Baking Archives - Page 3 of 15 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Baking

10
Jun
2023

Summer Berry One Two Buckle My Shoe

categories: Berries, Cake, Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello food lovers and crime readers! Today on Dining with The Dame, we are taking a look into the Hercule Poirot novel One Two Buckle My Shoe. And to snack on while we read, we have a lovely fruit filled cake called a Summer Berry Buckle. Yes, not much food in this one so again, I had to use some creative thinking for the food component. And the Summer Berry Buckle is a delight! I loved that you got a different berry in each bite!

One Two Buckle My Shoe -The Plot

Leaving his dentist’s office, Hercule Poirot bumps into the delightfully named, Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, a former actress. He picks up a buckle that has fallen off her shiny new shoe and gives it to her.

Before you can even start to get any creepy dentist vibes aka Norman Gale in Death In The Clouds, we find out via Inspector Japp that sometime after Poirot’s visit, the dentist Hector Morley apparently killed himself. Morley’s clients between Poirot and his death included Ms Sainsbury Seale, a banker called Alistair Blunt and a rather shady Greek gentleman called Mr Amberiotis. Another man, an American activist called Raikes leaves the office without a visit to Morley’s Partner (who is a bit of a drunk).

We have

Mr Amberiotis dying not too shortly after Dr Morley from an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine – both commonly used by dentists. Are the death’s connected?
A secretary called away from work on false pretenses. Was it so she did not recognise the killer?
A fiance annoyed with Morley’s interference in his love life – did he kill Morley?
Mabelle going missing
A body in a trunk with her face bashed in.
Two murder attempts on Alistair Blunt, one supposedly by the aggrieved fiancé. Has he moved from killing dentists to bankers?
And what of the left-wing activist? The one who left before seeing the drunk dentist?He has no love of bankers or members of the bourgeoisie. Might he be the murderer?
And what of that drunk dentist? Did he bear a grudge against his more successful partner?
We also have Poirot revealing himself to be a leg man! How else would he know that a ten-inch stocking equates to a size six shoe?

Good thing we have Poirot around to sort out who did the deed! We also have Inspector Japp in his last appearance in a novel. 😔

There is a lot going on in this book and the plot seems quite convoluted at times. The nursery rhyme felt far more wedged in than in “And Then There Were None” too. While this was not my favourite novel it did give an insightful look into power and privilege and the importance of one life versus another.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe – The Covers

I was able to find a lot of covers for this one, primarily I think because it has three names. It was originally called The Patriotic Murders in the US but they changed this to An Overdose of Death in 1953.

So many great covers here. I think my favourite is the shoes second row second from the right which also is our very first Finnish cover!

The Recipe – Summer Berry Buckle

I used the recipe from the New York Tmes as my recipe and I can highly recommend it.

I served my Buckle with some labne that I had made for something else and wanted to use up and some fresh raspberries.

Whipped cream or yoghurt could easily sub in for the labne.

Poirot shrugged his shoulders. He said:

I t would seem that death selected, most inartistically, the wrong man. The Mysterious Greek, the Rich Banker, the Famous Detective – how natural that one of them should be shot! For mysterious foreigners may be mixed up with espionage and rich bankers have connections who will benefit by their deaths and famous detectives may be dangerous to criminals”.

Whereas poor old Morley wasn’t dangerous to anybody, ” observed Japp gloomily.

“I wonder.”

Agatha Christie – One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Links to The Christieverse

Poirot speaks of Countess Vera Rosakoff who we last saw in The Big Four and is the closest thing we come to Poirot having a love interest

The Case of The Augean Stables is mentioned. We haven’t got there yet but it is one of the stories in The Labours of Hercules

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Bacon
Coffee (multiple mentions)
Breakfast cereals
Sandwich
Tea x2
Pot of Chocolate
Sugar Biscuits
Brandy
Whiskey Soda

Also, apologies for this post being nearly a week late! I dropped my laptop, and thankfully whilst nothing major was damaged, the pin on the charger bent making it impossible to charge so I had to wait for the replacement charger to arrive. I’m going to try really hard to get the post that is due tomorrow out on time or just a little late to get back on posting track!

July’s read is Evil Under The Sun which is a great read and I have something very special planned for it.

Have a great week!

