Category: Cocktail


Jul
2021

Damn The Weather – The Sittaford Mystery

categories: Cocktail, Dining With The Dame, Gin

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  Today we are drinking with the Dame because the Sittaford Mystery, as wonderful a story as it is, (and it is an absolute cracker) did not have the most inspiring food within its pages.  So, I am playing with the atmospherics of the book and sharing a cocktail called Damn The Weather with Dame Agatha.

Damn The Weather1

 

The Sit-tea -ford Mystery?

Despite having hardly any food and passing references to generic cocktails, what the Sittaford Mystery has in abundance is tea:

  • p73 – A good cry and good cup of tea – there’s nothing to beat them, and a nice cup of tea you shall have at once, my dear
  • p74 – I’ll send the tea up to you
  • p75 cup of tea
  • p 76 Strong tea, bread and butter. Devonshire cream and hard-boiled eggs
  • p 86  I ought to be able to produce  a quiet cup of tea,
  • p178 Tea was laid ready.  Mrs Willett poured out
  • p179 She must be sipping tea with that determined ladykiller Captain Wyatt
  • p186 A cup of tea

Despite its prevalence, there was no way I was going to do a post on the perfect cup of tea.  Least of all because I don’t like it.

And bread and butter and hard-boiled eggs also seem a little….well…basic.

Next to tea, this is quite a boozy book with more than one reference being made to generic “cocktails” and also to brandy. I found a recipe on Difford’s for a cocktail called Damn The Weather which seemed very fitting to the setting of the book. Let’s see why.

The Sittaford Mystery – The Setting

The scene that met his eyes was typical of the English countryside as depicted on Christmas cards and in old fashioned melodramas.  Everywhere was snow, deep drifts of it….up here on the fringe of Dartmoor it had attained a depth of several feet”

– The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie

Sittaford is a tiny village, pretty much cut off from the rest of the world due to the terrible weather.  Which makes it the perfect setting for one of Christie’s closed circle mysteries.

Damn The Weather 2

The Sittaford Mystery – The Plot

Mrs. Willett, the winter tenant of Captain Trevelyan, and her daughter Violet have invited guests for afternoon tea.  After eating, the group decide to do a bit of table-turning (ie summoning the dead).  A message comes from beyond telling them that Captain Trevelyan is dead.

A Short Aside on Table Turning

To my mind table-turning has to be the most inefficient way of contacting the spirits ever.  From what I can gather the table rocks back and forth for each letter…so even to spell out the first part of the message TREV DEAD  that is 20 + 18 +5 +22 rocks of a table.  65 rocks of a table to spell a four-letter word? No thank you.  How long did that take?  How bored do you have to be for that to become viable entertainment?  I mean even trapped in a snow storm  Dartmoor in the 1920’s I would be spelling out H-E-L-L -N -O on the table turning.

 

Anyway, after they have spent HOURS ( my words, not Christie’s) getting that 8 letter message, Major Burnaby, the Captain’s best friend decides to trek the 6 miles on foot to the Captain’s house to make sure he is all right.

He is not.

Trev is indeed dead, having been hit over the head with a sandbag.  Estimated time of death?  Five twenty-five.  The exact same time as the ghostly message from beyond.

(Cue spooky X-files type music).

As if that is not enough, we also have:

  • An errant nephew being arrested for the murder
  • An escaped criminal
  • A reporter keen to get a good story
  • The mystery of just why the Willetts wanted to rent Sittaford House in the first instance
  • Retired police inspectors
  • Newspaper prizes
  • Boots hidden in the chimney
  • Aunts in the know and,
  • Maybe my favourite Christie heroine yet, the adorably plucky Emily Trefusis.  (I am going to forgive her madly standing by her man, even though he is an idiot) because I love everything else about her.

The Sittaford Mystery has an average rating of 3.76 on Good Reads and comes in at # 26 at the time of writing on the All About Agatha podcast rankings.  I feel Iike it a bit better than that but, I have not read all the books yet!.

The Covers

The covers for The Sittaford Mystery (called The `Murder at Hazelmoor in the United States) are amazing!

