Jane Austen’s Table

Including recipes such as Netherfield White Soup, Box Hill Picnic Pies, General Tilney’s Hot Chocolate, and Summer Berry Delice, this beautiful collection of over 70 recipes provides an irresistibly charming experience of Austen’s novels like no other.

Cassandra’s Lobster & Asparagus

In one of the many affectionate letters Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra, Austen describes how a dinner at an inn of ‘asparagus and a lobster… made me wish for you’. This is the recipe to have up your sleeve when you want to impress: lobster tails with a creamy, cheesy filling alongside buttery asparagus is a combination that all your guests will be sure to love.

Serves Four

You will need

• 55g butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely
• chopped
• 3 tablespoons
• dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 110ml soured cream
• 2 small ready-cooked lobsters, about 600g each
• 45g shredded Gruyère cheese
• 450g asparagus spears, trimmed
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat half the butter and oil in a small saucepan. Add the shallot and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Pour over the sherry and cook for 2 minutes until nearly boiled away. Stir in the mustard and soured cream, heat through and season with salt.

2. Meanwhile, using a large knife, cut the lobsters in half lengthways. Remove the meat from the tail and claws, reserving the main shell halves. Cut the lobster meat into large chunks.

3. Add the lobster meat to the sauce and warm through. Carefully spoon into the tail cavities of the reserved lobster shell halves and sprinkle with the Gruyère. Cook under a preheated hot grill for 3–5 minutes until golden and bubbling.

4. Meanwhile, place the asparagus in a frying pan over a medium heat and add just enough water to cover the base of the pan. Put the lid on and let the asparagus steam for 3–5 minutes until tender. Add the remaining butter and toss the asparagus in the butter as it melts.

5. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the lobster.

Fanny Price’s Rose Garden Delights

Given the importance of rosewater in the Georgian household, the cutting and drying of roses was one of the important tasks of the summer garden. In Mansfield Park, the put-upon heroine Fanny Price is given the Cinderella-like job of cutting roses in the full heat of the day, then taking them across the park to be dried in her Aunt Norris’s home. This recipe uses the rosewater of which the Georgians were so passionately fond. Serve sprinkled with chopped rose petals for an extra touch of Regency romance.

These rosewater-infused cakes are studded with chunks of Turkish delight and have a delicate floral flavour. If you can’t find edible rose petals to decorate, chopped pistachios are a lovely topping too.

Makes Eighteen

You will need

• 175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing
• 3 large egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 150g almond flour
• 100g plain flour, sifted
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon rosewater
• 5–7 pieces (85g) roseflavoured Turkish delight, chopped
• edible rose petals, to decorate

For the rosewater cream

• 275ml double cream
• 1 teaspoon rosewater
• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
• 30g icing sugar, sifted

Method

1. Lightly brush 18 holes of two 12-hole madeleine tins or mini muffin tins with melted butter.

2. Whisk the egg whites and salt in a large, clean bowl with a handheld electric whisk until they form soft peaks, then gently fold in the almond fl our, plain fl our and sugar. Fold in the melted butter, rosewater and Turkish delight.

3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and bake at 220°C for 8–10 minutes until risen and golden.

4. Meanwhile, make the rosewater cream. Whip all the ingredients in a bowl with a handheld electric whisk until soft peaks form, then place in a serving bowl.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve with dollops of the rosewater cream and decorated with edible rose petals.

Win a Copy of Jane Austen’s Table

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Closing date: Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Jane Austen’s Table by Robert Tuesley Anderson is published by Pyramid on 7th October (£16.99)