Sex-Love in the Kitchen--Recipes--Rice with Shrimps-Champagne

From Cookbook Passion by Pamela Kure Grogan

“Aromatic herbs and aphrodisiac recipes judiciously used in the preparation of meals, renew weakened organisms; they bring back to life exhausted feelings, and permit man to enjoy for a long time ‘those endowments of strength so dear.’”          ~~The Squire of Baudricourt

Styled literary recipes. Venus in the Kitchen or Love’s Cookery Book by Norman Douglass. 1952. Written under the pseudonym of Pilaff Bey, and published in London, posthumously. Douglass, a controversial, sexually scandal prone writer, feuded on and off with D. H. Lawrence (Lady Chatterly’s Lover fame). Douglas wrote witty travel books, made Capri a must-see place, and was a friend of food writer, Elizabeth David. Most famous novel, South Wind. Author and friend Graham Greene writes the introduction. Rare in London published version.  Reprinted today in mass paperback.

RICE WITH SHRIMPS

    Chop very fine a branch of celery, a small carrot, half an onion, a clove of garlic, and put all in a pan with a small piece of butter and half a spoonful of olive oil and fry till brown. Have ready half a pound of shelled shrimps. Take half of them and let them fry with the above ingredients for a few minutes, season with pepper and salt, and go on adding hot water little by little till you have put enough for cooking in it one pound of rice. Let the water boil at least a quarter of an hour.

Pass through a sieve, seeing that the meat of the shrimps goes well through. When passed, put it in a saucepan over the fire, and when boiling add one pound of rice and a piece of butter. Let the rice absorb the liquid. If it becomes too dry before being cooked, add a little hot water, but the rice must not be too moist. When nearly cooked, add the other half of the shrimps, mix well, and  serve with grated Parmesan cheese.         

            SORBETS AU CHAMPAGNE     (Champagne Sherbet.)

     Steep in one and a half pints of sugar syrup, the sections of a whole orange and that of half a lemon; add half a bottle of Champagne wine , the juice of four oranges and that of a lemon; mix the whole, pass through a sieve, add again a half bottle of Champagne . Serve in glasses.