Sittaford covers collage

I love the nods to the table-turning at the weather and also the dead body on the carpet.  I also like that the French version is called 5:25.  You might also be wondering why some of the titles are called Murder At Hazelmoor and not the Sittaford Mystery.  This was because the American publishers of the book thought their audience would prefer murder to mystery. Tell me, which title do you prefer?

The Recipe – Damn The Weather

You can find the Difford’s guide recipe here.

Damn the Weather 3

 

Other Food Mentioned in The Sittaford Mystery

Oh, so maybe there was more food than I remembered!  Still the Damn the Weather was a fabulous cocktail.

Just a quick note on the adaptation of The Sittaford Mystery. It’s kind of terrible.  For some reason, they made it a Miss Marple instead of a stand-alone mystery as written.  And to be honest Miss Marple does not do a lot.  It’s worth a watch but it is not the best Christie adaptation out there.

Next up in the Christie list is Peril at End House for anyone who wants to read along.

Have a great week!

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Apr
2021

The Red Signal Cocktail

categories: Cocktail, Dining With The Dame, Vodka

The Red Signal Cocktail came about by a bit of an accident.   I recently tried to make a cocktail called the Seamist.  Except, I could not get some of the ingredients so I had to improvise.  The finished version looked beautiful and tasted lovely.  It is the exact sweet/sour fruity taste that I love in a cocktail plus a tinge of dryness from the cranberry and a touch of bitterness from the grapefruit.

But there was something about it that was not right.  And it bugged me for days on end.  It tasted great, it looked beautiful.  So what was wrong with it?

Seamist 1

She Comes in Colours Everywhere

Let’s digress for a moment.  As a child, I was OBSESSED with paint charts.  I have already mentioned that I was a weird only child.  But I don’t think I have mentioned that my parents would quite often spend their weekends going to display homes and DIY stores and inevitably during these excursions, I would pick up a paint chart (or two).  I would then try to memorise all the names and the matching colours. And then get them to test me on the way home.  Or during the week.  Yes.  School wasn’t enough.  I wanted to be tested on random things outside of school as well.

For a while there I wanted to be the person who named those colours.  Actually, you know what?  I still do want that job!  So, believe me when I say that I know my Paris Creek (pale slate green grey) from my Camisole Quarter (pale pink) to my Shampoo (mid Blue).

I. Know. My. Colours.

And the colour of this cocktail is not a Seamist.  No wonder I felt in my deepest soul that there was something wrong with it!

Seamist is a pale grey green with a tiny touch of blue.

And I think we can all agree that this cocktail is possibly the very opposite colour of a greeny-grey.

Seamist 2

So, the name of Seamist had to go.  Life is hard enough at the moment without having additional cognitive dissonance caused by the colour of a cocktail!  And because I had played around with the ingredients, it wasn’t a true Seamist anyway.

So, then the dilemma became what to call it.

The Red Signal

Luckily, for all of us, I happen to be reading The Hounds of Death.  This is a book of short stories by Agatha Christie where each story has a spooky or supernatural twist.  I am still undecided on what to do with the volumes of Agatha Christie’s short stories.  When I started the Dining With The Dame series, I only ever considered her novels.  And believe me, it’s hard enough to find food references to blog in some of the novels, let alone something a tenth of the size!

But,  lo and behold, in that collection,  there is a story called The Red Signal.

Is a tale of

  • Premonitions and intuitions
  • Seances
  • Falling  in love with the wrong person
  • Madness and murder
  • And a weird sixth sense called The Red Signal!

Now…you tell me Isn’t The Red Signal a much better name for this cocktail?

Seamist 3

Seamist 4

The Recipe

Print

The Red Signal Cocktail

Seamist 2
Print Recipe

A sweet sour cocktail inspired by the Agatha Christie short story – The Red Signal.

  • Author: Taryn Nicole
  • Prep Time: 3 minutes
  • Total Time: 3 minutes
  • Yield: 1 1x
  • Category: Cocktails
  • Method: Shake

Ingredients

Scale

3 parts cranberry juice

3 parts pink grapefruit juice

2 parts vodka

Lemon and lime quarters

Ice cubes

Mixed berries for garnish

Instructions

Shake the juices and vodka in a cocktail shaker over ice.

Gently muddle the lemon and lime quarters in a highball glass to release some of their citrus oils and some juice.  Add ice cubes to the glass.

Strain the cocktail into the glass and give a light stir.

