Dining with the Ambassador – #2

Tea Time with Madame Askew

Recipes for Winter 2023

It’s the Winter Holiday Season and that is a good reason to enjoy some dishes which, while perfectly delicious any time of year, seem to be served even more during the holidays.

The chefs here at the Embassy wanted to share these recipes, and hope they make your winter a bit more flavorful.

Breakfast

Yorkshire pudding

Souffle

Lunch

Lentil Soup

Chestnut Soup

Dinner

Duck with Orange Sauce

Salmon Genevese

Dessert

Black Pudding

Plum (Christmas) Pudding

Embassy breakfasts will almost always be served with tea or coffee, and fruit juice, along with toast and spreads, rounded out with a bit of fruit and cheese. Seriously, how can any breakfast not include cheese?

One tasty way to offset the chill of a winter morning is with the light, irregularly shaped popovers that are Yorkshire Pudding. Our recipe was published in 1890 but there are written recipes 150 years earlier, and it’s likely that it was made long before then, too.

Yorkshire Puddings always feel like a special treat at the Embassy, even though is simple and easy to make. Visiting dignitaries enjoy them daily, and so should you.

Yorkshire Pudding, Compendium of Cookery, 1890, P65

Originally, these would be made in a pan greased with drippings from roast beef, and perhaps dripped with more while baking in the oven. More modern steampunk kitchens may opt for butter or a non-stick spray of choice. A few tips have emerged after being baked for a few hundred years by thousands of home bakers:

1. Pre-heating the muffin pan may encourage the dough to rise a bit higher. We’ve never noticed any difference in flavor, but if bigger is better in your home, starting with a warm to hot pan won’t hurt.
2. Resting the dough, especially overnight, seems to contribute significantly to a higher lighter rise.
3. Beat the egg whites to a foam, but don’t over beat them.

Bake these at 450 F (230 C) for 10-15 minutes. Know the uniqueness of your oven and adjust timing as needed.

Another light and fluffy way to start a winter morning is with a souffle. Souffle’s seem to gained a reputation as difficult and temperamental to make, but Embassy chefs disagree. The ingredients as as simple as the Yorkshire Pudding, and it’s all about whipping the egg whites to a stiff froth. Modern versions will add some Cream of Tartar to the egg whites to help strengthen the foam.

The rising and height of a souffle is entirely dependent on heat and steam. It is recommended to serve the souffle right from the oven to be most visually impressive. As the oven’s fire and your guests’ accolades cool down, don’t be alarmed as this puffy treat begins to deflate somewhat.

Souffle, https://archive.org/details/cu31924000693931/page/n21/mode/2up, 1900, p54

Cheese a standard staple, almost a prerequisite, at the Embassy, but other modern recipes suggest a range of other additional ingredients – vegetables, seafood, hot sauces, etc.

Lunches at the Embassy tend to be lighter affairs, a respite from everyone running around being “busy”. Depending on time of the year and temperature, service will include either iced tea or warm cider, a salad of seasonal or greenhouse greens, occasionally a side roll, finishing with a smaller sweet dessert.

Today’s lunch menu offers a choice between two soups, lentil or chestnut. On a chilly day, soups can be the perfect way to warm back up.

Pureed lentils form the base of the first soup, with a mild nutty or bean taste. Lentils are quite versatile, pairing well with other vegetables. herbs, and spices. The recipe calls for using a mortar to puree the lentils, but a modern steampunk food processor or blender will achieve the same result. Alternately, leave the lentils whole for a different texture.

Lentil soup, Lentil Soup-Art of French Cookery-1827-p6

This recipe for the Chestnut Soup similarly uses the mortar to create a puree of boiled chestnuts. Although there are no additional vegetables originally included, adding some preferred items would enhance the overall flavor.

Chestnut soup,Chestnut Soup-Art of French Cookery-1827-p7

Embassy dinners are a fun and festive event. Guests are well dressed and (mostly) well mannered, the table is precisely set with gleaming flatware, clear glasses, and pressed napkins.

Winter holiday dinners can be a way for everyone to come together in celebration, dismissing the shorter daylight in favor of candle light and jocularity. We look back over the year and say, “Well done! We’ve made it through another one!”.

These meals will include salad and rolls, several side vegetable dishes, and complimentary pairings of wine.

