good cateress newsletter May '11

good cateress newsletter May 2011


May the Season of Asparagus and Weddings!

We ate our first New Jersey Asparagus about ten days ago for Easter. I saw them at Union Square market unexpectedly given how our winter that would not end, hung on into April. But there they were the tall green stems with maroonish heads, tightly tied with string on a few stands. There were huge piles of Ramps too, but where do all these Ramps come from? Are the farmers stripping the woodland floor of them? I would prefer to see them in the ground and smell the sharp pungency as I walk among them.

I cooked the asparagus in two ways. Steamed with melted butter, as my mother always served them. The other half I quickly blanched and then put them in a herb and olive oil marinade before placing them on the grill for a few minutes each side. Serving them with the marinated rack of lamb that was grilled alongside the asparagus. I made early garden mint sauce for the lamb. A Spring dinner of renewal.

I have written many times that my favorite asparagus are the large white asparagus from France and Germany, which exists now only in my memory. But I also love the fresh English asparagus. Simon, my brother, grows them in York in his allotment. My friends the Brown Family grow them on the Isle of Wight and they can be found at Farmer Jacks their farm stand in Arreton, http://www.farmerjacks.co.uk. Take a look, you like me will wonder what I am doing in New York City!!

Apparently I am not alone in thinking the A E Browns Asparagus are superior. Ben Brown delivered a special picking of Asparagus to the Palace for the wedding of William and Kate. They are believed to have been served in a mini tart for the Lunchtime event - an old favorite of we at good cateress, with a crumble of goat cheese on top. In the evening Buffet, Asparagus served with English Crab. My mouth waters at the thought of the fresh crab and asparagus - a salad perhaps with a home made Aioli?

I did get up and watch some of the Royal Wedding on the morning of the 29th. I didn’t feel I needed to be up at 5am because I knew it would be played all day. I watched the BBC, I knew that Diane, Katie, Barbara would drive me crazy with their commentary, so I went to the source.

I had gone up to London for Charles and Diana’s wedding in June 1981 and stood on The Strand and watched everyone going past on their way to St. Pauls. I had wanted to feel the excitement of the crowd, it was quite unlike anything I have ever witnessed. Everyone was so proud to be British and gloried in the Pomp and Circumstance of it all.

While in London to see my father in February, I had gone with my cousin Sue to see Westminster Abbey. Not because of the wedding but because I had been reading Robert Lacey’s History of England and was keen to see Edward the Confessors tomb, in what was the original part of the Abbey. The History in the Abbey is quite overwhelming. It is interesting to see Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart together, Elizabeth being the last of the Plantagenet and Tudor line and Mary from where all the future Kings and Queens come, rather like a line drawn in the sand of past and future.

The part I loved most about the Royal Wedding was the fact that it was a morning service. Until I was in my early 20’s every wedding that I attended or we catered at the Folly Inn or The Clarendon on the Isle of Wight were all morning weddings. There is something quite great about it, not least being that it is not a three day wedding event.
11 am at the church, think of the movie Four Weddings and a funeral, they are in a panic about being late because they have over slept. You can be home from the entire event in time for an hour or two of gardening before going on to dinner or an evening wedding Dance.

After the wedding and the photos at the church and church yard, we would go on to the reception; in a Marquee, a Hall or event space. As you entered and went through the greeting line you would be served a glass of sherry either an Amontillado amber in the small glass or fino, dry and pale. Once inside there would be other drinks available and Canapes.

When I was thinking back about the canapes I realize just what an indicator of how well financially we are doing, food and in particular wedding receptions are. In the 60’s and early 70’s Britain was coming out of the war and recovery. Yes, there was Carnaby street, Mary Quant etc. but generally life was still a little grey and we were struggling and it really wasn’t until the mid 80’s that England bounced with money and by then I was in New York.

I have to say I loved these easy canapes many of which can still be seen in my menus.
Prawn vol. au vents and prawn bridge rolls; chicken and mushroom vol. au vents; smoked salmon canapes; salmon and cucumber; egg and cress bridge rolls; Ham and mustard, beef and horseradish, cheese and tomato sandwiches. Tinned asparagus wrapped in buttered brown bread. Mini quiches; mini sausage rolls, mini bangers. All that bread and pastry, yet no one was overweight or obese. I took a look at my British Good Housekeeping Cookbook published in 1969, which is a little like the US’s Fannie Farmer.. All the above mentioned food was in their Entertainment section.

At the Folly Inn in the late 60’s, we would go for the summer weekends to help my aunt and uncle, Murray and Janette with the weddings and regatta’s. I would rush down to the kitchen on a saturday morning to find large bakers trays from Wray’s bakery in Newport. There would have been an early morning delivery, the driver knowing that the back door was unlocked and he could quietly take in trays full of mini sausage rolls, bridge rolls and the vol. au vent cases. I would have a sausage roll for breakfast, quality control tasting. I knew it would be a great day! Around 12 I would go and change into a dress, ready to help with passing the trays laden with goodies on to the table, but only after trying each delicacy.

Interestingly nothing sweet apart from the wedding cake itself. Fruit cake made months in advance, drizzled weekly with a spoonful of Brandy; a layer of marzipan between the cake and the icing. The royal icing, decorated beautifully in basket weave; scallops; tiny rosebuds and flowers all made from fondant. Weeks later you would receive another small slice of cake in a box that had been mailed. Now this cake, I often wondered if it was even the same cake; it would be dry and crumbly, the icing as hard as rock.

I am often asked about making a British Wedding Cake, which I can do, but I cannot do the icing. West Indian weddings often have the same cake and their decorations are the same, just not all in white. My favorite was at a Bajan wedding a few years back. The cake was spectacular with a white and deep purple decoration. I rushed to ask the baker if she was local, I could give her an order, no she had driven down from Toronto with the cake. The cake sat majestically on its royal purple tablecloth, silently holding court through the wedding.

During May the evenings are still cool enough to want something warm. I still love a bowl of soup, but a lighter fresher version than the heavy winter



Asparagus Soup

My mother often saved the bottom parts of Asparagus that had been snapped off. The best way to get the better part of the asparagus, is to snap it in half. It will naturally tell you where the break should be. Should would cook these bottoms with a few good stalks, having saved the tips.


2 pounds green asparagus
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 to 6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Salt, Pepper and a small pinch of Cayenne

Cut tips from 12 asparagus
1 1/2 inches from top and halve tips lengthwise if thick. Reserve for garnish.
Cut stalks and all remaining asparagus into 1/2-inch pieces.
Cook onion in 2 tablespoons butter in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add asparagus pieces and salt, pepper and the pinch of Cayenne, which I find enhances the flavor, to taste, then cook, stirring for 5 minutes. Add 5 cups broth and simmer, covered, until asparagus is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
While soup simmers, cook reserved asparagus tips in boiling salted water until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes, then drain.
Purée soup in batches in a blender until smooth, transferring to a bowl, and return to pan. Stir in crème fraîche, then add more broth to thin soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Bring soup to a boil and whisk in remaining tablespoon butter.
Add lemon juice and garnish with asparagus tips.










"'Tis like the birthday of the world,
When earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes,
The air is all perfume:
There's crimson buds, and white and blue,
The very rainbow showers
Have turned to blossoms where they fell,
And sown the earth with flowers."
-  Thomas Hood