Category: Berries


Jun
2023

Summer Berry One Two Buckle My Shoe

categories: Berries, Cake, Dining With The Dame, Poirot
Summer Berry Buckle2

Hello food lovers and crime readers! Today on Dining with The Dame, we are taking a look into the Hercule Poirot novel One Two Buckle My Shoe. And to snack on while we read, we have a lovely fruit filled cake called a Summer Berry Buckle. Yes, not much food in this one so again, I had to use some creative thinking for the food component. And the Summer Berry Buckle is a delight!  I loved that you got a different berry in each bite!

Summer Berry Buckle2

 

One Two Buckle My Shoe -The Plot

Leaving his dentist’s office, Hercule Poirot bumps into the delightfully named, Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, a former actress.  He picks up a buckle that has fallen off her shiny new shoe and gives it to her. 

Before you can even start to get any creepy dentist vibes aka Norman Gale in Death In The Clouds, we find out via Inspector Japp that sometime after Poirot’s visit, the dentist Hector Morley apparently killed himself.  Morley’s clients between Poirot and his death included Ms Sainsbury Seale, a banker called Alistair Blunt and a rather shady Greek gentleman called Mr Amberiotis.  Another man, an American activist called Raikes leaves the office without a visit to Morley’s Partner (who is a bit of a drunk).  

Summer Berry Buckle4

We have

  • Mr Amberiotis dying not too shortly after Dr Morley from an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine – both commonly used by dentists. Are the death’s connected?
  • A secretary called away from work on false pretenses.  Was it so she did not recognise the killer?
  • A fiance annoyed with Morley’s interference in his love life – did he kill Morley?
  • Mabelle going missing
  • A body in a trunk with her face bashed in.  
  • Two murder attempts on Alistair Blunt, one supposedly by the aggrieved fiancé.  Has he moved from killing dentists to bankers?
  • And what of the left-wing activist?  The one who left before seeing the drunk dentist?He has no love of bankers or members of the bourgeoisie.  Might he be the murderer?
  • And what of that drunk dentist?  Did he bear a grudge against his more successful partner?
  • We also have Poirot revealing himself to be a leg man!  How else would he know that a ten-inch stocking equates to a size six shoe?

Good thing we have Poirot around to sort out who did the deed!  We also have Inspector Japp in his last appearance in a novel.  😔

Summer Berry Buckle3

There is a lot going on in this book and the plot seems quite convoluted at times.  The nursery rhyme felt far more wedged in than in “And Then There Were None” too.  While this was not my favourite novel it did give an insightful look into power and privilege and the importance of one life versus another.  
 

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe – The Covers

I was able to find a lot of covers for this one, primarily I think because it has three names. It was originally called The Patriotic Murders in the US but they changed this to An Overdose of Death in 1953.

One Two Collage2

So many great covers here.  I think my favourite is the shoes second row second from the right which also is our very first Finnish cover!  

The Recipe – Summer Berry Buckle

I used the recipe from the New York Tmes as my recipe and I can highly recommend it. 

I served my Buckle with some labne that I had made for something else and wanted to use up and some fresh raspberries.   

Whipped cream or yoghurt could easily sub in for the labne. 

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.  He said:

I t would seem that death selected, most inartistically, the wrong man.  The Mysterious Greek, the Rich Banker, the Famous Detective – how natural that one of them should be shot!  For mysterious foreigners may be mixed up with espionage and rich bankers have connections who will benefit by their deaths and famous detectives may be dangerous to criminals”.

Whereas poor old Morley wasn’t dangerous to anybody, ” observed Japp gloomily.

“I wonder.” 

Agatha Christie – One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Summer Berry Buckle5

Links to The Christieverse

Poirot speaks of Countess Vera Rosakoff who we last saw in The Big Four and is the closest thing we come to Poirot having a love interest

The Case of The Augean Stables is mentioned.  We haven’t got there yet but it is one of the stories in The Labours of Hercules

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Summer Berry Buckle

Also, apologies for this post being nearly a week late!  I dropped my laptop, and thankfully whilst nothing major was damaged, the pin on the charger bent making it impossible to charge so I had to wait for the replacement charger to arrive.  I’m going to try really hard to get the post that is due tomorrow out on time or just a little late to get back on posting track!

