Poldark Palooza 2019

At long last, it's here! The fifth and final season of Poldark! The premiere was on Sunday night, and given what a special occasion this is, I pulled together another Poldark Palooza to celebrate. (Here's last year's if you missed it!)

Autumn lingered on as if fond of its own perfection. ~ Winston Graham, author of the Poldark series

The Table

I stuck with the same copper and red color scheme that I used last time... copper mines and Demelza's red dresses being the design inspiration. The tiered copper stand makes a perfect display for muffins and fruit. (And the grapes are from our own grapevine!) Rather than my default "wall of flame" taper candles, I went with a small string of coppery leaf-shaped LEDs. The wires and battery pack can easily be disguised with fall floral stems.

The Menu

The food was definitely a bit more involved this year, but worth it! The beef wellington hand pies are named after Wheal Leisure, Ross' copper mine. My decision to make hand pies was inspired by pasties, small hand-held savory pies which originated in Cornwall as a convenient grab-and-go lunch for tin miners. Pasties later made their way over to good ol' Michigan. Read more history by following this link.

Now if you know me, you can guess that I had to "kick it up a notch." I made the humble hand pie a bit more schmancy by bringing in the flavors of Beef Wellington, a gourmet dish that can cost as much as $100 a plate (!) I made some significant modifications to this recipe to create a pie filling of cubed beef, onions, mushrooms, and a brandy/cream sauce. Another success in recipe revamping!

For the dessert, I modified this recipe, swapping out the cranberries for brandy-soaked raisins. A word to the wise, cut WAY back on the cardamom, maybe down to 1/4 teaspoon. Lastly, this is the caramel sauce recipe I always use; it works like a charm. If you want, you could add brandy to the caramel too (though it's used a fair amount in this menu already, hehe) To paraphrase a favorite quote, "I love to cook with brandy. Sometimes I even put it in the food."

The Show

As good as ever, with its intriguing storyline and stunning cinematography. Visit the PBS Masterpiece website to see the first episode. Need to catch up before watching Season 5? Here's everything you need to know. :)

'Til next time,

Eva