Drinks Archives - Page 5 of 22 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Drinks

06
Jan
2023

Champagne Cocktail – Dead Man’s Mirror

categories: Champagne, Cocktail, Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello food lovers and crime readers! Welcome to the first Dining with the Dame of 2023! We are celebrating the new year with a classic Champagne Cocktail and the final story from the Murder in the Mews Collection. I improvised here as there is no food mentioned in Dead Man’s Mirror. However, the sound of a cork popping features in the story so a Champagne cocktail feels fitting. Besides, who doesn’t love a Champagne cocktail?

Dead Man’s Mirror- The Plot

Hmm…we have a dead man in a locked room. If it sounds familiar is because it is also kinda, sorta what happened in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas which was last month’s read. This time the patriarch who meets an untimely end is Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore. Sir G as we will call him because if I have to type Sir Gervase Chevenix -Gore every time I name him, I’ll be writing this into next year summons Poirot to his home at Hamborough Close. Much like Simeon Lee from last month, Sir G is obsessed with not having an heir to carry on the family name. He is also a bit of a martinet when it comes to timeliness. For instance, dinner is announced by a gong which is sounded twice – the bangs being seven minutes apart. Guests who are late for dinner are not invited back! On this night Sir G himself does not appear by the second gong. He is found, shortly thereafter, in his locked study, with a bullet in his brain and a pistol lying on the carpet by his body. A piece of paper with the word “Sorry” written on it lies on the desk in front of him. A clear-cut case of suicide.

Or is it?

We have

For the bullet to have smashed the mirror, Sir G must have shot himself at a very odd angle
As in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, we have a woman picking up something from the floor of the crime scene
Ruth, Sir G’s adopted daughter. Sir G was keen for her to marry her cousin Hugo Trent which would keep the family line going. Only Ruth has some secrets.
A lack of footprints in the flower bed

Luckily we have Poirot around to solve the mystery of the Dead Man’s Mirror!

Dead Man’s Mirror – The Covers

As expected, many of the covers feature a broken mirror. I particularly like the one in the top which shows the dead man in the mirror, holding the note in his skeleton hand. However, my absolute favourite is the one on the far right which shows the Egyptian head and scarab beetle, in reference to Vanda, Sir G’s wife who believes she is the reincarnation of the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut and a priestess from Atlantis. It’s such a minor plot detail but makes an amazing cover! The broken mirror around her eye also gives it a bit of a steampunk look, decades before there was such a thing!

The Recipe – Champagne Cocktail

I am using the from a book called Fantastic Cocktails and Mixed Drinks. I have added a garnish of an orange wedge and a maraschino cherry to make it look prettier!

“You see, I thought the first gong had gone, so I hurried up with my dressing, came dashing out of my room, heard, as I thought, the second gong and fairly raced down the stairs. I’d been one minute late for dinner the first night I was here and Hugo told me it had about wrecked our chances with the Old Man, so K fairly hared down. Hugo was just ahead of me and then there was a queer kind of pop-bang and Hugo said it was a champagne cork but Snell said “No”to that.

Dead Man’s Mirror – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

Mr Satterthwaite, who we last met in Three Act Tragedy makes an appearance in this story. He not only mentions that case but also that he has seen Mary Lytton Gore recently.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Dead Man’s Mirror

None

If you are wondering why this post is unusually early, it is because later today we are going to see The Arctic Monkeys, then tomorrow we are flying to Darwin for a week to celebrate the Fussiest Eater in The World’s birthday. Neither of us has been there before so it will be an exciting trip for us. It is by far the farthest north in Australia we have ever been! Also, just to put the distance in perspective, Darwin is about 400km closer to Singapore than it is to Melbourne! I am expecting some delicious seafood, tropical fruit, and some spectacular scenery

I may have to delay next week’s post due to the holiday. However, we have all the more time now to get stuck into February’s read – Appointment with Death.

23
Dec
2022

Christmas Cocktail Party – 2002

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Canapes, Christmas, Cocktail, Drinks, Events, Holidays, Martini

.Hello Friends and welcome to Twenty Years Ago Today! Today I am planning a Christmas Cocktail Party based on recipes from the December 2002 Edition of Australian Table. The Christmas Martini featured in the magazine felt like a perfect way to kick off the festivities!

The Christmas Martini

I had to check my dates to see if the Christmas Martini was created at the height of Sex And The City and thus was leaning into the Cosmo craze that show generated. It was a little late for that so now think that the use of cranberry juice in a martini was more due to its festive colour than a call back to the show.

I admit to being a bit worried about this – I thought it might be too sweet. I used a no-added-sugar cranberry juice to try to counter this and to my mind, this recipe really worked. The Christmas Martini is definitely sweeter than a regular martini but the tannins in the cranberry helped to keep it from being sickly. I also liked the combination of the slightly sweet drink and the salty olives. So this was a winner for me!

