Jennifer Barclay - A Literary Feast: Recipes Inspired by Novels, Poems and Plays

A LITERARY FEAST Copyright Summersdale Publishers Ltd, 2015 All rights reserved. Illustrations Shutterstock No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publishers. Jennifer Barclay has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Condition of Sale This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Summersdale Publishers Ltd
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CONTENTS Disclaimer The recipes in this book are compiled as a culinary complement
to popular literature, and the author and publisher cannot
guarantee the accuracy or success of every recipe. INTRODUCTION For eating and reading are two pleasures
that combine admirably. C. S. Lewis Irish poet Jonathan Swifts poem How Shall I Dine shows an utterly charming scene of a man carefully preparing his good quality mutton for the fire, spreading the cloth on the table and sharpening the knives. One way we judge and understand characters in literature is by the food they eat and how they eat it.

In a play written by Euripides in the fifth century BC, we comprehend the grief felt by Medea after her husband Jason takes another woman when we hear: She lies without food and gives herself up to suffering. The hedonistic excesses of the Egyptian court of Cleopatra that have lured the noble Roman Antony away from his duties are conjured by Shakespeare in the incredulous exchange: MECENAS : Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true? DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS : This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had much more monstrous matter of feast. How people think about food also makes a character unique. Who but Marian McAlpin, in Margaret Atwoods first novel The Edible Woman , would think, as she chews a forkful of sponge cake, that it felt spongy and cellular against her tongue, like the bursting of thousands of tiny lungs? We know people not only by what and how they eat but also by how they cook. In her 2003 novel Crescent , Diana Abu Jaber writes that tasting a piece of bread that someone has baked is like looking out of their eyes.

Cooking is a pleasure that connects us across centuries and cultures, so that when we read the Chinese poet Bai Juyi (or Po Chu-i), who lived 772846, describe Eating Bamboo Shoots, we can identify with his glee at finding himself in a place where they are abundant and cheap, and we are almost there inhaling the steam when he boils them in an earthen pot until the white skin opens like new pearls. In this book, I have had the pleasure of uncovering some memorable scenes of food in well-loved literature from around the world plays, poetry and novels and pairing them with recipes so you can make your own literary feasts. I hope that grazing through this menu of culinary bon mots will give you as much enjoyment and satisfaction as I gleaned from preparing it. You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat. So I did sit and eat. From Love, George Herbert STARTERS
AND SNACKS To skip to Mains, go to p.71 TROCHILUS: At times he
wants to eat a dish of loach from
Phalerum; I seize my dish and
fly to fetch him some.

Again he
wants some pea soup; I seize a
ladle and a pot and run to get it. The Birds , Aristophanes EASY-PEASY SOUP FOR
A DISCERNING PALATE In this comic play from classical Greece, Trochilus, the errand-bird is slave to Epops, a man who was turned into a hoopoe bird and asked his servant also to turn into a bird so he could continue to serve him. Theres nothing bird-like about his appetite, clearly. Serves 8 Ingredients 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 medium onion or 2 spring onions 1 stalk celery 2 cloves chopped garlic 1 tsp chopped fresh mint 1.2 kg peas, fresh or frozen 1 litre stock (vegetable or chicken) Salt and pepper Optional: Pine nuts Preparation 1. Heat the oil and butter over a medium heat until the butter has melted. 2.

Chop the onion and celery, and cook for several minutes until softened. Stir garlic and mint into the mix, and cook for a minute. 3. Add the peas and stock, increase the heat and bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and keep at a simmer for a minute or two until the peas are tender. 4. 5. 5.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, if using, and sprinkle on top as a garnish. Every Sunday my
grandfather used to bring
me an avocado pear
hidden at the bottom of
his briefcase. The Bell Jar , Sylvia Plath AVOCADO WITH GRAPE
JELLY DRESSING A luncheon of avocado and crabmeat salad makes Esther remember her grandfather, who was head waiter at a country club and used to sneak home treats for her. The avocado arrived under the six soiled shirts and the Sunday comics in his briefcase, and he served it with grape jelly vinaigrette. Serves 2 Ingredients 1 avocado, halved, stone removed Handful of cooked and shelled prawns, chopped Small ruby grapefruit, chopped 2 tsp grape or any red fruit jelly, e.g. redcurrant jelly 2 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp olive oil Preparation 1.

Mix the jelly, juice and oil into a dressing. 2. Fill both cups of the avocado pear with a mixture of prawns and grapefruit, and drench in dressing. 3. Serve with spoons. POINS: Item, a capon, two shillings and twopence.
Item, sauce, fourpence.
Item, sack, two gallons, five shillings and eightpence.
Item, anchovies, and sack after supper, two shillings and sixpence.
Item, bread a halfpenny.

PRINCE HENRY: O monstrous! But one halfpenny worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack! Henry IV, Part I , William Shakespeare ANCHOVIES AND ROASTED RED
PEPPERS FOR A FALSTAFFIAN APPETITE Falstaff is asleep behind the arras, snorting like a horse, when Prince Henry and his men search his pockets and find receipts from his last few meals out. Falstaff washed his anchovies down with sack, a semi-fortified wine imported from Spain or its islands, not unlike what we today call sherry; here we add a little sherry vinegar for flavour it wont leave your guests snorting like horses. Serves 4 Ingredients 4 large red peppers (pimientos) or equivalent quantity from jar Head of garlic 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp sherry vinegar Salt and pepper 8 slices of crusty bread 8 small anchovy fillets (use the best quality you can find) Preparation 1. If youre preparing the peppers yourself, roast them whole under the grill in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or over a naked flame, turning until the skins are evenly charred all over. If you roast the peppers in the oven, put the head of garlic in to roast too with the top sliced off. 2. 2.