|
Ursula Bethellabout |
A Canterbury Dinner for FUGACITY 05Roslyn Norrie
Dinner menu in the style of 1920s Canterbury for the FUGACITY 05 organising committee and partners, plus out-of-town guests, Wednesday 20 April 2005 Radishes with salt and Black & Green Olives -oOo- Green Pea Soup with Cream & Croutons -oOo- Roasted Hogget or Mushroom Pie Savoury Haricot Beans Scalloped Potatoes with Anchovies or Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese Hot Vinegared Beetroot, Parsley Carrots cooked in Vermouth, Glazed Baby Onions -oOo- Apple Charlotte & Spanish Cream Whipped Cream -oOo- Celery Sticks & Cheddar Cheese -oOo- Coffee or Darjeeling Tea with cream, milk and sugar, or Lemon Verbena Tea -oOo- Flowers
References M A Blackmore. Vegetable Cookery and Meatless Dishes. Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1927. Colonial Everyday Cookery . Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1908. Creamoata Recipes . Gore: Fleming & Co, [1926]. Janet Ross. Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen. London: J M Dent, 1899. Marjorie Swift. Feed the Brute! London: Geoffrey Bless, 1925. All the FUGACITY 05 recipes have been modified from originals in the above books, as many simply list ingredients and give few instructions. Some of the recipes are amalgamations.
Recipes Radishes with salt and Black & Green Olives Scrub the radishes well then top and tail and dry on a clean cloth, place with individual piles of black and green olives on the same plate, and top with salt immediately before serving. Green Pea Soup Set 3 quarts (3 litres) of water to boil in a soup pot and prepare the vegetables. Add the diced marrow and return to the boil. Remove and discard the roots from the lettuce and spinach, wash the leaves and add to pot. Take each leek and slice from near the root to the end of the leaves. Turn by 90 degrees and do the same again. Now you will have a leek which has been sliced vertically into quarters almost all of the way through, allowing you to wash out any soil. Shake off water and slice each leek crosswise into ½ inch (1 cm) pieces and add to the pot. Return to boil, simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent anything catching on bottom. Add peas and ground white pepper, return to boil once more and simmer for 10 minutes. Test the vegetables: if they resist the bite, cook for a further ten minutes. Mouli (or blend) all the vegetables then add back into the cooking liquor and stir to amalgamate. The soup can now be left to cool. Before serving, heat the soup to boiling, taste and add salt if needed, stirring well after each addition. Serve into soup cups and garnish with 1 tablespoon (15 mls) of cream or a mint leaf, and sprinkle on a few of the croutons. Savoury Haricot Beans Drain the beans and bring to boil in fresh water with the bay leaves, thyme, celery, carrots and onions, then simmer for 1-2 hours or until beans are tender but not broken apart. At this point they can be left to cool and the dish finished later. Heat the tomatoes with the salt in a large shallow pan and ladle in the drained cooked beans, leaving aside the cooking liquor in case it should be needed later. Discard the celery and thyme stalks. Remove the onion and carrot, dice finely and add to the tomato/bean mixture. Continue to heat, stirring gently and adding pepper to taste. If the mixture dries out, add some of the cooking liquor. Taste the beans and add more salt if necessary. Place the beans into a shallow serving dish large enough to hold the roasted hogget as well. Roasted Hogget Take a roasting dish and make a bed of the carrots and onions just large enough to rest the hogget on. Bake at 310F (160C) for 30 minutes per lb, or 35 minutes per kilo (a six pound leg will take 3 hours to cook). Remove hogget from oven, cover and rest on a large dish in a warm place for 30 minutes. Pour off any fat in the roasting dish, leaving the lean juices. Add 1 pint (500 mls) water to the carrot and onion left in the roasting dish and bring to boil on the stovetop together with any meat juices. Stir the dry, crusty bits on the base of the pan and mash the vegetables with the back of a wooden spoon to release as much flavour as possible. Strain the liquid into a serving jug, discarding any carrot and onion that remains and keep this dark thin gravy warm till serving time. When it is time to serve the meat, lay the roasted hogget on top of the haricot beans and carve at the table. Top each large spoonful of beans with slices of hogget and some of the dark gravy. Mushroom Pies Place flour in bowl, add the butter and work till it resembles soft bread crumbs with none of the pieces of butter larger than a small pea. Tossing the mixture with a fork or knife-tip, add cold water until almost all of the flour and butter has formed a ball of dough. Turn this over in the bowl until most of the flour and butter mixture has cohered. Flour the dough and form into a stout sausage, then wrap in waxed paper and leave overnight in a cold place. Next day, divide the dough so one piece is twice the size of the other: the smaller for the pie top/s. Roll the smaller piece of pastry thin on a floured surface – if you use an old tablecloth or large tea towel you should be able, in good light, to just see the pattern through the dough. Cut out the pastry lid/s ½ inch (1 cm) larger in diameter than the top of the pie dish/es. Rest lid/s in a cool place whilst you deal with the rest of the pastry. Put the pastry scraps aside for the pie decorations. Grease the dishes well. Roll the remaining dough and cut into correct diameters to line the pie dish/es. Rest the lined pie dish/es in a cold place till you are ready to assemble the pie/s. Gather the pastry scraps together and layer with the butter slivers, one atop the other, then roll this lump of