As a change from turkey or ham, the menu calls for duck. Pheasant and other wild game are also popular options this time of year. It may come down to availability, and interest, in your area. Some service options seem to just call for a cooked duck, nothing fancy, and the real flavor is left to a gravy or other sauce. This recipe calls for marinating the duck first with onions and spices. Bay leaves can also be added for additional flavor. The orange sauce makes use of most of the whole orange, for a fuller flavor.

Duck, Duck with Orange Sauce – Art of French Cookery-1827-p163,32

Salmon recipes similar range from “bake and serve” to those with more additional flavors. Many more and in such a mouth watering combination. Mace (like nutmeg), Madeira, cayenne… this is not a serving of plain fish.

Salmon, Salmon Genevese-Beetons All About Cookery-1887-p299

No holiday dinner would be complete without dessert. In addition to some fruit, nuts, and cheese (of course), tea and coffee, there will be some amazing treat as the capstone of the menu. Often not too sweet, as sugar was expensive, but just as flavorful as the preceding dinner.

This Black Pudding gets its color from molasses, which flavor is offset by allspice, cloves and cinnamon. Very sticky, and very addictive – it’s difficult to avoid a second piece when it’s still warm.

Black Pudding – Clever Cooking, 1896, p161

The pièce de résistance of the Embassy Winter Menu would be a traditional Christmas / Plum / Figgy Pudding. Not just an annual tradition at the Embassy, but a dessert of nuts and fruit to be savored. With or without a tiny toy treasure inside, and with or without any variations of a brandy or rum sauce, the base pudding is delicious and satisfying.

Plum Pudding-Century Cookbook-1894-p145

However you celebrate your winter holidays, we at the Embassy wish you great happiness and
health!

Dining with the Ambassador – #1

Tea Time with Madame Askew

Recipes for Autumn 2023

There’s a crispness in the air, accompanying hay rides, apple cider, and the bounty of the harvest. It’s time for sweaters, and hearty meals. Here are just a few vintage recipes to try as your next comfort food

To ensure we are able to follow these recipes from the 1800s, let’s review this listing of Weights and Measures from Clever Cooking, 1896, page Pxiv

Let’s start our autumn day with a buckwheat pancakes. This recipe is from 365 Breakfasts, 1906, page 156. The listing of ingredients hasn’t changed much over time, although modern recipes may additionally call for sugar and butter.

One of my favorite breakfast dishes is Eggs Benedict – poached eggs with a spoonful of (or preferably drenched in) a Hollandaise Sauce. Modern recipes may amp up the flavour with Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, or other hot sauce, but this classic version from 365 Breakfasts, 1906, page 130 is how it all started.

Everything old is new again, and these Egg Nests on Toast, Clever Cooking, 1896, page128, started showing up in trendy restaurants within the last ten years. Whipped eggs whites, shaped to resemble a nest, and then baked to a light and fluffy finish, is an easy creative variation of breakfast eggs. The Hollandaise sauce above makes a wonderful addition.

Soup can really hit the spot on a cooler autumn day. This Almond Soup, Superior Cookery 1887, page 6, satisfies a lunch time hunger with ground or pounded almonds along with vegetables in a creamy veal or chicken stock.

Hitting the spot along with the almond soup is a Devilled Egg sandwich or spread. Here is the first of two recipes – Devilled Egg Toast, Eggs 300 Ways, 1900, page 64. This is one of my favorites and such a nice change from more basic modern recipes. Use a chutney you already enjoy, or might want to try, and the results will be quite delicious.

This second recipe for Devilled Eggs, Eggs 300 Ways, 1900, page 84, also uses chutney, along with Worcestershire sauce, Harvey sauce (anchovies), and mulligatawny paste (curry or pepper) to create an amazing layered spicy-to-taste spread.

With American Thanksgiving being part of the autumn season, it is worth trying out this Chestnut Puree, 365 Breakfasts, 1906, pages 125-126. The pepper and nutmeg enrich the flavour. One modern step is to run the sauce through the blender to ensure a smooth texture.

Opting for fish for dinner, Salmon Timbales, Breakfast and Supper Dishes, 1890, page 12, makes good use of that Hollandaise sauce again for a delightfully (decadently?) filling meal. The beaten egg whites also help lighten the texture.

