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Category: Books

31
Jan
2021

Savarin Au Rhum – Dining With The Dame 8

categories: A-Zof Cooking, Books, Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are boarding a luxury train (No, not the Orient Express…but we will get to that one eventually) for murder, robbery and other hijinks. Luckily Poirot is on hand to bring justice to all. And, even better, while we read we can munch on some cake. Tbook is The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie, first published in 1928 and it features a Savarin Au Rhum.

The Mystery Of The Blue Train – The Plot

Heiress Ruth Kettering is taking the luxury “Train Bleu” from Paris to Nice. Also on the train is Katherine Grey, a young girl who is on her first trip out of England after inheriting a large amount of money. When they meet in the dining car Ruth tells Katherine that she is unhappily married and that she is on the train to go to meet her lover.

The next morning Ruth is found dead, strangled in her sleeper compartment and the gorgeous and very expensive “Heart of Fire” ruby which had been given to her by her father is missing. Moreover, not only has she been strangled but her entire face has been bashed in.

Luckily for all, Hercule Poirot is also travelling on the same train and is engaged by Ruth’s father to find the murderer and the missing ruby.

On top of murders and missing jewels we have

About to be ex-husbands with money issues
Ruth’s somewhat shady lover
Ex-lovers with axes to grind,
An infamous international jewel thief known as The Marquis
Shonky secretaries
Male impersonators

Ooh la la…Poirot’s little grey cells have to go into overdrive on this one!

The Covers

Many of the covers feature versions of trains, murdered women etc. I particularly like the skulls and bones level crossing! Then there are the covers that take a less obvious route. These are of course my favourites!

The Recipe – Savarin Au Rhum

For the recipe for Savarin au Rhum, I turned back to one of the vintage cookbooks I looked at a few years back, The A-Z of Cooking. The Savarin is a French cake which is why I chose it. Who knows, a Savarin of Rhum may well have featured on The Blue Train’s menu back in the day!.

The Savarin would be a great recipe to serve guests who claim not to like cake (although why are you friends with people like that?) as it is not overly sweet. The recipe says it is meant for 6-8 people. We are 2 people but the Savarin did keep nicely in the fridge for close to a week. Once it got a teeny bit stale, it made a lovely scone substitute if you toasted a slice or two and added some jam and a dollop of cream! So, even even if you have fewer than the required number of people, it will not go to waste.

The Comte de la Roche had just finished dejeuner, consisting of an omelette fines herbes, an entrecote Bearnaise and a Savarin au Rhum. Wiping his black moustache delicately with his table napkin, the Comte rose from the table. He passed through the salon of the villa . noting with appreciation the few objet’s d’art which were carelessly scattered about.

Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train

Other Food Mentioned in The Mystery of The Blue Train’

This book mentions so much food it was hard to decide what to choose!

Brown Bread (for supper)
The above mentioned Omelette fines herbes and entrecote Bearnaise
Little bits of quail
Chicken en casserole
Apple tart and a jug of cream
Filet of sole a la Jeanette
Steak with grilled tomatoes
Porterhouse steak
Steak and kidney pudding
Stilton and sparkling Moselle
A small pot of chocolate
Mint Humbugs

Have a wonderful week!

Next book in the list, if you want to read along, is The Seven Dials Mystery.

26
Oct
2020

Savoury Impossible Pie

categories: 1970's food, Books, Pie

This past week saw the 155th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my favourite books so I celebrated with a savoury impossible pie!

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day.

Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

This recipe comes from my vast collection of clipped recipes. I think that this one came from the wrapping of the deviled egg plate that my friend Ali gave me for my birthday a few years ago.

Impossible Pie?

“Why it’s simply impassible!
Alice: Why, don’t you mean impossible?
Door: No, I do mean impassible.

(chuckles)

Nothing’s impossible!”

The Impossible Pie was invented by Bis-quick in the 1970s. The idea was that instead of making a filling and a crust you could mix everything together and magically, in the oven, the ingredients would separate out so you end up with a crusted pie.

