Here are some key scenes & sketches from my most recent project based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, “A Little Princess” set in WW2 America where instead of the attic at a boarding school, Sara loses everything and gets sent to a Japanese internment camp.
Dickon made the stimulating discovery that in the wood in the park outside the garden where Mary had first found him piping to the wild creatures there was a deep little hollow where you could build a sort of tiny oven with stones and roast potatoes and eggs in it. Roasted eggs were a previously unknown luxury and very hot potatoes with salt and fresh butter in them were fit for a woodland king — besides being deliciously satisfying. You could buy both potatoes and eggs and eat as many as you liked without feeling as if you were taking food out of the mouths of fourteen people. —The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Ingredients—
• 2 lb. waxy potatoes (red, white, and purple) • olive oil • salt and pepper, to taste • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
Directions—
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Wash and slice the potatoes in half. Place into a pot full of cold water and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft and just about to break apart. Remove the cooked potatoes from the pot and cool on a wire rack.
• Place a good amount of olive oil on a sheet pan, about 4-5 tbsp. for a half sheet. Heat the pan in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the hot pan and carefully spread the potatoes, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper over the expanse. Toss with tongs and place the hot pan back into the oven. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.
Literary Recipes—Misselthwaite Manor’s Young Fowl with Bread Sauce
“They are eating next to nothing,” said the nurse. “They’ll die of starvation if they can’t be persuaded to take some nourishment. And yet see how they look.”
“Look!” exclaimed Mrs. Medlock indignantly. “Eh! I’m moithered to death with them. They’re a pair of young Satans. Bursting their jackets one day and the next turning up their noses at the best meals Cook can tempt them with. Not a mouthful of that lovely young fowl and bread sauce did they set a fork into yesterday — and the poor woman fair invented a pudding for them — and back it’s sent. She almost cried. She’s afraid she’ll be blamed if they starve themselves into their graves.” —The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Ingredients—
For The Chicken:
• 1 young chicken (approximately 4 lb.) • 2 tbsp. butter, softened • ½ tsp. thyme • ½ tsp. salt • ¼ tsp. pepper
For The Bread Sauce:
• 2¼ cups milk • ¼ cup butter • 1 onion, chopped • 6 whole cloves • ¼ tsp. pepper • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 1 bay leaf • 1 tsp. thyme • 1 cup breadcrumbs • 6-8 tbsp. heavy cream • a pinch of nutmeg • salt and pepper, for seasoning
Directions—
• Preheat oven to 350°F. While waiting, prepare the chicken. Start by gently running your fingers under the skin, separating it from the meat (this will help it to crisp). Rub the butter all over the chicken (even into the little crevices) and rub in your seasonings as well. Be sure to get the seasoning under the skin where you can. Tuck the wings under the chicken and truss the legs.
• Place your chicken in a glass baking dish and bake for 50 minutes or until the juices run clear. Then bake for another 5 minutes at 375°F (the extra 5 minutes on higher heat adds more colour and crispness to the skin).
• After your chicken has been cooking for about 20 minutes, start working on your bread sauce. Combine your milk, butter, onion, cloves, pepper, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme in a saucepan. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, stirring regularly to keep it from developing a film on top.
• After 20 minutes, strain the mix and return the liquid to the pan. Add the bread crumbs and stir continuously while it cooks for 3-4 minutes. You’ll wind up with a consistency like thick porridge.
• Turn off the heat and stir in the cream and nutmeg until you get a slightly thinner consistency and lighter colour. Season with salt and extra pepper to taste. Serve the chicken and bread sauce together; enjoy!
“Oh!” exclaimed Mary, “then I shall see him! I never thought I should see Dickon.”
“Does tha’ want to see him?” asked Martha suddenly, for Mary had looked so pleased.
“Yes, I do. I never saw a boy foxes and crows loved. I want to see him very much.”
