Category: Starters


Jul
2024

New Zealand Oyster Cocktail

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, New Zealand, Oysters, Starters

Hello friends, I’m back. The old adage that time heals all wounds has lasted so long because it is true. I have had my period of grief.  And whilst it is still not entirely gone, facing each day without tears is getting easier.   And what better way to celebrate my return than with a spicy starter from the land of the long white cloud!  Today’s New Zealand Oyster Cocktail recipe comes from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972).  The book says that New Zealand men like food with no frills or foreign touches.    Based on the two recipes I’ve made, my summary of New Zealand food is not “no frills” but “Ugly Delicious”. 

New Zealand Oyster Cocktail 2

This recipe was somewhat nostalgic for me as back in the day, our local pub used to do a “Bloody Mary Oyster Shot”  as an starter.  The New Zealand Oyster Cocktail had a very similar vibe.   These aren’t pretty!  But the best part about ugly delicious is the delicious.  And these met that brief in spades, even without the added sprinkle of nostalgia!  

New Zealand Oyster Cocktail – The Recipe

If you are entertaining and want a  starter that takes less than a minute to make but has a wow factor and as mentioned tastes great, then the New Zealand Oyster Cocktail is for you!  

New Zealand Oyster Cocktail Recipe

My Variations

  • The recipe calls for Tomato Sauce which to me means ketchup.  We’re classy people here at Retro Food for Modern Homes and ketchup is reserved for chips and pies.  I used tomato juice which also added to the Bloody Mary feel.
  • For my piquant Table Sauce I used a mix of Tabasco and Worchestershire.  
  • I made a little jug of the tomato juice, Tabasco, Worchestershire, Lemon juice and seasonings and added that to the oysters instead of adding each of these individually as the recipe suggests
  • Finally my serviing glasses were only large enough for one oyster but I prefer the idea of an indidivual serve rather than muliple oysters in the one cup!
  • You can also ditch the glasses all togther and pour your combined sauce and seasonings into the shell itself!  This, to my eye looks a bit prettier but is harder to eat without spilling tomato juice all over yourself! 
  • If you wanted to ramp up the Bloody Maryness of these, add a little splash of Vodka into your tomato juice mix!

 

New Zealand Oyster Cocktail 3

Have a great week!

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May
2024

Witness For The Proscuitto and Melon

categories: Dining With The Dame, Finger Food, Prosciutto, Rockmelon, Starters

Hello crime readers, foodies and lovers of terrible puns!  Today’s Dining With The Dame comes to us via another short story, Witness For The Prosecution.  This story appears in the Hounds of Death collection.  We have already featured The Red Signal from this collection. I also have a French version of this story!  Today, I am pairing the story with a classic starter, Proscuitto and Melon.  We love a twofer here at Dining With the Dame so later this week, we will also be celebrating a very special occasion with a cocktail also inspired by this story.  

Proscuitto and Melon 1

 

Witness For The Prosecution- The Plot

“Supposing I tell you that he did not come in that night at twenty past nine, but at twenty past ten?  You say that he tells you he knew nothing about the money coming to him.  Supposing I tell you he knew all about it, and counted on it, and committed murder to get it?”

Agatha Christie – The Witness for The Proecution

Young, handsome but hard up, Leonard Vole finds himself accused of murdering the elderly lady, Emily French, in order to inherit her wealth.  The facts seem stacked against Leonard.  Mr Mayherne his solicitor is certain that Leonard is innocent.  The only person who can provide an alibi for Leonard is his wife Romaine. 

My Mayherne goes to see her, despite knowing that a court is unlikley to give much credence to the evidence of a devoted wife.  He gets the a terrible shock when Romaine not only tells him she detests her husband but that he is not actually even her husband!  She was married to another man in her home country of Austria but he was locked away in a madhouse so the two could not marry. 

Therefore double jeopardy does not apply

She also says that Leonard committed the murder and confessed so to her. 

How can Mr Mayherne save Leonard when even his own wife is determined to see him hanged?

Proscuitto and Melon 2

The Witness for the Proscution – The Covers

WFTP Collage (1)

I could not find many covers for Witness for The Prosecution as it is usually part of a collection such as The Hound of Death.  We’ll look at some of the playbills and movie posters next time and talk a bit more about the 1957 movie next time.  