The OG impossible pie was coconut but since then pretty much every flavour imaginable has been made. Yinzerella over at Dinner is Served 1972 has made a number of them both sweet and savoury so if you want a primer in them, head over there pronto! Then come back here for my try at Savoury Impossible Pie!

My pie had peeled tomatoes, bacon, parsley, corn, spring onions and cheese – someone cue Blink 182 singing “All the good things” please!

It also looked like some sort of Klimptesque art when I started to mix it through. So pretty!

However, the success of an impossible pie surely has to lie in whether or not that magical crust appears. So was this recipe a success?

Was there a crust? There was something. But a proper pie crust? No. So technically…cooking fail.

Having said that, it was absolutely delicious. It may not have turned out exactly as planned but it was still worth making and definitely one to put on the rotation list!

You know what? If it bugs you like it bugged me that it wasn’t impossible, leave out the flour and call it a Klimt Garden Frittata. I promise I won’t tell anyone and believe me, you and your friends will love it!

Savoury Impossible Pie – The Recipe

“I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is ‘What?’”

And we’re done!

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end:

Then stop.”

20
Mar
2020

Dining With The Dame 1 – Rum Spiked Cocoa

categories: Books, Dining With The Dame, Drinks

My first attempt at blogging involved writing about the food contained in, or inspired by, the books I was reading. It was not successful because, after the first book, the next three books I read did not contain any food to blog about! But I have never lost the desire to blog about food in fiction. This year one of my goals was to (re)read the novels of Agatha Christie. And, as I began to read, I started to think that maybe it was time to give combining food and fiction another try. Which is why today you are reading the first in a series called Dining with the Dame. We’re getting things started with rum-spiked cocoa as featured in…

The Mysterious Affair At Styles

We’ll start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all. The Mysterious Affair At Styles was Agatha Christie’s first novel to be published way back in October 1920.

“Styles” is also the first Hercule Poirot mystery. Poirot is a war refugee, living in the village of Styles St Mary with 7 of his chums. And whilst this series will focus mainly on the novels, there is an absolutely delightful moment in the Poirot tv series where Poirot’s crew of Belgian refugees are walking through the British countryside singing “It’s a long way to Tipperary” before becoming acquainted with the pleasures of the English public house. That moment occurs at around the 13-minute mark if you want to see it for yourself!

The eponymous mysterious affair is the death of Emily Inglethorpe, owner of the country manor Styles. Mrs. Inglethorpe did not pass away quietly in her sleep but was poisoned! Enter Hercule to exonerate the wrongly accused and, of course, find the real murderer.

The Covers

I made a tier of some of the covers for this novel. There were many, many more. I have so many opinions that this would become the longest post ever if I started to voice them – but take a look. What is your favourite?

What would you move up? Or down?

The Recipe – Rum Spiked Cocoa

Poirot is talking to Annie, one of the maids at Styles.

“Now I want to ask about something else. There is a saucepan in Mrs. Inglethorpe’s room with some cocoa in it. Did she have that every night?”

“Yes sir, it was put in her room every evening, and she warmed it up in the night – whenever she fancied it.”

“What was it? Plain cocoa?

“Yes sir, made with milk, a teaspoon of sugar, and two teaspoonfuls of rum in it.”

This is soooo good. The little hit of rum adds a lovely little kick to a drink that is 100% as comfort! And we all can use a little bit of comfort in our lives!

Rum Spiked Cocoa

Print Recipe

A delicious warm drink…with a little kick!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup milk
3 heaped teaspoons drinking cocoa
2 tsp rum (I used a spiced rum)
1 tsp sugar

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over a medium heat. A pan with a pouring spout is ideal.
As it heats, add the sugar and the cocoa.
Use a small whisk to get rid of any cocoa lumps.
Just before the mixture reaches boiling point, take off the heat, add the rum
Serve immediately.

