Downton Soup Kitchens Serve Borscht to Russian Refugees

Downton wins NTA and SAG awards this week.

January is almost behind us but we have had plenty of distractions to keep our mind off the short days and long winter nights.  Not only did Downton Abbey won Best Drama at Britain’s National Television Awards last week, they picked up the Drama Ensemble Award at last night’s SAG awards.  Joanne Froggatt was so kind to specifically thank us viewers for our support.  You can view the “ensemble” acceptance speech below in the Downton Dish section.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, Scots around the world celebrated poet Rabbie Burns this weekend (more below).

In tribute to the Russian refugees who Rose adopted and whom Violet has a connection with, this week’s dish is Beef Beet Borscht, a traditional Russian dish.  It is hearty healthy and inexpensive soup, perfect to feed your own army during the cold winter months.

Downton Dish

Jessica Fellowes’ book A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey

Season 5 of Downton Abbey finally arrived in North America, broadcast on PBS at the beginning of this month, seen Sunday nights at 9 PM. We are now half way through the season. Some appetizing articles to whet your appetite while we wait for the next course of Downton.

• Downton Wins SAG Award for Best TV Drama Ensemble: recap and acceptance speech 
• Downton Wins Best Drama at the NTA: some words of thanks from the big night.
• Where did those Russians Come From? Time Magazine explains what happened between Seasons 2 and 5.
• News of Hitler Reaches Downton:  Michael Gregson appears to have met up with Hitler’s horrid bunch.
• January-The Year Ahead: excerpt from Jessica Fellowes great book.
• Get the Rules: Downton Abbey: Rules for Household Staff is a handy new book with some great tips to keep your Abbey in tip top shape.

What happened in S5E4

Rose serves soup to her Russians (ITV)

A quick recap of what went down and upstairs this past week. Love is the air for some:

• Isobel and Violet visit Rose at the Russian refugees.  Violet seems interested in the whereabouts of the Princess.
• Lady Mary decides to put off Tony at the Peter Pan monument, but he will have nothing of her plans to drop the engagement.
• Isobel gets her own marriage proposal from Lord Merton.
• Mr. Green’s death brings the trouble for Anna and Mr. Bates.
• Edith gets news about Michael Gregson, and is still hopeful he is still alive.
• Thomas gets duped again (remember his black market goods business), buying an injectable gay cure all.
• Mrs. Patmore pleas for proper remembrance of her nephew Archie.
• Robert sees vision in selling land to developers, insistent that new development be done with decorum.
• Simon Bricker continues to pursue Cora.
• Miss Bunting pushes Robert’s buttons once again and finally gets her marching orders!

My favorite fun quote: (Robert to Violet): “How is your old beau managing, Mama? Prince Thing a Ma Jig.”

Rabbie Burns Day: Jan. 25

On January 25, Scots around the world celebrate the birth of famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. You know at least one poem, “Auld Lang Syne’ which we sing on New Year’s Eve, written in 1788. Traditional Burns Suppers are often held the weekend before or after his actual birthday- there is scotch involved. I have been lucky enough to have been invited to a few annual celebrations. This is a very serious event with a set program complete with bag pipes, and speeches in an language which barely resembles English. The main event is the piping in and then address of the haggis (sheep’s stomach stuffed with oatmeal mixed with offals). Toasts with scotch does help some summon the courage to actually eat the haggis. I happen to be a big fan.

Delish oatcakes FYI, I’m Burberry clan.

If haggis is not your cup of tea, you could like to try other  Scottish dishes, how about:

• Soup: Cock-a-Leekie (chicken and leeks)
• Main: Mince and tatties (ground beef and mashed potatoes).
• Dessert: Bonnie Cranachan (yoghurt, whisky, oats)
• Snack: Oatcakes

Is This Your Year to Tour Downton ?

My New Year’s resolution was to think seriously about planning a “Downton” trip to London in 2015. I have been to London many times, but have yet to see Highclere Castle. I have been approached by many tour companies in the past, but this year may be the year when I can customize the tour that I would like to take.  Friendly Planet Tours ran a lovely (and sold out) Christmas tour to Downton and already selling a four day visit this summer.

Care to join me?  You can help me customize that package.  I would love to hear from those who are serious about Doing Downton this year. Close to 700 people have responded thus far, and here is a sample of what you said.

Have your say and Take the survey.  Perhaps you will be able to come along.

Abbey Cooks Entertain: 2nd Edition

A new season means viewing parties. Whether you are hosting 2 or 20, this book has lots of ideas. Containing 220+ traditional Downton era recipes with a modern twist, this is a great book to create some simple or complex dishes for your Mary or Anna.

This 448 page ebook has been updated to include both metric and imperial measurements and now includes famous Downton dishes from Season 1-5.  Book sales help offset my costs in food, equipment and time to provide you new recipes on a regular basis.

The ebook is now available exclusively on Amazon:  Abbey Cooks Entertain: 220 recipes inspired by Downton Abbey, Seasons 1 – 5

Print Version:  The good news is that the 2nd Edition is available on Amazon. The full book is 450 pages and will contain famous Downton recipes from Seasons 1-5.  The not so great news is that with the size of the book, Amazon needs to charge Lady Mary price to recoup their printing costs.  Stay tuned on a lower cost alternative.

History of the Soup Kitchen

Food relief has been a main stay of humanitarian missions in third world nations, but unfortunately bread lines are no longer just a distant memory of The Great Depression in the Western World. The current economic climate has again made food banks and soup kitchens a necessity.

