Comfort Food in Trying Times @RhysBowen #bookgiveaway

Lucy Burdette: I'm so thrilled to have my friend Rhys Bowen as our guest here today. I loved her new book, THE VICTORY GARDEN, and she's stopped by to talk about it, share a recipe, and offer a giveaway! Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing...

Rhys Bowen: I seem to spend a lot of time writing about wars. My last two stand-alone novels took place in WWII and now I have moved back in time to WWI for my new book, THE VICTORY GARDEN, that comes out next Tuesday, February 12.

The story focuses on a young woman who joins the newly formed Women’s Land Army and becomes one of the many women doing jobs they did not believe they were capable of,  also forming bonds between social classes hitherto unheard of. IN 1918 England was in danger of winning the war but of the country dying of starvation. A whole generation of young men was not coming home to work in the fields. Crops were not being planted and harvested. And so a Women’s Land Army was formed. They came from all walks of life: upper class girls like my Emily Bryce, former servants, widows from the cities as well as farm girls. They lived together in close quarters, worked hard from dawn to dusk, and formed strong bonds of friendship—so essential in this time when every one of them had lost a husband, son or sweetheart

My heroine comes from a great loss to inherit a healing garden of herbs and by healing others comes to heal herself..

What a senseless war this was! Commanded by cavalry generals who sent men ‘over the top’ to face tanks and Twentieth Century weapons of destruction. Five thousand men killed to gain a yard, only to lose it back the next day. Never has there been wholesale slaughter like this. And the men who came home were broken in body and mind. So this started me thinking: who does the men’s jobs when they don’t come home. In a village who becomes the blacksmith? The pub owner? The carter? And of course women had to take over. For them it was incredibly empowering. In the land army they were given a uniform of bloomers and a jacket. They could discard those cumbersome skirts. They threw away their corsets (as happens in one of my favorite scenes in my books). They cut their hair. They worked hard but they gained new-found confidence in their abilities.

Choosing a recipe from a time when England was starving was not going to be easy. Rationing meant that meat, butter and cheese were all luxuries to be used sparingly if and when they were available. Many of the recipes from both World Wars involved a lot of root vegetables with a potato crust. Hardly inspiring. So I’m giving you a standard British comfort food that I’m sure they would have made any time they got their hands on some meat, especially to use up the last bits of a roast. It’s called Shepherd’s Pie when it’s made with lamb, and Cottage Pie when it’s made with beef.

Delia Smith's Cottage pie

Shepherd's pie/ Cottage pie.

boil several large potatoes

saute 2 onions in a pan

add 1 pound of good ground beef or lamb (can also be made with left over roast beef or lamb ground)

pour off fat

add one Tsp curry powder

stir in well, cooking for a few more minutes

make a mixture of about 1 pint of stock, beef better than bouillon, large dollop of tomato ketchup, warm together then pour over meat.

Transfer meat to pie dish

mash potatoes with butter and or milk. Season well

Spread over meat.

Bake at 425 until crust starts to look crisp and to turn brown.

Serve with veg (peas are good) You can also add cooked peas to the meat mixture!

This is still one of my favorite foods. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you enjoy THE VICTORY GARDEN.

Cheerio,

Rhys

Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing of THE VICTORY GARDEN!

Rhys Bowen on the Secrets of Cornish Pasties #recipe #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm so delighted to introduce my talented friend Rhys Bowen to MLK readers today! She writes two long-running historical mystery series, but is here today to talk about Cornish pasties and her newest Lady Georgie mystery, On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service. If you haven't started these books, you're in for a big treat. Welcome Rhys!

RHYS BOWEN: It's funny how food means home to us, isn't it? When I go back to England the first thing I want is food from my childhood: fish and chips, bangers and mash, cream teas, a full English breakfast and..... Cornish pasties. 
Since we spend time in Cornwall every summer these days, staying with John's sister a Cornish pasty is my first taste of home after I arrive. 

Every year my visit to England is partly to do research for my upcoming Royal Spyness book. What a good excuse to visit pubs and bistros, farmers' markets and quaint cafes. But this year's book was rather different because it takes place in Italy, on Lake Maggiore. So my research last year was more concentrated on good wines, pasta, tiramisu, ripe plums and peaches and white asparagus. Such a hardship.
This summer, I'm happy to say, my research was back in England and I had my fill of Cornish pasties and clotted cream. Now heading for the gym to work it off!

One of my favorite parts about my time in Europe every year is visiting my sister in law in Cornwall. I love staying in the old manor house, slowing down to the rhythm of country life AND eating the wonderful food. Cornwall, for those of you who don't know, is the far Western and Southern tip of England, a Celtic-speaking land bathed in history and mystery. Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Doc Martin... and clotted cream and pasties. Two of my favorite things in the world.

When I am there I eat cream teas with scones hot from the oven, home made strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream on top. So thick and golden you'd think it was butter (but it tastes much better).
And pasties! Yum. They were made for the miners going down the tin mines. They couldn't come up to eat their midday meal so they couldn't wash their hands. The rim of the pasty was designed to hold it and then throw away that part.

So I thought I'd share the recipe with you today. They are time consuming but so worth it.

Ingredients:

Half a pound of good quality steak, sliced wafer thin

Carrots, turnip, potatoes all sliced very thinly

1 big onion chopped finely

small amount of beef bouillon

short crust pastry

Pre-heat oven to 425.

Make short crust pastry dough to your favorite recipe. Roll it out very thin and cut into circles about 8 inches diameter.

On one half place thin layer of potato, carrot, turnip, onion and then top with thin slices of meat. Sprinkle some bouillon over it, or use Better than Bouillon or even Marmite if you are British. If you are not, you won't have it in the house!

Fold dough in half to make a pasty shape.  Fold over, crimp and seal the edges.

Bake  on baking sheet at 425 about 40 minutes or until it turns golden.

(The steam of cooking vegetables keeps the meat moist)

This recipe was given to me by a Cornish woman! Others cut steak into cubes but I like mine this way.

Pasties these days can contain other ingredients, chicken, lamb, curry, potato leek but this is the original.

And the best pasties, after an extensive search, are to be found in Marazion, across from St. Michael's Mount. And this is a photo of one just before we devoured it.

The eleventh Royal Spyness mystery On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service, comes out on August 1. Rhys's touring schedule is on her website. She is offering one copy of the new book to a lucky commenter today!

Rhys Bowen presents BARMBRACK

LUCY BURDETTE: We're so happy to have Rhys Bowen as our guest chef and blogger today! Rhys is currently writing TWO bestselling and prizewinning mystery series, the Molly Murphy series and the Royal Spyness series. HUSH NOW, DON'T YOU CRY hits bookshelves this week. Welcome to Mystery Lovers' Kitchen Rhys!

RHYS BOWEN: Since it's almost St Patrick's Day and also the launch of my 12th Molly Murphy Mystery called Hush Now, Don't You Cry, I decided that it should be an Irish recipe. I've chosen not the traditional soda bread but a rich fruity bread called Barmbrack that my mother-in-law used to make. There are many versions, some fancy, some with yeast, but this is the simple one. In Ireland this bread is traditionally served at Halloween with charms inside to foretell the future, exactly the same as the charms in the English Christmas pudding.

BARMBRACK

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups brewed black tea, cold
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups golden raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped candied citron (or can be any combination of dried fruit)
  
• 1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Put the tea, sugar, raisins and peel into a bowl, cover and leave to soak overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch round pan (or I use a loaf pan. Easier to cut)
3. Sift the flour into the fruit mixture, add the egg and beat well.
4. Pour into the cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Serve sliced thinly with butter at tea.