Our last dinner recipe is truly a hearty Meat, Egg, Vegetable Curry, Superior Cookery, 1887, page 60. I hadn’t been much of a fan of beets (beetroot) aside from the red color but I was adventurous enough to try this recipe. Such a grand mix of spices makes for a perfect stew on a cold evening. For a completely vegetarian variation, use a preferred veggie beef tips or beef cuts, or even veggie ground beef, being cooked separately and added near the end of preparation.

Let’s wrap up our fine autumn day with my favorite course – Dessert!

When one needs a small reminder of summer flavours, one of my go-to cakes is this Richer Cocoanut Cake, Breakfast, Luncheon, and Tea, 1875, page 206. One substitute I often make is using coconut cream instead of milk, just to deepen the flavour.

For a different flavor, and one fairly uncommon in today’s modern cake recommendations, is this Risen Seed Cake, using carraway seeds, Breakfast, Luncheon, and Tea, 1875, page 208. The flavor is much smoother and milder than one might expect.

Wrapping up our list is the Orleans Cake, Breakfast, Luncheon, and Tea, 1875, page 202. The cinnamon and mace – the nutmeg relative – deliver a solid spicy flavour, while the brandy leaves just a hint behind. Maybe more brandy is needed?

May your autumn days be filled with warmth and contentment!

Interview 111, Noah Lemelson, author of The Sightless City, Conclusion

Welcome back to the conclusion of our interview with Noah Lemelson, author of The Sightless City.

Read Part 1 here.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 3 here.

Airship Ambassador: COVID has really put a damper on travel. Have you been to any on-line or physical events? What has that been like, and the reader reaction?

Noah Lemelson: I did one in person event in LA, a reading a month after publication in a local art gallery. We took significant covid precautions, and the event went excellent!

AA: Congratulations! How do you keep a balance between writing and the rest of your life?

NL: It’s a difficult balance. The key is that novel writing is an endurance run, just to keep at it little by little every week, to keep up the motivation while still giving yourself time to decompress. Time to yourself, to relax and be with your thoughts, can be just as important as actual writing. Though, of course, writing doesn’t happen unless you do eventually write.

AA: That’s a key for a lot of things – take that first step and then keep taking another step, no matter how slowly, just keep taking them. Do you get to talk much with other writers and artists to compare notes, have constructive critique reviews, and brainstorm new ideas?

NL: I have worked with a writer’s group for the past several years, and I think it’s one of the most important sources of support, notes and community a writer could have. I highly, highly recommend it. Writing can too easily become a solitary discipline, it’s really important for writers to stick together and support each other.

AA: Would you agree that writers need to be readers, too?

NL: Hard to say actually, a lot higher if we include audiobooks, but I love to read. For every book I get to there’s a dozen I still need to find the time. It a Sisyphean task, but we must imagine Sisyphus happy.

AA: Now that is definitely something every reader can identify with. There’s no such thing as having too many books, or having a to-be-read list that is too long. As a reader, what has made you stop reading something before finishing it?

NL: Other distractions mostly. Though I do have a bugbear with protagonists whose authors think are too cool for school.

AA: What do you consider your first real writing experience?

NL: I wrote a short story in high school that I wish I kept, but my first foray into writing was a filmmaking class in 9-10 grade. I was a terrible director, mediocre editor, but wrote some good scripts (at least by juvenile high school boy standards).

AA: The first step is very important! How have you and your work grown and changed since those scripts?

NL: I certainly hope so! I did my undergrad in biology, so I’m a big proponent of evolution.

AA: In your experience as a writer, what have been the hardest and most useful skills to learn?

NL: Knowing how to take notes from others. Figuring out what notes to use, what notes hint at a problem even if they give the wrong solution, and what notes can/must be ignored.

AA: Separating the chaff from the wheat and still being able to make good bread. When you are writing these days, is some aspect still a challenge? What come easily, or at least easier, for you?

NL: Lengthy action can be a challenge. There’s a lot to balance in a fight scene or other multi-page action scenes, description, dialogue, choreography, and you still need to be attentive to each character just as you would in a slower paced scene.

AA: Lots of details to track in longer scenes like that. Is there a story would you like to write but haven’t, yet?

NL: I have a whole virtual notebook full of them. I have enough to keep me till my death bed, and new ideas come at an exponentially faster rate then I can write them. The next short story I want to write is a take on the haunted house genre, IN SPACE!

