The old fashioned french way of eating Broccoli, according to Madam Glasse

                              

To dress brockala.

Strip all the little branches off till you come to the top one, then with a knife peel off all the hard outside skin, which is on the stalks and the little branches, and throw them into water. Have a stew-pan of water with some salt in it: when it boils put in the brockala, and when the stalks are tender it is enough, then send to the table with butter in a cup. The French eat oil and vinegar with it.

The butter in a cup was not really something I wanted to do, these warm summer months -so I followed her instructions exactly, and it is true the stalk is quite delicious and lends a lovely vegetable flavour to the water it is cooked in. So I cooked it to nice fluorescent green, just past al dente,( four or five minutes is about enough) and then drizzled a bit of good white wine vinegar on it and some mild olive oil.

It was so good we decided we're always going to eat Broccoli this way. I served it like this Roast beef that I fried in a lump of butter rolled in flour, when I took the beef out I added a splash of red wine to the pan and drizzled it over the beef, Then I served it with Horse Radish. Ms. Glasse thinks Horse radish on roast beef is enough.

Miss Posset Caters a Banquet.

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.

Miss Posset's Beetroot Chutney- Georgian Style.

Madam Glasse says nothing on chutneys, even though in the 18th century they were quite popular. At first they were called ' mangoed ' fruits or relishes before the term chutney or chutni was widely accepted. Apparently they made their presence as a condiment felt in the 17th Century when they were brought back from India. They are incredibly easy and satisfying to make and are utterly delicious. I had a lot of different vegetables in surplus at my allotment, primarily beetroots and purple carrots, and I made a chutney that echoes some of Hannah Glasse's favourite flavours.

We tried it fresh with some Gorgonzola cheese, and it will also taste amazing in a few days, the orange comes more to the fore as do the other spices. It's perfect for strong cheese or as an accompaniment to meat dishes.

Miss Posset's Chutney.
You will need;
Some beetroots - more beets than carrots if you can manage it.
Some carrots ( sweet little carrots, not big bruisers)
A couple of tomatoes
I had a yellow courgette as well,
Red wine vinegar ( organic)
Brown sugar (fair trade raw cane)
Zest and juice of an orange or two depending on how much you have chopped, or to your taste.
A slice of fresh ginger
Cloves
Mace
Bay leaf
Cinnamon and Cardamom. 

Chop the vegetables into chunky little pieces and put them in a big saucepan with a thick bottom, I used one of those cast iron stewing pans, and then pour in enough vinegar to cover the vegetables, add the zest and juice of the orange and then add sugar to taste, I usually use equal amounts of vinegar and sugar but you may adjust this to your taste. Simmer gently for around and hour and a half to two hours, until the consistency is thick and jam-like and allow to cool.
Let the aroma of orange and spices waft gently around the house while cooking, but if cooking in August - as I was - close the windows because the fermenty vinegar-sweet smell brings every wasp into the kitchen within a 20 mile radius.