It's always nice to have something to work towards, when painting I love to imagine my work when it's hanging in a gallery or having an agent really like my novel I just wrote and take me on ( am in the process of approaching agents, gearing up for endless rejection and hoping just once to strike gold). SO with this in mind I have visions of an eighteenth century banquet that I want to prepare for my birthday. My birthday falls this year exactly on a lunar eclipse which is an irrelevant detail but seems portentous of time travel via cooking or magic of some sort. However, I sent out all my invitations and no one can come on that particular weekend so that was that. It's now on the 4th of October, which has all the mysteriousness of autumn, mists and mellow fruitfulness and I can include recipes with Chestnuts and Spicy Possets. Maybe a syllabub or two but definitely plenty of sack and champagne.
I am going to choose the menu and then try out the dishes one by one beforehand. Seems like the most fun.
Miss Posset's Birthday Banquet:
Farced Cucumbers
Almond Rice
Brockely in a Salad
Ragoo of Beans/Peas
Fish pasties the Italian way
Roasted Turkey with mock oyster sauce
Roasted Chicken with chestnuts
Cheshire Pork pie
Lemon Tart
Orange pudding
Sack Posset
Cheese with chutney
Naples Biscuits
Sack, Canary,Light Ale, Claret.
The meat I use will be meticulously sourced from free range, organic farms that have been approved by Animal Protection ( In the Netherlands there is a special cruelty- free stamp)
The Idea is, that most of the dishes are simultaneously at the table, so the meat dishes will be all on the table and the rice and vegetables, then everything is cleared and desserts are brought in.
Followed by Possets and biscuits and cheese, chutney and crackers and more Claret/Sack etc.
I hope it's 18th Century enough. The decoration of the table and the room will of course be terribly important as well, Candlelight and someone playing Mozart or Vivaldi on our piano. Will try the Cheshire Pork pie recipe first.
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