Dinner and a Movie: Cold Comfort Farm

Remember going to the video rental store? Sometimes Blockbuster could come up trumps. I love the convenience of Netflix but sometimes I miss just browsing. Thanks to browsing, I discovered Cold Comfort Farm in the "New Releases" section back in 1996 and rented it because I recognized Kate Beckinsale from Much Ado About Nothing and I already had a penchant for period pieces.

Cold Comfort Farm is a really good example of when a film adaptation works. I actually think I might like the movie better than the book! The most obvious reason why is the cast, which includes Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, Stephen Fry, and Ian McKellen. Cold Comfort Farm is wonderful fun (Joanna Lumley's character Mrs Smiley would tell me to say it's "amusing" instead of "fun") and still makes me laugh after at least a dozen viewings. I never get tired of watching Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) attempt to tidy up her appalling country relatives and evade the advances of Mr. Meyerburg (Stephen Fry), the libidinous Lawrentian.

From Cold Comfort to deliciously warm comfort...

This is the old and oversized, warm and extremely cuddly sweater of supper dishes. Isn't there just something supremely satisfying and enveloping about anything au gratin? I like that this recipe has lovely fresh green herbs, which lend a nice freshness.

POTATO GRATIN

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups (½ Imperial pint) heavy cream
1 ½ lbs waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 oz. hard cheese, grated (I use a mixture of Gruyère and Cheddar.)
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon chives, minced
2 tablespoons thyme leaves, minced
nutmeg, salt, and pepper

Place a baking sheet in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375º Fahrenheit. Butter a large oval gratin dish and set aside. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally and being careful to turn down the heat if the onions threaten to brown. Stir in the minced garlic and cook just until garlic is fragrant and remove pan from the heat.

Beat together the eggs and cream in a very large mixing bowl. Stir in the potatoes, half the cheese, all the herbs, and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Add the onions and garlic and stir to combine. Pour mixture into prepared gratin dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Place gratin on top of the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Serves 4 to 6

Adapted from “Creamy Potato Gratin with Herbs” in Hilaire Walden, ed., Traditional British Cooking (London: Hermes House, 1997), 166.

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Cold Comfort Farm photo source

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Diana Mosley

Madame Yevonde, The Honourable Mrs Bryan Guinness as Venus (1935)

You may know that Paul and I recently bought a house. During our move, we took a bunch of books over to the used bookstore and I happened to come across a copy of Diana Mosley: A Biography of the Glamorous Mitford Sister Who Became Hitler's Friend and Married the Leader of Britain's Fascists. Even though we were actually at the bookstore to reduce the number of books in our house, I had to have it. I love books about interwar socialites. I am a frivolous person.

I honestly didn't much sympathize with Diana (not just the politics, though goodness knows, those were unsympathetic enough) and none of the Mitfords emerge looking like very nice people. Did you know that Nancy Mitford actually supported Diana's wartime imprisonment? Not very sisterly behavior. However, liking the characters doesn't have to prevent one from liking a book. I really found the whole thing quite fascinating. I know the book is titled Diana Mosley but I could have gobbled up more about Diana's Mitford upbringing and her society role as the wife of Bryan Guinness. See? I definitely like the amusing, frivolous bits.

So here's the nit I have to pick: Jan Dalley (the author of Diana Mosley) keeps describing Oswald Mosley's Valentino-esque looks. As if! If we're going to go around comparing him to film stars, Mosley is a total Fairbanks dead-ringer:

Left: Douglas Fairbanks / Right: Oswald Mosley

Aside from the facial features, the only other things the two had in common were fencing skills and marriages to blonde English socialites. Fairbanks's last wife was Sylvia Ashley, who had been married to Anthony Ashley-Cooper. She later married Clark Gable.

*****

I chose this recipe because it seems like just the sort of thing one might be served at a country house--it would look much grander if the fish still had their heads. Being landlocked, we take what we can get.

This is a quite simple (and quick) way to cook fish. Be sure to get trout that still has its skin--the flour coating makes it crisp and delicious--which helps keep the flesh moist.

Buttered Trout

2 trout, cleaned and gutted
2 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper
nutmeg
pinch of dry mustard
2 tablespoons butter
juice of 1/2 lemon

Sprinkle the trout (inside and outside) with a generous amount of salt. Cover and place in the refrigerator for an hour.