The Recipe: Proscuitto and Melon

I’m not entirely sure we need a recipe for somerthing as simple as this, but our old friend The A-Z of Cooking has one so here it is!  

Proscuitto and Melon4

I decided to sit my melon slices on some Romaine lettuce in honour of Leonard’s wife!


Proscuitto and Melon 3

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find but please let me know if you spotted any!

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Witness for The Prosecution

  • Brandy

Our June read will be Taken at the Flood.  Yay, it’s a Poirot! 

Have a great week!

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Apr
2024

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

categories: 1980's recipes, Avocado, Starters, Tomatoes

Hello friends!  Get ready for a delicious trip down memory lane, fueled by none other than guacamole-stuffed tomatoes! As a quirky only child, I spent a lot of my time lost in the magical worlds found between book covers. Every week, the local library became my wonderland. It was on one of these adventures that I stumbled upon a treasure – “The Complete Avocado Cookbook.”

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

I became obsessed with this book and borrowed it over and over.  This book, and the food contained within it seemed like the height of sophistication to my younger self.  This book was my future!  I could not wait to grow up and have Breakfast At Tiffanys-esque parties complete with drunks wearing lampshades on their heads, women with foot long cigarette holders and, of course, some amazing avocado-based food!

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

Given this history, you can only imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a copy of “The Complete Avocado Cookbook” in a charity shop a few years ago! I snatched it up so quickly, you’d think it was the last book on earth. However, the fact that it’s taken me years to actually cook from it might be a good indicator that “you can’t dip your toe into the same river twice.” Take the recipe for Crusted Stuffed Avocado, for example. For twelve-year-old me, this was the absolute star attraction, the shiny gold ornament on the Christmas tree of “The Complete Avocado Cookbook.”

For this recipe, you take an avocado, cut it in two and scoop out the flesh.  You then mix that flesh with Camembert cheese, garlic and herbs and pile all of that back into the avocado shells.  Then, you put the shells back together and crumb and fry the rejoined avocado.  Try very hard not to sing Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again as you do this!  Finally, you then serve your crusty stuffed avocado with an almond butter sauce!

Here it is:

Crusty Stuffed Avocado

And here is my childhood reaction to reading this recipe:

And here is adult me:

  1. I now know that I don’t actually like the taste of cooked avocado.
  2. Nowadays, the heart attack-inducing power of a deep-fried avocado stuffed with Camembert cheese, served with a butter sauce, terrifies me!
  3. Why would you leave the skin of the avocado on?  
  4. Finally…why are they using a Shepherd when everyone knows the Hass avocado is far superior!

Guacmaole Stuffed Tomatoes – The Recipe

All of which leads me to the Guacamole Stuffed Tomato – let me tell you, it was absolutely delicious.  I wouldn’t normally add olives to my guacamole but they were a nice salty addition!  I could not really taste the coriander powder either and would probably sub in fresh coriander (cilantro) next time.   Having said that, my twelve year old self, as well as my… ahem somewhat older self were both delighted!  I was also delighted to take this photo of the original picture of the book and my homage to it!

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes2

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

And, if like me, you have aslo been hunning Whole Again this whole time, I’ve linked it in below.  I will now look lovingly at my copy of The Complete Avocado Cookbook and sing along:

Looking back on when we first metI cannot escape and I cannot forgetBaby you’re the one, you still turn me on

Have a great week!

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Aug
2023

Wine and Song Prune Canapés

categories: Canapes, Prunes

Hello retro food lovers and welcome to a surprise mid-week edition of Retro Food for Modern Times.  Today we are taking a teeny little step back into the amazing book that is Kelly Brodsky’s Food For Lovers and making some canapes from her wine and song prunes. When we last spoke about them, it was in the context of breakfast but these little beauties are nothing if not versatile.  My favourite food is finger food so I decided that I would turn these into a canapé based on the vintage hors d’oeuvre Devils on Horseback.  

Wine and Song Canapes1

I have taken the key ingredients from Devils on Horseback and popped them on a round of grilled bread.  

As a reminder, here is the recipe for the Wine and Song Prunes.  These are the starting point for our canape’s.

Wine and Song Prunes

 

Wine and Song Canapes2

Here’s the recipe…if you can even call something so simple that!

Print

Wine and Song Prune Canapés

Wine and Song Canapes1
Print Recipe

A delicious canapé for your next retro party.  Or for eating all by yourself!

