Final Downton Dinner this Season

My friends and I gathered with much anticipation for the last episode of this exciting saga. We were both eager and sad knowing this would be the last until the release of season five.

From the previews we knew this would be an episode of revealing information and celebration. We chose to do it up right as best we could. Our meal was a smoked salmon quiche, with artichoke hearts, goat cheese and dill. We started off the evening with a blended white wine from Conundrum vineyards in Rutherford CA. We moved on to a Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy. Our dessert was fresh fruit marinated in port wine and sugar wrapped in a crepe. What a way to finish the season!

The recipes did not come from the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook. The dessert was on the back of the crepe bag. Yes, they were store bought. Sometimes you just have to take a few shortcuts. The quiche is a combination of a recipe and my imagination.

This has been a lot of fun both planning and cooking around a central theme. To watch a show of this type and be able to discuss immediately the ins and outs of the progressions of the lives involved. We have enjoyed watching the fashions change both as the years pass and the social demands dictate. It has been somewhat of a refresher course on the history of the early 20th century.

Planning a meal is a wonderful way to have friends and family around, but to have a focus, something to be discussed at least part of the time, helps liven up the conversation. Whether your focus is a book or TV program or a cookbook based on a TV program, you are inspired to ponder new things and bring fresh discussion to the gathering -- not just the same old same old on what is happening around you. Think about this the next time you invite friends over.

Smoked Salmon Quiche with Goat Cheese and Dill

1 9-in. piecrust

3 eggs

1 cup half and half

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped

4 oz. smoked salmon, flaked

1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles

1 tablespoon fresh dill, divided

2 tablespoons fresh chopped green onion, divided

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/8 tsp Tabasco hot sauce

   

Bake piecrust in 400-degree oven for 10 minutes and allow to cool while preparing rest of quiche. Be sure to press edges to pan and prick with fork so crust will not draw in while baking. Use baking beads or other device to help hold crust shape. This pre-bake step will help insure a crisp crust bottom.

Combine eggs, half and half, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce beat until eggs are completely blended. Sprinkle the flaked salmon in cooled crust, add artichoke hearts, crumble goat cheese, half of the fresh dill and chopped green onions.

Pour egg mixture over other ingredients and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Check during baking time and if the crust starts to get to brown protect with foil or other device. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack 10 to 15 minutes. This is important so crust will not sweat and be soggy. Sprinkle with remaining dill and green onion. The quiche can be eaten at room temperature if desired, so it makes a great bake-ahead dish.

The recipe for the fruit crepe was on the back of the prepared crepe package. I used strawberries, raspberries and dewberries I happen to have in my freezer.  By the way, just for you information, strawberries will not continue to ripen after picked. If you buy some that are still white or green at the tops around the stem they will stay that way. Some fruits do continue to ripen you just have to know which ones.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this little adventure with my friends and me and I will be back on my regular food adventure quest next time. I can be reached at PatsChat@livingston.net.

Tea Time at the Abbey

Afternoon Tea, High Tea, and a Tea Party – is there a difference? We can thank Anna, the Duchess of Beadford for introducing afternoon tea early in the nineteenth century. Back in the mid-1800s, it was fashionable to serve dinner at 8 o’clock in the evening. To help fill the gap between luncheon and dinner, the Duchess came up with the idea of tea and a few small sandwiches or tarts to help pass the time. This was served around 4 o’clock and intended to hold you over till dinner.

About this same time in history Britain was embracing the industrial revolution and the working class began to work on a more regulated time schedule. Workers came home from a long hard day in factories and wanted a full meal with a pot of tea.

Afternoon Tea was served on low tables, maybe with a tea cart on the side. Guests usually sat on low parlor chairs or relaxed on garden furniture. The workers tea was served at a regular dinning table with high-back dinning chairs thus high tea. The working class households still call their evening meal “tea.”

A Tea Party is what little girls play with their dolls, friends and mommy or daddy. I know there is one more type of tea party on the horizon but I am not going to touch that one in this story.