Notes

Marshmallows would be great with this. I did not include as they were not mentioned in the “recipe” in the book. To really boost the rum flavour in the cocoa, you could even made some rum marshmallows!
http://www.thefloshow.com/home-made-quick-rum-marshmallows/

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1

Other Food mentions in Styles

Seed Cake (TV Show)

Lemonade (TV Show)

It’s Complicated

This book was written 100 years ago and contains passages that are (or should be) abhorrent to the modern reader. I do not share these views nor wish to repeat them. But nor do I want to ignore that they exist. They are there and they are horrible.

I do not think that the views expressed were necessarily that of Christie but were certainly opinions that were held at the time, and let’s be totally honest by the very worst members of our society today.

I personally think we can still enjoy reading Christie while vehemently disagreeing with the views of some of her characters but please let me know what you think.

Next Up

For anyone who wants to read along and / or cook along my plan for April is to feature The Secret Adversary. Now that we are all pretty much living in social isolation, maybe a joint project is something we need to keep us connected! Let’s just hope there is some mention of food in it – I don’t have a good track record when it comes to this!

Stay safe friends. And by that, I mean avoiding money-hungry relatives dosing your cocoa with narcotics and adding strychnine in your coffee. And of course, looking after yourself in these crazy times.

05
Mar
2019

Mock Food (And a Real Cocktail)

categories: Books, Cocktail, Tequila, Vintage Recipes

The Irish artist Francis Bacon once famously declared

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.

Today, friends we are looking at some sham or mock foods. And we may not have champagne but we have a cocktail that looks like this and tastes super delish!

We’ll come back to the cocktail later.

Believe me, we might need a stiff drink or two after the horrors I’m about to inflict on you.

So, I was flicking through the pages of “Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons” and I noticed a trend for mock food.

STARTERS

MOCK OYSTERS AKA WHAT TO EAT WHEN THE WORLD ISN’T YOUR OYSTER

So what would you expect to be in a mock oyster? My first thought was maybe a mussel? Oysters are spendy. Mussels are cheap. Open your mussels, add some bacon, Worcestershire sauce and a dash of Tabasco sauce, pop it under the grill and you might have a fairly close approximation of a Kilpatrick Oyster.

Alternatively, why not give brains and walnuts a whirl?….

I don’t know WTF a mix of brains and walnuts would taste like (and I don’t ever want to know) but I’m willing to bet it isn’t oysters!

Not a fan of un-oysters? What about some delicious crispy fried non- whitebait?

MOCK WHITEBAIT BECAUSE EGGY CHIPS DOESN’T SOUND CLASSY

Okay, I think we can all agree that this is not NEARLY as bad as that brains and walnuts combo. But no one is going to be fooled!

MAIN COURSES

MOCK DUCK – FAKE FOOD OR REAL GANGSTER?

I’m just going to say this right now. This recipe makes no sense.

I kind of get the oyster thing and even the whitebait thing on a monetary level. Oysters are expensive. Whitebait not so much but eggy fries would be cheaper still. I totally understand why people might want to take a cheap ingredient and dress it up to taste like something a bit fancier. Now it may be different where you live, but here? Steak, good steak, is far more pricey than duck.

I also have absolutely no idea of what kind of 50 shades of bondage moves you would need to tie a steak into the shape of a duck.

And finally…I don’t care what shape you tie your steak into. It will not taste like duck

For a far more interesting Mock Duck, let’s take a trip on the way back machine to 1900 in New York’s Chinatown. Here, a “cherubic, ever-smiling, moon-faced Machiavelli” gangster called….wait for it….Mock Duck was terrorizing rival gangs. If you have ever heard the term “hatchetman” you have Mock Duck and his gang, the Hip Sing, to thank. The term was coined due to their practice of carrying hatchets with sharpened blades in their sleeves. Mock Duck was a total badass who wore diamond buttons on his shirts and a chain mail vest to stop bullets! More about Mock Duck’s Exploits can be found here.

MOCK SQUAB PIE – ITS A CONSPIRACY OF BAD TASTE

The word squab always reminds me of a scene from the movie JFK when Tommy Lee Jones says “Hope you like squab.”