Mix the flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and mustard together in a shallow dish. Set aside. Wipe the interior and exterior of the trout well with a damp paper towel.

Dredge the trout in the seasoned flour and then fry in a large skillet in which the butter has been melted over medium-high heat. Cook the fish about 5 minutes per side, turning down the heat if the butter starts burning. The fish is ready as soon as the interior becomes opaque.

Place the cooked fish on warmed plates and pour the lemon juice into the hot pan. Stir into the butter and pour over the fish. Serve immediately with boiled potatoes and a green vegetable.

Serves 2

Adapted from Favourite New Forest Recipes.

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Feasts and Festivals: Harvest Home Seedcake

So, we're pretty much moved in to our new house. As I write this, I am waiting on delivery of my refrigerator. The house's previous owner wanted to sell me hers for $750! It was moldy and didn't even fit in the space. We're lucky she didn't expect us to pay separately for the rest of the appliances! Anyway, we've learned very quickly that owning a house is an adventure. Paul and I are still getting everything sorted and decorated, so I hope to show you some photos soon. I did take some time out this weekend to make a seedcake for tea in honor of Harvest Home. Seedcakes were traditional for Harvest Home festivities in Sussex,¹ so it seemed like a good idea to try my hand at one. It's my first time to use caraway seeds for something sweet. Paul and I like it, but I don't know if I'd spring it onto unsuspecting guests. (You can definitely just leave out the caraway seeds and you'll have a nice, lightly spicy pound cake.) I have to overcome my taste buds immediately screaming, "rye bread! rye bread!" It's weird but I like it and seed cake goes so well with a cup of tea.

The inspiration for this recipe is from an 18th-century "receipt" in Dorothy Hartley's Food in England.² It actually called for caraway comfits, which are basically caraway seeds inside a sprinkle. When I read what was involved with making them I said, "screw that!" Thankfully, I also have a copy of Peyton and Byrne British Baking which has a Madeira Cake recipe with optional (uncandied) caraway seeds. The brandy and spices are from the 18th-century version.

HARVEST HOME SEEDCAKE

6 oz. (¾ cup) very soft butter
6 oz. (¾ cup) turbinado or demerara sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
½ teaspoon brandy
¼ lb (1 cup) self-raising flour*
¼ lb (1 cup) sprouted whole-wheat flour**
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 335º Fahrenheit. (If you have an older oven, set to 325 and bake a bit longer.) Butter a loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time until well-combined. Stir in the brandy and set aside.

In a smaller mixing bowl, stir together the self-raising flour, sprouted flour, cinnamon and cloves. Mix into the butter/sugar mixture a bit at a time, being careful to fully incorporate the flour without over-mixing. Stir in the caraway seeds and spoon batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in the middle of the oven about 50 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack then slice and serve.

8 to 10 slices

Inspired by 1744 seed cake recipe in Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England and adapted from “Madeira Cake” in Peyton and Byrne British Baking.

*Or substitute 1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder + ½ teaspoon salt
**I used King Arthur Flour’s sprouted whole wheat because it’s very finely milled. If you don’t want to bother with it, just use another cup of all-purpose flour.

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From Sussex to Wessex... (That's Thomas Hardy's fictional county, which is based on the Saxon kingdom, in case you were wondering.) So why are we talking about Thomas Hardy and Wessex? I actually picked Far from the Madding Crowd to go with this post because an important scene in the book occurs during the Harvest Home celebrations on Bathsheba Everdene's farm. Seemed perfect. Not that I've read Far from the Madding Crowd recently (well, "read," at any rate--actually Nathaniel Parker read it to me while I knitted an Aran sweater for Paul which actually turned out to be way too big, but that's another story) but the 1967 film adaptation of the novel seemed pretty faithful (if not terribly inspired--I LOVED the book and felt the movie was pretty good) except that Julie Christie doesn't look like how I pictured Bathsheba. I'm pretty sure the character is supposed to have really dark hair.³

Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene and Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak

Reading Thomas Hardy is great because everything is pretty and bucolic and then it all goes to hell. Far from the Madding Crowd is, thankfully, not nearly as bleak as some of Hardy's other novels, though. I love Hardy because it's like he was writing directly to silly teenage girls. It's totally important to know the warning signs of undesirability in a potential romantic partner. If he's anything like Sergeant Troy, run in the other direction!⁴ If you haven't read Far from the Madding Crowd (or maybe seen the movie if you've only got three hours to spare), I recommend it. Anyone seen the 90s TV movie? What did you think?

