BOOK/A TABLE - Trifle, Revisited

Longing, regret, lost loves, memory: certainly all of these things are among my favorite obsessions, but only a few of the themes Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited touches upon.

At the moment though, there are several delicious scenes from the book I recall in particular...

The sprawling student luncheons in the rooms at Oxford featuring Lobster Newberg; a catered party held in the state room of a storm-lashed ship where a caviar-filled ice sculpture of a swan is melting; the summer evening Sebastian and Charles spent drinking wine at a table loaded with vintages pulled from the vast cellar at Brideshead; an afternoon lazing under elm trees after Sebastian told his friend, “I’ve got a motor-car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Chateau-Peyraguey—which isn’t a wine you’ve ever tasted, so don’t pretend. It’s heaven with strawberries.”

And then at last, we’re introduced to something called Mavrodaphne Trifle. As Charles recounts his harrowing evening with Anthony Blanche, “I had drunk a lot, but neither the mixture, nor the Chartreuse, nor the Mavrodaphne Trifle, nor even the fact that I had sat immobile and almost silent throughout the evening instead of clearing the fumes...explains the stress of that hag-ridden night.”

I was very intrigued. What Trifle was this? A google investigation explained that Mavrodaphne Trifle incorporates Greek Mavrodaphne wine—with the rich ruby-red color and nose of black raisins from Mavrodaphne grapes stepping in for sherry traditionally used to flavor the creamy, layered dessert!

                                 

The recipe below is more a matter of assemblage than labor, especially if you use a ready-made sponge cake and custard.

Consider serving the beautiful, unsusual Mavrodaphne Trifle at your next gathering—or enjoy it by a bubbling Gothic fountain bathed in moonlight. (IYKYK!) “Always summer...the fruit always ripe...”

Happy Labor Day, everybody! 

Mavrodaphne Trifle 
Adapted from treataweek.blogspot.com

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
1 recipe of English Custard (about 3 cups)
2/5 to 1/2 recipe Lemon Sponge Cake (about 3/4 pound)
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/3 to 2/3 cup Mavrodaphne or sweet sherry, port, sweet wine or fruit juice
1 to 1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 small banana, sliced
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons rose water (optional)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)
chocolate shavings or other garnish

Directions
1. Prepare custard in advance and use at room temperature or chilled. Do not use warm custard.
2. Slice stale sponge cake into 3/4-inch cubes. Using raspberry jam, attach two cubes of cake together. 
3. In the trifle bowl, pour alcohol or juice over cake and toss until the liquid is absorbed.
4. Add sliced strawberries and bananas and toss again. 
5. Cover with a layer of custard, making sure it settles over the cake-fruit mixture. 
6. Whip cream, rose water and powdered sugar until stiff.
7. Top trifle with whipped cream and decorate with chocolate shavings. You may also garnish with toasted sliced almond, fruit, sprinkles or cocoa powder. 
8. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours before serving.

Be sure to use a clear glass bowl to show off the layers of your trifle.

Thanks to treataweek.blogspot.com for the recipe and princesspinkygirl.com for the pic! 

BOOK/A TABLE - Summer Rum Punch

The inspo for this post comes from Ritual non-alcoholic spirits and...Charlie Chan! I found the nifty little copies from the 60s (shown above) on eBay.

In Behind That Curtain by Earl Derr Biggers, the eminent Chinese detective Charlie Chan is trying to get back home to Punchbowl Hill in Hawaii, but a most mysterious case keeps him moored in San Francisco. I was surprised by how beautifully and thoughtfully Biggers writes about that town as well as Hawaii back in the 1920s, when the books were first published.

“The bluest hills are those farthest away,” Chan said. “Bluest of all is Punchbowl Hill, where my little family is gathered, waiting for me—”

The Charlie Chan books are a lot of fun, but frankly all the talk about Chan’s Punchbowl Hill residence got me thinking about punch. So that’s where Ritual non-alcoholic spirits comes in: they text me daily, proffering seasonal cocktail recipes made with their booze-free whisky, gin, rum, vodka, and aperitif versions of the hard stuff. Just as I was mooning over the idea of a nice punch—they sent a recipe for Rum Punch!

 
I think Ritual is among the best of the n/a brands currently on the market. None of Ritual’s bottles are exactly like the real thing of course (but tell that to your non-existent hangover), however they do serve as a refreshing break from liquor and are part of a growing trend in alternative cocktailling.

Grab some straws, perhaps a paper umbrella too, and enjoy!

Rum Punch
Adapted from Ritual Zero Proof 

3 oz Ritual Rum Alternative
1.5 oz orange juice
1.5 oz pineapple juice
1 oz lime juice
1 tbsp grenadine
Garnish: Maraschino cherries and orange or lemon wheel

Pour Rum Alternative, orange juice, pineapple juice, lime juice and grenadine into a glass with ice. Stir to combine. Garnish with citrus wheel and maraschino cherries.