While he was hardly the first person to come up with the idea to feed the poor, American born Count Rumford has been credited with establishing the first soup kitchens. Born Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford is famed as a scientist, a diplomat, military administrator, inventor, culinary expert, philanthropist and social philosopher. He also earned well-deserved reputation for being an arrogant and abrasive, but then again so did Steve Jobs.

He fled to Britain during the American Revolution, labelled as a British Loyalist. There are a few different accounts as to how the soup kitchen evolved after that (in the late 1700s). He had earned the title of Count from the Bavarian Government. In a plan to rid Munich of beggars, The Smithsonian blog explains that he had the army round up beggers and their children, putting them into workhouses to make military uniforms. The workers needed to be fed and Rumford created a nutrient rich soup make of peas, barley, and broken white bread (the invention of the crouton), to serve.  Soon soup houses were established throughout Europe, England and the United States to feed the poor. In London, as many as sixty thousand people were fed daily from Rumford’s soup kitchens.

Rumford’s innovations in the kitchen also included the cast-iron Rumford stove (the first commercially available kitchen range), which kept in heat and allowed temperature to be regulated better than on an open hearth; a pressure cooker (though not necessarily the first one); and a drip coffee maker.

Russian Beef Borscht

Borscht or Borshch was once enjoyed by the Romans, with beets and cabbage grown specifically to be enjoyed in the soup.  The modern version as we know it started to appear in the 15th century. Did you know that beets were prescribed as an aphrodisiac?

An unproved food legend revolves around a story of the Cossacks at war in the 1600s.  Feeding four thousand Cossacks in a camp was problematic, everything edible went into the soup pot, resulting in a enjoyable mixture of vegetables and meat.

Over the centuries there have been a number of varieties of developed. I have included most of the ingredients used, and you can pick and choose.  In my family we don’t use cabbage, and we julienne our vegetables (cut into thin strips) while others shred them.  It is just as enjoyable without meat. I love mine with vinegar at the end along with the dollop of sour cream. All have the distinctive red color, and are best prepared the day before to let the flavours blend.

Serves 10

Ingredients

• 12 medium beets
• olive oil
• 2 small to medium unpeeled turnips, grated or julienned
• 2 medium to large unpeeled parsnips, grated or julienned
• 4-6 unpeeled carrots, grated or julienned
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 medium head of cabbage, shredded or julienned (optional)
• 3 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 large potatoes, cubed
• 2/3 to 1 whole 8-oz can tomato paste
• meat reserved from making the stock, cubed
• 12 cups beef stock (see below) with cubed meat*
• additional water or stock, as needed
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 bunch parsley or dill, chopped
• sour cream and extra parsley or dill for garnish

Method

1. Prepare the Beets:  Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6 and prepare a lined baking sheet with parchment paper.  Rub each beet with a bit of olive oil, pierce a few times with a fork, then individually wrap each beet in tin foil.  Place the beets on the baking sheet and roast for for 1 to 1.5 hours or until easily pierced with a knife.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool.  They can now be easily peeled by rubbing. Grate or julienne the cooled beets and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet.  When the butter begins to foam, add the prepared root vegetables (except for cabbage and potatoes) and saute until they have softened. Reduce the heat to low and stir in tomato paste. Set aside.
3. Bring beef stock to a boil and add the cabbage and the potatoes. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sauteed root vegetables and beets Continue simmering gently, partially covered, for 40 minutes, adding more stock to thin the soup if needed.
4. Stir in the remaining beets, cubed meat, and more salt if needed (the exact amount of lemon juice will depend on your taste, but the goal is to strike a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity so your borscht is neither too sour, nor too sweet). Simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the beets are no longer dark-red and the garlic has mellowed out. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley.

*you can always use canned low sodium beef stock and left over roast.

Beef Stock

from Abbey Cooks Entertain

• 4–5 lb. (1.8–2.3 kg) meaty beef and veal bones
• 1 lb. (455 g) stew meat
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• Celery stalks and leaves
• Broccoli stems
• 2–3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• Handful parsley, stems and leaves
• 1–2 bay leaves
• 10 peppercorns

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6.
2. Place stock bones, stew meat or beef scraps, carrots and onions in a large, shallow roasting pan, and drizzle some olive oil on top.
3. Bake for 45 minutes, turning the bones and meat pieces halfway through the cooking, until browned. Transfer the meat and vegetables to a large stock pot.
4. Deglaze the roasting pan on low heat by pouring a little water in the pan and scraping up all of the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour the browned bits and water into the stock pot.
5. Add the remaining ingredients into the pot, and fill with water so it is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) above the bones.
6. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Partially cover the pot and let simmer untouched for 3–4 hours, occasionally skimming the scum that rises to the top.
7. I let the stock simmer for the afternoon, but it should be left for at least 3 hours. Remove from the heat and take out the vegetables, meat and bones. You can reclaim the stew meat for a soup, and if you are a fan of marrow, now is the time to dig in. Let the mixture cool, then strain the stock into tall containers which take up less room in your refrigerator. Refrigerate and you will see that the fat has risen to the top and created a white layer. You can easily pick it off and discard.
8. You can now use the stock which will keep in your refrigerator for a few days. Freeze the rest in plastic containers for future use. I also freeze some in ice cube trays, transferring into a plastic bag. One or two cubes are great for the times when you only need a little stock to add to a dish.