Terence Stamp as Frank Troy and Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene

Notes

1. Anna Franklin's Autumn Equinox
2. Did you happen to see Lucy Worsley's documentary on Food in England? Highly recommended.
3. P.S. Found this at sparknotes.com: "Gabriel had reached a pitch of existence he never could have anticipated a short time before. He liked saying "Bathsheba" as a private enjoyment instead of whistling; turned over his taste to black hair, though he had sworn by brown ever since he was a boy..."
4. However, Sergeant Troy on Midsomer Murders is adorable.

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St. Lucia Blog Procession 2012

Heather at Audrey Eclectic (that's her work above) is hosting a St. Lucia Blog Procession today to celebrate St. Lucia Day, which happens every December 13th. Before we switched to the Gregorian calendar, the feast of St. Lucia coincided with the winter solstice.* The holiday is a celebration of the return of light after months of short days and darkness.

There's a town just north of us that does a Swedish Lucia Fest every year. Paul and I visited in 2010 and there's more about our visit at this previous post. I still haven't managed to make it back to Lindsborg to photograph the awesome taxidermy.

Heather made the traditional St. Lucia buns last year, so I thought I'd provide a couple of other Swedish recipes you can use this holiday season. They're both terribly yummy and can be scaled up for a party.

A Cake for "Bright Young Things"

If I had to pick one cake to represent England's carefree youth of the 20s and 30s, I'd have to choose a Fuller's Walnut Cake. It's mentioned in both Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate. That's a good enough pedigree for me! Turns out the original Fuller's Walnut Cake was two layers with buttercream between them, but the recipe I found was for a single layer cake. I'll definitely have to try it again. However, if you want something smaller and simpler than a layer cake, this recipe will work out just fine. It's subtly walnutty, not too sweet and delicious with a cup of tea and should definitely be eaten while curled up with an excellent book or DVD set. What an excellent way to spend Christmas vacation!

Sink me! -- The Scarlet Pimpernel, Blenheim Palace and a Treat for "That Sinking Feeling"

Last month, Paul and I spent a couple of weeks in England and, despite having no internet access, we had a great time. I mention the internet, because I had essentially done zero planning and was going to do it all on the fly with satellite internet. This way, we were flexible and didn't have to lug around any guide books. Surprise! Our phones didn't work (if only we'd had the iPhone 4S...) and there was no way to get a data plan for a smart phone there without paying for a year in advance. So, we relied on our wits, a London street atlas and an England road map purchased in Windsor (more about that in an upcoming post).

We spent a few days in the Wiltshire countryside and I had to go to Blenheim Palace, which wasn't too far away in neighboring Oxfordshire. Yes, I've watched all twelve episodes of The First Churchills, but really I grew up with a Baroque-obsessed architect for a father. I spent weekends when I was small looking through coffee-table books bigger than I was with fantastic photographs of houses like Blenheim, Castle Howard, Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. (Still haven't been to Castle Howard...)

Blenheim Palace is, of course, beautiful but is also fantastically well-kept. (Poor Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte were a bit shabby when I saw them in 2006.) I took a lot of photos; the best are below. We had lovely weather for our trip--right until we started to head back to the car park. The sky opened up and it started hailing. Good thing we'd already gotten in the habit of wearing our raincoats every day, no matter what.

 

(click to enlarge)

Dinner and a Movie: The Postman Always Rings Twice

photos from Doctor Macro

This week, I'm bringing you more from Woman's Home Companion. The "Picture of the Month" (see below) is The Postman Always Rings Twice and there's a Lux ad featuring Lana Turner, as well. Based on James M. Cain's book, the film stars Ms. Turner and John Garfield as lovers who decide to get a pesky husband out of the way. Despite some sanitation for the censors, The Postman Always Rings Twice is pretty faithful to its source material. I enjoyed the book more (maybe because I read it first) but that doesn't mean the film isn't worth watching. It's really well done and thoroughly enjoyable, especially if you like 40s fashion and/or film noir. This was a great movie to watch en famille at my house, because Paul's really only interested in watching 40s films if they're "noir" or have lots of airplanes in them. He likes Casablanca, too, but I think that's just his soft spot showing.