Garnish with mixed berries of your choice.

 

Other food mentioned in The Red Signal

Welsh Rarebit

Have a great week friends and remember if you feel “the red signal” pay it some heed!

Or make this cocktail!

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Mar
2021

Inflatable Flamingo

categories: Cocktail, Gin, Rosé

Summer is officially over here but hopefully even as the days grow shorter and colder we will still have time for a few more summery cocktails like the Inflatable Flamingo!  The name is so reminiscent of relaxing by, or in, a pool that you can almost feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.  And Inflatable Flamingo is also a very cool name for a very fun drink!

Inflatable Flamingo 12

Don’t let it’s pretty pink innocent nature fool you though, the Inflatable Flamingo packs quite a punch with a combination of gin and rose that could leave you…wait for it….legless if you have too many!  Ah flamingo jokes….most of them are outstanding but if you really feel you need to put your foot down, I’ll flaminstop.

 

Inflatable Flamingo 2

I used the Four Pillars Christmas Gin from 2019 as my gin base which added some spice into the summer berry flavours of rose and berries but your favourite gin will work well.  A Hendrick’s would also be quite fabulous in this!

The recipe makes around 9 serves so why not make up a pitcher of these, grab some friends and hit the pool?  Or maybe just float on down the street?

 

The recipe for the Inflatable Flamingo comes from Adriana Picker’s gorgeous book, The Cocktail Garden. Not only does this book have some great cocktail recipes (Peach and Pineapple Sage Old Fashioned anyone?) but the most beautiful illustrations as well!

The Inflatable Flamingo – The Recipe

Inflatable Flamingo 3

Inflatable Flamingo 4
Recipe via cooked.com.au

I quite often sing to myself when I cook and as I was making the Inflatable Flamingo the song running through my head was Float On by Modest Mouse, particularly the bit that goes:

Alright, already
And we’ll all float on, alright
Already, we’ll all float on, alright
Don’t worry, even if things end up a bit
Too heavy, we’ll all float on

They seemed like some wise words for modern times.

Take care my friends and float on!

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Feb
2021

The Late Blumer Cocktail

categories: Books, Cocktail, Gin

Happy birthday Judy Blume!  Let’s all celebrate the 83rd birthday of one of my favourite young adult authors by raising a toast with a cocktail known as the  Late Blumer!

The Late Blumer 1

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret was one of my FAVOURITE books growing up.  I must have read it a hundred times!   The issues of boys and bras and periods and feeling confused and anxious all the time spoke to me in a way that no other book at the time did.

I read and reread this edition of the book.  Funnily enough, I rarely reread books nowadays but as a  child? I could finish a book on a Monday and start it again the following day. Having said that, I am currently rereading Are You There God and it is totally transporting me to back then!

I also read all the other Judy Blume books that were available in the Glen Waverley Public Library.  But Are You There God was by far my favourite.

Late Blumer 4 (2)

The Late Blumer Cocktail

I found this cocktail on A Beautiful Mess years ago  The link to the cocktail recipe on the site no longer works.  So, I am very glad I printed it when I did.  Thank you so much for the recipe Elsie!.

The Late Blumer is a fruity gin cocktail with some spice from the ginger and some herbiness from basil.  In other words, my kind of cocktail!  I love the combination of gin and ginger so this one was always going to be right up my alley in terms of flavour and it did not disappoint!

Late Blumer 3

Here is my printed recipe:

Late Blumer 5

And here it is a version with the measurements I thought worked best.

The Late Blumer

1 serving

  • 30mls Gin
  • 1 ripe apricot
  • 4 raspberries plus 1 more for garnish
  • 2 basil leaves plus more to garnish
  • Gingerale to top up your glass – mine was around 150ml.
  • Ice cubes

Mudde the apricots, raspberries and basil leaves in the bottom of your cocktail shaker.

Add the gin and let sit for around 5-10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

Add some ice cubes to a glass and top with the gin mixture. You can strain this of you do not like bits of fruit in your cocktail.  Fill to the top of the glass with ginger ale.

Garnish with additional basil leaves and raspberries and enjoy!

