The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook (6 page)

While this recipe uses spinach, it’s well known that authentic Oysters Rockefeller obtains its green sauce without the use of spinach, but rather from a mixture of parsley, celery, and scallions or chives. However, nobody knows the exact ratio of ingredients, and this fact, along with the likelihood that the original Oysters Rockefeller contained absinthe (which this recipe replaces with Pernod), a liquor that is illegal in several areas, makes duplicating real Oysters Rockefeller nearly impossible. This recipe, however, is a solid and extremely satisfying solution.

As any experienced chef would know, bleu cheese brings out the sweet taste of figs like no other ingredient. Thus, Mrs. Patmore would bake these delicious hors d’oeuvres that are simultaneously sweet and tart. Eaters beware, however: Nothing is as tart as the Crawley sense of humor!

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

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teaspoon cinnamon

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teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon heavy cream

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cup toasted walnuts, chopped

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cup sugar

1 tablespoon lukewarm water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

12 fresh figs, halved lengthwise and stems removed

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cup unsalted butter

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cup sweet port

6 ounces Stilton blue cheese, crumbled, room temperature

Honey to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Roll out puff pastry sheet on a clean, lightly floured surface. Place puff pastry sheet in a well-greased baking pan and then place another sheet pan on top of puff pastry to prevent it from rising too much.
   
3. Bake puff pastry in preheated oven (with sheet pan still on top) for 5–8 minutes or until beginning to turn golden. Remove and set aside.
   
4. To make walnut crunch:
   In a medium-sized skillet, stir honey, sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt over medium heat until butter melts. Cook mixture until it boils and reaches a deep golden brown, about 3–5 minutes. Stir in cream, followed by walnuts. Cook for an additional 2 minutes, then pour out over a sheet of heavy foil. Let cool completely, then chop walnut crunch into small pieces.
   
5. To prepare figs:
   Mix sugar, water, and salt in a heavy skillet over medium heat until sugar is evenly moist, adding more water if needed. Cook mixture until sugar turns golden, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Place figs cut-side down in sugar mixture. Cook figs until they begin to release juice. Immediately add butter, swirling skillet to melt. Remove from heat and add port. Let figs marinate in port mixture for 5–10 minutes before removing figs to a plate to cool. Once again bring syrup to a boil, whisking until smooth. Cool completely.
   
6. Using a 2- to 3-inch pastry cutter, cut out rounds of semi-baked puff pastry. Divide walnut mixture among rounds, then top with fig halves, cut-side up.
   
7. Bake tartlets in preheated oven (still at 350°F) for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
   
8. Artfully arrange cheese on top of tartlets, followed by the sweet port syrup. Drizzle with honey and serve.
   

If you choose to serve this dish as a dessert rather than as an appetizer, try pairing these pastries with a delicious yet full-bodied dessert wine such as a Riesling, Moscato, or Chianti. Be careful, however, Moscato can be an especially sweet wine, and, depending on the brand, can easily overpower, rather than complement, the bleu cheese.

Prior to the advent of the
Service á la Russe
used at Downton Abbey, guests would enter the dining room to find their soup already placed on their assigned plates. Once eaten, the soup bowls would be removed and quickly replaced with fish and then basically a full meal in an attempt to prepare the appetite for the roast. However, with
Service à la Russe
, the soups and other dishes were served one after the other by Thomas and William in courses and not in large meals. In fact, two soups — one thick, one clear — would be offered, and it would be up to guests to decide which one — or both — they wanted to try. Offer one or many of the soups in this chapter at your next dinner party and see who wants what!

What makes Mrs. Patmore’s cream of mushroom soup so irresistible is its luxurious, velvety texture, which, after reading the famous and highly esteemed master chef Escoffier’s treatise on French cooking, Mrs. Patmore would know could only be established by forming a delicious
velouté
— a mixture of a butter-flour roux with chicken stock — as the base.

6 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

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cup unsalted butter

1 pound crimini or porcini mushrooms

2 shallots, minced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

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teaspoon saffron

1 tablespoon brandy

3 egg yolks

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cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon kosher salt

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teaspoon white pepper

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat chicken stock to a light simmer.
   
2. In a separate pot over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons unsalted butter until it starts to froth. Then stir in flour. Continually stirring, allow to cook for 3–5 minutes over medium heat. Do not let brown.
   
3. Whisk the warm stock into the roux and let simmer for 20–25 minutes, stirring frequently. It should slowly cool down by at least a third and be silky, or velvety, in appearance.
   
4. While the
   velouté
   simmers, make the mushroom base: In a sauté pan over medium-heat, melt butter.
   
5. Finely mince the mushrooms and shallots, and add to pan. Then add 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer, covered, for several minutes or until shallots are translucent and the mushrooms lose their water.
   
6. In a very small dish, stir the saffron into the brandy, then add to mushroom base. Turn up the heat, then stir to combine. Stir until the brandy is nearly gone.
   
7. Using an immersion blender, purée the mushroom base.
   
8. Strain mushroom purée through a fine-mesh sieve, then add to
   velouté
   . Thoroughly stir together the two mixtures, then simmer for 15 minutes.
   
9. In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and heavy cream. Then ladle, a little at a time, some of the soup into the cream mixture. This allows you to slowly temper the eggs with the hot stock so nothing congeals. Once you have 5 ladles of soup in the cream mixture, pour it all back into the soup mixture and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes, but do not boil.
   

According to Chef Escoffier — commonly recognized as the finest master chef of the twenty-first century —
velouté
sauce, along with espagnole, béchamel, Hollandaise, and tomato sauces, are the so-called “five mother sauces” of classical cuisine.
Velouté
sauces are not usually used on their own, rather their “daughter sauces,” or sauces based on their mother counterparts, are created and used.

Though this was one of the soups served on the
Titanic
on that infamous and tragic night, this dish would continue to be popular in Britain. As it is the death of the Earl of Grantham’s heir on the
Titanic
that causes Matthew Crawley to enter the family’s lives, serving this soup would likely lead to the sharing of many memories: some good, some bad.