July’s read is Evil Under The Sun which is a great read and I have something very special planned for it. 

Have a great week!

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Jan
2022

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

categories: Berries, Blue Cheese, Magazines, Salad, Seasonal Recipes

Today’s recipe for Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons is inspired by a recipe from the December 2001 / January 2002 edition of Super Food Ideas.   Which makes it twenty years old this month!

Berry And Blue Cheese SaladWe are currently sweltering in a hot summer so this salad hits the spot perfectly. And, without tooting my own trumpet too much, can we just stop and take a moment to reflect on how pretty this salad is?

It’s almost too pretty to eat.  But only almost.  Because it’s also delicious

Before we jump into the recipe, let’s take a look at what else was hot in Dec/Jan 2002 with the seasonal eating guide.

What’s Peaking in January – Fruit

Apricots

Why not make some apricot and rhubarb frangipane tarts?

Bananas

Banana Breakfast Cream is a great way to start your day!

Banana CreamBlueberries

Get your Scottish on with some Rhubarb and Blueberry Cranachan

Breakfast Cranachan2Grapefruit

And if you don’t like eating fruit, why not drink it.  This Navigator cocktail has gin, limoncello and pink grapefruit juice…yum!

What’s Peaking in January – Vegetables

Asparagus

Why eat normal sandwiches when you can have these cute as a button Easter Lily Sandwiches?

Easter Lily Sandwiches2

Mushrooms

The vol au vent is, for me, the archetypical retro food.  Why not check out my mushroom vol au vents from way back in 2012?

Retro Food For Modern Times – Holiday Wrap Up

Potato

Step back in time to Pieathalon3 when Ruth sent me a Lemon Potato Pie!

Sweetcorn

Another cookalong resulted in this Cowboy Caviar.  It was delicious.  Thanks Greg for organising our Cowboy Day Cookalong!

Ok, so now onto the main feature!

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons – The Recipe

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Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

Print Recipe

A delcious and gorgeous salad, perfect for summer days.

Ingredients

Scale

For The Croutons

  • 1 baguette sliced into 1cm slices
  • 50g creamy blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola dolce)

For The Salad

  • 100g rocket (arugula)
  • 1 cup berries (I used raspberries and strawberries)
  • 2 carrots, cut into thin ribbons
  • 1/8 red cabbage, finely sliced
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

For The Dressing

  • 1 tbsp raspberries
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

For The Croutons

  1. Spread each round of bread lightly with the cheese.
  2. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for 5-10 minutes until crisp.
  3. Allow to cool.

For The Dressing

  1. Puree the raspberries.
  2. Whisk in the oil, vinegar, sugar and seasonings.

For The Salad

  1. Place the rocket leaves in a bowl.
  2. Add the berries, carrots, red cabbage and walnuts.
  3. Toss to combine.
  4. Top with the blue cheese croutons.
  5. Drizzle with the dressing just before serving.

Notes

  • The original recipe contained spinach and asparagus. I didn’t have either when I made this so I subbed in the carrot and red cabbage. Go your own way on this!

I was back to work this week which was a shock to the system!

 

 

Berry And Blue Cheese Salad2

 

I’ll be back ,mid-week with another cheese heavy post.

In the meantime, have a great week!

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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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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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Aug
2016

REPOST – Future Classics – Australian Table – August 2001

categories: Australian Table, Berries, Cocktail, Desserts, Duck, Magazines, Rhubarb, Vodka

Remember how I said I had a fab idea for a whole new series of blog posts whilst on holiday?  Here’s the thing, along with hundreds of cookbooks, I also have a huge collection of food magazines, most of which sit on shelves in my back room doing nothing.  Once a year, I grab a handful of the oldest, take them on holiday and cut out the recipes I want, throw away the magazines, and cook the recipes over the next 12 months.