Homemade Oatmeal Raisin Bread and 1946 Fashions

Generally, I make sourdough bread for breakfast to eat with a cup of yogurt or a couple of fried eggs and maybe some bacon or sausage. It's delicious but sometimes it's nice to change things up a bit. This Oatmeal Raisin Bread recipe is from the same magazine as the pork stew in my last post. I changed things up a bit to use my discarded sourdough starter (totally not required, see the "about ingredients" section). Despite some molasses and sugar in the recipe, this oatmeal raisin bread isn't overly sweet. It's perfect for breakfast (or tea) with a slathering of golden yellow, just slightly salty pasture butter.

Dinner and a Movie: Spellbound

For my version of this classic recipe, I used pork ribs instead of pork stew meat so that I could infuse the stew with all the fantastic minerals and gelatin/collagen from the bones. It's an easy switch that will add so much nutrition to your dinner. In "traditional foods" cookbooks, bone broths are typically cooked for hours and hours to get all the nutrients out of the bones. I found that just cooking this stew until the meat fell off the bones (about 2 1/2 hours) still gave me a huge amount of natural gelatin in the final product. (You'll notice that your leftovers will become the consistency of aspic.) It's worth it to hunt around for some really high quality pork. Keep an eye out for products that are Certified Humane or find local farmers who treat their pigs well. Happy pigs = tasty, nutritious pork.

Dorset Verse and Victuals

Clockwise from top left: The Old Rectory, Winterborne Came / William Barnes / St. Peter's Church, Winterborne Came

William Barnes was born in Dorset in 1801 and worked as both a solicitor's clerk and a schoolmaster before getting his degree from Cambridge in 1851. He served as rector of St. Peter's in Winterborne Came, Dorset, from 1862 to his death in 1886. Barnes was extremely interested in language and published three volumes of poetry written in the local Dorset dialect. This poem comes from an edition of Barnes's poems edited by fellow author and Dorset-dweller Thomas Hardy. I think it's safe to say they both admired milkmaids!

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle

For as long as I can remember, I've loved folk tales, fairy tales, myths and legends. I thought I would share some with you and, naturally, include some recipes as well. Look for more story/recipe combinations in the coming months. What are your favorite folk tales, fairy tales, myths or legends? Tell me in the comments section!

Feasts and Festivals: Diamond Jubilee

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth taken for her coronation

Not that I need an excuse to get out my commemorative china and bake a cake and drink champagne, but the Diamond Jubilee was just the perfect opportunity to do all three. There were also a lot of photographs of the queen over the years on The Guardian's website, so I thought I would share a couple of my favorites:

 Left: 1968, Right: 1975

Now, on to the cake. I had originally wanted to make a Battenberg, but it makes two cakes (because of the two colors of cake) and let's face it, I'm pretty bad at the whole trimming and reassembling thing. So, I thought I would make a Battenberg-inspired marzipan-wrapped Jubilee Almond Cake. It turned out really well and it was a lot less work! Plus, it's covered in pearl dragées, because (a) they're terribly festive and (b) Queen Elizabeth is rarely photographed without her pearls.*

Feasts and Festivals: Royal Oak Day

Lemon Half-Pound Cake

Life This Week: May 1, 1939

 

Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea

In their fourth movie together, Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea star in Union Pacific, this week's "Movie of the Week." Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Union Pacific is the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad. Or more specifically, it's about an Irish "end-of-track" postmistress (Barbara Stanwyck), her gambling fiancé (Robert Preston) and the former Union army captain sent to maintain law and order along the line (Joel McCrea). Naturally, what happens is that postmistress Mollie Monahan and Captain Jeff Butler can't seem to stay away from each other. Probably because Joel McCrea has got to be one of the most adorable men ever. 

Feasts and Festivals: Beltane/May Day

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,/

It's just a spring clean for the May queen.

