A Cornish Cream Tea in Toronto

In my last post I mentioned Cornish cream teas. These are culturally very important to my husband, who although from Devon, has a good deal of Cornish blood. I have no Devon or Cornish blood, but I have taken cream teas to heart (probably literally, as the fat content of the cream is ridiculously high) and they are my favourite afternoon treat. A decent pot of tea (preferably Yorkshire Tea) made with boiling water, left to brew long enough to get a decent colour, a fresh scone, spread thickly with clotted cream and topped with jam, either strawberry or raspberry. You can't beat it.

There is a difference between Cornish and Devon clotted cream - one is thicker than the other. And apparently one county spreads the jam first, whilst the other spreads the cream first. I can't remember which, but frankly, who cares - they both taste amazing. Incidentally, my daughter has told me that in the USA clotted cream would be classed as butter, due to its excessive fat content. Just as well it's not easy to find in Canada, eh?

Now that I mention clotted cream, I was recently introduced to a delicious cream by a Syrian friend of mine. It was a lot like clotted cream and you can buy it in Toronto! I have yet to get round to heading out to Arz Bakery http://www.arzbakery.com/ on Lawrence, but when the Rodda's has all gone and the cravings return I will go.I believe it is called something like Kaymak, but my friend mentioned another name for it that I have since forgotten. I will know it when I see it! Incidentally, the Arz baba ghanoush (aubergine dip) is absolutely delicious and I will pick up some of that too.

And on the subject of scones, the recipe I now swear by is based on a Julia Child recipe given to me by my American friend Christina, who is married to a German. I know that as a diplomatic spouse from good old Blighty I should possibly not admit to using an American scone recipe, but I comfort myself with the fact that Julia Child was herself a diplomatic spouse, and these scones are so blinking good I am sticking to it. Until yesterday, I had always baulked at using the melted butter to brush the tops, replacing it instead with beaten egg. However, the slight crispy crunch added by the butter and sprinkled sugar topping just adds that perfect finishing texture.

Here is the recipe and I apologize for the mixture of imperial, metric and cup measurements; that is what comes of travelling the world and picking up recipes from all over the place, then converting them in my own slapdash way. I always prefer to weigh baking ingredients rather than use cup measures and I would not be without my trusty digital scales. These scones are best eaten on the day you bake them.

Scones

(adapted from Baking with Julia Child)

Ingredients:

1.      3 cups flour (450g)

2.      1/3 cup sugar

3.      2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

4.      ½ teaspoon baking soda

5.      ½ teaspoon salt

6.      1 ½ sticks (6 oz) cold unsalted butter, cubed

7.      1 cup buttermilk  (or 2 Tbsp sour cream + milk to equal 1 cup)

8 Melted butter for brushing

Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1.      Heat oven to 400F

2.      Rub together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and butter pieces.  (Use the K beater on the Kitchen Aid or Kenwood if you have one, or Pulse in a processor (or mash) until you get a mealy, crumbly sort of mixture.  Don’t over-mix, lumps are OK.

3.      Pour in buttermilk and mix just until mixture holds together. You don't want to overmix - it will go leathery (I think it is something to do with the gluten)

4.      Put out onto floured counter and press until dough just holds together, flatten into a 1-inch (2.5 cm) disk. I usually make them slightly higher, so that you can cut the scones in half and still get two good sized rounds. 

5.      Cut into little rounds and place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

6.      Bake for 12 minutes or until tops turn light brown.

Serve with clotted or double cream and strawberry jam

Beautiful, tart and nurturing

The dedication on this crab apple tree said that the lady to whom it was dedicated was beautiful, tart and nurturing, or words to that effect. I'm not sure I'd want to be remembered as tart, but it was a beautiful tree.

