it up. A great diary free alternative to whipped cream.

      Serving suggestion for the scones. Together with the 'jam and cream' the scones were pretty awesome.

Crispy Pork Belly Mini Banh Mi.

      Ryan is the brain behind our savoury items. Well, I'd like to say we make a great team in the kitchen because we're always bouncing ideas off each other and the best results are usually when we collaborate which is how our savoury items for the high tea came about. Ryan makes a kick ass roasted pork belly and I knew that we had to make a 'Banh Mi' to go on the menu as it is quintessentially only THE BEST Vietnamese sandwich to grace the tier of our Oriental high tea spread. We did under estimate how far the pork would stretch though even with making mini rolls, managing to make just enough for one mini banh mi for everyone with a few extras for lucky seconds. Next time we'll make double the amount of pork.

      We had a bit of a fusion (or confusion) theme with these mini Banh Mi. We made sure that we made the pickled carrot and white raddish (Ryan made this under mum's watchful eye), but we didn't have enough time to make the pate so Ryan suggested using 'Mang Tomas', a Filipino pork liver sauce (very popular and especially used for pork) in place of the pate. Combined with Kewpie (Japanese) mayo (because I ran out of time to make the mayo and who doesn't love Kewpie mayo) and the Sriracha hot sauce, it was a winning trifecta of sauces for our Banh Mi. Mind you, we hadn't tasted this combo together before so we were crossing our fingers and toes that it would work and boy was it a hit with Ryan's awesome crispy crackly roast pork. We dubbed it our 'Confused Banh Mi'.

Satay Chicken Spring Rolls (served with Satay/Peanut dipping sauce).

      Ryan is a sucker for Satay, he'd put satay sauce on everything if he could. Satay pizza on the menu? You'll know what he'll be ordering. I didn't want to just make your regular satay chicken or beef on a stick. Ryan suggested we make little fried wonton cups and fill them with a satay meat mix. I thought the wonton cups would be a little bit too fiddly and time consuming to make and came up with the idea of the spring rolls. I've got to admit that was pretty genius. And I LOVE my spring rolls. Instead of using minced meat I very finely hand diced some chicken thigh meat and marinated it in a satay mix and Ryan made a satay/peanut sauce to go with them.

Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Japanese Rice Balls).

      These are Ryan's babies. I said that we needed a third savoury item on the menu ( because three always sounds better than two) so Ryan wanted to make these Japanese Rice Balls, inspired by Adam Liaw's Destination Flavour - Japan. Ryan has travelled to Japan before and is a bit obsessed with most things Japanese. These little balls of grilled rice brushed with a miso butter soy sauce were so simple yet so delicious. Ryan put his own little spin on it but you can find Adam's original recipe here.

      Before we had even planned this high tea I had stumbled across these Maxwell and Williams 'Kimono' design cake stands on sale and went and bought four of them for personal use. Jessica happened to have one in the same design but in pink but it worked out well that they were all matching and worked into the Oriental high tea theme.

Filled cake stand on the table.

      There wasn't enough room on the cake stands so we've used these bamboo boards for the overflow.

      We really did try to stretch all the pork out to offer our guests seconds (seriously, who else offers seconds at high tea?). We ran out of coriander sprigs though.

Our guests enjoying themselves and our Japanese waitresses serving tea.

      The one thing we enjoyed about the high tea was that because everything was already made, we were able to spend some time mingling with our guests who were all our friends, or friends of our friends and be proper hosts rather than being cooped up in the kitchen pumping the dishes out. Hence why we rely on our two girls to make sure everything is running smoothly in the 'dining room' while we are busy in the kitchen.

      And because I am always the hostess with the mostess, rarely letting my guests leave a party empty handed, I made some rose marshmallows for them to take home. They were originally meant to be jasmine flavoured but the jasmine tea I tried steeping for the sugar syrup was just not strong enough so I had to go to plan b. I don't think many of them actually even made it home with the guests. I should have given these to them as they were walking out not while they were still sitting down.

      Our DESSERTed Dinner Party dream team, Celine, Ryan, me and Jessica. The girls wanted to wear their Kimonos which they had purchased from Japan which was very cute. Thank you team for all your hard work resulting in another successful event. Can't wait to do another one soon!

      We usually ask our guests for donations to help us cover the costs of running these dessert parties (we don't pay ourselves for our time and labour) and this time we all agreed that we would donate most of that money to charity to help the Typhoon Haiyan victims in the Phillipines. (In case you didn't know, Ryan, Celine and Jessica are Filipino (or Filipina) and I thought that this was a worthy cause that was close to home for them). We chose the Caritas Typhoon Haiyan emergency relief appeal, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, The Catholic Agency for Aid and Development. Thank you Ryan, Celine and Jessica and also to all our friends and guests for your generous donations towards this cause.

