A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes by Jessica Fellowes Page A
Authors: Jessica Fellowes
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accompanied by my mother, to a dance most nights of the week, varied by an occasional political At Home.’ She claims the tedium was only alleviated by the supper table.
The chief concern for the mothers was to invite the right sort of men to the dances. While a girl would try not to be seen at the round of debs’ dances for more than two years running without catching a husband, a man might go on attending without shame for as long as he remained a bachelor. The men were under no illusion as to the reason they were invited; Lord Byron, in the Regency years, had called the season ‘a marriage mart’, and so it was. Lady Diana Manners declaimed it further: ‘We poor creatures suffered great humiliation, for between dances we joined a sort of slave or marriage market at the door.’
ASPARAGUS TART
English asparagus is unparalleled in flavour – use the freshest you can find to make this tart, which is perfect for a starter or light lunch. If you prefer, you can make several smaller tartlets.
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons butter
2–3 tablespoons iced water
a bunch of asparagus spears
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups light cream
4 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with a large pinch of salt. Crumble in the butter and rub into the flour to give crumb texture. Add the iced water, one tablespoon at a time – just enough to bring the mixture into a ball of dough with your hands.
Dust the worktop and a rolling pin with flour. Roll the dough out thinly into a circle that is large enough to fill an 8 inch tart tin or dish. Carefully lift the dough circle into place and press it into the tin. Trim the edges with a knife. Prick the base all over with a fork, fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Snap off the hard parts at the end of the asparagus, and trim the ends with a knife to neaten. Wash the spears well and place in a pot of water that will hold them horizontally. Bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes until half cooked and drain.
Remove the tart from the oven, remove the baking beans and return the pastry to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Leave the pastry shell to one side while you prepare the filling.
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Stir in the cream and then the Parmesan until well combined. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Dry the asparagus spears with paper towels. Arrange them in a fan in the bottom of the pastry shell, tips facing in. Carefully pour the egg mixture around the asparagus until the tart shell is almost full. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until golden.
Serve the tart hot, cut into wedges, with a green salad.
Lady Rose with Mrs Dudley Ward, a well-known mistress of the Prince of Wales.
The women of the 1920s seem to have been rather dismissive of the available men. Mary Clive, the daughter of an Irish earl, wrote in her memoir,
Brought Up and Brought Out:
‘It was of course considered very vulgar for a man to dance well (like talking French at school with a French accent) and, if by any chance one did meet a man who did it beautifully, one was absolutely safe in writing him off as a bounder.’ Mothers and chaperones passed between each other the list of ‘deb’s delights’, those young men who could be relied upon to make up the numbers and behave themselves. In later years, the list included those who were not to be invited unless absolutely desperate – they might be marked as NSIT (‘not safe in taxis’) or MTF (‘must touch flesh’). Lucinda Gosling writes that if the numbers were really short, notices alerting male students to forthcoming debutante balls would be pinned up in the medical and law faculties of universities. The students would be sure to come, if only for the free food and drink (some things never
The chief concern for the mothers was to invite the right sort of men to the dances. While a girl would try not to be seen at the round of debs’ dances for more than two years running without catching a husband, a man might go on attending without shame for as long as he remained a bachelor. The men were under no illusion as to the reason they were invited; Lord Byron, in the Regency years, had called the season ‘a marriage mart’, and so it was. Lady Diana Manners declaimed it further: ‘We poor creatures suffered great humiliation, for between dances we joined a sort of slave or marriage market at the door.’
ASPARAGUS TART
English asparagus is unparalleled in flavour – use the freshest you can find to make this tart, which is perfect for a starter or light lunch. If you prefer, you can make several smaller tartlets.
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons butter
2–3 tablespoons iced water
a bunch of asparagus spears
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups light cream
4 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with a large pinch of salt. Crumble in the butter and rub into the flour to give crumb texture. Add the iced water, one tablespoon at a time – just enough to bring the mixture into a ball of dough with your hands.
Dust the worktop and a rolling pin with flour. Roll the dough out thinly into a circle that is large enough to fill an 8 inch tart tin or dish. Carefully lift the dough circle into place and press it into the tin. Trim the edges with a knife. Prick the base all over with a fork, fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Snap off the hard parts at the end of the asparagus, and trim the ends with a knife to neaten. Wash the spears well and place in a pot of water that will hold them horizontally. Bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes until half cooked and drain.
Remove the tart from the oven, remove the baking beans and return the pastry to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Leave the pastry shell to one side while you prepare the filling.
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Stir in the cream and then the Parmesan until well combined. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Dry the asparagus spears with paper towels. Arrange them in a fan in the bottom of the pastry shell, tips facing in. Carefully pour the egg mixture around the asparagus until the tart shell is almost full. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until golden.
Serve the tart hot, cut into wedges, with a green salad.
Lady Rose with Mrs Dudley Ward, a well-known mistress of the Prince of Wales.
The women of the 1920s seem to have been rather dismissive of the available men. Mary Clive, the daughter of an Irish earl, wrote in her memoir,
Brought Up and Brought Out:
‘It was of course considered very vulgar for a man to dance well (like talking French at school with a French accent) and, if by any chance one did meet a man who did it beautifully, one was absolutely safe in writing him off as a bounder.’ Mothers and chaperones passed between each other the list of ‘deb’s delights’, those young men who could be relied upon to make up the numbers and behave themselves. In later years, the list included those who were not to be invited unless absolutely desperate – they might be marked as NSIT (‘not safe in taxis’) or MTF (‘must touch flesh’). Lucinda Gosling writes that if the numbers were really short, notices alerting male students to forthcoming debutante balls would be pinned up in the medical and law faculties of universities. The students would be sure to come, if only for the free food and drink (some things never
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