Thanks to nickelcitypretty.com for the pic! 

BOOK/A TABLE - Cornbread with Sausage Gravy

Looking back, I scarcely imagine I was prepared to read Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms in high school. At the time I only knew Capote as that funny little man draped in silver fox with a lavender-gray fedora who appeared in my favorite movie Murder by Death and was also the celebrated author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Whether or not I understood exactly what was going on in Other Voices (I at least knew I was missing something), I was certainly transfixed by Capote’s use of language. In his coming-of-age story, the pages are filled with images of mouldering mansions and ghostly faces drifting through the languid summer afternoons at Skully’s Landing—pure Southern Gothic. I remember the mysteries our delicate young hero Joel Knox encountered; catching glimpses of cousin Randolph, for example, wrapped in a faded kimono and smoking something called asthma cigarettes while sipping on perfumed concoctions. I loved Joel’s vaguely threatening friendships with mule-driver Jesus Fever and Idabel, the feisty tomboy who would grow up to be the real Harper Lee.

All beautiful, stirring stuff, but as a teen I wasn’t quite sure what it could mean. The vivid fever dream (starring the diminutive Miss Wisteria) that takes over the latter half confounded me for years. I kept returning to the book until I was able to make head and perhaps tail of it. 

However, the breakfast that Missouri cooks for Joel always made perfect sense to me:

“With a cut of cornbread, Joel mopped bone-dry the steaming plate of fried eggs and grits, sopping rich with sausage gravy, that Missouri had set before him.”

I love cornbread and have had a fond appreciation for the Jiffy mixes since I was a kid, but I bet Missouri would cuff me upside the head for the store-bought sacrilege. Have you picked up Jiffy corn muffin mix lately? It’s still pretty good! Here’s a tip: add a can of creamed corn to the mix. And blend a tablespoon or so of honey into softened butter and slather it with abandon on your cornbread, hot out of the oven. Use a pretty pan!

Now, was there a mention of gravy...?

Sausage Gravy 
Adapted from sugarspunrun.com
Ingredients
1 lb (455 g) pork breakfast sausage I recommend using sage flavored
¼ cup (31 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 ½ cups (590 ml) whole milk
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper optional
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Method
Place sausage in a skillet over medium/high heat.
Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up and crumble sausage as it cooks, cooking until completely browned and no pink remains. Do not drain your skillet.
Sprinkle flour evenly over the sausage crumbles. Stir frequently until flour is absorbed (about 1 minute).
¼ cup (31 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
Slowly drizzle the milk into your skillet, stirring as you pour. Add crushed red pepper, if using.
2 ½ cups (590 ml) whole milk,⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Continue to cook, stirring frequently until mixture is thickened and desired consistency is reached.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm with your cornbread!

BOOK/A TABLE - Duck...Soup?

During a recent trip to Nashville, I stopped into Bits & Pieces Antique Boutique where I happened upon a copy of Cherry Ames, Camp Nurse by Helen Wells. I grabbed it off the shelf straightaway and while ringing up the sale, the cashier asked me, “What’s the deal with this Cherry Ames, anyway?” 

“Well...” I leaned in and proceeded to tell her all about the utterly charming (and often hilarious) series.

Much like Nancy Drew, Cherry solves mysteries. But unlike the titian-haired teen detective, young Cherry is a rosy brunette and a nurse. Her profession leads her to be installed in any number of absurd situations (in over 20 books written between 1943-1968), where she must save the day, while applying cold compresses, administering tinctures, or taking temperatures. 

Rest Home Nurse, Mountaineer Nurse, Dude Ranch Nurse, and Companion Nurse are all compelling titles, but among those I’ve read, my favorite is Cherry Ames, Department Store Nurse. Cherry has moved on to working in the infirmary of Thomas and Parke’s, a New York department store—only to discover someone has pinched a rose diamond necklace from Mrs. Julian on the antiques floor. 

Cherry goes home to Hilton, Illinois for a visit and is necessarily grilled: “During the balance of dinner, Cherry’s mother kept the questions to what nursing in a department store was like.”

It’s not really clear what the Ames’s were eating on their best china, but my thoughts went to cherries and the marvelous Fruitful cookbook by Brian Nicholson and Sarah Huck, which features “four seasons of fresh fruit recipes.” I met the authors ten years ago at their launch party and I’ve particularly enjoyed returning to this cookbook every summer. As we are at a point when cherries are at their most flavorful, I wanted to include a recipe for smoked duck toasts (from Fruitful) and a chilled soup featuring the garnet-colored gems, in honor of Cherry Ames.  