Times have changed, habits and social interaction schedules have drifted. Dinner is now called supper in some parts of the country. Some travelers have embraced the idea of having tea and of course the hotels and commercial establishments are quick to step in and fill that need. Now places in the United States that serve tea mostly serve it from 4 to 5 p.m., but don’t let it go too late, because that would interfere with the cocktail hour.

In keeping with our quest to embrace as much of the feeling of “Downton Abbey,” my friends and I chose to have Afternoon Tea this week. Each was charged to prepare a selection of small crust-less sandwiches or other appropriate sweets. We made strong tea and served it with lemon, sugar and milk. Our historian, Bonnie, came up with the information that the proper order to dress your tea is sugar first, then lemon and milk last. This is so you get it the desired color and taste. We chose a suitable setting for our tea and enjoyed everyone’s offerings of tea sandwiches. We then retired to the TV and enjoyed another episode of “Downton Abbey.”

These recent cold afternoons have left a great opportunity to think about a nice cup of tea – nothing so fancy as described above. Just boil some water in the kettle or microwave, pop in a tea bag and wait for the magic. A couple of cookies will round out your impromptu tea service. You may have some Girl Scout Cookies on hand as they are “in season” this time of year.

A few tricks for making fancy sandwiches are first selecting sandwich-style bread. Trim the crust spread with any filling; cut the sandwiches into triangles or squares. Choose both wheat and white bread and mix to create a ribbon effect. For more artistic designs, cut the crust away and roll the bread flat before assembling. Your can then cut with a cookie cutter a simple round, half moon or other simple design you might have on hand.

I chose two simple fillings. One was egg salad, made of grated hard-boiled egg, a small amount of mayonnaise, softened butter, salt, pepper, and curry to taste. This was spread on an open-face sandwich cut as a triangle. Another simple spread was goat cheese with watercress spread on cut bread rounds topped and cut in half to form half moons. Let your imagination run wild on this.

Next week our little group plans to have dessert.  

I hope you are enjoying our efforts to share life across the pond. Let me know at PatsChat@livingston.net. 

Downton Abbey Dinner with Staff

As I announced last week, we will be eating with the staff this week. With all the activities going on around this big house I am amazed they could all sit down for a meal. Of course it was a much simpler meal, but Mr. Carson always observes protocol and sees that proper standards are upheld.

This is a sit-down service with everything on the table and passed around to each person. Choosing from the designated staff section of the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook we prepared Bangers and Mash (page 194) as our main entree. We choose a celery and toasted walnut salad with Pecorino cheese (page 208) as a side and finished with a Treacle Tart (page 232). We couldn’t resist adding Bluebell Homemade Vanilla to the tart.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term “banger,” that means sausage. The recipe called for beef sausage. We tried to be true the English version, but I am not fond of beef sausage and will not use that if I ever make this again. During World War II, because of the lack of farm meat and rationing the sausages were stuffed with cereal and water and had tendency to hiss and pop when cooked over fires in the trenches; thus the name banger. This dish is popular today and can be found in many local pubs.  Of course, the “mash” is mashed potatoes. This is just another version of Shepard's pie without the lamb. Using mashed potatoes as a topping for a casserole can come in very handy for many meat and vegetable dishes.

From reading the cookbook, potatoes were a main ingredient in the staff diet. I am assuming there was a kitchen garden nearby. We have never seen or heard anyone talking about working a garden, but I feel certain there was one and potatoes were a main staple. The only garden talk has been about growing roses and the Dowager Countess seems to have the lock on that production. Today, we talk about being locavores, these people really put it to the test. What they didn’t grow on the place, local tradespeople delivered to the back door.

Dressing for Walnut and Celery Salad

2 small shallots, minced

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

2 tsp fresh lemon juice (best with fresh juice)

1 Tbsp walnut oil, optional

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and pour on salad right before severing.

Treacle Tart (Cockney slang for “sweetheart”)

Pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

2 1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

6 tsp ice water

Thoroughly mix flour, salt, and sugar, cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time just until mixture clumps together. Divide into two parts, form two separate disks. Wrap separately with a little flour and chill for at least 90 minutes.  This a very delicate pastry, handle with care.

