Friday, August 18, 2006

Fit for a Queen


After the Great British Menu winners had fed the Queen in June D and I decided that we wanted to recreate the Queen's birthday meal for our delectation. It's quite an ambitious menu but with a couple of J & D shortcuts, I'm sure we'll have no problems.

The menu (as voted by the Great British public) is:

Smoked salmon with blinis, Irish soda bread, woodland sorrel and cress
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Pan-fried
turbot with cockles and oxtail
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Loin of roe venison with rösti, celeriac,
cabbage, carrot and game gravy
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Custard Tart


We'll probably slip a Great British cheese board in there somewhere as well. I guess we will decide whether to go the French route and eat the cheese with the red wine before the dessert of as it's a British meal do the English thing and finish on cheese after the dessert.

The grand meal is taking place next week at the long table at the Cambridge palace. We decided we needed a theme for such an auspicious occasion. The first idea was "red, white and blue" to go all "patriotic". But one of our party just doesn't do blue. Okay, that would be me then! So after further consideration we then went for black tie and diamonds, hmmm much more manageable! Tiaras are optional, though in my case totally compulsory and to get in the mood I intend to cook in mine! I'm sure it's all going to be extremely tasty, fabulous, very sparkly and just totally fit for a Queen.

5 comments:

Ryan Warren said...

The meal sounds fantastic, and made me wish I would be on your side of the pond next week in order to try and horn my way in.

More importantly, though, it's gotten me thinking about the concept, and how it might translate here in the States: a meal "Fit for a President", so to speak. According to whitehousekids.gov (which, I can only assume, is the site my President uses when in search of handy information about the federal government, and Dick or Karl aren't around), the President's favorite kind of food is Mexican. Accordingly, I've prepared what I have to belive is a fairly accurate estimation of an appropriate birthday meal for everyone's favorite Texan world leader:

Southwestern taco salad with edible shell-bowl, iceberg lettuce and guacamole
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Deep-fried
Chimichanga with tater tots and refried beans
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Loin of barbequed Big-Ass Texas Steer with battered onion-ring blossom, buttered corn-on-the-cob and Big-Ass Texas Steer gravy
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Dairy Queen Blizzard (Oreo, Butterfinger or Heath)


Now, while none of this menu actually sound bad to me, it would hardly prompt a special occasion meal gathering (much less a tiara--I'd recommend a John Deere or NASCAR cap instead), as I'm farily sure one would easily find all the entrees listed on the daily specials board at any TGIFriday's.

It's enough depress an American foodie for days. And all the more so if one imagines how nice a John Kerry presidential menu might have been ... -R

PS - I should really hope that you'll have elbow-lenth gloves to accompany your tiara. As they say, a tiara without gloves is like a day without chocolate. It can be done, but it's certainly not advisable.

J said...

Thank you R - I am deeply inspired by your presidential feast, who would have thought W was such a gourmand?!

I will come as little surprise that I have a fine collection of elbow length gloves and (handily) all black. I’m not sure I can promise to wear them during all the meal prep but they’d certainly come in handy when retrieving both the roast venison and custard tart from the oven!

Anonymous said...

Hello J! C and I are delighted to accept your invitation to the 'Queen's' dinner and have started a starvation diet in order to fit it all in! I have had great fun planning my outfit with help from D. Whilst not strictly a diamonds and tiara type of a girl, I have tried to embrace the spirit and put on my own spin on the theme. Looking forward to seeing you next week.
love Bee xx

J said...

Dear Bee,
I am very much looking forward to seeing you all and especially your spin on the theme. I think it will be quite an extravaganza!
See you at the palace, I'll be the one in black!
Jx

Anonymous said...

Hello again Jo, I think I'll call my spin "Bosoms and Boas";-))
Bee xx