NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
RANDOM HOUSE, 2010
(available in paperback from Random House, 2010)
MAJOR ERNEST PETTIGREW is an impeccably mannered retired British army officer, six years a widower, living in a small and proper English village, Edgecombe St. Mary, where his fierce dedication to stiff-upper-lip politeness is constantly tested by the idiots that seem to surround him. Moments after a phone call telling him of the death of his younger brother, Bertie, Mrs. Ali, a British woman of Pakistani heritage who runs a local shop, rings the bell, there to collect the newspaper bill. She, too, is a widow, and the stage is set.
Pettigrew, uncharacteristically, shares his new grief with Mrs. Ali, who makes a proper cup of tea, and as they sit in his living room she shares her own sorrow. Though he must ready himself to visit his abhorrent sister-in-law, Pettigrew allows that he might enjoy seeing Mrs. Ali again outside the shop where he buys his paper.
Their small village offers few romantic opportunities for aging souls, but their relationship, always proper and restrained (she continues to call him Major Pettigrew, and she remains Mrs. Ali to him), becomes an irritant to the local wags. Despite their different cultural and social backgrounds, they share a sweet and reserved passion for each other and a deep commitment to decorum and respectability.
Yet even in this idyllic hamlet where diversity and multiculturalism are a loudly promoted source of civic pride, the relationship between the major and the shopkeeper reveals that the reality and the ideal don’t always mesh. As long as the Pakistanis keep to their roles as shopkeepers and laborers, all is well in Edgecombe St. Mary. Fearing for their own cultural identity, the more conservative Pakistanis in town feel the same way.
Within the context of their budding “autumn of life” romance, several subplots unfold. Pettigrew seeks to reunite a pair of shotguns given to him and his brother by their late father, but must do so with the decorousness on which he prides himself even as Bertie’s widow resists. Mrs. Ali must contend with her late husband’s family, conservative Muslims, who want her to turn over her shop and disappear into the woodwork. Greedy developers have plans that will ruin the precious village of Edgecombe St. Mary, and Pettigrew’s superficial son, Roger, connives to cash in.
These stories intersect at an annual dinner dance simmering with romance and racial tension. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand explores the beauty of falling in love much closer to the end of life than the beginning, and how romance, like a stone thrown into a still pond, sends ripples through even the stillest of waters.
When we asked Helen Simonson for a recipe to pair with Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, she responded quickly with an old British favorite. She writes:
Take three or four well-sized toads, preferably warty … no really, toad-in-the-hole is just sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter. This is a classic English midweek meal designed to stretch the family meal budget. England is not all roasted peacocks and cucumber sandwiches by the croquet lawn. We have a long history of having to make the most of every scrap of food and a Sunday roast often has to provide leftovers on Monday, meat pie on Tuesday, and stew on Wednesday. Meat scraps and cheap sausages are often extended using batters, puddings, and piecrust, which can be prepared with leftover meat fats.
It may sound too Dickensian for the folks who live in Major Pettigrew’s affluent Sussex village of Edgecombe St. Mary, but don’t be fooled—toad-in-the-hole is always a cause for celebration for children and adults from all social classes. In my novel, mini Yorkshire puddings, containing a single slice of roast beef, are an elegant upscale version suggested as the perfect catering option for the local golf club dance.
In my own home, the mythic importance of this dish to the English mind was recently confirmed again when my husband and I left for a weekend away. I planned a refrigerator full of microwavable treats for my seventeen-year-old son, who would be staying alone and who had never displayed any interest in being taught how to cook.
“Just buy me some sausages,” he said, as if he knew how to turn on the oven, or what flour even looked like. “I’ll make toad-in-the-hole.”
NOTE: This recipe is very forgiving.
For a complete meal, accompany toads with some veggies and a jug of gravy. Remove uneaten veggies after meal and chase family from the kitchen where they are no doubt scraping leftover crunchy Yorkshire pudding from the baking dish.
Lard or vegetable oil, for greasing pan 8–12 sausages (small American pork breakfast sausages are the closest to English “bangers”), approximately 1 ounce each |
1 cup all-purpose flour Salt to taste, ¼–½ teaspoon 1 large egg 1¼ cups milk |
Preheat oven to 425°F. Cover the bottom of a deep-sided glass baking dish (an 8 ÷ 8-inch dish is perfect) with a layer (more than just a greasing) of lard or vegetable oil.
Brown sausages in a small skillet over medium heat for 10 minutes. In the meantime, heat pan in oven until lard or oil is smoking. Instead of heating sausages in skillet, you can also throw sausages in baking dish for 10 minutes with oil or lard. Remove from oven.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat flour, salt, egg, and milk until bubbles appear, about 5 minutes.
If sausages were browned in skillet, place them in baking dish. Pour batter carefully over sausages and hot oil or lard. Bake for 25–30 minutes. Do not open oven door or batter will not be puffy (although soggy, flat batter is still delicious). Repeat recipe until your cholesterol numbers hit dangerous levels!
Yield: Serves 4—or one teenager left to own devices
NOVEL THOUGHTS
At Redbery Books, an independent bookstore in Cable, Wisconsin, all ten members of the T.H.U.R.S. (The Highly Unusual Reader Society) thoroughly enjoyed Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, “something we can’t say about every book club choice,” says Beverly Bauer, bookstore owner and club facilitator. “Each of us could find a theme to which we could relate whether it was retirement, widowhood, family relationships, the loss of a sibling, attachment to an inanimate object, disappointment in one’s child and his or her choices, or last chance at love,” says Bauer. “You think you are dipping into just an entertaining, quick read, and soon you realize it is much more than that.”
A few Indian dishes from a local restaurant, along with British cheeses, added flavor to the Greater Boston area’s Wine, Women, and Words discussion of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.
Anne Marie Gluck was curious to try rasmali, the dessert with “rose petals and saffron in the syrup” that the major fondly remembered from his childhood in Lahore, the “only local dish” his mother served in their home there. Rasmali is a sweet paneer (Indian cottage cheese) covered in cream often flavored with cardamom, and mixed pistachios, saffron, and/or rose water.
Myra Anderson chose samosas, fried triangular pastries filled with vegetables. The samosas Mrs. Ali made and sold at her shop, as described in the novel, “hinted at her exotic heritage.”
“In the story these delicious homemade samosas were displayed side by side with the typical British convenience store foods such as packaged meat pies,” says Anderson, who lived in London. “The packaged pies are largely perceived as an inedible fixture of ‘British Cuisine,’ making the irony of their placement together all the more strong.” Members agreed that they enjoyed the character portrayals, such as Roger, Major Pettigrew’s son. Anderson says Helen Simonson’s depiction of Roger as a London yuppie buying a country home was spot on. Though the novel was both light and humorous, it had the added virtue of exploring serious issues such as racism.