Christmas Martini Recipe

The Other Recipes (and My Variations)

Parmesan Chilli Biscuits with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

If I were making these, I might be tempted to swap out the baby spinach leaves for basil leaves and pipe a little splodge of goat’s cheese onto each biscuit not only to add some more flavour but also to anchor the tomato to the biscuit a bit better! No one wants a stray balsamic-covered cherry tomato rolling off their biscuit and staining their cocktail dress!

Here’s The Recipe:

Cured Salmon with Fresh Herbs

I made this and the salmon was amazing! So good and so easy! To fit in with my cocktail party theme, instead of serving it in long strips with potato salad, per the recipe, I cut the salmon into chunks and served it on crackers with some cream cheese, thinly sliced shallots and the capers and herbs suggested by the recipe. These would work perfectly with the Chrirtmas Martini too!

Here’s The Recipe:

Fillet of Beef with Salsa Verde

For cocktail party serving, I would make cut the beef into nice bite-size chunks, place it on a grilled bit of crusty bread and drizzle with the salsa verde.

Mixed Berry Tarts

A great alternative, if, like me, you are not a fan of the traditional mince pie! These would be a lovely ending to your Christmas cocktail party!

My Nigella Moment

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking in because it was really good! This month’s item of irresistibility was a Peach, Watercress and Blue Cheese Salad. This was sensational! (If it looks a little bit familiar, we ate this as a side dish to last week’s Stilton and Leek Souffle.

Here’s the recipe:

I hope this has given you some inspo for your own Christmas Cocktail Party. Have a wonderful, safe and festive holiday period!

16
Oct
2022

Gin And Ginger Beer – Triangle at Rhodes

categories: Cocktail, Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Gin

Hello crime readers and cocktail lovers! Today we are reading (and drinking ) our way through a short story from the Murder in The Mews collection, Triangle at Rhodes. And what better way to sit back and watch the shenanigans taking place on this gorgeous Greek island than with a cocktail in hand? A gin and ginger beer happens to be one of my favourite cocktails so I was delighted to find it mentioned in my favourite story in this collection! I will also point out that the gin and ginger beer is not the most commonly named cocktail in Triangle at Rhodes, pink gin is mentioned multiple times and may have been a better choice. However, as I am largely reading / rereading the Christie books as I blog about them, I have already used Pink Gin as the recipe for Three Act Tragedy! If you are reading along and would prefer to have that as your tipple, click the link above!

Triangle at Rhodes- The Plot

.Poirot is on holiday at the Greek Island of Rhodes. The story opens as follows

“Hercule Poirot sat on the white sand and looked out across the sparkling blue water. He was carefully dressed in a dandified fashion in white flannels, and a large panama hat protected his head.”

It makes me laugh a little bit to imagine the fastidious Poirot sitting on sand. I feel that he would absolutely loathe it. Almost as much as we can tell he hates rubbing sun tan oil on someone, which happens in the very next paragraph! So much for enjoying his break!

The Poirot episode of Triangle at Rhodes, has him seated on a chair which seems far more his style!

Staying at the same hotel ias Poirot s the very glamourous Valentine Chantry and her fifth husband, a naval Commander who is described as a brute and somewhat apelike.

Newly arrived at the hotel are the very handsome but not too bright Douglas Gold and his frumpy wife Marjorie. And with that, all aspects of the triangle are in place!

We have

An illicit affair
A marriage on the rocks
Poirot warning Marjorie Gold to leave the island. Do not pass go, do not collect £200. Just go. Now!
Valentine Chantry killed by poison in her pink gin
A packet of poison found in a husband’s pocket

The case seems pretty clear cut. But of course it isn’t because this is an Agatha Christie story so, things of course are not entirely as they seem! It’s up to Poirot to see the innocent spared and the guilty punished.

Triangle at Rhodes- The Covers

I could only find one cover for Triangle At Rhodes.

Very beautiful – it makes me want to go to Rhodes!

But while digging about the internet, I was also able to find this from the Strand Magazine version of the story! Isn’t it glorious?

As we are not spending too much time on the covers, I thought we might look at some of the fashion. The women are beautifully dressed.

And whoever thought we would see Poirot in shades!

The Recipe

Gin And Ginger Beer – Triangle at Rhodes

Print Recipe

Spice up your life with this mix of gin, ginger beer and lime. A lovely refreshing cocktail.

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

30ml London Dry Gin
10ml lime juice
Ginger beer
Ice cubes
Mint leaves, lime slices and crystallised ginger to serve

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Mix the gin and lime juice together and pour into your glass.
Add the ice cubes and top with the ginger beer. Stir.
Garish with lime slices, mint leaves and a piece of crystallised ginger.

“Tony, darling it was too divine, ” cried Valentine as she dropped into a chair by his side. “The most marvellous idea of Mrs Gold’s. You all ought to have come!”