16
Apr
2023

Savoury Upside Down Pie

categories: 1980's recipes, Baking, Chicken & Poultry, Savoury Pies and Tarts

Hello friends! On the menu today is a savoury upside down pie (say what?) which comes from a new book to the blog, 250 Quick and Easy Recipes by Woman’s Day from 1986. It’s actually from Let me tell you , if the savoury upside pie was anything to go by, I am looking forward seeing what the rest of this book has to offer. This was delicious! I made this back in February and looking back at the photos now is really making me want to make it again!

I chose this recipe because of its unusual cooking method. You line your pie dish with bacon (yum) then spoon a mix of minced chicken, creamed corn, and some herbs on top of the bacon. Finally, almost like a tarte tatin, you top the lot with pastry. The end result is great, the bacon and the pastry turn crispy and the chicken mix stays succulent! You will see below that the recipe below calls for green capsicum. I can’t bear them. They also tend to repeat on me for hours afterward so instead of the capsicum, I added some additional herbs from the garden being sage and oregano along with the parsley and mint the recipe called for.

I have been featuring a lot of “posh” food recently. This is definitely not that. This is mid-week budget-style cooking. I think it would be a great family meal. I served my pie with shop-bought sweet chilli sauce, some zucchini pickles made from homegrown zucchini and a watercress and orange salad which will feature in an upcoming post.

Savoury Upside Down Pie – The Recipe

The sweet chilli was the perfect accompaniment to the pie – they really worked well together. The pickles also bought a nice tang. And it all looked lovely and colourful.

The pie was also good cold the following day when I had some for my lunch! I was going to reheat it but couldn’t wait!

250 Quick and Easy recipes really delivered on its title with the Savoury Upside Down Pie! Add in that it was also really tasty and you have a winner, winner chicken dinner! There are a few more recipes which sound like they might be worth a try so I’m sure this will not be the last time we see this book!

Have a great week!

10
Apr
2023

Devonshire Splits: And Then There Were Buns

categories: Baking, Dining With The Dame, England, Stand Alone

Hello crime readers and food lovers! When I first thought about writing about the food featured in Agatha Christie novels I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what to call my new venture. “And Then There Were Buns” was my first idea. It seemed equally Christiesque, food-related and appealed to my love of puns. In the end, I settled on Dining with the Dame as being a more simple title. However, the inital idea never really left my mind, and has, resurfaced, here as we begin to talk about the Christie classic And Then There Were None. In what has become a bit of a theme around here And Then There Were None features very little actual food. Plenty of tinned tongue (🤮) but little real food. Given it is Easter, I decided to make Devonshire splits over a more traditional hot cross bun for two reasons. First, the novel is set on a small island off the Devon Coast and second, I don’t really like a hot cross bun.

Oh, and I know I previously said that April’s read would be Sad Cypress but you can blame a work trip to Sydney for the mix-up. I accidentally popped the wrong book into my bag and didn’t realise until I was on the plane. I blame the 4:00am wake up for that error! Sad Cypress will be May’s read.

And Then There Were None -The Plot

This one is such as classic that I feel that it needs little explanation by me. It is Christie’s best-selling title with over 100 million sales! But here goes nothing – Eight people are invited to spend time on Soldier Island, off the Devon Coast. When they arrive, they are greeted by a butler and his wife, the cook but their hosts are absent. Each person finds a framed copy of a nursery rhyme called Ten Little Soldiers in their room and the dining table contains a tableau of ten soldiers.

As our guests are having dinner a terrifying voice booms out of nowhere that they have been gathered together as each of them has previously gotten away with murder and lists their crimes. Panic and pandemonium ensues.

And then they start dying in ways paralleling the Indians from the rhyme.

And with each death, one of the little figurines on the tables disappears.

We have:

No way off the island
A dawning realisation that one of them is a killer
A baffling puzzle for the police when they finally arrive on the Island. The last death was Vera Stanhope who hanged herself. So, given no one could get on or off the island, who moved the chair she stepped on to reach the noose away from her body and put it against the wall?
A confession in a bottle. If Smashmouth was the theme for Murder is Easy, then The Police’s Message in a Bottle might be this month’s song!

And Then There Were None is so creepy and the growing fear and paranoia of the guests as the death toll rises is so well done! It is no wonder that this is the best-selling mystery novel of all time! Speaking of which, let’s look at the covers of some of the 100 million!

And Then There Were None – The Covers

There are some wonderful covers here! Not sure about the significance of the fish (top right) but I really like all of the rest of them – the remoteness of the island, the way the noose forms the O in bottom left, the broken Indian, the skull shadow cast by the house are all greatly evocative of the book. You will also notice there are also a few covers with the title Ten Little Indians which is one of the former titles of this novel.

