Freaking? Have a cuppa.

“I don’t want to know!” I babbled on, “Oh, Christ. We’re not equipped, I’m not good at this! And if there’s an emergency, the bloody phone doesn’t work! And there’s my parents in there, and the other lot. Oh, God!” I started laughing.
Frances told me to get a grip, but I continued laughing. With thoughtful eagerness, she offered to smack me. I declined her kindly offer and took deep breaths instead.
“Better?” asked Frances, sounding a little disappointed, then asked me to help put out the tea things. Good idea. So that’s what I did, and my hysteria gradually subsided.

No milk in your tea?

“And you never have milk in your tea?” Mum said it sympathetically, finding it hard to believe.
“Never. Tastes better. Really. You should try it,” said Frances.
“At my age! Tea without milk.” She laughed, then tried one more time. “Frances, you never had milk in your tea? Not ever?”
Frances confessed to drinking her coffee black too.
“Oh, well, coffee, yes, but tea? Funny, really. Oh, well.”

A cool and peppery starter at summer's end

Being a Brit, I’ve always had a fondness for watercress sandwiches, the kind one has for tea with the crusts cut off, but I’ve always wanted to take their sophisticated, contrasting flavors from the tea table to the dinner table. Here, then, is my take on an old favorite, now transformed into an elegant cold soup for a lovely summertime lunch or dinner.

Choose your weapons
The hardware. A chopping/mashing machine of your choice—luddite that I am, I like to use a pestle and mortar, but this is not necessary. Also a hand-held blender/whirring machine, and You a couple of glass bowls.
The ingredients. A bunch of watercress, an avocado, and a ripe pear, three cups of light chicken stock, four-five thick slices of crustless country bread, a good dash of salt, a garlic clove, three tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar, and a lemon from which to squeeze a few tablespoons of juice. You’ll also need a quarter cup of olive oil, plus a teaspoon or two. If you feel so inclined, a tablespoonful of whipping cream won’t hurt.

Let’s get cracking
Peel and chop up the pear into very small dice, squirt with lemon juice, and set aside. Now wash and chop up the watercress leaves and just the tenderest stalks, put into a glass bowl, reserving a little for garnish. There, simple.

Onward!
While your chicken stock is coming to a low boil, mash up the bread, olive oil, salt, vinegar and tablespoon of lemon juice in your pestle or other mashing implement. Drop the garlic clove in the stock, blanch for 30 seconds, then fish out and add to your sloppy bread mixture. Mash up well. Tip the just-boiled chicken stock over the watercress leaves; this blanches them and adds to the vibrancy of the finished dish. Mix in the bread mixture. Chop up the avocado and add to your mixture. Now whirr everything up with your hand mixer (or food processor). If your soup is too thin, add a bit more bread and whir it into the soup to thicken.
Now chill the concoction for a few hours, and you will end up with a vibrant, peppery, creamy soup. Check for salt, it may need a little more; if you’re concerned about salt add a little more lemon juice instead.
Serve up in little bowls and sprinkle with the tiny pear fruitions––voila! You make of course make bread croutons if you’d rather, but ripe pear adds a luscious contrast. Top with a sprinkling of chopped watercress and, if desired, drizzle on a little cream—et voila! You have a cold, elegant soup with a hint of teatimes past, just perfect for a warm summer’s eve.

And the winner is...

The deadline for our first giveaway has come and gone, and we have a winner! Before we proceed with the drum roll, we wish to thank everyone for all the tea stories and the fabulous birthday wishes--so sweet (and what a surprise!). Too bad I didn't ask for cake!
Also, we are thrilled to have several new followers, and lots of new visitors. We love new bloggy friends.
How we picked the lucky winner
After we took out the tea drinkers who snuck in from the other side of the pond (coals to Newcastle, sorry!), the coffee-totallers, and the under-age blogger, we assigned numbers starting with "1" to all remaining entries. Then we added in the photo senders. We ended up with 30 entries--very respectable, what--so we used the roulette wheel. And the winner of our English tea giveaway is...our stitchy friend Daffycat. Congratulations--well done, and thanks for the link too!
Come and get it! Well, email us your address, and it will come to you.
Thanks to all who entered, and keep visiting!
Cheers,
Denis & Frances