Her husband said: “What about a drink?”

He looked inquiringly at the others.

“Pink gin for me darling,” said Valentine

“Gin and ginger beer, ” said Pamela

– Agatha Christie, Triangle at Rhodes

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Triangle at Rhodes

November’s read will be the titular story from the Murder in The Mews collection. The setting is Guy Fawkes niight so get ready for fireworks and murder!

Happy reading!

28
Aug
2022

Twenty Years Ago Today – September 2002

categories: Cocktail, Drinks, Fish, Good Taste, Magazines, Vodka

Hello Friends!!! I’m going to be very honest here. I have a problem. I love a food magazine as much as I love a cookbook and have been collecting them for many years. Too many years it turns out as I am running out of space to keep them. They are here:

And here

And are now piling up on the floor here:

So, something needed to be done before the fussiest eater in the world calls the Hoarders team on me. And as with many problems, the solution came to me while I was on holiday and not really thinking about them. In order to help me decide which mags to keep and which to cull, I will cook out of them! And blog about it. One month at a time. In order to assess them, I am going to apply a straightforward formula – if I can build a decent three-ish course meal from any magazine, it will stay in my collection. If that is impossible, it will go into the donation box.

So shall we see what September 2002 via Good Taste Magazine had in store for me?

The Menu

It looks like this one might be a keeper! Even the selection on the menu above is only some of the recipes I would cook from this mag. But the proof of the magazine recipe is in the eating so let’s see how I went with cooking some of the items off said menu.

Pink Grapefruit & Mint Caipiroska

As much as I love a margarita, I am choosing the Caipiroska. I love pink grapefruit, I love mint and I also love the etymology of the work Caipiroska – it is basically a Brazilian Portuguese ellison between caipi- (shortened from caipirinha) and -roska meaning Russian as the spirit in a caipiroska is vodka.

These were delicious!!! Just the right amount of sugar syrup to balance out the grapefruit. And the mint made it all very fresh. If you cannot find palm sugar for the sugar syrup you could use brown sugar instead

Pink Grapefruit & Mint Caipiroska Recipe

Tandoori Fish Skewers

These were so tasty!

Now, you may be wondering where is the pea rice in the recipe? Well, I’m not that fond of a pea so I swapped that out for roti and a tomato, red onion and coriander salad. I also dropped in a little raita.

Tandoori Fish SkewersRecipe

The recipes for the other items on my menu can be found here and here

My Nigella Moment

What is a Nigella moment? You know how at the end of each episode of a Nigella tv show, you see her popping back to the fridge for just one more bite of something? Well, my Nigella moment will be one thing that didn’t make the menu but something I look forward to cooking (and eating) in the near future.

There were a few contenders in the mag:

However, the winner in this category is this corn and chive pancake with smoked salmon!

Random fun fact from September 2002

There was a little article on broad beans which contained the following bits of trivia:

Favism is severe condition brought on by eating broad beans in people who have a particular genetic enzyme deficiency. It can bring on fever, fatigue, jaundice, anaemia and abdominal and back pain!

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras banned his followers from eating broad beans. No one actually know why but theories include their flatulence inducing properties to the belief that they contained the souls of the dead. (Or maybe Pythagoras was someone with favism?)

Broad beans aka fava beans gained some pop culture cred with this statement by Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip back in time to September 2002.

Have a great week!

06
Mar
2022

The Bee Sting

categories: Dining With The Dame, Drinks, Poirot, Tequila

Hello friends, welcome to a special edition of Dining With The Dame. In this, which is a companion piece to last week’s post I will be doing a selective deep-dive into the good, the bad and the ugly of Death in The Clouds. And, to fortify ourselves on this journey, I am sharing a DITC inspired cocktail – The Bee Sting. Why not make yourself one and settle in for the ride. Fasten your seatbelts, this plane will hit some turbulence! BTW, this post does contain spoilers so if you have are planning on reading DITC, you may want to save this one for later!

The Boomslang

At the inquest of Madame Giselle, we find out that the poison on the tip of the blowpipe is from an African snake called a Boomslang. Whilst the word boomslang sounds like something unsavoury that I would need urban dictionary to define for me, it is actually the name of a highly venomous African Snake. I could find no verification to Christie’s assertion that if you inject the venom into a hyena, the hyena would die before the needle was withdrawn. However, according to McGill University

Because boomslang venom is a hemotoxin it’s not surprising that it can lead to major brain and muscle hemorrhage. But the venom also causes other symptoms like nausea, headaches and sleepiness. Perhaps what is most surprising is that this venom has the ability to make the victim bleed from every possible orifice

Good lord!!! Poor Madame Giselle!

DITC and Pop Culture

Boomslangs on a Plane?