And I guess about now would be the right time to talk about the original title of this novel which was Ten Little N-words. I made the decision not to include any of the covers with that particular title. I don’t even know what to say about the original title. Except to say I’m very glad it was changed and I think Änd Then There Were None”is a much better title than either of the others!

The Recipe – Devonshire Splits

I used the recipe for Devonshire splits from the Waitrose website. I’ve also included it below in case the website ever takes it down. These are also called Cornish splits in other places on the internet so don’t come at me, people of Cornwall if you feel slighted, head straight to the source. The Devonshire Splits were delicious. BUT I found them quite big. Personally, I would use the amount of mixture suggested in the recipe to make 18 buns instead of the 12 suggested. If you do this make sure that you reduce the cooking time accordingly.

Links to The Christieverse

I could not find any links in this one.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in And Then There Were None

Gin and Ginger Beer
Coffee (multiple times)
Port
Brandy (multiple times)
Bread
Milk
Bacon and eggs (Bacon mentioned twice)
Tea (multiple times)
Cold Ham (twice)
Cold Tongue (tinned) (mentioned multiple times)
Boiled Potatoes
Cheese
Biscuits (twice)
Tinned Fruit (mentioned twice)
Honey
Whiskey

May’s read will absolutely positively definitely be Sad Cypress!

Have a great week!

Devonshire Splits

12
Mar
2023

Pineapple and Spice Financier – Murder is Easy

categories: Cake, Dining With The Dame, Pineapple, Stand Alone

Hello crime readers and food lovers! This month’s read is Murder Is Easy, and I have a LOT to say about it! Starting with a rant about how I ended up choosing a Pineapple and Spice Financier (which does not appear in the story at all) to represent the novel. Murder is Easy contains very few food references. This really annoyed me! I kind of get it when AC doesn’t mention food in the novels set in foreign climes. Back in the day, there would likely have been some good old-fashioned British reserve (ie thinly veiled racism) against foreign food. But Murder is Easy is set in an English village and features multiple old ladies! Where are the scones? Where are the high teas and finger sandwiches? The village fete with cake stalls galore?

Murder Might be Easy but Menu Decisions Aren’t!

So, what do you do when there is no food mentioned in the novel? My first thought always goes to puns. Murder is greasy? Murder is cheesy? Chowder is Easy? Humlebeetroot Salad? I dismissed all of these as cornier than the chowder! I was very nearly set on the idea of making Olivia De Havilland’s Salad Niçoise. (She played Honoria Waynfleet in the 1982 version of Murder is Easy). However, when I looked more closely at the recipe on Silver Screen Suppers I saw that it contained both red and green capsicums. Long-time readers will know that these do not agree with me at all. I thought about inventing a Hit and Rum cocktail, which was going to be my take on a pineapple mojito, and spoke to two of the murders in the novel. However, I felt there have been a lot of cocktails in my recent Dining with the Dame posts so I wanted to shy away from them.

Finally, I decided I wanted to use pineapple which, features as a murder weapon, in the story combined with the country feel of a freshly baked cake. I chose the Pineapple and Spice Financier as I felt that the spices (cardamom and ginger) were a nod to Luke Fitzwilliam’s time in the Mayang Straits. Whilst this is an entirely made-up place in my mind it is a reference to Malaysia which was still under British rule in 1939 when this book was written.

Phew…that was a long intro! So let’s get into Murder is Easy!

Murder is Easy- The Plot

Luke Fitzwilliam is home to England from his work as a policeman in the Mayang Straits. On his way to London, he meets an elderly lady called Lavinia Pinkerton on the train. They get to talking and Ms Pinkerton confides to him that she is on her way to Scotland Yard to warn them that there is a serial killer operating in her small country village. She names several people who have already been a victim of said killer and also names who she thinks will be next.

Now, if you want my honest opinion of Luke Fitzwilliam? To put it nicely, he’s no Hercule Poirot. He’s not even a Miss Marple. In the words of Smashmouth he “ain’t the smartest tool in the shed”. However, his lack of perspicacity comes later. Right now, we can’t really fault him for thinking he has sat down next to some batty old lady and so he doesn’t really take her seriously.

Until, the next day, he reads in the paper that she was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

And a week later, he reads that Doctor Humbleby who Miss Pinkerton said was the next victim, has also died. Luke’s spidey senses start tingling and he heads down to Wychwood under Ashe to do some investigating.

