Cook Your Socks Off For Mr. Darcy

Dear lovely readers

It’s great to be here today. I’m Enid Wilson from Sydney, Australia. I’m a pretty brand new sexy romance author with two books under my belt.

Thanks Kim at Romance Junkies for hosting my Naughty Pride and Prejudice Book Tour.  I asked her what her readers would like to read and she selected this delicious idea.

Yes, we’re going to find an ancient recipe of the food I mentioned in my newly released novel Bargain with the Devil to cook for Mr. Darcy.

Why Mr. Darcy?

He’s handsome and rich, for sure. But his most adoring character was his consistency in love for Elizabeth Bennet.  In my book, he could be angry, funny, serious and steamy at times. I reckon he will be a great dinner date.

And of course I love food too. In my novels and stories, I often touch on food or use it as a plot device.

Bargain with the Devil is a Pride and Prejudice what-if story. Diverging from Jane Austen’s original work, our story begins just a few days after Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal and he was still very angry with her. She discovered her sister Lydia had eloped with George Wickham, a childhood friend of Darcy.

Mr. Darcy did not offer to help Elizabeth find her sister, of his own accord. He demanded a reward to do so. Elizabeth then followed him in the search, in disguise as a boy.

One night at Whitstable, a town in Southeast England famous for its oysters, Mr. Darcy got drunk and told Elizabeth: “They tell me that oysters are good for the men. It makes them go…on and on. You know, on and on…with their women. Do you want to try?”

I sure do, Mr. Darcy!

It’s interesting to know that oysters were not considered a delicacy in the past:

Oysters were a popular snack in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were sold on street corners in cities and were often devoured in their fried and pickled forms. Both high and low society adored them –Cooking with Jane Austen by Kirstin Olsen, 2005, Regency Encyclopedia

And Jane Austen was no stranger to oysters either. In one of her letters to her sister, she talked about oyster sauce:

We sate down to dinner a little after five, and had some beefsteaks and a boiled fowl, but no oyster sauce. – Letter VIII – Letters of Jane Austen, Jane Austen

Here is a recipe for frying oysters from The Art of Cookery, by Hannah Glasse, 1805 (please note the use of f instead of s in this ancient recipe):

Take a quart of the largeft oyfters you can get, open them, fave the liquor, and ftrain it through a fine fieve; wath your oyfters in warm water. Make a batter thus: take two yolks of eggs, beat them well, grate in half a nutmeg, cut a little lemon peel fmall, a good deal of parfley, a fpoonful of the juice of fpinach, two fpoonfuls of cream or milk, beat it up with floor to a thick batter; have ready fome butter in a ftew-pan, dip your oyfters one by one into the batter, and have ready crumbs of bread, then roll them in it, and fry them quick and brown; fome with the crumbs of bread, and fome without.

Take them out of the pan, and fet them before the fire; then have ready a quart of chefnuts fhelled and fkinned, fry them in the butter; when they are enough take them up, pour the fat out of the pan, fhake a little flour all over the pan, and rub a piece of butter as big as hen’s egg all over the pan with your fpoon, till it is melted and thick; then put in the oyfter-liquor, three or four blades of mace, ftir it round, put in a few piftachio-nuts fhelled, let them boil, then put in the chefnuts, and half a pint of white wine, have ready the yolks of two eggs beat up with four fpoonfuls of cream; ftir all well together. When it is thick and fine, lay the oyfters in the difh, and pour the ragoo over them. Garnifh with chefnuts and lemon.

You can try out this delicious recipe for your Mr. Darcy later on.

Right now: 1) comment below on what you love to cook for your loved ones AND 2) register at my website SteamyDarcy.com to have a chance to win the following gorgeous prizes. Contest ends 20 August 2009.

Excerpt from Bargain with the Devil

“My father is here in London. He has been trying to find her for the past three days, with my uncle’s assistance. He sent for me from Kent at the same time. That was the reason I requested this meeting. You have known Mr. Wickham since your youth. I beg for intelligence to help us in our search.”

Mr. Darcy made no answer. He continued to pace for a while, then stopped and looked sharply at her.

Elizabeth returned his gaze through teary eyes.

“And what would be my reward for helping you?” He asked at last.

It was Elizabeth’s turn to widen her eyes. “Reward? I am appealing to your gentleman’s nature to help a family in distress.”

He laughed coolly. “As I recall, you stated yourself that I had a selfish disdain for the feelings of others, and that I was no gentleman. Why would such a man help a family in distress without some reward in view?”