I’m sure I’m not the only modern reader who on hearing about the boomslang wondered if just maybe DITC was, in part, an inspiration for this cinematic masterpiece!

Norman Gale

And whilst taking of pop culture references could Norman Gale be an inspiration for Norman Bates? I can find no verification of this however, it is entirely possible that Robert Bloch read DITC prior to writing Psycho in 1959. The similarity of the names made me suspicious of Norman Gale long before he was revealed as the murderer!

That he is a dentist also reminded me of Little Shop of Horrors:

Doctor Who

In the utterly amazing Doctor Who episode The Unicorn and The Wasp, The Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie. They investigate murders in a country house, they make references to Murder on The Orient Express, Crooked House, Sparkling Cyanide and Cards on The Table, Agatha Christie suggests that they use “ze little grey cells” to solve the murder, and the villain turns out to be a giant alien wasp!

DITC And The Poirotverse

More than any of the other books I have read so far, DITC refers to some of Poirot’s previous cases:

On page 149 of my edition, the following exchange between Poirot and Japp occurs.

“I’ve questioned the passengers, too. Everyone can’t be lying.”

“In one case I investigated everyone was”

Which is a delightful callback to Murder on The Orient Express.

Earlier in the book, Inspector Fournier mentions that the murder of Madame Giselle likely occurred during a psychological moment.

“That is true,” said Poirot. “I remember a case in which I was concerned – a case of poison where that very point arose”

This is a reference to Three Act Tragedy

The Ugly Side of DITC

Ok, this is where things take a turn. Take a big gulp of your Bee Sting to fortify yourself and let’s get into it.

There is a lot to like in DITC but there is also much that is repugnant. Take, for instance, this passage regarding the budding romance between Jane Grey and Norman Gale.

The promised dinner and theatre with Norman Gale had duly come off. It was one of those enchanting evenings when every word and confidence exchanged seemed to reveal a bond of sympathy and shared tastes.

They liked dogs and disliked cats. They both hated oysters and loved smoked salmon. They liked Greta Garbo and disliked Katherine Hepburn. They didn’t like fat women and admired really jet black hair. They disliked very red nails. They disliked loud voices, noisy restaurants and Negroes. They preferred buses to tubes”

Yes, you read that correctly!

I was like “loud voices, noisy restaurants and WTAF??????”

The fact that it is also mentioned in the same breath as an “enchanting evening” only makes it more revolting.

And BTW, this is why I really wanted Norman to be the murderer. I was only disappointed that he didn’t bump off the equally awful Jane Grey along the way!

This is not the only racist slur that occurs in DITC:

The jury finds Poirot guilty possibly because he is “a little foreigner”
Mrs Mitchell, the wife of one of the stewards is utterly indignant about the murder. “Who’s to know what reason foreigners have for murdering each other; and if you ask me, I think it’s a dirty trick to have done it on a British aeroplane”
There is also an anti-Semitic slur made by one of Jane Grey’s colleagues at the hair salon

Urrgghhh…I did warn you this was going to get rocky.

Should I stay or should I go?

Reading DITC posed a real dilemma for me. It was like finding a big old turd in what had been a formerly enjoyable soup. Not only does it put you off that particular bowl of soup, but it also puts you off soup altogether. I did wonder if I should continue with this project at all after reading it. In the end, I decided I would complete my Dining with The Dame project but, like here, I would call out the bad and the ugly side of Christie along with the good.

Let’s wash the nasty taste out of our mouths with our lovely sweet / sour spicy cocktail – The Bee Sting!

The Bee Sting

Print Recipe

A citrussy cocktail with a chilli kick!

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

For the jalapeno honey syrup:

2 tbsp pickled jalapeno chilies, drained of brine
1 cup honey
30ml hot water

For the Cocktail

45ml reposado tequila
30 ml jalapeno honey syrup, cooled
30ml freshly squeezed lemon juice or a combination of lemon and lime juice
2 slices of jalapeno chilli

To Garnish

A slice of Jalapeno
A lemon twist

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

To Make The Jalapeno Honey Syrup:

Place the honey and the chillies in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Allow to cool, then strain.
Mix 1 tbsp of the jalapeno honey with 30ml warm water and allow to cool to make the syrup.

To Make the Cocktail:

Muddle the jalapeno slices in your cocktail shaker.
Add the tequila, lemon juice and jalapeno honey syrup.
Fill with ice and shake for 15 seconds.
Strain and garnish with a slice of jalapeno and a twist of lemon

Enjoy!

Notes

This recipe was inspired by the recipe for the Bee Sting cocktail on Serious Eats and Action Bronson’s recipe for pickled jalapeno honey.

There will be a lot of the honey left over – use this to make more Bee Stings, as a drizzle over fish or chicken, in salad dressings or as per Action Bronson, serve it over flatbreads spread with ricotta and hazelnuts.

Have you read Death in The Clouds? What did you think of it?