Earl Grey and Lavender Jelly

Or as I like to call it, Ambrosia.  Doing a late-night supermarket run last week for essentials like milk, bread and Bob the Builder Yoghurt, I discovered that Aeroplane Jelly have a make-your-own-flavour flavoured jelly.  This is possibly the best thing to happen in my foodie world since I discovered Supabarn sell duck fat.  Obviously, I bought two packets. 

Recipe: Earl Grey and Lavender Jelly
3 teaspoons loose-leaf earl grey tea - I prefer Twinings but use your favourite
1/2 teaspoon culinary lavendar - as noted in a previous post, don't consume lavender if pregnant or lactating)
1 packet make-your-own-flavour jelly crystals
350mL just-boiled water
200mL chilled water

Add tea and lavender to just-boiled water and brew for about 10 minutes.  I used a plunger for this but a teapot would also work.  Once brewed, put jelly crystals in a bowl and add 250mL of the strained tea (the reason for making extra is that the leaves and flowers will absorb some of the water).  Stir until all the crystals have dissolved.  Add 200mL chilled water and pour into jelly mould/s.  Refrigerate at least four hours or overnight.

Iceberg ho!

Knowing that I was bereft of my companion and dinner party co-host, my best friend recently approached me with a proposal: a mad Titanic nut, she wanted to recreate a meal from the original menu to coincide with the 100th anniversary of its sinking.  There would be costumes and period music.  How could I refuse? Challenge accepted!

The Plan

Apparently cookbooks detailing Edwardian Cruise Liner food are a dime a dozen so she produced one almost immediately and we set about designing a ten-course menu including two dessert courses and a buffet main.  Since April 14th conveniently fell on a Saturday we decided it was fate and went for it.  Invitations, designed to look like boarding passes, were sent out and a grand plan took shape.

The Menu

Thanks to the power of Google we learned that a typical first class dinner on a White Star liner consisted of ten courses including a soup course, palate cleansers, several mains and more than one dessert course.  Phrase of the day? Challenge Accepted!

In case you can't read it, the menu went:
Hors D'oevres: Pate with Melba Toasts
Soup: Cream of Barley
Entree: Salmon in Mouselline Sauce
Palate cleanser: Punch Romaine
Mains: Chicken in Lyonnaise Sauce, Roast Lamb with Strawberry and Mint Gravy
Sides: Parmentier of Potatoes, Creamed Carrots
Palate Cleanser: Fresh Fruit in Cream Cheese
Dessert: Waldorf Pudding
Petits Fours: Florentines, Macarons and Turkish Delight

The Decorations

Decorating is generally my favourite part of a dinner party - after all, we eat with our eyes first and I like my guests to be salivating from the moment they enter the room.  The first class dining room of the Titanic was decorated with the understated elegance typical of the Edwardian era.  To reflect this we went with a white lace tablecloth, gold-rimmed white china and simple vases of pink roses.  Bestie, however, can't help going a little overboard (pardon the pun and extremely poor taste) and insisted on posting Titanic memorabilia on the walls and adding blue and yellow streamers.  Although opposed to the streamers I will now admit that they worked beautifully.  This was of course accented with authentic Edwardian music (thanks to authentic Edwardian itunes) - because what is dinner without a little music?

Our masterpiece, however, was a recreation of the Palm Court Cafe, complete with wicker furniture (by a stroke of luck, our hostess just happened to have some in the attic) and a thoroughly Edwardian floral centerpiece. Oh, and palms.  This served as our 'drawing room' for petits fours and reading replica newspapers after dinner, as demonstrated by regular dinner attendee The Scotsman.

The Food

 That's what you're here for, isn't it? Well, as there were ten courses you're going to have to make a special request for recipes if you want them.  But the highlights of the dinner were the Poached Salmon in Mouselline Sauce (sort of like a hollandaise, an acidised frothy custard which sounded terribly technical but was actually quite simple to make) and the Punch Romaine, which was so good I've decided I am going to give you the recipe after all.  The prettiest looking dish was the Fresh Fruit in Cream Cheese, which was an excuse for me to buy a set of stainless steel presentation rings.

Recipe - Punch Romaine

Lemon Sorbet

Champagne (this also works with non-alcoholic champers if you have non-alcoholic guests)

3 egg whites

2tbsp caster sugar

1/2 cup water

Separate egg whites and put in a deep, preferably metal, bowl.  Get your electric beaters ready.  Put the water in a small saucepan over medium heat and add the sugar.  Stir to dissolve and keep stirring until the mixture becomes syrupy.  Do not let it brown - if it's not perfectly clear, then you have made toffee.  You want sugar syrup. Take off the heat, and immediately start beating the egg whites.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Gradually add the hot sugar syrup while still beating egg whites.  Congratulations! You have made Italian Meringue.