dough on a well floured surface till about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Cut this pastry into 2 inch (5 cm) button-mushroom shaped silhouettes and leave aside to decorate the pies. Mushroom Pie filling: Assemble the pies: Scalloped Potatoes with Anchovies and Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese Chop the potatoes into large bite-sized pieces and divide them evenly between two ovenproof dishes deeper than they are wide. Mash the tin of anchovies in their oil and spread over one of the dishes. Cover the other dish with the chopped Cheddar. Divide the milk and cream evenly between the two dishes till the potato is covered, adding extra milk if necessary. Bake at 400F (200C) for an hour or until the potatoes are creamy and tender beneath each dark, salty crust. Hot Vinegared Beetroot Wash the beetroot to remove any soil, trim remaining leaves and long roots. Cover with water and boil for one hour, or until a toothpick can be inserted without undue resistance. Leave the beetroot in the cooking liquor until cool enough to handle. Put ¼ cup of the cooking liquor into a serving dish and add the vinegar. Slip the skins off the beetroot and where necessary use a sharp knife to trim away any rough or unappetising bits. Cut beetroot into bite-sized chunks and place into the vinegar mixture. Serve hot, warm or cold, garnished with the lemon rind. Parsley Carrots cooked in Vermouth ‘Turn’ the carrots by tapering each end with a knife, making each piece of carrot into an olive-shape. (The ‘turnings’ may be used for flavouring the Hogget, or perhaps for a soup some other day.) Cook the carrots in a heavy based sauté pan with the butter, sugar (if needed) and salt. Toss over the heat until browned in places. Add the hot water and cook for 10 minutes or till the carrots are half tender. Add half of the Vermouth and boil fast till the remaining juices are thick. Add the remaining Vermouth and toss over a hot flame so that the alcohol catches fire and the carrots caramelize slightly. If not serving immediately, put aside ready for reheating. Place onto a serving dish and strew with the chopped parsley. Serve warm or hot. Glazed Baby Onions Melt the butter in a heavy based sauté pan, then add the onions and sugar and toss over a medium heat for 10 minutes or until the onions have caramelized slightly. Add the sherry and water then cook uncovered till the onions are tender and the remaining syrup is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. At this point the onions may be put aside for reheating later. Place in a serving dish and serve warm or hot. Apple Charlotte Apple Sauce Toasted Bread Crumb Mixture Assembling the Apple Charlotte Grease the inside of the spring-form pan well with the butter and sprinkle sufficient of the breadcrumb mixture to coat the inside. Fill the mould two-fifths with the apple, taking care to remove and discard the lemon peel and cinnamon sticks. Place a layer of macaroons over the apple, breaking some macaroons into crumbs to fill the gaps. Add another layer of apple to fill the mould completely then sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture on top – leave aside about 1 cup for when you serve the Charlotte. Bake at 350F (180C) for 1 hour. Remove from oven and cool for 1 hour, then place onto a serving plate and remove mould gently. Pour over the remaining crumbs to make a crisp covering. Serve in wedges. Spanish Cream Place the milk into the top of a double-boiler and heat till it begins to steam. Remove from heat and add the soaked gelatine. Stir till gelatine is completely dissolved (about 2 minutes). Add the sugar and stir till that has also dissolved. The mixture should by then have cooled sufficiently to add the yolks without curdling. Whisk yolks into the milk mixture thoroughly, then replace pot on double-boiler and stir this custard till it thickens sufficiently to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat and place to cool. Stir mixture every 20 minutes or so to prevent setting (it is ready when it has thickened to the consistency of the raw egg whites put aside earlier). Beat the egg whites in a very clean bowl till foamy, add the sugar slowly, beating all the while till stiff peaks remain once the beater is removed. Incorporate about one quarter of the egg white mixture into the gelatine mixture. Gently fold remaining egg white mixture into the custard. Pour into a serving bowl or mould, cover and refrigerate. Whipped Cream Celery Sticks & Cheddar Cheese Coffee or Darjeeling Tea Lemon Verbena Tea Oat Bread Place oats and sugar in a large mixing bowl, add the boiling water and mix well. Cool to luke-warm and add the yeast and wholemeal, mix well and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour. Stir in the salt, add the white and gluten flours and mix to a stiff dough (which does not adhere to the bowl, adding more flour if need be). Put into two smaller or one large greased bread pan and leave to rise in a warm place. When dough has risen by half, bake at 350F (180C) for 1 – 1 3 hours. Macaroons Add the sugar and egg white then beat for three minutes till the mixture is very thick and stiff. Drop heaped teaspoons of this mixture onto baking paper or brown paper lined baking sheets and place close to bottom of the oven. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the macaroons are medium-brown all over. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the paper with the macaroons onto a cooling rack. When cooled slightly and the macaroons detach easily, remove from paper and leave on rack till completely cold, store till required.
1. Helen Simpson, from an untitled typescript in the Mary Ursula Bethell archive of the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, written after Bethell’s death in 1945. |
|
Comments
|