Martha gave a little start, as if she remembered something. “Now, to think,” she broke out, “to think o’ me forgettin’ that there. I asked mother — and she said she’d ask Mrs. Medlock her own self.”
“Do you mean —” Mary began.
“What I said Tuesday. Ask her if you might be driven over to our cottage some day and have a bit o’ mother’s hot oat cake, an’ butter, an’ a glass o’ milk.”
It seemed as if all the interesting things were happening in one day. To think of going over the moor in the daylight and when the sky was blue! To think of going into the cottage which held twelve children! —The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Yorkshire oatcake, or ‘havercake’ as they are famously known in Yorkshire, are a pancake made from oats and leavened with yeast. Along with bread and currant buns, oatcakes were a staple in the Sowerby home, cooked in large quantities on a bakestone suspended by a hook over the fire. Some were enjoyed hot and buttered, while others were left to cool and crisp, propped up on wooden blocks or hung near the ceiling of the cottage so they could be eaten later. They can be eaten savory, such as wrapped around sausages, or sweet, topped with peaches, honey, and Devonshire cream.
Ingredients—
• 1 cup water • 1 cup milk • 1 oz. fresh yeast (or 2¼ tsp. active dry yeast + 1 tsp. sugar) • 1½ cups finely ground oatmeal • ½ cup whole wheat flour • 1 tsp. salt • 1 tbsp. butter
Directions—
• In a saucepan, mix the milk and water. Set the saucepan over low heat until the mixture is lukewarm to the touch, or 110°F if you are using a cooking thermometer.
• Pour the warmed mixture into a large mixing bowl. Crumble the fresh yeast into the warm milk and water and stir it until it is dissolved. If you are using dry yeast, stir it and the sugar into the warm liquid and set it aside in a warm place for about five minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble, before proceeding.
• Stir the oatmeal, flour, and salt into the milk and yeast mixture. Add more water, if necessary, to make a batter. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm place for about an hour.
• Heat the butter over medium heat in a griddle or a large skillet.
• Stir the oatcake batter and spoon about ⅔ cup of it into the hot pan, spreading it slightly to make a thin oval cake in the middle of the pan.
• Cook the oatcake for just a few minutes, until it is set but not browned on the bottom. Turn the oatcake and cook it briefly on the other side.
• Serve the oatcake hot, letting each person break off a piece. Spread the oatcake with butter and jam, if desired. Dry any leftover loaves on a wire rack, store them covered, and eat them later, plain or with cheese.
A table in the center was set with a good substantial breakfast, but Mary had always had a very small appetite, and she looked with something more than indifference at the first plate Martha set before her.
“I don’t want it,” she said.
“Tha’ doesn’t want thy porridge?” Martha exclaimed incredulously. “Tha’ doesn’t know how good it is. Put a bit o’ treacle on it or a bit o’ sugar.”
“I don’t want it,” repeated Mary.
“Eh!” said Martha. “I can’t abide to see good victuals go to waste. If our children was at this table they’d clean it bare in five minutes.” —The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Porridge, which is made of boiled oats, was considered an extremely healthy breakfast, and children of all classes ate it regularly for breakfast. Eaten hot or cold, it was nourishing, filling, and inexpensive to make. Wealthy children often ate porridge with sugar and cream, while poorer children ate it with skimmed milk and treacle (English molasses) or salt.
Ingredients—
• 1 cup water • ¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats • pinch of salt • 2 tbsp. currants or raisins (optional) • pinch of cinnamon (optional) • pinch of nutmeg (optional)
Directions—
• Pour the water into a small saucepan and bring it to a rapid boil. • Stir in the oats, salt, and if you are using them, currants or raisins, and cinnamon and nutmeg. • Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes. • Serve hot in bowls, topped with brown sugar and milk to taste.
“They always called it Magic and indeed it seemed like it in the months that followed-the wonderful months-the radiant months-the amazing ones. Oh! the things which happened in that garden! If you have never had a garden you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there.”
- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, pages 180-181
