Category: Dining With The Dame


Jan
2025

They Do It With Mirrors – Cherry Liqueur Chocolates

categories: Dining With The Dame, Marple, Sweets

Hello and Happy New Year crime readers and food lovers!!!!   Today’s Dining with the Dame sees us munching on cherry liqueur chocolates while reading They Do It With Mirrors.  Chocolate, cherries, kirsch and Miss Marple?  Heaven! 

Cherry Liqueur Chocolates

I want you Jane, to go down there right away and find out exactly what’s the matter.”

“Me?” exclaimed Miss Marple.  “Why me?”

“Because you’ve got a nose for that sort of thing.  You always had.  You’ve always been a sweet innocent-looking creature Jane, and all the time underneath, nothing has ever surprised you.  You always believe the worst.”

“The worst is so often true,” murmured Miss Marple.

They Do It With Mirrors – Agatha Christie

 

They Do It With Mirrors – The Plot

Ruth Van Rydock, deeply worried about her sister, Carrie-Louise, seeks the counsel of her old friend, the astute Miss Jane Marple. Carrie-Louise, now married to the philanthropic Lewis Serrocold, resides in the expansive Stonygates mansion. This unique residence is the home for two hundred young men, part of Lewis’s ambitious program for rehabilitating troubled youth and their teachers, doctors, and therapists.  Also living with Carrie-Louise and Lewis are Muriel, their middle-aged daughter; Gina, Carrie-Louise’s granddaughter; Gina’s American husband, Wally; and Carrie-Louise’s devoted companion, Juliet “Jolly” Bellever. Alexis and Stephen Restarick sons from Carrie-Louise’s previous marriage are also frequent visitors.  

An Unexpected Arrival and Tragedy

Shortly after Miss Marple’s arrival, Christian Gulbrandson, son of Carrie-Louise’s first husband and a trustee of the charitable foundation supporting Stonygates, makes an unexpected visit. He appears troubled, and Miss Marple overhears a hushed conversation between him and Lewis, a conversation marked by urgency and a desire to conceal something from Carrie-Louise.

Following dinner, Christian retires to write letters. Suddenly, the lights go out plunging the mansion into darkness. In the ensuing confusion, Edgar Lawson, a volatile young man employed by Lewis, accuses his benefactor of mistreating him.  Lewis, takes Edgar into his office to try to calm him down.  However, the situation escalates rapidly. Edgar, who harbors delusions of grandeur (claiming to be the son of Winston Churchill and Lord Montgomery), now accuses Lewis of being his father and threatens him with a gun.

What sounds like a gunshot echoes through the house. The family, fearing the worst, attempted to force open the office door. To their surprise, Lewis emerges unharmed. However, a chilling discovery awaits them: Christian Gulbrandson, sitting some rooms away, has been shot dead.

We have:

  • One seemingly very mentally unhealthy person being Edgar and 200 possible murderers on the premises.
  • Someone trying to poison Carrie Louise:  Arsenic is found in her tonic and someone sends her poisoned chocolates
  • One of the young delinquents, Ernie,  admitting to wandering the grounds that night and hearing footsteps
  • Alex Restarick starting to add two and two together to come up with murder
  • Ernie and Alex killed when someone drops a massive counterweight on their heads

Good thing we have Miss Marple around to save Carrie-Louise and stop the carnage!  We also have an amazingly named Doctor Maverick! This character was played by the wonderful Alexei Sayle in the relevant episode of Marple.  Incidentally, in the same episode, Joan Collins played Ruth Van Rydock and the late, great Sean Hughes played Sergeant Lake.  

“Just a minute, Dr Maverick. Is this young man, in your opinion, definitely a mental case?” 

Dr. Maverick smiled the superior smile again.  “We’re all mental cases, Inspector Curry”.

Tomfool answer, thought the Inspector.  He knew he wasn’t a mental case, whatever Dr.Maverick might be!”

Agatha Christie – They Do It With Mirrors

They Do It With Mirrors – The Covers

They Do It With Mirrors - Collage2

 

There are, as always some wonderful covers here!  Except for the French one second row far right which has an incredibly creepy (and unnecessary) clown on it.  I do like however that the French name for this book is Jeux de Glaces which translates as either Game of Mirrors or Game of Icecreams.  Alternatively, this eBay listing calls it the Game of Ice but then weirdly gives it a subtitle of “Club of Face Masks”.  Which sounds to me like something that creepy clown would belong to. 

