I love a bargain

Ever since I had the pleasure of enjoying tea at Room with Roses I have been craving good quality tea. I drink a lot of tea - but then I am Irish. My day revolves around the many cups of tea I make. When I'm with my Mum I drink even more tea and when I'm with my friend S it goes off the Richter scale.

After our lovely high tea in Brisbane I decieded to buy a tea strainer just like the one they had used. Of course, when one uses a tea strainer one must also use a silver teapot. As luck would have it, there is a little antique store around the corner from where we live and they are closing down. I popped in the other day to see if I could pick up a bargain and I bought myself a beautiful silver teapot for a measly $10. Can’t go wrong, I thought to myself as I a toddled back home with my new little bargain. Of course when I went to open the teapot and the whole lid came off. I wasn’t too surprised – what do you expect for $10. I think the hinge had fused and so someone had just cut around it so they could open the lid. No problem – I’d just keep my finger on it as I poured out the tea. I gave the pot a good clean and even warmed it like Nana used to do. I put in my fancy Kenyan tea leaves that I bought at The Tea Centre and added the water and left it to brew for a few minutes. When I came back there was a little puddle of tea around the tea pot. The bargain now had a leak. Not to worry. J is a dab hand with the wielding gun. No doubt he could sort that leak out for me. I got my beautiful tea strainer out and started pouring the tea …. no leaves appeared in my strainer. The damn bargain has its own strainer at the bottom of the spout. Foiled, I can’t use my strainer with my tea pot but it looks damn good sitting along side it.

Every good tea break needs to be enjoyed with a little treat and I had always loved the look of madeleines. I had never made or even tasted madeleines before, but they looked so cute in cookbooks, food magaizines and other food blogs. I found a very simple recipe in Bill Grangers book Bill’s Food and purchased a little madeleine baking tray at the local homewares shop. The recipe didn’t say how many it would make but let me clarify - LOTS! I think I made about seven batches of these. Lucky for me the guys in work devored them in minutes otherwise I would have had plenty of left overs. I always thought these little gems were crunchy like biscuits but these ones turned out more like a firm sponge. They were light and delicious and I will definitely be making them again when I get that leaky little tea pot all sorted out.

Lemon Madeleines

5 eggs
200 g (7 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
finely grated zest from 1 lemon
200 g (7 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
180 g (6 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy, then mix in the lemon zest. Add the flour, baking powder and butter and fo1d everything together. Leave the mixture to rest for 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a greased madeleine tray and bake for 8 to 9 minutes or a little longer, depending on the size of the holes in your madeleine tray.