Spoon lemon sorbet into champagne saucers (martini glasses would also work well).  Pour champagne slowly on top (it will fizz up).  Once it's settled a bit, spoon meringue over the top and serve immediately.   I cannot tell you enough how amazing this dish was.  Seriously, you have to try it.

The Night

After ten courses and several bottles of wine, we figured out why everyone was so slow to get off the boat - we could barely move.   Many thanks to Bestie for the mad but brilliant idea and the Physicist for providing wicker furniture, palm trees and champagne saucers with no notice. Oh, and a venue.  After dinner we sat around and, as you do when stuffed full of food, planned the next six or seven parties - so rest assured, my avid reader(s?), the drought is over and there are many more ridiculous dinners to come.

The F Word

Dear Foodies

First I must apologise for neglecting you. TImes are hard for dinner party dreamers. My daughter is growing up and I find that toddlers are a lot more work than babies. This has not taken me by surprise but it has left scant time for planning extravagant parties or concocting confusing cupcake confections. On top of this, my partner in crime, The Cowboy, has fled the state and the dinner party we'd planned to present to you in February never eventuated. I do have an event in the works and will return to blog about it in just over a week (promise).  But first, I must interrupt my usual programming for an important public announcement.

I am a feminist. In former years I preferred to call my self an 'egalitarian' because my aim is equality (like that of most feminists). But the older I get, the clearer it is to me that there is only one word for what I believe: I am a feminist.

What has brought this on? Why, amidst an ode to my espresso machine and a defense of nutella, would I emerge from months of silence to announce this fact, already well known to all three of you who actually read this blog?

Several events in recent times have been gradually raising the feminist hackles but two things have happened in the past twenty-four hours which spur me to write. The first came to me by way of my husband, who reads me tidbits from his twitter stream and is my main source of political news. Last night in bed he delivered the following: "The governor of Wisconsin is repealing equal pay legislation."

If this doesn't make your skin crawl, please stop reading, go back to your facebook page and defriend me now.  I'm serious. I actually cried. I understand that there are many, too many, places in the world where the war for equality is still raging and the battle for equal pay hasn't even started yet. But in the US, this is a battle we had won. We have held that ground for decades. But we became complacent. We forgot that this was a right we had to win and we took it for granted. And now it has been taken from us. I cannot express to you the despair I feel thinking about this.

The second event was very different. A dear friend updated her own blog with a feminist rant of her own. She made several excellent comments regarding the inequality of gender expectations in our own relatively egalitarian society. However, her opening paragraph contained the following phrase: "It is a rant about ... well, I wouldn't go so far as to say 'feminism'"

This phrase disturbed me deeply. Is feminism 'far'? Is it radical? Is it so out there to declare the simple truth: women are equal to men? It is not. Every person, male, female or other, who believes that all people are equal regardless of gender, should stand up right now and declare: I am a feminist.

Feminism is not only the domain of shouty, bra-burning, hairy hippies or aggressive, emotionless corporate ceiling-smashers. It is not just the realm of humourless hipsters or manic man-haters. Feminism is for every woman who keeps working after marriage, after children. Who gets to decide whether or not to change her name after marriage. Who holds a credit card in her own name. Feminism is for every man who believes himself the equal of his mother, sisters, friends and partner. Feminism is for every person, at every time. If you are commenting about gender inequality. it's not going 'far' to call it feminism because that's what it is. Don't let it become a dirty word. Don't let Wisconsin happen again.

In response to my friend's question about expectations on women, I thought of a quote from my favourite book:
"Our question," continued Mr Honeyfoot, "is, sir, why is no more magic done in England?"
Mr Norrell's small blue eyes grew harder and brighter and his lips tightened as if he were seeking to suppress a great and secret delight within him. Mr Norrell said, "I cannot help you with your question, sir, for I do not understand it. It is a wrong question, sir. Magic is not ended in England. I myself am quite a tolerable practical magician."

I do not understand your question, because it is a wrong one. I myself am quite a tolerable practical egalitarian.

We must stop asking why expectations are unequal. We must stand up and expect right back. We must make our own demands and show that they are not unreasonable. And we must not be afraid to use the f-word.