Judy Blume NY Post (1)
via The New York Post

Here’s to you Judy Blume!  Happy birthday!!!  Your writing has helped shaped the lives of generations of girls.  Because we always knew that if we needed some understanding, some kind words or encouragement, we didn’t even need to ask “Are you there Judy?”  All we had to do was open a book.

“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”

 – Judy Blume

Tell me, where you a Judy Blume fan?  What was your favourite?

Have a great weekend!

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Jan
2021

REPOST – General Satisfaction

categories: Baking, Berries, Custard, Desserts, England, Lemon, Limoncello, Meringue, Pudding

Pop quiz hotshots…

General Satisfaction is:

a) A minor character in the Stanley Kubrik classic Doctor Strangelove,

b) A new character in the game Clue / Cluedo. ” It was General Satisfaction in the billiard room.  With the Candlestick” or,

c) A Victorian nursery pudding with the most awesome name ever?

General Satisfaction
General Satisfaction

I made this to take to my family on Christmas day and let me tell you…general satisfaction became major happiness as people tucked in.  And who would not be happy with this mix of lemony berries, topped with sponge finger biscuits liberally soaked in limoncello, topped with a lovely lemony custard and then baked with a meringue topping?

Yep.  It’s like you’ve died and gone to heaven….

One of the side effects of the Paleo diet is that I seem to have become hyper-sensitive to sugar.  The first version I made of this was so sweet I actually couldn’t eat it,  Someone else in the house had no such qualms.  He’s lying in a diabetic coma as we speak.

My first introduction to General Satisfaction came from recipe came from Tamasin Day-Lewis’ Supper for A Song .  There is also this version online:

General Satisfaction

I “unsweetened” this by swapping out the jam for a slightly more tart lemon curd and adding some fresh (frozen) berries into the base mix.  I also added some limoncello to the custard mix. Just because…name me one thing that isn’t made better by a liberal splash o’ booze.  And you know, it is the season….

General Satisfaction

It was still pretty sweet though.

This is at it’s best straight out of the oven with the custard runny and the meringue all crispy. However the last few pieces were also pretty good at room temperature a few days later as part  of an afternoon tea.

General Satisfaction
General Satisfaction

And if you make this, true to it’s name, I promise you will not be disappointed!!!

I am also interested to know what are most kookiest food names you have come across? General  Satisfaction must be right up there but I would love to know yours!!!

General Satisfaction 3Wishing you and yours not only general satisfaction but super happy fun times for 2015.  May it also be the year you learn to stop worrying…

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Print

General Satisfaction

Print Recipe

A lovely tangy take on a Victorian nursery pudding.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 level tbsp cornflour
  • 425g full cream milk
  • 1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped (or 1 tbsp vanilla essence)
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 5 tbsp caster sugar
  • 170g lemon curd
  • 1 cup mixed berries, thawed if using frozen
  • 1 tbsp warm water
  • 1/4 cup limoncello, maybe a bit more….
  • 10–12 savoiardi or sponge finger biscuits

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180c.

For The Custard

  1. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp milk.
  2. Pour the milk into a small, heavy saucepan. Add the vanilla seeds, empty pod and cornflour mix.
  3. Bring to the boil, stirring then drop the heat and simmer, still stirring for a coupe of minutes. Remove from the heat.
  4. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl then whisk in a tablespoonful of the milk mixture. Repeat three times then pout the combined egg and milk mixture into the warmed milk.
  5. Set the pan back over low heat, and whisk until the custard thickens and is perfectly smooth. Don’t let it boil. Remove from the heat, and whisk in 2 tablespoon of the sugar and half of the limoncello. Set aside to cool.

For The Lemon Berry Sauce

  1. Mix the lemon curd with 1 tbsp of just boiled water until runny and pour into the base of a medium baking dish.
  2. Scatter the berries over the curd then press them down with a potato masher to flatten them down a bit and get their juices running.
  3. Lay the savoiardi on top of the curd and berry mix and sprinkle with the remaining limoncello.
  4. Poor the cooled custard over the biscuits, straining if it is lumpy.

For The Meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then whisk in the remaining sugar, little by little until you have a firm shiny meringue.
  2. Spoon the meringue over the custard.
  3. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 20 minutes until the meringue is pale golden and crisp when you tap it.

Notes

  • Adding a little bit of the milk to the egg, prevents the egg from cooking.
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