Last chance for English tea giveaway

Only three days left to enter our first giveaway and win the ingredients for a perfect cup of rosie lea: a tin of Twinings Earl Grey and a packet of Typhoo teabags. Three ways to enter:
*leave a birthday wish (can't get enough of those!) or a tea story

*send us a lovely photo of Southern England or East Anglia
*link back to us
One more thing: must be in US--silly to start shipping tea back to Blighty! For more details and to enter,
click here.

Our first giveaway--English tea!

It has been brought to our attention that the teas we mentioned in a perfect cup of rosie lea may be hard to find in some parts of the country. Therefore, in honor of the Prodigal Birthday, and to ensure everyone in the United States (sorry!) an opportunity to try my favorite blend, we are giving away a packet of Typhoo teabags and a tin of Twinings Earl Grey loose tea.
The rules are simple. For a chance at this lovely prize, just leave me a birthday wish or a tea story (one per person, US only). For an additional entry,
*mention the giveaway on your blog and link back (please notify us); and/or
*email us (aprodigaltourist@gmail.com) a lovely photo of Southern England or East Anglia (not London, please) we may post with a link back to you.
*if you wish us to notify you if your win, please leave or send us your email; otherwise, we will post and give the lucky winner 72 hours to notify us.
How long do these things run? Yikes, no idea. How about we accept entries until June 15 (12 am EDT) and draw a winner on June 16. We will assign numbers in order of entry; if we have less than 64 entries, we will use our roulette table or bingo cage to pick a winner. If we have more than 64 entries, we will be old-fashioned and use a hat and paper.
Good luck and enjoy the rest of my birthday!

A perfect cup of rosie lea

Americans are fascinated by the English ritual of tea making and drinking. So here are some guidelines for a perfect pot of Prodigal Tea. First you need a teapot, a tea strainer, and a whistling kettle. (If you don’t have a teapot, you can use a Pyrex container, but the tea won’t stay as hot while it brews.) Any kind of milk can be used but not cream or creamer, please!
And you’ll need tea of course. I use Brooke Bond PG Tips or Typhoo. Both Brit brands are not the highest grade but they are workmanlike, everyday breakfast teas that give a flavorful, robust, caramel-colored brew. Definitely a step up from local leaves that shall remain nameless. Boston Harbor should be full of the stuff, as far as I’m concerned!
I like to add a large pinch of Earl Grey to the pot, to mellow out the breakfast tea and provide an additional burst of flavor. This is the everyday Prodigal Blend. (I think a pot of just Earl Grey is a little too much.)
Prodigal Tea for two!
First put the kettle on until it whistles. Splash some hot water in the teapot to warm it, then empty out. Put one heaping teaspoon of loose tea (or one teabag of strong tea) in the pot, plus a good pinch of Earl Grey. I prefer the Earl Grey with the citrus bergamot flavor as opposed to the more smoky version of the blend, but that’s a matter of taste. Now reboil the water and pour a couple of cupfuls in the pot. Let the brew stand for a few minutes and there you are. I let it brew for at least five minutes. The longer you wait the stronger it gets.
Frances likes her tea without sugar or milk. So odd! For the rest of us, put a splash of milk in the cup first, warm 15 seconds in the microwave, then add the nicely brewed tea. Don’t forget to use a strainer when pouring! The holes in the spout of your teapot are not there to catch unwanted leaves, they just help regulate the flow of tea. By the way, you can use Irish tea brands, these are good too. Add sugar to taste, although I don’t.
I’ve been told by posher Brit chums that putting milk in first is a very working class thing to do, and not the done thing in upper class society. Not that I’m against societal aspirations but, at the risk of betraying my origins, I put in the milk first because it gives you a better mix of liquids. So there. And if you’re American, who cares anyway, just enjoy your cuppa!