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Chef promises a modern take on historical cuisine
The Capital, August 29, 2007
By Fran Jaques, Staff Writer
The flavors of Colonial Annapolis will be coming out of the kitchen of a contemporary hotel at the Annapolis Alive! kickoff on Sept. 30. Click here for recipes.
Paul Gillespie — The Capital
Executive Chef Allison Trinkle will be in the kitchen at Loew’s Annapolis Hotel during the Queen Anne Ball to kick-off Annapolis Alive!
That’s the date for the opening salvo of the 300th anniversary of the signing of the Annapolis City Charter in 1708 by Queen Anne of Great Britain, a year-long event known as Annapolis Alive! 300. The Queen Anne Ball at Loews Annapolis Hotel is the first festive occasion in a long series of tours, conversations, discussions, musical concerts, art displays and boat trips that have been planned throughout the city through the end of 2008.
Scheduled as a formal affair, the ball will feature herald trumpeters, town criers, knights and their ladies of the royal court, and, of course, dancing and dining. Proper attire will be black tie for men, dancing gowns for women or Colonial costumes for both.
Since food is the highlight of any social event, the hotel’s staff, primarily Lucy Curtis, director of catering, and Executive Chef Allison Trinkle, have been working on a menu to fit the occasion.
"We will have old-fashioned tastes with a Colonial feel that will be elegant enough to eat at a black-tie event," said Ms. Curtis. "You might say the food is a modern application of what people ate during that period."
Called a "Colonial Cornucopia," the menu will begin with miniglazed molasses drumsticks, beef Wellingtons with Madeira dipping sauce, bite-size crab cakes, country ham croquettes with maple mustard sauce and Johnny cakes topped with horseradish creme and a tiny piece of smoked trout.
These hors d’oeuvres will be served to guests by members of the hotel’s wait staff. The meal is not a sit-down dinner. Instead, guests will fill their plates with food from four stations which will be open during the festivities which begin at 7 p.m.
This food includes fresh shucked oysters and clams, crab claws and shrimp cocktail, veal and lamp chop "lolli-pops" carved turkey and country ham with fresh biscuits and Parker House dinner rolls. In addition there will be traditional Old Country and Farm Houses cheeses with Welsh rarebit fondue with English crackers, fruits and country breads for dipping.
Dessert has not been forgotten and will be highlighted by a favorite with the gentlemen and ladies at Colonial parties — trifles and syllabub. Trifles is a popular dish from England that is made with pieces of cake soaked with sherry wine, and layered with a rich custard, raspberry jam and sometimes topped with syllabub.
Syllabub is nothing more than rich cream that has been whipped, with the addition of sherry or Madeira, sugar and perhaps lemon juice. It also can be eaten plain and sprinkled with nutmeg.
Colonial food is simple but rich with fats, sugars and plenty of cream. Everyday foods were made with corn meal instead of the refined flours and molasses as the sweetener. Foods in the common households were close to the earth. Colonists of the higher economic class enjoyed food matching that served to British royalty.
Those attending the Queen Anne Ball will be given a royal treatment with tickets ranging from $150 and higher. Proceeds from the ball will help fund other events planned for Annapolis Alive! For ticket informa-tion, call 410-280-0212 or check the Web site at www.AnnapolisAlive.org.
Recipes from the Colonial period
Paul Gillespie — The Capital
Colonial food with a contemporary flavor will be served at the Queen Anne Ball to be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 at Loew’s Annapolis Hotel. Among the food to be featured in the Colonial Cornucopia will be molasses glazed mini drumsticks, foreground, Johnny cake topped with horseradish and smoked rainbow trout, at right, and lamp chop lolli-pops with apricot chutney, red currant sauce and mint pesto, rear.
Johnny Cake
From Maryland’s Way Cookbook
* 1 egg
* 1½ cups milk
* ½ teaspoon salt
* cup coarse white corn meal
* 2 tablespoons each butter and bacon grease
Break egg into mixing bowl and beat lightly. Add milk and salt, then stir in corn meal and mix until thoroughly blended. Put butter and bacon grease in an 8 by 10 baking pan and let it melt while oven is heating.
When melted, drain butter into batter, leaving enough in pan to grease it well. Stir up batter and pour into pan. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes or until brown and crisp. Serves 4.
Cornmeal Sticks
From Maryland’s Way
* ¼ teaspoon salt
* ¼ teaspoon soda
* 1 cup cornmeal
* 4 tablespoons shortening
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 2 tablespoons white corn syrup
Add salt and soda to the cornmeal. Add melted shortening and stir. Then stir in buttermilk and syrup. Pour into greased iron corn stick pan. Bake in hot oven for 30 minutes. Makes six sticks.
Scratch Backs
From Maryland’s Way
* 2 cups white waterground cornmeal
* 3 cups boiling water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon bacon fat
Scald cornmeal with boiling water, add salt and bacon fat. The batter should be of the consistency which sticks to a wooden spoon. Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Then slip under broiler to brown the top. The result is a nutty, crusty outside and soft cooked meal inside. Serve hot with butter. These are particularly good served in place of bread with wild duck or game. Serves 10.
Chicken Pot Pie
From Maryland’s Way
* 1 chicken, cut up
* 1 stalk celery, diced
* 1 onion, thinly sliced
* Parsley, chopped fine
* ½ teaspoon celery seed
* Yolks of 2 or 3 hard-cooked eggs
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon flour
* ¾ cup cream
* Pastry to line deep baking dish and cover the top
* Salt and pepper to taste
Cut up chicken and put in pot with enough water to cover. Add celery, onion, parsley, celery seed, salt and pepper. Simmer until tender, an hour or longer. Remove chicken from broth and take meat from bones.