Except, he says it with a Southern drawl so the A in squab lasts for like an hour.

Squaaaaaaaab.

Well, if you like squab but are having trouble finding some, look no further.

So squab tastes like meaty apple pie? In that case Tommy Lee, “No, I don’t like squaaaaaaab”.

SOMETHING ON THE SIDE

IMITATION SPINACH – IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREENS

I might be talking from a very 2019 Melbourne centric stance here. But spinach is EVERYwhere. I cannot think of a place where I could be where I was not in walking distance of a bag of spinach. Why you would then want to imitate it is unfathomable to me. No spinach? Have beans. Or cabbage. There are lots of other vegetables out there. We don’t need to fake spinach.

And also Pumpkin shoots? I have no idea where I would find any sort of pumpkin shoots, let alone tender ones. I guess you need a vegetable garden. In which case you could probably just grow spinach.

SHAM GINGER – WHAT NO COPYCAT MARYANNE?

This one is just ridic. Making sham ginger from cucumbers and ground ginger? Why not just use the ground ginger?

DESSERTS

LETS END IT ALL WITH SOME CHEESECAKE PUDDING

So, cheesecake…technically not a cake. But always containing cheese right?

Not so much.

Q: How disappointed would you be if someone told you they were making cheesecake for dessert and it turned out to be sieved potato with a smattering of sultanas?

I THINK WE ALL MIGHT NEED A DRINK!

In fact, it’s time to totally relax because all the bad food is behind us and kick back with a glass of the very appropriately named Tequila Mockingbird Cocktail! This is soooo good. Fruity, sweet, spicy and with a little kick of da da da da da da da…Tequila!

Tequila Mockingbird Recipe

I hope you enjoyed this little foray into the weird and…well…certainly not wonderful world of mock foods. Tell me? Do you have recipes for Mock Food in your collection? Have you ever made a mock food? And did it taste like the real deal?

Have a wonderful week!

31
Dec
2018

Silence of the Lamb Chops

categories: Books, Lamb, Movies

December 31st not only marks the end of the year but also the birthday of actor Anthony Hopkins. Let’s celebrate both events with a delicious recipe from Zach Neil’s The Nightmare Before Dinner called…well you already know… Silence of the Lamb Chops! This was the very first recipe I wanted to cook from this book because, for me, Silence of The Lambs is a perfect film.

The actors are stunning, the direction is flawless, the script is tight, the cinematography is en pointe. For my mind, Silence of the Lambs has no weak link. Plus…and this one I could be wrong on this one but in my mind, Hannibal Lector defined a new type of movie villain. Intelligent, eloquent, charming…he is a bit Hans Gruberesque….but at the end of the day, however, suave Gruber was, we were all happy when he fell to his death. No one wants Hannibal to die. We’re glad he escapes. And let’s be clear. He is a monster. And therein lies the magic of the Silence of the Lambs.

I had thought I’d taken a million photos of the Silence of the Lamb Chops.

I totally did. It was so good. The chops are marinated in olive oil, garlic, rosemary and apple cider then grilled. They are served with a mushroom and apple sauce which was great. An unusual combination but it worked really well with the lamb. This is then drizzled with a glaze made from raspberry preserves and soy sauce which is again an odd combination but works well. The Silence Of The Lamb Chops is like a flavour explosion. There is the herby, fattiness of the lamb set against the earthiness of the mushrooms and the apple. The sweet and salty raspberry soy sauce acts as a highlight, a little oomph!

I served mine on a bed of mashed potatoes which added a creamy element. If you wanted to though, you could serve it….

Here’s the recipe:

And here’s my only other photo:

So, it’s the end of the year. Time for me say a massive

to you all for reading and commenting and being a part of my tiny corner of the internet. It’s been another amazing year. I think my highlight was Pieathalon in London and getting to share pies with fellow pieathletes Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers and Battenberg Belle.

Stay tuned for 2019, I think it’s going to be just as much fun!

Have a great week And a fabulous New Year.

May all your dreams and wishes come true. Love you lots!