Ingredients

  • Wine and Song Prunes (as many prunes as canapés you are planning to make)
  • Rounds of chargrilled bread or bought crostini (as many rounds as canapés you are planning to make)
  • Proscuitto – (1/ 3 the number of slices as the number of canapes you are planning to make)
  • Goat’s cheese 
  • Watercress – 1 bunch

Instructions

  • Top your rounds of bread with a sprig or two of watercress, then 1/3 of  a slice of proscuitto.
  • Top this with a piece of goat’s cheese and one of the prunes.
  • Enjoy!

 

 

Wine and Song Canapes3

I’ll get my timing back on track with an N and M adjacent post. The actual post for the Agatha Christie thriller will be posted the following week. It’s a quick read so there’s still plenty of time if you wish to read it. Have a great rest of the week!

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May
2023

Salmon Rillettes: Sad Cypress

categories: Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot, Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Starters, Uncategorized
Salmon Rillettes4

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Welcome to Dining with the Dame for May and my take on Sad Cypress.  I loved this one!  And I also loved the Salmon Rillettes so this was a win-win for me! Now it may be a bit risky to base my recipe on the supposed murder weapon (poisoned salmon paste sandwiches) but the rillettes were absolutely delicious!  

Sad Cypress -The Plot

First up, the name comes from a quote from Shake’speare’s Twelfth Night:

Come away, come away, death,
    And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath;
    I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

The beautiful Mary Gerrard is dead.  Prior to her death, Mary had been the gardener’s daughter in an estate owned by the Welman family.  Elinor Carlisle, niece to the recently deceased Laura Welman stands accused of her murder.  

Her motive?  Elinor had recently been jilted by her fiance (and kind of cousin) Roddy for Mary.  

Her means?  Salmon paste sandwiches laced with morphine.  

Her opportunity?  Tea time whilst clearing out the Welman estate.  

All fingers are pointing to Elinor being the murderer.  But did she do it?  Luckily the local doctor who has a bit of a crush on Elinor brings in Hercule Poirot to determine who is guilty.  

Salmon Rillettes

We have:

  • A poison pen letter
  • Some missing morphine
  • An elderly aunt possibly bumped off before her time
  • A very large fortune left to Elinor.  
  • A mysterious figure lurking in the bushes
  • A possibly perfidious cousin
  • A strange mark on a nurse’s wrist
  • Secrets from the past impacting the present
  • Poirot hilariously calling himself a “pukkah sahib”

Such a good story!!  

Salmon Rillettes3

Sad Cypress – The Covers

 

Sad Cypress Collage 2

There are some great covers here – many of which contain aspects of things we have mentioned, the roses, the morphine, the poison pen letter.  We also have our first Japanese cover, some French covers, a Spanish cover and a German which may actually be my favorite.  Here it is in full:

Sad Cypress

 

I also want to call out this one because…what?  

 

I understand the rose and the tea set.  The weird green guy?  Not a clue!  It reminded me of Dumb Witness when Emily Arundell, who had been poisoned with phosphorus was said to have a luminous haze around her head.  

The Recipe – Salmon Rillettes

I based my recipe for Salmon Rillettes on the recipe for Rainbow Trout Rillettes, Rye, Cucumber and Watercress Sandwiches from Food for Friends by Hardie Grant Publishing.  That recipe is by Philippa Sibley and her book New Classics.  I swapped out the trout for Salmon and used white bread for my sandwiches.  

Salmon Rillettes Recipe

Elinor went across the hall and brought back from the pantry a big plate of sandwiches.  She handed it to Mary saying:

“Have one?”

Mary took one.  Elinor stood watching her for a moment as the girl’s white, even teeth bit into the sandwich”

Agatha Christie – Sad Cypress

Links to The Christieverse

Peter Lord, the doctor who is crushing on Elinor tells Poirot that he was recommended by Dr Stillingfleet.  He is a character in a short story called The Dream which appears in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.  

 

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Sad Cypress

  • Raspberries
  • Fish Paste Sandwiches (multiple references)
  • Cocktails
  • Tea (multiple references)
  • Doughnuts
  • Pink Sugar Cakes
  • Milk
  • Salmon and Shrimp Paste
  • Salmon and Anchovy Paste
  • Beer
  • Fresh Fish for lunch

June’s read will be One Two Buckle My Shoe

Have a great week!