Line baking dish with pastry and arrange pieces of chicken in it. Stir into broth in which chicken cooked the butter and flour and cream which have been mixed together. Cook and stir until it thickens. Add yolks of hard-cooked eggs mashed smooth to make gravy a rich yellow. Pour over chicken and cover with pastry top. Crimp edges together and make a few vents to let out steam.
Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 or 15 minutes. Reduce heat and continue baking 25 to 30 minutes until pie is done.
A few small onions, tiny new potatoes and carrot slices or peas may be added but the plain chicken in rich stock is the old-fashioned way.
Baked Indian Pudding
From the Banneker-Douglass Museum Cookbook
* 1 quart milk
* 1/3 cup cornmeal
* ½ cup molasses
* ½ to 1 teaspoon ginger
Cook the milk, cornmeal and salt in a double boiler for 20 minutes. Add molasses and ginger. Pour into greased baking dish or in muffin tin. Bake until done at 300 degrees for about 2 hours. Serve with ice cream.
Banana Coconut Cake
From Banneker-Douglass Museum Cookbook
* 5 medium bananas
* 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
* ½ cup orange juice
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
* 2/3 cup shredded coconut
Halve bananas lengthwise, then crosswise. Arrange in a greased 9-inch pie plate. Dot with margarine or butter and drizzle with orange and lemon juice. Sprinkle with brown sugar and coconut. Bake in a 375 degree oven until coconut is golden, 8 to 10 minutes.
Barbecued Chicken Wings
From Banneker-Douglass Museum Cookbook
* 12 chicken wings
* 2/3 cup tomato puree
* ¼ cup unsulfured molasses
* 1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
* ½ tablespoon Tabasco sauce
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Cut off and discard wing tips from 12 large chicken wings. Arrange in one layer in a shallow dish. Mix all the other ingredients together and pour over chicken to marinate. Turn occasionally for 1 hour. Transfer to broiler pan in one layer, reserving the marinade.
Preheat broiler and broil 5 inches from heat, brushing occasionally with marinade for 15 minutes. Turn wings and broil for 10 minutes. The wings can also be cooked on the grill or baked in baking dish with marinade in 400 degree oven. Serves 4.
Skillet Peach Cake
From Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookbook
* ¼ cup butter
* ¾ cup brown sugar
* 1 cup chopped nuts
* 1 cup sliced peaches
* 2 eggs
* ¼ teaspoon salt
* 1 cup sugar
* ½ cup milk
* 1 tablespoon melted butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
Melt butter in a 9-inch skillet. Add brown sugar, nuts and peaches. Beat eggs, adding salt and sugar. Then add milk, butter and vanilla and mix. Blend flour with baking powder. Add to batter. Pour batter over fruit and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Serve upside down with whipped cream.
Molasses Muffins
From Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookbook
* 2 cups flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* ½ teaspoon each salt and soda
* 2 tablespoons melted shortening
* ½ cup buttermilk
* ½ cup molasses
* 1 egg
Mix dry ingredients together. Mix together shortening, buttermilk, molasses and egg. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and blend to moisten. Pour the batter into hot, greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
Ham Croquettes
From Country Cookbook
* 3 tablespoons butter
* ¼ cup flour
* ¾ cup milk
* 2 cups coarsely ground cooked ham
* 1 teaspoon grated onion
* 2 teaspoons mustard
* ¾ cup bread crumbs
* 1 egg
Melt butter in saucepan; blend in flour. Add milk; cook and stir until thick and bubbly, 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add ham, onion and mustard; blend well. Chill. Add bread crumbs and shape into cones or balls. Handle lightly. Dip into mixture of 1 beaten egg and 2 tablespoons water. Roll in crumbs again. Fry in oil for 1½ to 2 minutes. Drain. Serves 4 to 5.
Lamb and Lentil Pottage
From Early American Cookbook
* 3½ cups onions, sliced
* ½ cup cooking oil
* 1 pound lamb, ground
* 3 cups tomatoes, stewed
* 1½ cup celery, diced
* 1 cup carrots, sliced
* 1 cup parsnips, diced
* 1 cup green pepper, diced
* 4 cups water
* 2 cups lentils
* 1 tablespoon salt
* ½ teaspoon pepper
Heat cooking oil in large pot. Saute onions until soft. Add ground lamb and cook until brown. Stir in the tomatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips and green pepper. Add water, lentils, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for 1½ hours or until lentils are tender. Serves 8.
Jefferson’s Favorite French Custard
From Early American Cookbook
* ½ cup sugar
* 1½ tablespoons flour
* 1½ tablespoons cornstarch
* ¼ teaspoon salt
* 2¼ cups cream or milk
* 1 egg, well beaten
* 1½ teaspoons vanilla
* ¾ cup whipped cream
Combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Gradually stir in the cream or milk, Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Cook for 3 more minutes, always stirring. Take a little of the hot mixture and stir it into the beaten egg. Then add this to the hot mixture in the pan. Cook 1 minute. Remove from stove and add vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy, Lastly, fold in the whipped cream. Cool. Serves 3 to 4.
Note: Jefferson reportedly liked the custard so much he was known to eat all of it at one sitting.
From Maryland’s Way
* Macaroons
* Sherry wine
* Custard
* Raspberry jam
Lay macaroons over the bottom of a deep dish or glass bowl and pour over them as much sherry as they will absorb, then pour on them a rich, cold custard — it should stand two or three inches thick — on that put a layer of raspberry jam and cover the whole with whipped syllabub.
Syllabub
Soak the peel of 1 lemon in a pint of sweet wine. Whip a quart of heavy cream until it begins to hold its shape, then gradually add the wine, from which the peel has been removed, the juice of 2 lemons and 1 cup of sugar, beating up until thick. Pile in glasses and sprinkle nutmeg on top.
Published Augusst 29, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2006 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
