Asparagus Vinaigrette #Recipe by Maya Corrigan

On this day 110 years ago, Titanic survivors arrived in New York aboard the Carpathia, the first ship to reach the wreck. Reportedly, 40,000 people crowded the piers, waiting for a glimpse of the 700 or so survivors. To mark the day, I'm sharing a recipe for a dish from the final dinner the first-class passengers ate on the Titanic.

Cold asparagus vinaigrette appears far down on the menu. 

In the Titanic's first-class dining room, dinner service followed French dinner customs popular at that time, with courses brought to the table one by one and cold dishes served after hot ones. 

The asparagus vinaigrette on the Titanic probably would have been boiled before being cooled and served cold. The roasted asparagus in the recipe I'm sharing is delicious warm or cool. 

Ingredients

1 pound fresh asparagus with tough end snapped off

3 tablespoons olive oil (two for roasting and one for the vinaigrette)

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice or champagne vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

After snapping off the tough ends of the asparagus, put the tender stalks in a large pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with three pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper. 

Spread the stalks in a single layer on a aluminum covered baking sheet. Roast until tender, approximately 10 minutes for ½-inch diameter stalks, and less time for thinner stalks. 

Make the vinaigrette by whisking the mustard with the lemon juice or vinegar. Slowly add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil while whisking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the asparagus with the vinaigrette and serve hot, at room temperature, or cold. 

I've previously shared recipes for other items on the Titanic menu: Saute of Chicken Lyonnaise and Punch Romaine. In another post I described my experience trying to re-create a Titanic dinner. I did that as research for my 5th Five-Ingredient Mystery, S'more Murders, in which my sleuth Val caters a Titanic dinner aboard a yacht. 

A Titanic-obsessed yacht owner hires Val to re-create the final meal served on that doomed ship. The yachtsman's wife has happy memories of campfires with s'mores and insists that the treat be added to the dinner. On the anniversary of the ship's sinking, the yachtsman welcomes his guests aboard and assigns them roles in a murder mystery game, "Death on the Titanic." Val soon reaches the chilling conclusion that the host is fishing for the culprit in a real crime. When someone goes overboard, Val has to reel in a killer before s’more murders go down.

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manager Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad's Five-Ingredient recipes. The most recent book in her series is Gingerdead Man, described by Kirkus Review as "a spirited holiday cozy." 

Visit her website to sign up for her newslettter. One subscriber wins a book each time a newsletter goes out. Check out the easy recipes, mystery history and trivia, and a free culinary mystery story on the website.

If you were invited to a Titanic memorial dinner aboard a yacht, would you go?  

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