AA: I can relate to that – too many ideas and no where enough time to make them all happen. Writing can be a challenge some days. What are some of your methods to stay motivated and creative?

NL: I usually sit at the keyboard messing around an hour or two until the weight of guilt from not writing compels me to panic write.

AA: Guilt can be such a motivator, LOL. How is Los Angeles for writing?

NL: You don’t get any cool points for being a writer in LA, for one. Everyone is trying to be a writer, or actor, or director, or something. It can be hard to convince people to drive an hour on the 10 at 5 pm on a weekday to go to your thing. There are great communities and people in LA, but you have to find them, and that can be tricky. I’m grateful both to CalArts and to the UCLA Extension Writers Program, for introducing me to great people.

AA: In your experience, does it seem like readers prefer a print or electronic format? Do you have a preference?

NL: Ebooks are great, but there’s something special about having a printed copy in your hands. Though I don’t have all the sales data yet, so I haven’t a clue what’s selling more.

AA: There is something special about having a tangible item in hand and on the shelf, although moving them is a whole different story! Ebooks are much lighter in that regard. If you weren’t an author, what else would you be doing now?

NL: I’d be a mediocre biologist.

AA: Most of the authors I’ve talked with have some type of day job and that writing is their other job. What has that situation been for you and how has it helped/hindered begin a published writer?

NL: Recently I’ve been teaching. And it some ways, that job has taught me something. It taught me that being a teacher is hard!

AA: I’m sure none of it got easier during the many days or lock down and initial resumption in person. Looking beyond steampunk, writing, and working, what other interests fill your time?

NL: I enjoy low key hikes, lazy days in with my wife and cat, and probably too much video games.

AA: How do those interests influence your work?

NL: As a kid who grew up loving video games, I was always fascinated by the worldbuilding present in RPGS like Warcraft, Warhammer, Mass Effect, ect. The setting of The Sightless City traces its evolutionary lineage to attempts to create hypothetical game settings back when I was a teenager.

AA: There’s only so much time in a day – what interests don’t you have time for?

NL: I’ve always wanted to try my hand at designing a board game.

AA: Games led to writing, so it’s not much of a leap towards gaming, again. What other fandoms are you part of (as a fan or participant) ?

NL: I used to be big on Star Wars, Warhammer, and Pokémon as a kid, though I never did many fan activities. Fanfiction’s not my jam, but I respect that a lot of genre writers start that way, and I can see its appeal. With all the giant cinematic universes and sprawling multimedia stories out, I’ve actually come to appreciate smaller self-contained works.

AA: There are so many stories to tell, and other perspectives to tell them from. Fan fiction can help boost other people people’s creativity, too. What is on your to-be read or watched pile right now?

NL: I’m finishing up the second book in Octavia Butlers Xenogenesis trilogy. My to read pile is way too messy to say for sure what I’ll pick up next.

AA: Are there people you consider an inspiration, role model, or other motivating influence?

NL: I owe a lot to Brian Evenson, who taught me at CalArts. He’s an amazing horror writer who’s managed to break through that pesky wall separating genre from literary. On a personal level, I take a lot of life inspiration from my late grandmother.

AA: What event or situation has had the most positive impact in your life? What has been your greatest challenge?

NL: It might be too obvious, but “meeting my wife” has to be high on the positive impact list. There’s always challenges that come up with family, career, just life in general, I’ve been lucky not to have anything unusually disastrous recently.

AA: What is the best advice you’ve been given?

NL: True friends (and family) are beyond precious.

AA: Definitely great advice! When you do interviews, what is something that you wish you were asked about but haven’t been?

NL: Anything where the answer is Ursula K. Le Guin or Stanisław Lem. People aren’t reading enough Le Guin or Lem!

AA: That’s a good hint for future interviews! Any final thoughts to share with our readers

NL: Steampunk is the retrofuturism of the 19^th century, cyberpunk the retrofuturism of the late 20^th century. I’ve very curious what will be the prefix for our current era. I suppose that means we have to figure out what our vision for the future is, and what that will communicate to future generations about our values, ideals, fears, anxieties, and hopes.

Thanks, Noah, for joining us for this interview and for sharing all of your thoughts. We look forward to hearing about your next projects!

Keep up to date with Noah Lemelson’s latest news on his website and on Twitter.

You can support Noah Lemelson and our community by getting your copy of The Sightless City here.