Our stall is near to Caribou Coffee and Mamoso Flowers.

Scottish Tablet is known around the world by many different names, all have slightly different ingredients and consistencies.  I was brought up to call it toffee (Swiss milk toffee to be exact) in parts of Canada it’s Sucre a la Creme, Russian Toffee in, well, Russia and Milk Toffee or Kiri Aluwa in Sri Lanka.  In fact, the word toffee was originally used to describe ANY sweet made from boiled sugar. Since then the terms fudge, tablet, toffee and caramel have evolved to classify such sweets into differing categories.

I am always curious about these similar confections and was lucky enough to come across Milk Toffee at the Sri Lankan stall at my kids’ school International Day.  This particular version was much darker than my tablet and was flavoured with cardamom.

Kiri Aluwa

The Sri Lankan Connection

When the Scots brought the tea industry to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) they taught the local population how to make tablet. As time went by, this recipe was adopted and altered by adding cinnamon, cardamom, cashew nuts and other ingredients to become a sweet  known as Kiri Aluwa, which translates into English as milk toffee. Much like Scottish tablet, different families have different recipes for what is essentially the same thing.

Recently I was invited to meet the family who own Dilmah Tea who were here to promote their annual High Tea Challenge.  You can read about it here.  So inspired by their passion for tea, I decided to try making some toffee using tea as an ingredient.

I visited Sri Lanka with my family back in 2005 and we ventured into the mangroves to watch how cinnamon is cut from the trees, dried and finally bagged up for sale. So, what better choice than to make my toffee with Dilmah’s own blend: Ceylon Cinnamon Spice Tea – a blend of black tea and cinnamon.

So, here it is: Scottish Tablet/Kiri Aluwa flavoured with Black Tea and Cinnamon. The flavour is delicate and not overpowering and the colour is a rich decadent shade of caramel. Come and try some at my next market.

Two words from my days of working in the hospitality industry in Scotland that were sure to gain groans of dismay and a feeling of dread amongst the staff – High Tea! Coach loads of tourists of the over 65 variety descending en-masse to a feast of sausage, egg and chips or pie, beans and chips followed by cakes, sticky buns and scones. All washed down with gallons of tea at the random time of around 5pm. Then they’d all clear off as fast as they arrived leaving us to breathe a huge sigh of relief before performing a swift turnaround in order to return the restaurant to some semblance of order, ready for the dinner service!

The History of Afternoon Tea

The Dilmah High Tea Challenge

I was recently invited to afternoon tea with the owners of Dilmah Tea – a family run tea business. Merrill J Fernandez and one of his sons, Dilhan delighted us with a presentation which gave us an insight into the history of tea and how there are many varieties and brewing techniques and how the intricate flavours can tell a professional tea taster which region each type comes from. Tea to them is a lifestyle and a genuine passion.

They are here to oversee the UAE leg of an ongoing competition that is held annually around the globe – The Dilmah High Tea Challenge. The concept is to bring afternoon tea into the 21st century. Each team must create an afternoon tea, pairing dishes with hot tea, cold tea, mocktails and cocktails AND create dishes in which tea is used as an ingredient. Dilhan mentioned a particular combination where a tea was paired with a chocolate fudge and had worked particularly well together – this definitely had me interested!

Dilhan of Dilmah Tea overseeing the tea brewing process

What I brought away from my afternoon in the Dilmah Tea family’s company is that they share a passion and drive to bring quality tea to the whole world and it is done with good honest hard work, honour and a lot of love.

Something which is fundamentally important to this business and what lies beneath all of Dilmah’s passion to remain true to their vision is their philanthropy, which through the MJF Foundation has helped hundreds of impoverished people, children with learning difficulties, war victims and those affected by the tsunami of 2004.

Tea Inspired Toffee

So intrigued by the use of tea as an ingredient, I decided to give it a go and created Black Tea and Cinnamon flavoured toffee using one of their own blends. You can read about it here.

I would like to thank Mr Fernando and Dilhan for a truly educational and most enjoyable afternoon and invite them to try my tea flavoured toffee the next time they are in Dubai.

Toffee/fudge/tablet making is NOT easy! So saying, I must have made thousands of trays over the years so it can’t be that difficult, can it?

Would you like to see how I make it?

In collaboration with the De Dietrich Cuisine Academy, we are bringing you for the first time ever, a free toffee making demo where I will show you how I make my toffee and tell you all you want to know about Toffee Princess, except of course for the exact recipe – I have to keep some things secret!

De Dietrich Cuisine Academy

Located within the Dubai Ladies Club, this state of the art facility showcases the De Dietrich range of equipment with everything from steam ovens to intelligent induction hot plates. The academy runs lots of cooking courses with Chef Gabrielle sharing her passion with all who attend. I visited a few weeks ago to discuss our plans for the demo and was immediately transported to heaven. I am so excited to be working here!