Fresh is usually the best way to go, however for both of these recipes jars of cherries from Trader Joe’s might be preferable!

Smoked Duck and Cherry Confit Toasts
Adapted from Fruitful

Makes 4 to 6 servings
My suggestions in italics

Ingredients
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 small shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
12 oz sweet cherries, pitted (2 cups)/1 16.2 oz jar pitted Amarena cherries from Trader Joe’s
1 tb granulated sugar
2 tbs brandy
1/4 tsp sherry vinegar, plus more to taste
Pinch fine sea salt
8 (1/2-inch thick) slices rye bread (consider slicing into strips to make appetizers for a small group instead)
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbs whole-grain mustard (a nice Dijon is also good)
1 pound smoked duck breast, thinly sliced (try chopped smoked ham or cured sausage if duck is scarce)
1 cup torn arugula leaves (or baby/micro arugula)

Method
Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook until soft and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the rosemary and cook for 30 seconds. Add the cherries and sugar and cook, stirring frequently, until cherries are caramelized, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of water. Cook, breaking up the cherries with a spoon, until the mixture bubbles and begins to thicken. Add the brandy and cook until cherries are soft and saucy. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the vinegar and salt. Set the compote aside to cool. (This can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for about a week.)

Preheat the broiler. Arrange the bread slices on a baking sheet and drizzle the tops with oil. Place the bread under the broiler until it is lightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Slather one side of each toasted bread slice with mustard. Top each toast with sliced duck, a spoonful of compote, and a small handful of arugula. Serve immediately.

On to soup! I made this thrilling pink soup years ago, but only recently realized I neglected to post the recipe for it, so here you go. 

“This Hungarian dish is a dessert disguised as a soup. Morello cherries in light syrup, like the one’s sold at Trader Joe’s stores, are ideal.”

Hungarian Chilled Cherry Soup aka Meggyleves
Adapted from Saveur

My comments in italics

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
2 (24 oz) jars of pitted sour cherries (preferably morellos), with their juice (Alternatively, you may use 1 3/4 lbs. fresh bing cherries, stemmed and pitted, or 1 1/2 lbs. frozen bing cherries with 2 3/4 cups sour or regular cherry juice.) OR about 2 16.2 oz jars of Trader Joe’s Amarena cherries 
1⁄2 tsp kosher salt
1 stick cinnamon
1 slice (1/2"-thick) lemon
1 (8 oz) container sour cream

STEP 1
Add cherries, with their juice, to a 4-quart saucepan. Add salt, cinnamon stick, and lemon. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until cherries are soft, about 5 minutes.

STEP 2
In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and 1⁄4 cup of hot cherry liquid from pan. Remove pan from heat; stir in sour cream mixture. Chill the soup and serve.

BOOK/A TABLE - Sugar Cookies

You read it, didn’t you? Probably a long time ago...? All about those unfortunate, incestuous Dollanganger children hidden in an attic, battling an evil grandmother while trying to escape from her enormous house?

In the summer of 1980, I was at my family’s summer place in Maine one rainy weekend and I’d just gotten a hold of a copy of Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. It was quite a sensation at the time and I certainly couldn’t put it down.

Well, I did put it down once and my brother’s girlfriend’s friend who was staying with us that weekend snatched my copy, curious to know what I found so fascinating. I had to ask for the book back several times before finally resorting to forcibly pulling it from her covetous grasp and then hiding it away—much like the Dollanganger children themselves.

In the course of the story, the grandmother tries starving the children when she’s not emotionally abusing them. Other times, she brings picnic baskets up to the attic filled with sandwiches, fried chicken, bowls of potato salad, and occasionally cookies.

And sometimes, no cookies. Whatever other wisdom Flowers might impart, I think it all comes down to one thing: As the eldest Dollanganger sibling Cathy points out, “Lunch without cookies was an abysmal thing.”

Amen, sister.

Sugar Cookies
Adapted from southernliving.com

(My suggestions in italics)
Makes two dozen cookies (I ended up with four dozen 2 1/2" round cookies)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Directions
Step 1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
Step 2. Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract; beat until combined. Gradually add flour mixture; beat on low speed until smooth.
Step 3. Divide dough in two and shape into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill.
Step 4. Preheat oven. Roll one disk at a time on lightly-floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into chosen shapes and space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate to help cookies keep their shape.
Step 5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 375°F, rotating halfway through baking. (Took my oven more like 20 minutes to bake!) Cool on racks. Repeat process with remaining dough.

BOOK/A TABLE - Chicken Fricassée

I love Elizabeth Taylor with the heat of a thousand burning suns. I don’t mean the actress (great as she was)—I’m talking about the British author Elizabeth Taylor who wrote mostly in the 50s and 60s and travels on the same spiritual sister plane as Barbara Pym and Iris Murdoch. I’m not sure how I discovered Taylor exactly, but Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont was the first book of hers I read, probably her most well-known, before I made it a mission to read the rest of them!