A Spring stroll yesterday from Wilket Creek (Eglinton and Leslie) took us up to Edwards Gardens, where we admired the spring flowers and spotted a blue jay in a tree (the bird not the baseball player). There was a babel of different languages, English probably being the least heard. J and I with our sad linguist minds always like to listen in and debate what language we may be hearing. We heard a Spanish speaking family discussing the frogs and tadpoles (I now know the Spanish for frog is rana but the limits of J's Spanish were revealed by his ignorance of the word for tadpole). We picked out Korean, Russian , Mandarin and Tagalog for sure as well as a possibly Chinese language whose rhythm sounded somewhat Korean. There were lots of others that we couldn't identify. There were big family groups sitting around under the trees grilling delicious-smelling meat on the barbecues. We always notice that it is mainly new Canadians using the barbecue pits and walking the trails and wonder why that is.

The park was packed, but with it being two days before Victoria Day, the little tea room was closed. They would have done a roaring trade. But they don't open before Victoria Day and they close for the season on Labour Day and they're not going to change that for anyone, even if the weather is still amazing outside that season and people might like a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake on the terrace in the sunshine. Good job we had already had a proper Cornish cream tea on our patio before we went out, with real Rodda's clotted cream and homemade scones, but that's another story and I'm not telling anyone how that Rodda's came to be in my fridge.

Quilts and countryside

On Wednesday with my patchwork and quilting group I visited two quilt exhibitions and a quilt shop out in Mennonite country; Fergus, Elora, Elmira and Kitchener. Shame the slog back along the 401 into Toronto is such a pain or I'd go out there much more. Still, it was a glorious spring day, bright sunshine and a brisk wind and it was refreshing to escape the city for a while.

Homer Watson House and Gallery

 We visited the Grand National Quilt Exhibition at the Homer Watson Gallery in Kitchener. I loved the location; an old house, the former home of the artist Homer Watson, set in beautiful gardens which were showing off their bright green spring foliage. The curator told us that Watson's big break came with the purchase of one his works by Queen Victoria. The painting returned to the gallery last year on loan; the curator told us how surprised she'd been at how obliging the staff at Windsor Castle were when she asked to borrow it. Apparently the AGO would not let their Watsons out of Toronto. The curator also told us that the house is said to be haunted by the ghost of Homer Watson's sister Phoebe, but she didn't appear to be home when we called.

We also visited the Wellington County Museum between Fergus and Elora. I hadn't visited Fergus before, and loved the setting with the deep sided river running through the town. We didn't have time to stroll around, but I will definitely go back. The County Museum used to be the poor house, and there were some excellent photographs of some of the former residents; they must have led very harsh lives. I would have liked to spend longer there, but we had such a packed itinerary that it will have to wait for another day.

Detail from a quilted silk kimono at the juried exhibition Threadworks, with the theme of Water, at the Wellington County Museum in Fergus. The seams were joined with tiny beads.

My friend Jennie Wood had exhibits in the Threadworks and Grand National Exhibitions. We were awed and inspired  by her talent, and that of all the other fabric artists. Here is one of Jennie's pieces.

On our drive through the countryside we passed lots of farms, many with boards out to say what they had for sale; maple syrup, eggs, quilts... It would be good to have a more leisurely drive around and visit a few; as it was, we had to drive past the tempting signposts.

The staff at the lovely quilt store, Quilters Nine Patch, in Elmira, must have been pleased to see us - we were like children in a sweet shop, looking at all the beautiful fabrics and buying quite a good amount! The staff display kits and bundles of fabrics that go well together - this is great for overwhelmed beginners like us, who don't really know where to get started with choosing good fabric combinations. There were so many amazing fabrics and quilts to look at. I chose some vintage-style prints in reds, creams and blues to turn into Union Jack cushion covers.

My union jack cushion covers in progress

When I got home I looked up walks around the Fergus and Elora area, and discovered the Elora Cataract Trailway - this has gone straight onto my list of places to explore. It's a 47km long former railway, now partly gravelled and available to hikers, bikers, and in the winter, cross country skiiers. We will return with our bikes strapped to the back of the car.http://www.trailway.org/