We have:

Several mysterious deaths in the town Wychwood-Under-Ashe
A chauffeur killed by a stone pineapple
Dirty deeds going on with the local antique dealer
A cat called Wonky Poo who becomes involved in the murders in a totally disgusting way.
One of the suspects strangling a canary
Inspector Battle who we last saw in Cards on The Table (also in The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery) making an appearance!

Unfortunately, we don’t have Poirot around to solve the mystery. Instead, we have Luke Fitzwilliam (cue Smashmouth quote above in your head) making what seems like interminable lists of suspects and motives and still not honing in on the killer faster than his new girlfriend Bridget. Oh, and if we’re going to cue Smashmouth whenever Luke is mentioned, then the signature tune for Bridget is The Eagles Witchy Woman! So many references to Bridget being witch-like. All of which come to nothing.

Murder is Easy – The Covers

The Recipe – Pineapple and Spice Financier

My recipe comes from the November 2022 issue of Delicious Magazine.

“Luke – Luke – what’s that…?”

The moon had come out from the clouds. Luke looked down to where Bridget’s shoe trembled by a huddled mass.

With a startled exclamation he dragged his arm free and knelt down. He looked from the shapeless heap to the gate post above. The pine-apple was gone. “

Murder is Easy – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

As mentioned above Inspector Battle makes an appearance in Murder is Easy.
The Bells and Motley. is a pub in Wychwood under Ashe. A pub by the same name features in the Harley Quin short story called “At The Bells and Motley”.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Murder is Easy

Plum Pudding
Tea (multiple times)
Coffee (multiple times)
Bacon and eggs (I will make these one day!)
Kidneys (I will never make these)
Liqueur Brandy
Beer
Sherry

Other Related News

A boomslang features in the Bullet Train. We, of course, know all about that particular snake from Death in The Clouds.
The BBC has announced a new adaptation of l Murder is Easy. (The Olivia de Haviland / Bill Bixby version is available on You Tube. The Miss Marple version is not great and I would not recommend it, except Benedict Cumberbatch plays Luke).)
This month marks the 100th anniversary of Murder on The Links…why not celebrate by making an Omelette Berrichonne?

April’s read is Sad Cypress.

Have a great week!

26
Nov
2022

Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes – November 2002

categories: Baking, Cake, Sandwiches

Hello Friends!!! For today’s twenty years ago post, I am cooking from the November 2002 issue of Super Food Ideas. Let’s see if the mag lives up to it’s name! Today’s theme is picnic food. These orange and poppyseed cupcakes would be perfect for a spring picnic and were delicious to boot! Sadly our weather has not been kind. It has been very cold and rainy so my picnic ended being on my dining room table!

My Picnic Menu

Chicken Club Sandwich

I love a club sandwich but for some reason, I only ever eat them when ordering from a hotel room service menu. This one was ok. No bacon which was disappointing but the addition of avocado was nice. There was a weird instruction to add tomato sauce (ketchup) into the avocado mix. I ignored it. because….ewww. You can do beter November 2002!

Here’s the recipe.

I am not going to talk about the Mac and Cheese bites here because, I ended up changing the recipe so much that I am going to do them as a separate post! But we came here for Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes so here they are!

I don’t think I have tasted orange and poppyseed anything before. There was a time when I was absolutely addicted to the lemon and poppyseed muffins at Muffin Break. It got so all the people I worked with knew how much I loved them so even if I had not gone past the Muffin Break that morning, my colleagues would let me know if the lemon and poppysed muffins were on the menu. These cupcakes were very reminiscent of those muffins. In fact though, I did not have enough orange zest to top all the cupcakes (possibly because I spilt so much of it all over the recipe) so there is a mix of lemon and orange zest on all of them making them even more nostalgic for me.

Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes – The Recipe

The original recipe was for one large cake. For cupcakes, just drop the cooking time, Mine were ready in 25 minutes.

My Nigella Moment

What is a Nigella moment? You know how at the end of each episode of a Nigella tv show, you see her popping back to the fridge for just one more bite of something? My Nigella moment this month is a recipe I cooked from the mag that did not fit with the picnic theme. It was a salmon fillet with wasabi mayo. I served mine with some edamame sprinkled with furikake, pickled ginger and some not very Japanese but very delicious oven fries! In the interest of brevity, I have not included the recipe but, if you like the sound of it and want to do your own trip back in time, hit me up in the comments!

I hope you’ve enjoyed time travelling back to November 2002 with me.

Have a great week!