British food has had a significant impact on everyday foods of Sri Lanka.This maybe why I have always been fascinated with British food. The Sri Lankan version of the British High Tea tradition is tea with short eats.My memories of short eats are from childhood birthday parties and when my parents took my brother and I for an occasional treat to Elephant House in Kandy town. I remember eating cutlets and rolls with tomato sauce at Elephant House and ice cream served with a wafer in an aluminium cup. At birthday parties we always ate patties, rolls, cutlets and sandwiches along with iced butter cake.It was always so delicious.
These childhood memories were the beginning of my fascination with English Teatime.After I moved to Los Angeles, I visited various tea houses where English high tea was served including Tudor House, Two a Tea, the Rose Garden Tea Room at Huntington Gardens and Chado Tea room.When in Sri Lanka the last time I visited, I had high tea at Mt.Lavinia Hotel.
This lead me to want to duplicate the flavors of those Sri Lankan birthday parties and the British tea time treats.I wanted to make those delicious sandwiches.I also wanted to make scones, which are not served in Sri Lanka but which I first tasted in Fiji where many Australian expatriates lived.I searched on the internet for recipes for sandwiches and scones.
There was always a fish sandwich along with beetroot and egg sandwiches at Sri Lankan birthday parties.I ended up making 3 varieties: egg sandwich, fish sandwich and cucumber sandwich.Cucumber sandwiches are not traditionally eaten in Sri Lanka but I wanted to include cucumber as they are synonymous with the English High tea tradition.
I came up with my own formula, that comes relatively close to what Sri Lankan sandwiches tasted like ,influenced by the various recipes I found on the internet.First, I made a paste for the fish and egg sandwiches consisting of mayonnaise, butter, ground mustard, black pepper, salt, diced onion and diced green chillis.To this base I added canned tuna for the fish sandwich and mashed hard boiled eggs for the egg sandwich.I used sandwich bread to make the sandwiches and cut off the edges of the sandwiches and cut each sandwich into 2 fingers.
The three links below influenced the final outcome of my fish and egg sandwiches with a Sri Lankan touch.
For the cucumber sandwich I used an English cucumber sliced into 1/8 inch slices and used 8 slices per two slices of buttered bread and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper before cutting into 2 fingers, once again trimming the edges.I did not peel my cucumbers although the recipe recommends that they be peeled.
This is the link to the recipe I used for the cucumber sandwiches:
| http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/08/part-two-of-my-cucumber-sandwich-revenge-tea-time.html | ||||||||
Pictured below are a plate of the sandwiches I made from left to right: Egg, Cucumber and Tuna (in front)
(Please excuse the crumbs on the plate :)) Please click on picture to enlarge
For the scones recipe, I really wanted to make Pumpkin Scones.Pumpkin scones which were made famous by Lady Flo Bjelke-Peterson who was a Senator and the wife of the former Governor of Australia's state of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson. I had gone to Australia in the mid eighties as a teenager to Brisbane, Queensland for higher studies and Flo's husband, Joh was the controversial governor of Queensland at the time.I had never actually tasted Pumpkin scones before, although I had eaten currant scones.I wanted to find a recipe that was low in sugar and fat and I was able to find one on the internet.I actually used 1cup of pumpkin instead of 3/4 cup.
This is the link to the recipe I used:
| http://australian.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-scones-18101 |
Below is a picture of the Pumpkin scones I made, which I served with jam and Smart Balance spread.Traditionally, they would be served with butter or clotted cream and jam.(Please click on picture to enlarge)