      I usually don't let people in to our work space because a) the kitchen is very cramped with the two of us frantically working and b) I can't work with people watching over my shoulder and constantly talking to us and distracting us. This time though I let one lucky person into the kitchen with his camera. The following few photos (including this one) are from our talented food blogger friend/photographer Simon (from The Heart of Food). I absolutely love this photo as I really enjoy watching Ryan when he cooks and is in his element. And the food that he plates up at the end of it - I really do miss it since he's been so busy with work to cook for us. I guess we're both lucky to still be living at home though we've been eating out a lot lately.

      What started out to be a bit of an experiment for me to play with desserts and serving them to a wider audience has turned out to be a very successful and in demand event amongst our friends. Ryan and I are keen to run at least one or two more dessert parties this year, possibly reverting back to the original format where we serve 3 courses of desserts with savoury 'palate cleansers' in between to break up the sweetness. We're on a bit of a break at the moment as my parents kitchen where I do all my prep work for the dessert parties during the week has been ripped out for extensions to the house and a brand new kitchen will be built. Once that is done, we can start planning the next dessert party. I usually post up the details on facebook but I recommend you subscribe to our email list as the high tea got booked out within 24 hours all via email.

Until next time friends, remember - 'Life is short, east dessert first'.

Turkish Delight and The Sweet Swap

      The very first time I encountered Turkish Delight was in primary school. It was in year 2, I would have been about 7 years old. I remember that we were reading the book written by C.S Lewis - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. To seven year old me, it was a fascinating story. How cool would it be if you could walk into your wardrobe and walk out the back of it into another world? You see, I don't even remember much of the story (though the semi recent movie release helped me to relive the memories of the book). One thing I do remember, is the part where the the White Witch bribes Edmund with some 'magical turkish delight'. Our year 2 teacher, Mrs Lewis, then brought in some Turkish Delight for us to try (yes, how uncanny is that, though I don't think I quite realised the coincidence at the time).

      Even though the piece of Turkish Delight that I had that day did not contain any real magical powers, the experience of biting into my first ever piece of Turkish Delight was indeed quite magical. It was soft, sweet and just melted in your mouth when you chewed it and the very faint taste of rosewater was quite heavenly. As time went on, that memory was pushed right into the back of my mind and the next time I did encounter Turkish Delight again was a very foul tasting Cadbury chocolate covered Turkish Delight bar. I'm not sure if the flavour was too strong, or perhaps even too artificial but I was so scared to ever touch any Turkish Delight again. It's only been in the recent years that I have begun to enjoy the wonders of real Turkish Delight again. And I just love rosewater flavoured sweets, as long as it's done right with just the right amount of rosewater as to not be too overpowering or even soapy tasting.

     Turkish Delight is actually relatively easy to make with just a few ingredients and using the cheats method. Authentic Turkish Delight does not contain gelatine and is made with corn flour which you kind of need to stir and cook over a long period of time. I didn't quite have the time to spare so I thought I would try the cheats recipe which uses gelatine to help set the Turkish Delight. I also put a bit of my own spin on it and added pistachios as I like the flavour combination. I'd mix the nuts in next time though as using them as a 'crumb' on the outside didn't quite work out. This recipe made a much firmer Turkish Delight than what I was hoping for, but everyone absolutely loved it so it might just be a personal preference thing. Plus it was a very very cold weekend when I was making it. I might try the more authentic recipe next time.

Recipe: Rose and Pistachio Turkish Delight

Makes approximately 28 x 1 inch squares

(From original recipe in the book: Indulgence Petits Fours: A Fine Selection of Sweet Treats by Murdoch Books)

Ingredients:

• 280ml water
• 3 tbsp powdered gelatine
• 440g sugar
• 1 strip lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp tartaric acid
• 1-2 tsp rosewater, to taste
• pink food colouring
• Crushed pistachios
• 100g icing sugar
• 60g cornflour

1. Brush a 7 x 4 inch baking tin with water

2. Combine the water and gelatine in a saucepan and heat over low heat until gelatine is dissolved.

3. Add the sugar, zest and juice and stir until sugar is dissolved.

4. Bring to the boil and continue to boil for about 8-10 minutes, stirring continuously (you can use a sugar thermometer to check the temperature which should sit around the 90-100 degrees celcius mark - soft ball stage).

5. Discard the zest and add the tartaric acid and rosewater into the sugar mixture and stir to combine.

6. Add the food colouring a few drops at a time until the desired colour strength is reached.

7. Stir in the pistachios and then pour into the baking tin, cover and leave to set overnight.

8. Sift the cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl or deep dish. Dust a few tablespoons of the mixture onto a cold hard surface.