-Led Zeppelin, "Stairway to Heaven"

Queen Guinevre's Maying by John Collier (1900)

Beltane was one of the pre-Christian Quartering Days along with Lughnasadh, Samhain and Imbolc. Unlike the other three celebrations, Beltane wasn't turned into a Christian festival.* However, the beginning of May remained a festival day, shedding its pagan past but retaining the more secular celebration of the end of cold, dreary weather and the coming of summer. I might not have a maypole to dance around, but I'm (flower) crowning myself an unofficial May Queen and having a nice scone to top it off.

Third Annual George Sanders Film Festival

left / top right / bottom right

In case you didn't already know, a new film version of  Guy de Maupassant's Bel-Ami comes out in June. I took this to mean that I should include The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) in this year's film festival. Despite the fact that George Sanders is kind of old to play Georges Duroy ("Bel Ami") and that the ending had to be changed to oblige the censors, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami feels true to the spirit of the original novel. Who on earth, I ask, could possibly play a cad as well as George Sanders? Ann Dvorak (below) is fantastic as Madeleine, Duroy's whip-smart wife and Angela Lansbury (above) is luminous as a slightly-more-innocent-than-in-the-book Clotilde.

Feasts and Festivals: St. George's Day

Here in America, we think of macaroni and cheese (notice the "and") is a very American dish. Like most baked pasta dishes it probably began in Italy--an ancestor recipe appeared as early as the 13th century.¹ (But pasta originally came from China! See the problem with tracing a recipe's roots?) By the 14th century, the first (that we know of) macaroni cheese recipe showed up in England in The Forme of Cury.² So, some form or other of macaroni cheese has been around in England for seven centuries. I feel that makes the dish sufficiently British for St. George's Day! (Also, photographing it with the Queen and Prince Philip can't hurt.)

Leeks make a nice addition and help make macaroni cheese a little more of a spring dish. Use any short pasta you like--I actually used penne, because that's what was available in the bulk section.

Life This Week: April 17, 1939

Really, how could you resist? Dodge City is one of those movies that's so charming and likeable that I forget how ridiculous it really is. It may not be the best film of 1939, but it's certainly one of the most fun.

While delivering cattle and a wagon train of settlers to Dodge City, improbably handsome cowboy Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn) stands up to saloon-owner and all-around baddie Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot). The impressed townspeople want Hatton for sheriff. So, Wade and his buddies (Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) stick around to clean up the town. Keep in mind that this is the film that helps establish all those Western-genre clichés.

Dinner and a Movie: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Basil Rathbone in

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles is particularly appropriate this week, because there's an article about the hound himself in the April 10, 1939 issue of Life magazine (more about the issue at Tuesday's post). To quote Life, "'Chief' [the dog] helps and excellent cast headed by Basil Rathbone to make Conan Doyle's great detective story moderately good movie fare." All of a sudden, Life has high standards? The Hound of the Baskervilles is much more entertaining than Alexander Nevsky and I simply adore Basil Rathbone. He and Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch are my favorite Sherlocks. (I can't wait for the next season of Sherlock to air--only one more month!)

Since cauliflowers are in season for another week or so, this is a perfect way to serve them in early spring, when the afternoons are warm and sunny but the evenings still have a bit of a nip to them. The cauliflower and the cheddar are hearty and warming while the crème fraîche adds tang and the scallions bring a bright, green, springtime taste. If you've only had cauliflower on a crudité platter, I urge you to try this recipe. I loathe raw cauliflower, but Crème fraîche Cauliflower Cheese is heaven.

Life This Week: April 10, 1939

Netflix didn't have Ettore Fieramosca, fascist Italy's anti-French propaganda film, so I had settle for just watching Alexander Nevsky, the other armored flick in "The Italians and Russians Do Films of Armored Knights: Both Use History to Warn Their Enemies." Alexander Nevksy is a famous bit of Russian nationalist, anti-German propaganda. It's the story of a 13th-century Russian prince, famous for his defeat of a Swedish invasion, who must rout another invasion attempt, this time by Teutonic knights. Timely and conveniently anti-German and anti-religion (the Germans and the priests throwing babies into a bonfire was actually kind of funny), this film softened Joseph Stalin to director Sergei Eisenstein.