Filling

1 1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 cup golden syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part water)

2 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix lemon zest, oats and ginger set aside. Mix syrup and lemon juice and set aside.

Remove one pastry disk from refrigerator; allow to set for 10 minutes. Roll gently and place into 9” pie plate. Place half of oat mixture in prepared pie crust, pour all of the lemon syrup mixture on top of oats, then add the rest of the oat mixture. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut into strips to form a lattice topping. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Can be served hot or cold. Top with whipped cream.

This was a little scary for me with so little in the filling but it worked with a good topping. Remember those Ritz cracker pies? This has been a fun journey to share with friends. Next week we plan to have tea Crawley style.

Lets us hear from you about this adventure. I can be reached at PatsChat@livingston.net. 

Doing Dinner in Downton Abbey Style

This week some close and amenable friends and I embarked on an adventure with the help of a Christmas gift I received. The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook by Emily Ansara Baines was a gift from my sister Sandy, who along with her husband Steve, has helped to support my interest in the PBS series Downton Abbey.

     With the aid of the cookbook we have embarked on a journey through food to try and absorb a little taste of old England. We will never be able to recreate the sumptuous

meals the Crowleys and their staff dinned on, but we are going to do our best.

     My cohorts in this project are Lucy who is furnishing location, accoutrements and some technical advice. Bonnie is furnishing liquid support, and factual background. I as you probably know, cooking is my thing and so I am planning menus and adding technical support to preparing the meals. All are providing enthusiasm and encouragement.

     Our first attempt was a dinner at home was Downton Abbey en famille, meaning only family present. A simple meal, prepared by the cook, no tiaras worn. We could not manage as many courses, but tried to space it out to finish the main course, rest and then have dessert and cordial during the after show.

     We started the evening with the savory, which most of us know as an appetizer. Ours was smoked salmon served on a thin slice of cucumber topped with cream cheese, more smoked salmon and garnished with dill. A white wine accompanied this.

      We moved on to the main course of the Crowley Family Chicken Breast with Caper Cream Sauce, page 70 in the book. This was wonderful, a simple preparation and so smooth. It is a soft sauce like velvet. We accompanied this with Baked and Buttery Balsamic Asparagus with Sea Salt, page 118.  A light sauvignon blanc accompany this. This was easy to prepare and the timing worked well with the main dish. Asparagus is great this time of year. Remember to look for tightly closed tips when buying to get nice young tender stalks. Store upright and trim just before using.

     We served a fruit salad to finish the meal. In the Edwardian Period, a selection of fruit was served often and was chosen to show one’s status. Fresh fruit was hard to come by, especially oranges. We chose the Upper-Class Fruit Salad, page 153, to conclude our evening. This was accompanied by a small glass or Port before retiring.

         

Crowley Family Chicken Breast with Caper Cream Sauce

(from The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook by Emily Ansara Baines)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 tsp. lemon pepper

1 tsp. sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp. fresh dill

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 clove garlic diced

1/2 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. dry white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp. capers, drained and rinsed

 

1.  Thoroughly season chicken breast with seasonings and marinate in lemon juice for at least 2 hours.

2.   Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sugar, sauté for 5 minutes. Then place chicken breast in skillet and increase heat to medium-high. Turn chicken frequently until brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook breast 5-7 minutes or until are cooked through. Test with an instant-read thermometer for 165 degrees. Remove chicken and cover with foil and keep warm.

3.  Increase heat to high, and whisk in wine and heavy cream. Whisk until mixture is reduced to a sauce-like consistency, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in capers. Pour sauce over chicken breast and serve.

Remember Downton Abbey airs on Houston PBS at 8 o’clock on Sunday evenings. We plan to dine again next week downstairs with the staff.

Be sure to follow this blog to receive future posts. I can be reached at PatsChat@livingston.net. I love hearing to friends about mutual interests.