Jeux de Glaces

 

Now, that is potentially a translation error. However, Apple TV also lists the relevant episode of Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie as “Ice Cream Games.” I’m not sure if this means that that they have significantly changed the plot or that many people are left puzzled at the end, thinking, “Where was the sorbet?”

Ice cream games

The Recipe

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They Do It With Mirrors – Cherry Liqueur Chocolates

Cherry Liqueur Chocolates
Print Recipe

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Cherry and Kirsch filled dark chocolates

Ingredients

Scale
  • 150 grams dark chocolate
  • Kirsch liqueur – enough to cover cherries
  • Maraschino cherries (as many as there are holes in your chocolate moulds) 
  • Chocolate moulds
  • A paintbrush or small baking brush

Instructions

Soak the cherries in the kirsch for 24-48 hours, stirring them occasionally. 

Melt the dark chocolate either in the microwave (30 second intervals) or over a double boiler. 

Using your paintbrush or baking brush, brush the melted chocolate over your moulds.  Place in the freezer to set.

Place a cherry into each space in the mould.  Add some of the leftover kirsch.  Place back in the freezer overnight. 

Remelt your chocolate.  Take the moulds out of the freezer.  

Fill the moulds with the chocolate.

Place back in the freezer for the chocolate to set.  

“I think, ” said Doctor Maverick “that these ones that I have put aside have almost certainly been tampered with”….

“But it seems incredible” said Miss Marple.  “Why, everyone in the house might have been poisoned”…

“Yes there is ruthlessness –  a disregard – ” he broke off.  “Actually, I think all these particular chocolates are Kirsch flavouring.  That is Caroline’s favourite”

They Do It With Mirrors – Agatha Christie

I know the recipe sounds easy but these were an absolute mare of a thing to make!  The pain points, of which there were many included:

  • Getting the chocolate thick enough to coat the mould and not leave any holes but not too thick. 
  • Trying to top the filled moulds with melted chocolate… the warmth of the tempered chocolate unfroze the liqueur making a real mess!  
  • If you push just a bit too hard and your chocolate is too thin, your thumb or finger will go right through that thin layer of chocolate while trying to demould them.   

 I guess this is why we have specialty chocolatiers.

I chose to use Kirsch because the poisoned chocolates in the book were flavoured with Kirsch. However, if you have already made Miss Marple’s cherry brandy, you could equally use those cherries. And you may also need a small sip after the stress of making them. 

Cherry Liqueur Chocolates2

 

Links to the Christieverse

  • None that I could find.  Please let me know if you find any!

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in They Do It With Mirrors

If you wish to read along, the book for February will be A Pocket Full of Rye.  Another Marple is coming!  Oh and what a Marple it is!!!!

Have a great week!

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Dec
2024

After The Funeral – Cold Lemon Soufflé

categories: Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Lemon, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers.  Today, we have a sweet treat for you…well, actually, maybe three treats.  First, we are dining on a lovely cold lemon soufflé, and we are reading After The Funeral, which is both a Poirot and has one of the most dastardly Christie villains we have ever met! So treats both gustatory and literary are in store!  

Cold Lemon Souffle

After The Funeral – The Plot

Richard Abernethie is dead and his family are gathered around to pay their respects.  After the funeral, the family gathers at the ancestral home to hear the reading of his will.  Family members and Richard’s lawyer are startled when Richard’s somewhat eccentric younger sister Cora states that Richard was murdered. Cora is known within the family for saying outlandish (but true) things.  Her remark does not sit well with Mr Entwhistle, the lawyer, who becomes even more disturbed when Cora is brutally murdered the next day.

It turns out that Richard visited Cora just before his death.  Did he give her some information that led her to believe his life was in danger?  Did someone kill Cora to keep her quiet?  

 We have:

  • No one in the family with a sound alibi for the time Cora was killed.  
  • Among them, we also have issues with gambling, adultery and madness
  • A false confession
  • Helen Abernethie (Richard’s sister-in-law) feeling that something was not quite right on the day of the funeral.
  • Helen then getting coshed over the head as she calls Entwhistle to tell him what she remembered
  • A motif of creepy nuns terrifying Miss Gilchrist, Cora’s companion
  • A malachite table and some wax flowers providing a clue as to what might have happened

Poirot goes undercover as Mr Pontalier, a gentleman looking for a large home to house refugees from the war to sort out whodunnit.  Even if no one knows who he really is, even after his ruse is discovered.  

After The Funeral – The Covers

So.  Many.  Covers.  I know this looks like a lot but I narrowed this down from over 50!  These are all wonderful in their own way so instead of calling out my favourites I thought we might go through the translations of some of the names.  

The American title is Funerals Are Fatal…which is, yes, true for at least one person.  In a similar vein are the Hungarian and Swedish titles Funerals are Dangerous.  

The German title translates to “The Bouquet of Wax Flowers”, a deep reference to a plot point in the story.  

The French Title translates to The Indiscretions of Hercule Poirot”.  I beg your pardon, what?  No!  That is all wrong!  Je n’aime pas le français! 

lemon souffle 3

The Recipe:  Cold Lemon Soufflé

I returned to my school Home Economics textbook, Cookery The Australian Way, for this recipe.  I clearly remember making this way back in class with Mrs Rama, my Home Ec teacher.  Delicious then.  Delicious now!  

“Cold lunch, of course, it had to be.  Ham and chicken and tongue and salad.  With cold lemon soufflé and apple tart to follow.”

After the Funeral – Agatha Christie


Lemon Souffle recipe

Cold Lemon Souffle2

Better  to go home cross-country.  These bath buns were really excellent.  Extraordinary how hungry a funeral made you feel.  The soup at Enderby has been delicious – and so was the cold soufflé

After the Funeral – Agatha Christie

Links to the Christieverse

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in After The Funeral

January’s read will be They Do It With Mirrors.  We’re starting the year with Miss Marple! 

Have a great week!

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Nov
2024

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – Bloodstained Beans

categories: Beans, Dining With The Dame, Poirot, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Hello, crime readers and food lovers! Today’s Dining with the Dame sees us partaking of some Blood Stained Beans alongside Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver.  The Poirot / Ariadne Oliver novels are among my favourites.  I adore her grumblings about her Finnish detective, Sven Hjerson and the travails of being a mystery writer!   But also, it was this volume of stories that, back in 2020, gave me the idea to start these posts.  Like so many people I was a little bit bored during covid and decided to read an anthology of Agatha Christie novels I had bought from my local library 6 months previously.  Halfway through Cards In The Table, an idea that I later called Dining with The Dame was born!   The recipe for the Blood Stained Beans is my version of Sabrina Ghayour’s Spiced Green Bean and Tomato Stew which comes from her wonderful book Feasts.  

Blood Stained Beans 1

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – The Plot

James Bentley, a rather odd and unlikeable young man, has been found guilty of the murder of his landlady, Mrs. McGinty. Convicted based on the evidence that he was short of money and knew where Mrs. McGinty hid her meager savings of £30, Bentley’s fate seemed sealed.

However, Sergeant Spence, a detective who played a crucial role in Bentley’s conviction, harbors lingering doubts. Unsure of Bentley’s guilt, Spence turns to the renowned Hercule Poirot, hoping that his keen intellect can shed light on the mysterious case.

Poirot, intrigued by the challenge, travels to the quaint village of Broadhinny. Securing a room at the Summerhayes’ guest house, Poirot finds himself immersed in a world of chaos and inefficiency. Indeed, the comical chaos of the guest house provides one of the many humorous moments in “Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.”

“With great distaste, Hercule Poirot looked around the room in which he stood.  It was a room of gracious proportions but there its attraction ended.  Poirot made an eloquent grimace as he drew a suspicious finger along the top of a book case.  As he had suspected – dust! ….The latch did not hold, and with every gust of wind it burst open and whirling gusts of cold wind eddied round the room. 

“I suffer” said Hercule Poirot to himself in acute self pity.  “Yes, I suffer”.  

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

What Happened to Mrs McGinty?

During his investigations Poirot discovers that just before her death, Mrs McGinty had clipped a “where are they now” article from the Sunday paper about a number of females who had been involved in infamous crime cases in the past.  Turns out Mrs McGinty, who also operated as a charwoman for several families in Broadhinny had found a photo that resembled one of these women.  And, with that, her fate was sealed.

Blood Stained Beans 3

We have:

  • Several people who could be any of the women in the article
  • Anonymous letters
  • Another murder
  • Poirot pushed off a train platform
  • A mysterious blonde
  • Lipstick on a teacup and expensive scent in the air
  • A sugar hammer with a mysterious past and some tell tale stains on it
  • Lots of people with secrets they do not want revealed

It’s a good thing we have Poirot on hand to save the innocent and make the guilty pay for their misdeeds.  However, even Poirot is severely tested by the personality of James Bentley.

“There were  moments when Hercule Poirot found the personality of James Bentley so irritating that he heartily wished that he could believe Bentley guilty of Mrs McGinty’s  murder.  Unfortunately, the more Bentley annoyed him, the more he came round to Spence’s way of thinking”.

And, of course, we have Ariadne Oliver being utterly delightful!

“How do I know?” asid Mrs Oliver crossly.  “How do I know why I ever thought of the revolting man?  I must have been mad!  Why a Finn when I know nothing about Finland.  Why a vegetarian.  Why all the idiotic mannerisms he’s got?  These things just happen.  You try something – and people seem to like it – and then you go on – and before you know where you are, you’ve got someone like that maddening Sven Hjerson tied to you for life…fond of him?  If I met that bony gangling vegetable eating Finn in real life, I’d do a better murder than any I’ve ever invented”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – The Covers

Mrs McGinty's Dead collage (3)

 

The Recipe: Blood Stained Beans

“Oo,” said Mrs Summerhayes, her attention diverted from Poirot to the basin in her lap.  “I’m bleeding over the beans.  Not too good as we have to have them for lunch.  Still, it won’t matter really because they’ll go into boiling water.  Things are always all right if you boil them, aren’t they?”…

“I think, ” said Hercule Poirot quietly, “that I shall not be in for lunch.”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

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Blood Stained Beans

Blood Stained Beans 2
Print Recipe

A recipe for a delicious side, inspired by both Sabrina Ghaylour’s Spiced Green Bean and Tomato Stew and the Agatha Christie novel, Mrs McGinty’s Dead.  

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika    
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 400g chopped Italian tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp chipotles in adobo sauce
  • 1 heaped teaspoon caster sugar
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 400 grams green beans, topped and tailed

To Serve:

  • Greek Yoghurt or Labneh
  • 1 tbsp chipotles in adobo
  • Crispy fried shallots for sprinkling

Instructions

Roast the tomatoes:

  • Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
  • Toss cherry tomatoes with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper on a baking sheet.
  • Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly charred and softened.

Make The Sauce:

  • Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan over a medium heat.
  • Lower the heat and saute the onions until soft (about 10 minutes)
  • Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. 
  • Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika and chipotle in adobo and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. 
  • Add the sugar, tinned tomatoes and salt and pepper.  
  • Cook for 20 minutes until thickened. 
  • Taste and add more chipotle, salt or pepper as required.  

The Beans:

  • Steam the beans for 3-4 minutes.  

Serving:

  • Place the beans on a serving platter.  
  • Pour over the spicy sauce and top with the cherry tomatoes.  
  • Add dollops of yoghurt and splatters of chipotle sauce.  
  • Sprinkle with crispy shallots
  • Enjoy!

“He walked slowly up the hill towards Long Meadows.  He hoped devoutly that the contents of the bulged tin and the bloodstained beans had been duly eaten for lunch and not been saved for a supper treat for him”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Blood Stained Beans 4

Links to the Christieverse

  • In one of her hilarious rants about her novels, Ariadne Oliver talks about using a blowpipe as a plot device in one of her novels.  An African blowpipe was featured in Death in The Clouds.  And of course wecan’t help but draw the parallel between Agatha Christie and her infuriating Belgian and Ariadne Oliver and her “bony gangling vegetable eating Finn”.
  • We last saw Superinendent Spence in Taken at The Flood.
  • Ariadne Oliver speaks of Mr Shaitana, the victim in Cards on The Table.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  Mrs McGinty’s Dead

It’s really interesting to see how much more food is mentioned now that we are well and truly in the post war period!

  • Escargot
  • Afternoon Tea
  • Coffee x2
  • Hot chocolate and croissants 
  • Grenadine, Creme de Menthe, Benedictine, Creme de Cacao
  • Whisky x2
  • Beer
  • Bread x2
  • Margarine
  • Kippers x2
  • Omelette / eggs x2
  • Spinach x2
  • Brandy
  • Stew
  • Vegetable Marrows
  • Jam
  • Sherry
  • Orange Juice
  • Box of Chocolates
  • Oxtail Stew ( under cooked)
  • Potatoes (watery x1) (hard x1)
  • Pancakes (peculiar)
  • Apples (it is an Ariadne Oliver novel after all)
  • White Lady
  • Gin x 2
  • Pudding (burnt)
  • Raspberries (mouldy)
  • Macaroni
  • Custard and plums
  • Egg nog x2
  • Rabbit stew
  • Pudding (peculiar)
  • Steak and Chips

December’s read will be After The Funeral. 

Have a great week!

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Oct
2024

A Murder is Announced – Delicious Death

categories: Cake, Dining With The Dame, Marple

Hello, crime readers and food lovers! Today’s Dining with The Dame takes us on a culinary journey from the bustling streets of Iraq to the quaint English country village of Chipping Cleghorn. And, as we all know, the English country village is the natural home of one Miss Jane Marple!  Our delectable companion for today’s reading is Delicious Death – a delightful and delovely chocolate cake that is sure to satisfy both your taste buds and your thirst for a good mystery.  However, it’s important to note that this Delicious Death is not the same one created by Jane Asher in 2010 to celebrate Agatha Christie’s 120th anniversary. I had some difficulty in finding all the necessary ingredients for that particular recipe so as Fleetwood Mac famously suggested, I went my own way on this one!

  Delicious Death

 

A Murder is Announced – The Plot

When the inhabitants of Chipping Cleghorn read the following in the local paper, they mostly think it is a joke.  

A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th at Little Paddocks at 6:30pm.  Friends please accept this, the only intimation.”

Despite this, most of them turn up to Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock and Dora “Bunny” Bunner on the 29th at the designated time to find out what is going on.  

At exactly 6:30, the lights go out.  In the darkness, a gun fires twice.  And dead body is found on the ground.

Delicious Death2

 

The body turns out to be that of a young man who worked in a hotel in the local town.  But why was he there?  Who put the weird notice in the paper?  And why? Is someone really trying to kill Leticia Blacklock?

We have:

  • Forged cheques
  • An unused door being oiled
  • A missing revolver
  • A missing lamp
  • Missing photos
  • A host of people who might not be who they say they are 
  • More murders 
  • And EVERYBODY being utterly horrible to Mitzi the maid

Thank goodness for Miss Marple! Sir Henry Clithering might bizarrely call her the ‘Super Pussy of all old Pussies,’ but she’s the one who’ll solve this mystery and bring peace back to Chipping Cleghorn!  Here is a somewhat less unhinged quote from Sir Henry on Miss Marple:

“She’s just the finest Detective God ever made.  Natural genius cultivated in a suitable soil…remember that an elderly unmarried woman who knits and gardens is streets ahead of any detective sergeant.  She can tell you what might have happened and what ought to have happened and even what actually did happen. And she can tell you why it happened”

A Murder is Announced – Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced – The Covers

Murder is Announced Collage1 (2) (1)

There are some absolutely cracking covers here.  I couldn’t find as many foreign covers as usual which was disappointing.  However, I feel the calibre of the ones I did find make up for it.  Even the weird French one at the bottom which looks like people in a doctor’s waiting room has its own charm! 

The Recipe: Delicious Death

“Death!” said Patrick in sepulchral tones.  “Delicious death.”. 

“Be quiet, Patrick, ” said Miss Blacklock as Miss Bunner gave a little yelp.

“I only meant the special cake that Mitzi makes,” said Patrick apologetically.  “You know we always call it Delicious Death”

Delicious Death Recipe and Pic (1)

Delicious Death 3

“Ha, ” Patrick cried dramatically as the party took their places around the dining room table.  “What do I see before me?  Delicious Death.”  

“Hush” said Miss Blacklock.  “Don’t let Mitzi hear you. She objects to your name for her cake very much.”

“Nevertheless, Delicious Death it is!  Is it Bunny’s birthday cake?”

“Yes, it is, ” said Miss Brunner.  “I really am having the most wonderful birthday”.

A Murder is Announced – Agatha Christie

Links to the Christieverse

Edward Swettenham wrote a play called “Elephants Do Forget”.  Christie later wrote a novel called “Elephants Can Remember”. 

Dermott Cradock, the investigating officer in “A Murder is Announced”, is Sir Henry Clithering’s godson.  We previously met Sir Henry, the former head of Scotland Yard, in Murder at the Vicarage and The Body In the Library.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in “A Murder is Announced”

  • Coffee x3
  • Kippers x2
  • Toast
  • Sherry / Bad Sherry (so many times!)
  • Eggs x2
  • Stewed Beef
  • Goulash
  • Cheese Straws x2
  • Olives
  • (Fancy) Pastries (multiple mentions)
  • Cabbages
  • Brandy
  • Asparagus
  • Apples
  • Chocolates x3
  • Herrings
  • Lettuces
  • Skim Milk / Milk
  • Honey x2
  • Vegetable Marrows
  • Quinces / Quince Jelly
  • Tea x2
  • Cakes x2
  • Bread
  • Margarine and Butter
  • Meat Paste
  • Meat and two veg
  • Eggs
  • Cream x2
  • Horsemeat
  • Sardine Sandwiches
  • Tomato Sandwiches
  • Wine
  • Corn (for hens)
  • Side of bacon
  • Omelettes
  • Fried onions
  • Jam

November’s read will be Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Have a great week!

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