.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!
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.
Valentine Chantry
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!
Mint leaves, lime slices and crystallised ginger to serve
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!
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
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.
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 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.
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.”
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!
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
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?
Hello friends! This weekend people all over the world are celebrating Lunar New Year and the start of the year of the Tiger. Traditional foods for Lunar New Year include long noodles (symbolising long life and happiness) dumplings and spring rolls to bring wealth and fish to increase prosperity. Well, here at Chez Retro Food, we’re also celebrating the Year of the Tiger, but in our own special way!
Let’s get to it!
I always think that any occasion should be celebrated with a cocktail. And Lunar New Year is no exception. The Norwegian Tiger’s Milk Cocktail comes from a book called The Australian Hostess Cookbook (1969) and a chapter called “A Party on the Nullabor Plain”. Now for those of you unfamiliar with the Nullabor Plain, it is an area of some 200,000km (that would be 76, 000 sq miles for those of you who are not used to the metric system) that is both flat and largely treeless. Plain is putting it mildly.
I mean, does it not just scream party central? But I digress. If the location seems bonkers let’s further examine the cocktail.
Norwegian. Tiger’s Milk.
Nope.
The World wildlife fund reliably informs me that tigers are very versatile creatures and can live in a variety of habitats – rainforests, savannahs, grasslands and mangrove swamps. Tigers.org.za further specifies that they are most commonly found in China, Korea, Russia and Southeast Asia with Sumatra being the only island inhabited by tigers today. Not even a whisper of Norway. And, I’m no geography expert but I’m pretty sure the landscape of Norway is not rampant with savannahs. Fjords yes. Mangrove swamps? No.
(Also note the natural habitat of the tiger is not an “exotic” animal part in Oklahoma. But don’t even get me started on that one!)
Maybe if you are partying on the Nullabor Plain in 1969 a Norwegian Tiger makes sense. They took a lot of drugs back then.
Norwegian Tiger’s Milk Cocktail
Copious amounts of drugs may also explain the ingredients. Equal parts gin, vanilla ice cream and creme de cacao. It really sounds like something someone with the munchies would pull together.
It also means that whatever measurement you use, (I used 30ml of each) you get a lot of booze and not much ice cream.
I used a cherry-infused gin which came in a Gin Advent Calendar I bought at Christmas.
The Norwegian Tiger’s Milk was a LOT nicer than I thought it would be! It tasted like a slightly weird in a good way Bailey’s Irish Cream. Mine had that hint of cherry but I think without that the similarity to Baileys would be even more marked. It was also much more of an after-dinner drink than an aperitif but I’ll forgive myself that. And maybe have another after dinner! I’m not driving and there is a little bit of gin left in that tiny Advent bottle!
We are continuing the theme of Tiger’s Milk with our starter.
Tiger’s Milk Ceviche
We are heading to Mexico for our starter. Also not a natural habitat of the tiger. However, Tiger’s Milk is the name of the liquid used to “cook” the seafood in a ceviche.
This was soooo good! I love raw fish and this was zingy with citrus and fiery with chilli and crunchy with tortilla chips and loaded with fresh veg and herbs! This is the kind of dish I could eat every day.
And it’s so pretty too! Look at all those colours!
I used salmon for my fish because I could not get the kingfish specified in the recipe. I also threw in some tiny tom berry tomatoes for extra colour and as mentioned subbed in some crunchy tortilla chips for the tortillas.
The recipe for the Tiger’s Milk Ceviche comes from the Matt Preston Cookbook – Yummy Easy Quick Around The World.
Tiger’s Milk – Hangover Cure?
Tiger’s milk is supposedly a hangover cure par excellence. Maybe for the morning after a few too many Norwegian Tiger’s Milks? However, I’ve been hungover once (maybe twice) in my life 😂 and I’m going, to be honest with you. When I am in that very precarious and fragile state, given the choice of Uber Eatsing a Big Mac and a very large coke and downing some salmon soaking citrus liquid? I’ll take those two all-beef patties etc any day of the week!
Would you drink the tiger’s milk?
Later this week I’ll share the rest of our tiger-themed celebrations!