9. Ease the Turkish Delight away from the edges of the tin and gently pull on all sides until it comes out of the tin.

10. Place on the icing sugar dusted work surface and using an oiled knife, cut the Turkish Delight into one inch squares. Toss them in the icing sugar mixture to coat all sides.

11. Store in an airtight container, they will keep well for many weeks.

Don't be an idiot like me and make sure that your tin is water proof/leak proof before you start.

This looks like a lot because I always at least double the batch of whatever it is I am making.

A sugar thermometer does come in handy to make sweets.

First go my tin started leaking, second time I realised the pan was much too wide for the quantity I was making.

Third time lucky. I also forgot to add the pistachios in the mix and thought that I would coat the Turkish Delight with the nuts. I left it a bit too long so it had set firm by the time I got back to it so my nuts didn't stick as much to the surface as I had wanted. You can omit them completely if you don't want nuts.

Coating the underside with more nuts after I had flipped it out of the tin.

Bit of a production line happening.

Completed, my final product.

      You may have recently seen some photos with the hash tag #thesweetswap doing the rounds on various social media platforms. The Sweet Swap, is a great initiative for bloggers organised by two fantastic bloggers where you register your name and pay a small fee which is then donated towards a specific charity. Three random names are then pulled out of a hat and assigned to you as your sweet swap buddies. You then have to make a sweet item, enough for three portions and post them to the people you have been assigned. You also get three different packages of sweets in return. You can read more about it on the website.

      I kind of registered myself as a last minute afterthought, squeezing it in to my already hectic schedule. I thought to myself 'oh I am sure I can quickly bake something in the little spare time I have in between things'. When I reread the conditions, it was sweets/candy only and baked goods were not part of The Sweet Swap. I panicked a little as I didn't really have many ideas of what I could make. I'm a baker, not a candy maker!

      I was quite excited to receive my three names but was a little miffed when I saw the words 'gluten free' and 'no honey' underneath one of my names. I had thought of a couple of ideas that didn't involve baked cookies or cakes and then had to rethink my ideas when I saw this and in the end chose to make this Turkish Delight for my swap item as it did not contain any gluten or honey (and I made sure that the cornflour I used was 100% gluten free and not the wheaten variety). My three recipients ended up being, Anna -thelittlestanchovy.com, and April - polkadotsandchopsticks.com and Martine (all the way in WA) - www.chompchomp.com.au.

      I spent one of my lunch breaks trawling discount stores for some pretty packaging to put my sweets in to. I also found a box of hand made cotton cards from India that were given to me as a present which I thought would be a nice personal touch in comparison to store bought printed tags. As a last minute addition I raided my tea collection and found some peppermint tea from T2 to go with the Turkish Delight. I only had two left though so my third recipient received a lemongrass and ginger tea instead.

      The Sweet Swap was kind of like Christmas had come again. Off to the post office I went to send off my three parcels and then I had to sit patiently and wait for three parcels to come back my way. It was exciting but nerve wracking all at the same time. Waiting patiently, stalking instagram to see whether your sweets had reached their final destination intact and whether or not your recipient liked them. Watching others receiving their parcels while your three have not yet made it to your letterbox. And then getting envious of what other people were getting, wishful and hoping that maybe one of those parcels would be en route to your letterbox. I was very glad to see all my three packages arrive safely, and that my recipients all loved what they received. I wasn't sure if they would be a hit and at the rate they were disappearing, I wish I had squeezed in a few more pieces. Maybe the next time I make Turkish Delight again, I will send a surprise refill to them ;)

       It was quite nice to come home from work each day to a sweet surpirse (literally). I was quite sad when my final parcel had been delivered as I knew there was not going to be any more sweets coming my way. It was a very fun week that week. I think we should totally do this again for Christmas, how awesome would that be! Though I think that it should be opened to all baked goodies as well (as long as they survive in the post), or at least make the terms and conditions a little clearer because I did see a few baked goodies making the rounds. But the whole idea of sharing sweets is just mega awesome. Thank you so much to Sara and Amanda for organising!!

 So here's what I received, thank you to my senders for the delicious sweet treats!

Chewy Coconut Caramels from The Melbourne Food Snob.

Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice and a Thousand Days Red Jasmine Tea Flower from The Culinary Library.

Granola Choc Bites with puffed rice, jelly beans and Haribo lollies from Just One More Spoon.

One last final shot of my scrumptious Turkish Delight. I was told that someone who doesn't even like eating Turkish Delight enjoyed mine, now that's gotta say something.