Taylor writes about private domestic disasters, the little tremors that occur in our everyday interactions; turning an afternoon tea, for example, into a hollow den of restlessness or unrequited love with the stroke of a pen. “Even the humdrum becomes astonishing,” the Daily Telegraph noted even as she was being recognized as one of the greatest writers of the last century. Novelist Valerie Martin puts it perfectly: “Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person’s dangerous housewife.” 

See how Taylor’s character Edwina fares over lunch with a chicken fricassée from In a Summer Season:

“It was surprising that she, to whom social occasions meant so much, should never have been able to master the art of being a hostess. At meal-times, even with just the family, she became as uncertain as a young bride, quite obviously checked the table to see if all was there that should be, bothered the maid, lost the thread of conversation, became absent-minded when dishes were brought in and stared anxiously and silently as Kate helped herself to some chicken fricassee.”

To find out what’s fracturing Edwina’s soul, you’ll just have to read the book. Otherwise, enjoy this marvelous chicken fricassée and see what else Elizabeth Taylor’s got cooking in her remarkable books!

Chicken Fricassée
Adapted from recipetineats.com

(My comments in italics)

Ingredients
CHICKEN
4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs, skin-on and bone-in (try doubling the tasty thighs, instead of using drumsticks) 
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp unsalted butter

STEW INGREDIENTS
10 oz white mushrooms, halved if small, or cut in 4 to 6 if large
2 medium yellow onions, sliced (1/2 in) wide
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
3 thyme sprigs (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
3 tbsp flour, plain/all-purpose
1/2 cup white wine, preferably chardonnay
3 cups chicken stock , low sodium
1/4 tsp salt (cooking/kosher salt)
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2/3 cup thickened/heavy cream (substitute evaporated skim milk to lighten things up!)

Instructions
Pat chicken dry with paper towels then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Melt butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet or heavy based pot with a lid. Add chicken thighs, skin side down, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until golden brown. Turn and cook the other side for 1 minute then remove to a plate.
Then brown the drumsticks--on 3 sides, about 2 minutes each. Then remove from skillet.
Add mushrooms, onion, bay leave and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes until mushroom is lightly golden.
Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add flour and cook for 1 minute.
Add wine and chicken stock. Stir, scraping the base of the pot to dissolve the brown residue stuck to the pan ("fond") into the sauce.
Return chicken back into the sauce with the skin side up.
Simmer covered 10 minutes: Once it comes to a simmer, medium-low. Cover with lid and simmer 10 minutes.
Remove lid and let it simmer for a further 20 minutes. Chicken will be cooked – internal temperature 75°C/167°F or slightly higher.
Remove chicken to a plate. Add cream to sauce and stir. Once it comes up to a simmer, taste sauce and add more salt if desired.
Return chicken into the sauce then remove from the stove. Sprinkle with parsley and serve!

And how about the gorgeous book cover art? I think Sarah Maycock is absolutely tremendous. 

Maine Diner's Lobster Pie

Being a native New Englander, summertime has always meant lobstertime to me! And the Maine Diner in Wells, ME serves up a wondrous lobster pie that is also quite easy to recreate at home.

You can boil your own lobsters (as below) if you don’t mind the fuss, but otherwise consider pre-packaged lobster already cooked and cracked open, such as from Luke’s Lobster that I found at our local Whole Foods. Get started then by heating up the pre-packaged lobster (you’ll want about a pound of meat) in a lightly buttered skillet and then move on to the next step in the following recipe, sauteeing your Ritz cracker crumbs in margarine and more butter for your stuffing mixture. 

What a super simple and an incredibly tasty way to wow your guests!

Lobster Pie

Adapted from Twice as Good
Yield: 4
Cooking Time: 45 Minutes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Bring water to a boil in a stock pot. Put lobsters in boiling water. Remove lobsters after 12 minutes.
Remove tail and claws from each lobster. Cut tails in half, lengthwise. Crack claws open. Set aside to cool.
Melt 1 stick of butter and 1 stick of margarine in a saucepan. Add 3 cups finely crushed Ritz cracker crumbs. Mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Set aside.

Melt remaining stick of butter in a small saucepan. Coat the bottom of the casserole dish with the melted butter.
Remove tail meat and claw meat from the lobsters. Place picked meat in the casserole dish. Cover the lobster meat evenly with the Ritz Cracker stuffing mixture.
Place casserole dish in to the oven for 7 – 10 minutes. The Ritz Cracker topping should be a nice golden brown and you should hear the butter sizzling in the casserole dish.