Relishing Royalty

Finally Summer has hit with a vengeance, and I’m loving it. My social life is crazy right now, as everyone is just happier in the warmer weather and there are so many outdoor things to enjoy in Perth when the sun is shining :), not to mention the silly season is upon us – Christmas parties, lunches, concerts, street festivals – so much is going on right now and I’m really having a ball.

I was recently reading historian Kate Williams‘ book Young Elizabeth : The Making of Our Queen, which mentioned the dish created by royal chefs to be served at the Queen’s coronation lunch in 1953. Aptly titled Coronation Chicken, this dish has become an iconic British chicken salad dish, with many variations.

Basically this is poached chicken, dressed with a mixture of mayonnaise, curry powder and fruit chutney.

You can see both the original recipe and a healthier, modern take by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, here. I made mine above by taking elements from both – I used low-fat mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt for the dressing base, and fruit chutney rather than apricots, but I did poach 2 chicken breasts rather than use leftover cooked chicken. I also topped with shaved parmesan to cut through the sweetness, but actually it was still too sweet for me – too kind of “fruity” in an overpowering kind of way.

I like the concept, and it was easy to make, but I will try it again with just yoghurt and no mayo next time, and chopped dried fruit instead of the very strong fruit chutney.

Happy Summer Fooding!

 

Kitchens on My Travels 2

Palace kitchen garden

As you know, I had a wonderful experience at Kew Gardens on my recent UK trip. It was the day before I flew home and for once the weather was absolutely lovely – blue skies and not too cold, just perfect for wandering around looking at the most amazing plants, flowers and old buildings.

You might remember a few months ago, I made Barley Broth from the Kew Palace kitchens’ YouTube channel. I was really looking forward to visiting the kitchens, which haven’t been open to the public all that long, and I wasn’t disappointed! It took me a while to find the kitchens, as the gardens are humungous and I had expected them to be close to (but detached – fire risk!) the palace itself. In fact, the kitchens (which have a lower floor for the actual kitchens and laundry rooms, and an upper floor where the estate accounts were managed – a bit more elegant upstairs!) turned out to be a fair distance away, and when I enquired about this (because I was picturing a trail of servants carrying tea & cakes between two places*), I was told the kitchens actually belonged to the White House, the home of Frederick, Prince of Wales. This house was demolished in 1802, but the kitchen buildings are what we see restored today.

Nosegay Garden

There are lovely gardens behind the palace itself – known collectively as the Queen’s Garden – one section is the Nosegay Garden and it is full of herbs and other “smellies”, which apart from their herbal/medicinal properties are just gorgeous to look at – it must have been a stunningly pretty view, at a sad time in their lives, for George III‘s family, looking out of their back windows on to the lovely grounds and flowers.

Georgian Cooking

So, inside the kitchens, which are below ground level and would be extremely cold if there wasn’t a fire going for cooking, I found the two gentlemen who feature on the Historic Royal Palaces recipe videos! They were lovely and very chatty, and apparently spend their days divided between Kew and Hampton Court, cooking up a Georgian/Tudor storm which is served at 4pm each day. What a life – cooking fun stuff all day every day, without the pressure of serving in a restaurant, and getting paid for it! There were various dishes in different stages of preparation, and I cannot remember what they were although I did ask lots of questions at the time – the only thing mundane was that a plate of boring ham and cheese sandwiches was being made!

Fit for a Georgian King

I had to be pushy and jump in behind the big table to get a photo of myself with “famous” (well YouTube is the TV of today, right….) chefs. They were lovely and didn’t mind at all, and I had a real warm fuzzy moment, hanging out in a Georgian kitchen with these two guys.

Masterchef Georgian Style?

Apparently the ham you can see on the front left of the above photo, is cured especially for Kew, and costs an exorbitant amount – which I can’t remember, but it could have been like £200 or something ludicrous.

As for the rest of the palace itself (which is not very big and is not completely restored yet), there was one morbid moment – in a bedroom is a black chair with a small placard on it – see pic below. The placard states “Queen Charlotte 1744-1818 Died in this chair 17 November 1818″. Hmmmmm gee thanks for sharing that image!

The Chair of Death!!!

Speaking of food at Kew, I never did get the Kew Explorer Muffin recipe from them – they very nicely acknowledged my request and passed it on to the bakers (a national concern), but I never heard back. Shame as it was such a yummy healthy, fruity, seedy piece of yumminess. I’ll have to have a go at making it up some time.

Happy Fooding!

* a-la-Downton-Abbey-Red-Nose-Day hilarity – watch this 2-part parody Uptown Downstairs Abbey if you haven’t seen it before – it’s a crackup!

Kitchens On My Travels 1

Gainsborough Old Hall, a medieval manor built in the 15th century, is a very impressive and huge place. Last month I was there as part of an historical tour (Lancaster & York) – the significance for the tour was that both Richard III and Henry VIII (along with Catherine Howard) stayed here as guests of the Burgh family, who originally built the manor. Katherine Parr also lived here during her first marriage.

This place is very big and very well preserved – unlike many of the castles and relevant places we went to, this is still fully standing and has a goodly part surviving from its original construction. The Great Hall in particular is very impressive.

The kitchen here was amazing!!! It has a huge, open ceiling going up to what was once a ceiling chimney hole (from when the fire was in the centre of the room). The guide was extremely knowledgable and witty, giving us his “between you and me” opinions about the various kitchen sections, that weren’t necessarily what he was supposed to say! It was a very fun tour of the whole house, despite the cold (brick floors underneath your feet are not exactly warm – it must have been awful back in the day).

This kitchen is the perfect example of the safety issues of the time – built separately to the main hall/building, because of fire risk. In fact, the main hall/house is mainly wooden, but the kitchen is all brick, with a deliberate gap to separate house from kitchen.

Around the top of the kitchen, ie on the upper floor but looking down on the kitchen itself, was the small bedroom/quarters for the head of the kitchen (all staff were male in kitchens at this time by the way), so that he could keep an eye on what was going on and make sure there were no shenanigans!

Dinner, anyone?!

Happy Fooding!