Photo courtesy of De Dietrich Cuisine Academy

Book your place now!

• Where:  De Dietrich Cuisine Academy, Dubai Ladies Club
• When:  Monday 6th May from 10am – 12pm
• How:  Book your place by emailing chef@de-dietrich.academy.ae (places are limited to 20 ladies)

I look forward to seeing you there!

Back in January, I was invited to talk to the year 6 students at Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS) about Toffee Princess. They were about to embark upon their Entrepreneurship Challenge and I was asked to tell them a little about how I promote and market my product and how I make it all worthwhile. The students then split into several groups and over the course of a few weeks had to dream up their own business idea, market it and finally sell it within the school.

I was invited to return to the school this week to their market day to see for myself the outcome.

I arrived to find a very busy fun filled market positively thronging with younger students and teachers clamouring to buy up everything from bookmarks and hair braids to gems and jewellery and lots of delicious deserts in-between.

Each group had come up with a business name, a marketing plan and a hook to bring customers to their stalls. I was so impressed with the amount of effort that everyone had gone to. Some wore uniforms, some had brightly coloured banners and some were wending their way through the market enticing us with their delightful delicacies.

It is a privilege and an honour to be asked to be part of this project. I hope that the year 6 students enjoyed creating their businesses and I hope to return next year to inspire more creativity.

Here is a “small” selection of what the students had to offer. Thank you JESS for giving me the opportunity.

Photo courtesy of www.obeorganic.com

Does eating organic beef really make a difference to your diet? A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the lovely people from OBE Organic who hail from Australia’s Channel Country. They were here to promote their organic beef and to find out who buys it and why.

Photo courtesy of www.obeorganic.com

Having made some recent lifestyle changes, I have become more concerned with my health and what I am putting into my stomach. I could never become a vegetarian but I am an animal lover and would definitely prefer that the meat that I choose to eat comes from animals that have been treated well during their lives.

OBE’s cattle are free-ranging and have the luxury of being able to feast upon over 250 species of grasses and herbs which all grow without the use of pesticides and that are native to the region. The water they drink is pure and they are not fed with any supplements or other drugs.

OBE Organic are now exporting to the Middle East and is available in Dubai in Carrefour and Geant stores and in Prime Gourmet in the Gold and Diamond Park. Choose from a variety of cuts of steak, burgers and beef cubes for stews and other slow cooked dishes.

After a short delay due to toffee making duties, I bought my family some OBE 100% beef burgers which I served on half a sesame bun with tomato and red pepper relish with an organic rocket salad.

So, what can I tell you about them? I’d say they are definitely tastier and juicier than the regular burgers I buy (also 100% beef from Carrefour or Geant), not a huge difference but at least I know where the beef is from and I know the cows were happy ones. Yes, they cost a little more, but you expect that from organic products – besides, it was the difference of around AED 2 per pack and I’d say that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and our new Red Velvet flavour is selling fast! There’s enough time for you to place an order for a gift box to collect at ARTE Souk on Friday 8th Februry. Drop us an email with your requirements and we will get the toffee pots bubbling.

Toffee Princess at ARTE Souk – Friday 8th February

Visit us at our regular monthly market at Times Square Centre from 12 noon until 7pm. Free samples are always available. Find our stall near to the flower shop and Caribou Coffee.

Here’s the details:

Toffee Princess at the JESS Spring Fair – Friday 22nd February

One of our favourite markets of the year and certainly one of our busiest. We promise to have more Camel Milk flavour to go around this year! The fair opens at 3:30pm and goes on until 7:30pm. See you there.

Full details are on the poster:

The deli is owned by the lovely husband and wife team, Manar and Suzi who also own Appetite, a thriving outside catering business and their ethos is simple, “It’s all about the food!”. Their delicious food and warm, friendly welcome is obviously a recipe for success as a steady stream of customers continued to pour in from the many nearby offices throughout our lunch.

As there was a group of us, we opted for a selection of wraps and salads which were all beautifully presented. I shall let the pictures do the talking:

Tofu, rice, sesame oriental salad

Pumpkin, broccoli and feta quiche

Cajun chicken and pepper ciabatta

Pastrami and cheese on rye

The main reason we chose 1762 Deli – the rosemary potato wedges!

The finale. Chocolate overload birthday cake!

All that remains, is to say a massive thank you to Jonquil and all the wonderful staff who looked after us so well today. We will be back again soon!

Where?  JESS (Jumeirah English Speaking School), Arabian Ranches Campus

When?  Friday 22nd February 2013

What time?  3:30pm-7:00pm

Camel milk flavour was very popular last year and we will have our two new flavours: red velvet and chilli chocolate.

More details to follow…

Where:  Abu Dhabi Golf Club

When?  Sunday 27th January 2013

What time?  10am – 2pm

We are looking forward to brining you our two new flavours Red Velvet and Chilli Chocolate.

Here’s the details: