Category: Dining With The Dame


Feb
2024

Neviled Eggs – Towards Zero

categories: Devilled Eggs, Eggs, Superintendent Battle

Hello crime readers and food lovers. Let me start right off with an apology for the atrocious pun. I am so sorry. But…I was racking my brains to think of what to cook for Towards Zero and, as is my want, I started searching for a pun. “What rhymes with Audrey..tawdry…no cancel that one. Battle rhymes with cattle…maybe a beef Wellington?” And then I got to Nevile and “eh voila” as Poirot would say, the idea of Neviled Eggs was born.  And once it was in my head…there was no going back. 

Nevilled Eggs 3

I adored “Towards Zero,” so please don’t mistake my playful recipe title for any disrespect towards this brilliant novel. Usually, I read these books twice: once for the initial experience, and then again to glean details for these posts. My first read of Towards Zero left me utterly bewildered about the culprit, right until the big reveal. On my second read, however, I was astounded by the sheer number of cleverly hidden clues scattered throughout. 

Nevilled Eggs 1

The plotting here is simply masterful! What seemed like passing chatter on the first go-round all converged beautifully towards the killer’s identity. To any aspiring mystery writer, I wholeheartedly recommend “Towards Zero” as a masterclass in artful clue placement. But even if you’re simply seeking a meticulously crafted detective story, this is a must-read.

Neviled Eggs11

 

Towards Zero – The Plot

“I like a good detective story,’ he said. ‘But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that—years before sometimes—with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day.”.”

Agatha Christie – Towards Zero

We start with four seemingly disparate vignettes.  

  1. A group of London lawyers are speaking of the latest case and Mr Treves, a highly esteemed and elderly solicitor makes the above quote about murders being the end of a series of events that can bring a group of very different people together, all as they move towards zero hour.
  2. Angus MacWhirter is recovering in a hospital after a failed suicide. He is bitterly disappointed still to be alive but his nurse tells him that he was saved because God may need him in the future
  3. We next take a peek at a very disturbed person who is meticulously planning a murder
  4. Superintendent Battle’s daughter is intimidated into confessing that she stole things when she is innocent

Could these four seemingly unconnected events, be somehow related as they all move towards zero?

Nevilled Eggs 2

Our Cast:

  • Nevile Strange is a tennis player, known for his good sportsmanship on the court.  Neville was raised by Matthew and Camilla Tressilian at their home Gull’s Point.  Sir Matthew has now passed and Lady Tressilian is bedridden but Neville visits her each year.  (Incidentally, I did my first “reading” of this on audio via YouTube and the reader kept referring to Nevile as Ne-vile and not Neville.  For me, Ne-vile Strange sounded like the name of a Harry Potter villain.  
  • Kay Strange is Nevile’s second (trophy) wife.  She finds the visits to Gull’s Point boring and would prefer to be having fun with her friends, one of whom is Ted Latimer, a very handsome but somewhat louche young man.  Whilst not staying at Gull’s Point, Ted has taken up residence at Easterhead Bay, a short distance across the bay from Gull’s Point.
  • Audrey Strange, Nevile’s first wife.  Normally Audrey and Neville stagger their visits to Lady Tressilian however this year their trips converge.  And no one seems happy about it.  Except Nevile who seems to be trying to rekindle his old flame. 
  • Mary Aldin, Lady Tressilian’s companion
  • Thomas Royde. Audrey’s cousin who is visiting from Malaysia
  • Mr Treves, who was an old friend of Sir Matthews is holidaying in the vicinity and is invited to dinner one fateful evening.

Neviled Eggs10

 

We have:

  • Mr Treves killed by staircase (ingenious!)
  • Lady Tressilian beaten to death with a golf club and, 
  • Superintendent Battle virtually pushing someone off a boat to confirm that really can’t swim!
  • Rank odours, MacWhirter asking odd things of Mary
  • Something significant in the attic
  • And many, many people being lying liars who lie

Battle also channels his inner Poirot to bring the killer to justice.

Battle rubbed his chin and frowned.  “I wish I knew what keeps putting Hercule Poirot into my head.”

“You mean that old chap – the Belgian – comic little guy?” asked Leach.

“Comic my foot,: sais Superintendent Battle.  “About as dangerous as a black mamba and a she-leopard – that’s what he is.  I wish he were here – this sort of thing would be right up his street.”

Towards Zero – Agatha Christie

If only Battle had used a Boomslang (as per Death in the Coulds) as his snake analogy!

Towards Zero – The Covers

Towards Zero Collage (1)

 

So many great (and non-English) covers here.  My three favourites are Audrey on the cliff (top row second from left), a theatre bill, second row first from left showing Gull’s Point and of course, top row, first on the left, Tennis racquet head!  So clever and cluey!  

And it’s not the first tennis racquet head we’ve had either!  Murder at the Vicarage also has one of these!

Tennis Racquet Heads (1)

 

The Recipe Neviled Eggs

Print

Neviled Eggs – Towards Zero

Nevilled Eggs 3
Print Recipe

A lovely elegant appetizer, inspired by one of the characters in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero

Ingredients

Scale
  • 12 quail eggs
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • Dash of Tabasco (optional)
  • 2 tsp mayonnaise
  • sprigs of dill to garnish
  • Salmon roe to garnish

Instructions

Place the eggs in a pan filled with enough water to cover them.  Bring the water to boil then cover with a lid, remove from the heat and let the eggs sit for 2 minutes.

Drain and cool the eggs in cold water with some ice cubes in it.

Peel the eggs, cut them in half and scoop out the yolks.  

Mash  the yolks with the lemon juice, mustard, Tabasco and mayonnaise until the mixture is smooth. 

Fill a piping bag with the mashed yolks and pipe back into the egg whites.  

Garnish with a little sprig of dill and a salmon egg.  

Enjoy!

Notes

I found it easier to place the dill sprigs and salmon roe on the eggs with a pair of tweezers because I have massive man hands that are not great for delicate tasks like this!  

Neviled Eggs10

Links To The Christieverse

Battle mentions Poirot a few times but does not refer to any specific cases.  The other Superintendent Battle books are:

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  Towards Zero

Our March read is The Hollow.

Have a great week!

Signature2

 

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Jan
2024

Death Comes As The End – Spelt Salad with Duck

categories: Dining With The Dame, Duck, Leeks, Salad

Hello crime readers and food lovers! I will admit that I was not looking forward to reading Death Comes As The End.  Whilst I have read a few historical mysteries, it is not my preferred genre of mystery reading.  The 150 years from the late 19th century (Sherlock Holmes) to now a pretty much my reading wheelhouse, mysteries included.  So, the prospect of a story set in Ancient Egypt didn’t fill me with joy.   And, who on earth knows what people in ancient Egypt ate?  And would I be able to replicate something even remotely similar?  

Luckily for me, Death Comes as The End is littered with references to items of food and so I was able to form an idea of what ingredients may have been available to someone in that time.  Esa, references her favourite dish of reedbirds with leek and celery a few times so that formed the basis of the meal I wanted to make.  Cooked celery makes me gag so that was out.  But leek and duck…that sounded like something good!

I’m going to shake things up this time and list the foods mentioned first instead of last because I think that will help explain how “I” came to devise this dish.  

spelt salad1

Food & Drink Mentioned in Death Comes As The End

  • Roast Duck
  • Spelt
  • Barley
  • Dates
  • Syrian Wine
  • Honey
  • Triangular loaves of bread
  • Grapes
  • Quail
  • Cakes with Honey
  • Reed birds with leeks and celery
  • Olives
  • Pomegranate juice
  • Wine

From that  list of ingredients, I chose duck, spelt or barley and leeks as the things I wanted in my recipe.  I then searched through my cookbooks.  I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted so I turned to technology to help.  “Find me a recipe with duck, leek and spelt”  I typed into an AI Chatbot.  It delivered two recipes, one a barley risotto type thing and one a Spelt Salad with Duck, Leeks and Pomegranates.  Bingo!  A bonus is that the recipe also contains honey which is in the above list!  

I also love the combination of using modern tech helping me to solve a problem of food from 4000 years ago! 

I wasn’t sure if cheese was a thing in Ancient Egypt.   Turns out, that Egyptians were making cheese 5000 years ago!  How cool is that?  I mean, they were also making the pyramids and the Sphinx which for most people probably trumps the fact that they were also making a bit of feta on the side.  But for me, that is the funnest fact I have learned all year (13th January at the time of writing).  

And, after all that,  I forgot to add the cheese to my salad anyway!  🤦🏽‍♀️

spelt salad2

Some Fun Facts About Death Comes As The End

  • This was the FIRST EVER historical whodunnit novel.  Even if you dislike the book (I really liked it but I may be in the minority here) that is something!  
  • It is the only Agatha Christie novel not set in the 20th Century
  • The novel is based on real letters written in Ancient Egypt from a man complaining about how badly his family treated his concubine
  • The book came about when Christie’s and Egyptologist Stephen Glanville suggested Agatha write a book set in ancient Egypt
  • It  is one of the few Christie novels not (yet) adapted for the screen

Death Comes As The End – The Plot

Because you are truly Egyptian – because you love life, because, sometimes – you feel the shadow of death very near…

Agatha Christie – Death Comes as The End

Renisenb has returned to her father’s home with her young daughter after the death of her husband.  Also living in Imhotep’s house are other members of his family including:

  • His eldest son Yamose, his wife Satipy and their family. Yahmose is diligent but also diffident.  His wife constantly henpecks and belittles him.  
  • Middle son Sobek and his wife Kait.  Sobek is as hot-headed and rash as Yahmose is careful.  Kait is the typical tiger mother, absorbed by and protective of her children
  • The youngest son, Ipy is arrogant and boastful.  He is eager to be seen as an intelligent adult and no longer a child.
  • Semi blind, Imhotep’s mother Esa rounds out the members of the family however there are two others also living with the family. 
  • Henet is a poor relative of Imhotep’s deceased wife who remains in the family to take care of them.  She is obsequious gossip and a thoroughly nasty piece of work. 
  • Finally there is Hori who is Imhotep’s scribe. Later, Kameni, another scribe joins the household.  

There is some tension between the brothers and the wives bicker with each other but these troubles are nothing compared to what happens when, after a trip to the North, Imhotep brings Nofret, his new concubine, to live with them.  The family is not happy about this. and are even less happy when Nofret begins to drive wedges between Imhotep and family members.

Nofret then falls to her death from a cliff.  Accident?  Or did someone in the family take matters into their own hands?

And then, there were nearly none!

Several more deaths follow leaving the remaining members of the family terrified.  (A lot of people die in Death Comes As The End.  The death count in this novel is second only to And Then There Were None! )

Are they being cursed by Nofret’s vengeful spirit or is the murderer far more corporeal?

spelt salad3

Death Comes As The End- The Covers

Death Comes As The End Collage

I was able to find French, German, Czech and Portuguese covers along with some English ones for this novel.  They are all pretty much as you would expect for a novel set in Ancient Egypt.  

The Recipe – Spelt Salad with Duck

Print

Spelt Salad with Duck

spelt salad3
Print Recipe

A delicious spelt salad with duck leeks and pomegranate inspired by Agatha Christie’s Death Comes As the End. 

Ingredients

Scale
  • 100g spelt
  • 2 duck breasts
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 tbs duck seasoning (I didn’t know what this was so used 1/2  tbs ras el hanout for its Middle Eastern Flavours.  )
  • 2 leeks thinly sliced
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 orange, segmented
  • Handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
  • 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese (I forgot to add this and the salad was fine without it so consider it optional)
  • Pomegranate Molasses

For The Dressing

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp honey
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

The AI recipe had no method of cooking the leeks so I assume they had them raw.  I do not like the idea of raw leeks so I began by sauteeing the leeks in olive oil for around 20 minutes until they were soft and just starting to caramelise. 

Preheat the oven to 180C.  

Put the spelt in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.  Drain and cool for 5 minutes.

Score the duck breasts in a crisscross pattern.  Season with salt and pepper.  Then brush with oil and sprinkle with duck seasoning  / ras el hanout.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and fry the duck, skin side down for 5 minutes.  Then turn and cook on the flesh side for 2 minutes.  Transfer, skin side up to a small roasting tin and put in the oven for 15 minutes.  (I found this was too long, my duck was overcooked.  I would check for doneness after about 8 minutes in the over and then every 2 minutes from there.)

While the duck cooks, toss the cooked spelt with the leeks, orange segments, pomegranate seeds and walnuts.

For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper.

Slice the duck and arrange on top of the salad.  Drizzle with the dressing and crumble the goat cheese over the top. / Mix the dressing with the spelt mixture.  Slice the duck and arrange on top of the salad.  Drizzle some pomegranate molasses over the duck. 

Serve Immediately.

Enjoy!

Notes

Items in italics are those added by me, the rest is the recipe generated by AI

 

Fear is everywhere

Death Comes As The End – Agatha Christie

spelt salad4

 

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find.

February’s read will be Towards Zero.

 


Dec
2023

Sparkling Cyanide – Rosemary Bellini

categories: Champagne, Dining With The Dame, Drinks

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  This month our menu is a tribute to the late Rosemary Barton, one of the characters in Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide.  We are remembering Rosemary with a Rosemary Bellini.  We’ll get to her in a moment but first let’s take a moment to ponder the US title which was Remembered Death.  Now, why on earth when you have an AMAZING title like Sparkling Cyanide, would you change it to something as humdrum as Remembered Death? 

Sparkling Cyanide Photo 1

 

Sparkling Cyanide – The Plot

“Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago…”

Agatha Christie – Sparkling Cyanide

A year before the novel is set the lovely Rosemary Barton and six of her family and friends gathered for dinner at the swanky Luxembourg Hotel. Rosemary collapsed and died during the dinner.  The coroner’s verdict was that she committed suicide due to depression after a bout of flu. (I was quite surprised to hear that depression from the flu was considered a thing back in the day.  I guess now with long covid, we are seeing much the same thing but under a different name).

Six months before the novel is set, Rosemary’s husband, George gets a series of anonymous letters saying that Rosemary was murdered.  George hatches a plot to find her killer by having another dinner at The Luxembourg exactly one year after Rosemary’s death with the same people attending.

Dumb idea?  Totally.  Because George dies of cyanide poisoning on the night.  

Making one of the dinner guests the murderer of both people.  If George was killed because he was getting too close to the truth,  who, at the table wanted Rosemary dead?  Turns out, everyone has a motive!

We have:

  • Iris Marle, Rosemary’s sister.  She stood to inherit her sister’s considerable fortune
  • George himself may have killed Roseary as he had discovered she was having an affair.  Did he do himself in out of guilt?
  • The enigmatic Anthony Browne threatened Rosemary with death.  Did he poison her to keep her quiet about his shady past?
  • Stephen Farraday, a politician whose career was on the up was having an affair with Rosemary.  Did he kill her to avoid a public scandal if she revealed their dalliance?
  • Lady Alexandra (Sandra) Farraday, Stephen’s wife had a great reason for wanting Rosemary dead.  She wanted to keep her husband. 
  • Ruth Lessing George’s secretary who has a crush on George and hates Rosemary

Good thing we have Co lonel Race on hand to bring the killer to justice!

Sparkling Cyanide Photo 2

The Moving Finger – The Covers

Sparkling Cyanide collage
Sparkling Cyanide collage

 

I was so happy to find a load of covers for Sparkling Cyanide and so many non-English covers!   However…Portugal and France both seem to have confused champagne for martinis as covers from both countries feature glasses containing olives. 

 

The Recipe – Rosemary Bellini

Print

Sparkling Cyanide – Rosemary Bellini

Sparkling Cyanide Photo 3
Print Recipe

A lovely twist on a traditional Bellini

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 peaches (I like white peaches but you can use yellow if you prefer them)
  • 6 springs of rosemary
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar plus more for garnish
  • 1/2 glass white wine, prosecco, sparkling wine, orange juice or water
  • 1 bottle champagne

Instructions

  • Halve the peaches
  • Place the peach halves and two of the rosemary sprigs into a saucepan with the sugar and the 1/2 glass of wine / prosecco / juice water
  • Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted and the peaches are soft. 
  • Cool the peach mixture then puree.

Frosted Rosemary Garnish

  • Lightly beat the egg white
  • Take the 4 remaining rosemary sprigs and dip them in the egg white then dredge them in the caster sugar.
  • Set aside.

Assembly

  • When you are ready to serve, place a dollop of the peach puree into the bottom of a cocktail glass.  
  • Top with champagne and give a light stir.
  • Garnish each glass with a frosted rosemary spring.

Enjoy!

 

Every murderess was a nice girl once

 Sparkling Cyanide – Agatha Christie

 

 

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find but Colonel Race appears in:

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  Sparkling Cyanide

January’s Read is Death Comes As The End

      SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS

 

We are told twice that a certain character has no pity in them.  I.e. is the type of person who may resort to murder…

Whose name might indicate that they are this type of person?  

 

 

 

 


Nov
2023

The Moving Finger – Irish Stew

categories: Dining With The Dame, Lamb, Marple

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  This month our menu is a tribute to The Moving Finger, a 1942 novel by Agatha Christie featuring many people’s favourite amateur crime solver, Miss Jane Marple.  In contrast to the last few novels in which we have dined with the Dame, The Moving Finger is loaded with mentions of food including an Irish Stew.  My own opinions of stew match those of Megan Hunter (below) so when I made it, I thought that I would just have a taste and then the Fussiest Eater in the world could eat the rest.   This is exactly the type of food he loves.  My spoonful ended up being a whole bowl and  I would have had another for lunch the following day if the leftovers hadn’t been commandeered by someone else! So success all round.  I’ll definitely be making Irish Stew again.  

 

Irish Stew 1

The Moving Finger – The Plot

Jane Marple.  Look at her well.  I tell you, that woman knows more about the different kinds of human wickedness than anyone I’ve ever known.

Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger

Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna move to the “quiet” village of Lymstock so he can recover from injuries after a flying accident.  Shortly thereafter, they receive an anonymous letter accusing them of being lovers.  They burn the letter but soon learn that they are not the only people who are being targeted by the poison pen writer.  

Although offensive, the letters consist of wild speculation and don’t seem to target actual wrongdoing.  Then, one of the people from the village is found dead with a letter accusing her of adultery beside her.  

Irish Stew 2

We have:

  • The Police unable to solve the crimes
  • Another grisly murder where a housemaid is skewered to death.  Did she see something she shouldn’t have
  • A book found with pages ripped out – the source of the letters
  • Local citizens suspecting each other 

Good thing one of the villagers has the sense to call on her friend Jane Marple to set things right!

There are lots of things to love in The Moving Finger.  The details of village life and the characters who live in it are well-written.  My personal favourite is Mrs Dane Calthrop the Reverend’s wife.  She is an original thinker and the person to contact Miss Marple.  I love this response from her when asked if she has had a poison pen letter:

Oh yes, two, – no three.  I forget what they said.  Something very silly about Caleb and the schoolmistress, I think.  Quite absurd, because Caleb has absolutely no taste for fornication.  He never has had.  So lucky being a clergyman

What we might call today “too much information”.

I also very much liked Partridge, Jerry and Joanna’s cook who seems to be in a constant bad temper.  

There are also some things not to like.  There is a more than likely gay man in the village and a few homophobic comments made about him.  And there’s a weird romance going on between Jerry Burton and Megan Hunter.

Also, for a Marple novel, Miss Marple only enters on, in my edition, page 121 of a 160-page novel!  

Apart from these few niggles, I very much enjoyed this novel.  

The Moving Finger – The Covers

 

The Moving Finger Collage

I was delighted to find so many non-English covers for The Moving Finger – we have French, Spanish, German, Czech, Swedish and others I cannot identify.  My favourites are the German Die Scattenhand third row second left and the Swedish MordPer Korrespondens on the same row far right.  The English cover, bottom row, far left is terrifying!

The Recipe – Irish Stew

“Murder is a nasty business on an empty stomach.” 

Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger

For my Irish Stew I used the recipe on BBC Good Food by Bruno Desmazery. 

As mentioned, this was delicious and, despite my initial reluctance was something I would definitely make and eat again!  And, contrary to the quote from Megan Hunter below is not mostly potato and flavour.  Although, maybe in 1942 with wartime rationing it may well have been.  

I went round to apprise Partridge of the fact that there would be three to lunch.  I fancy that Partridge sniffed.  She certainly managed to convey without saying a word of any kind that she didn’t think much of that Miss Megan.  I went back to the verandah.  Ïs it quite alright?”asked Megan anxiously.  “Quite alright ” I said.” Ïrish Stew.”  “Oh well, that’s rather like dog’s dinner anyway isn’t it? I mean it’s mostly just potato and flavour””

Agatha Christie – The Moving Finger

Irish Stew 3

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Moving Finger

December’s Read is Sparkling Cyanide. 

     

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Oct
2023

Oeufs Caroline – Five Little Pigs

categories: 1960's recipes, Dining With The Dame, Eggs, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers. In what is starting to become a bit of a trend, today’s post is dedicated to one of the main characters in Five Little Pigs, Caroline Crale.  To many fans, Five Little Pigs is the nec plus ultra of the Christie novels.  And it is an absolute cracker!  We never actually meet Caroline as she is sixteen years dead when the story begins.  But…what a character.  I absolutely loved her.  Her dignity, grace, loyalty, and fiery temperament made her a wonderful compelling and intriguing character. 

I also feel that all egg recipes are a little wink to Poirot and his egg-shaped head! 

I found the recipe for Oeufs Caroline in the French children’s cookbook called La Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants by Michel Oliver (1963).  It is a very cute book and I will definitely cook more from it but the timing on this recipe was completely wrong.   You have no idea how many times I ate Oeufs Caroline for lunch this week trying to get it right! rp_Oeufs-Caroline1-768x

Five Little Pigs – The Plot

The accepted version of certain facts is not necessarily the true one.”

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

A young woman called Carla Lemarchant approaches Hercule Poirot with a very unusual case.  Sixteen years ago, her mother, Caroline Crale was found guilty of poisoning her father Amyas Crale.  However, before she died in prison, Caroline sent a letter to her daughter professing her innocence.  Carla wants Poirot to find out the truth.  Did her mother kill her father? Poirot focuses his investigation on the five people, apart from Carla and Caroline who were present on the day Amyas died.  For if Caroline is not guilty, then one of them is… Oeufs Caroline2

We have:

Philip Blake
  • A stockbroker (went to market, geddit?) was one of Amyas’ closest friends.  On the day of Amyas’ death, he overhears an argument between Caroline and Amyas where Caroline threatens to kill him.  Philip is apparently no fan of Caroline and puts the murder down to “crude female jealousy.  However, does he have a secret desire to see Amyas dead?
Meredith Blake
  • Philip’s brother.  Unlike his brother who is a successful broker, Meredith stayed home and dabbled in herbalism and other country pursuits.  It is some coniine from his laboratory that killed Amyas.  Unlike his brother, Meredith admits a fondness for and a loyalty to Caroline.  He argues with Amyas saying that the situation with Elsa was an “”unendurable insult” and not fair to either woman.  Might seeing the woman he cares for being mistreated have given him a motive for murder?
Elsa Greer (now Lady Dittisham)
  • The little piggy who had roast beef. She was a rich, spoiled beautiful, young woman in love with Amyas.  It is her deliberate provocation of Caroline on the day of the murder that many people see as being the catalyst for later, lethal events.  Poirot…”saw her beautiful and rich, seductive to men, seeking with greedy predatory hands to fill up a life that was empty”.  She is still vitriolic about Caroline and says she would have preferred to see her hanged.
Cecilia Williams
  • Angela Warren’s former governess.  She is a shrewd, fiercely loyal woman, living “close to the bone”.  She epitomises the one who has none.  She believes that Amyas got what was coming to him, her sympathies are entirely with Caroline.  But she also has proof, never previously disclosed that Caroline murdered Amyas
Angela Warren
  • Caroline’s half-sister.  Caroline is overly protective of Angela after disfiguring her face in a fit of pique as a much younger woman.  Angela is spoiled and enjoys playing tricks on Amyas.  He wants to send her away to school.  She doesn’t want to go and this is causing some additional friction between Amyas and Caroline (as if there wasn’t enough already -the two are already, to quote Bonnie Tyler, “Living in a powderkeg and giving off sparks!).  

Oeufs Caroline3

Amyas Crale

And finally, let’s talk about Amyas.  In my first few drafts of this, I didn’t include a description of him because I felt we all know this character.  That is not to say that he is badly drawn but because many of us have met this person in real life.  He is an Artist and everything and everyone around him comes second to his art…back in my uni days, I would have found him irresistible.  Now, the sheer arrogance and gall of this man would make me want to stab him in the neck. 

Amyas was…a ruthless egoist.  He loved Caroline but he never once considered her in any way.  He did as he pleased…he was as fond of her as he could be of anybody – but she came a long way behind his art

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

🤮

Well, just like Shaggy, it wasn’t me but it was someone.  And it will take all of Poirot’s little grey cells to figure this one out!

Five Little Pigs – The Covers

5lp collage (1) There’s nothing too crazy in the covers, lots of references to Amyas being an artist, and a few to the poisoned beer.  My favourites are the second row, second left for its pulp fiction feel and amazing font.  And I also really like third row first on the left with the artist and his brushes.

The Recipe – Ouefs Caroline

I have included here both the OG recipe from  Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants and my updated version. Oeufs Caroline recipe 1   Oeufs Caroline recipe 2  

Print

Oeufs Caroline

rp_Oeufs-Caroline1-768x
Print Recipe

A lovely breakfast or lunch dish, inspired by Agatha Christie’s Three Little Pigs

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 egg
  • 1 slice of bread (I used a potato and rosemary bread)
  • 1 tbsp Creme Fraiche
  • Chives or other herbs to garnish
  • Butter, Salt Pepper

Instructions

  • Cut the top off the tomato and scoop out the insides with a spoon.
  • Sprinkle the inside of the tomato with salt and turn upside down.  This will help to drain a lot of the tomato juice.  Otherwise, your eggs will be very watery.  Leave for 1/2 -1 hour.
  • Heat your oven to 180C.
  • Crack the egg and separate.  I found it easier to put the yolk into the tomato first and then top up with the white.  Don’t overfill.  You need some room to add the creme fraiche.
  • Butter your bread and place the tomato on top of it.
  • Place your egg-filled tomato and bread into the oven and cook for approximately 15 minutes for a soft egg and 25 minutes for a harder egg.  Check this as cooking time will depend on the size of your tomato.
  • After 15-25 minutes add the creme fraiche to the egg, turn off the oven and turn on the grill.  Grill for an additional 5 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and garnish with herbs, salt and pepper.

Notes

I wanted to keep mine vegetarian but you could add a rasher or two of bacon when you place the tomatoes under the grill.

And Caroline Crale? Each person had seen her differently. Montague Depleach had despised her as a defeatist-a quitter. To young Fogg she had represented Romance. Edmunds saw her simply as a ‘lady’. Mr Jonathan had called her a stormy, turbulent creature. How would he, Hercule Poirot, have seen her? On the answer to that question depended, he felt, the success of his quest. So far, not one of the people he had seen had doubted that whatever else she was, Caroline Crale was also a murderess.”

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

Links To The Christieverse

  • Poirot brings a letter of introduction from Lady Mary Lytton-Gore with him when he meets Meredith Blake.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Five Little Pigs

November’s read is The Moving Finger