Vodka With Crushed Limes2

Crispy Duck with Green Pancakes2jpg

Currently I have a few mags from the late 1990’s but they are most from the early noughties onwards.  So they are not quite but well on their way to becoming formally vintage.  My thought on holiday was….”These are the things that will shortly become the vintage recipes of the future.  So, instead of ripping them up, I’m going to start cooking from them.  Once a month, I’ll revisit one of these magazines, cook a thing or two and decide if these are future vintage classics – or just junk taking up space in my backroom.  Here are the early years to 2013:

Magazines1And here are 2014 to the present day:

Magazines2so, to start, we are stepping back in time 15 years to the August 2001 edition of Australian Table:

Australian Table August 2001 I also thought it might be fun to revisit some of the content of these magazine as well as the recipes, so without further ado, here are the:

Flavours of The Month – August 2001

This section spoke about what was in season.  I thought I might give it a little Retro Food For Modern Times Twist!

Sweet Potatoes

Huh….my plan was to insert a recipe or two from the blog.  However, apparently I have made nothing with sweet potatoes. I’ll link to some recipes  below.

Baby Bok Choy

Or anything with Bok choky.  What have I been cooking in for the last four years?

Cumquats

Hooray – Finally!

Click here for my Four Kumquat Canapés For Four Food Heroes recipes

Pineapples

Melbourne Cup Crab and Pineapple Appetizer and MC Cocktail

Pineapple soufflé

Movies of The Month

Oh man.  August 2001 was a GOOD month for movies!  I would quite happily watch Bridget Jones’s Diary or Along Came a Spider today.  I don’t recall ever seeing Evolution but I am definitely putting that to rights, pronto.  I know it’s probably a little late with the picky picky however, Australian Table, I would like to point out that the chocolate-voiced, sloe-eyed maverick investigator is actually called Alex Cross.  The ACTOR is Morgan Freeman.  And what a difference a letter makes.  Slow-eyed which I typed at least a dozen times in the above paragraph makes you sound like you should be taking special classes.  Sloe-eyed…hello sexy!

Movies - August 2001

Music Of The Month

Well, I guess you can’t have it all.  I listened to none of these at the time nor do i have any real desire to seek out any of these.  Maybe the Elvis Costello.

Music August 2001

The Food

I chose two recipes from an article on fool proof party food starting with:

Vodka with Crushed Limes

Australian Table August 2001These are my flavours…this was so good!  Tangy, sweet delicious!

Crispy Duck with Green Scallion Pancakes

Crispy Duck with Green PancakesNo, these are my flavours!  Spicy, seductive!

Australian Table August 20012

Berry and Rhubarb Crumble

This recipe came from an advertisement for a 3 in one hand blender.  Crumble is pretty much already a classic but the addition of rhubarb instead of the more traditional apple?  Genius!

Rhubarb and Berry CrumbleRhubarb and Berry Crumble Recipe

Everything I made from this mag was SUPER! My view is that this is a definite future vintage classic!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk down memory lane!  I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a mag from September 2001.  I hope it’s as good as this one!

Have a great week!

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Oct
2015

The Dishiest Dish – Black and Blueberry Crumble

categories: Apples, Berries, Desserts, Dishiest Dish

Black berries, blueberries, dots of marzipan, almonds, choc chips, a splash of amaretto and, of course some custard?  How could the Black and Blueberry Crumble not be the dish of the week?

Black and Blueberry Almond Crumble

Close second was Karen Martini’s Sausage, Ham & Egg Pizza.

Sausage, Ham & Egg Pizza

Fail of the week?  The Broccoli con Anchovy from The River Cafe Cookbook.  I’m not sure what it is with me and this book.  Last week the rotolo was a fail.  This week, I didn’t even get to cook anything.

Here’s the thing.  I put broccoli on my shopping list.  I ticked it off my list meaning it had gone from shelf to basket.   I should have had broccoli in my fridge. BUT I tootled off to twilight yoga on Sunday afternoon planning to have a healthy broccoli con anchovy supper on my return.  Got home, had my aromatherapy bath, got into my jamies. And no broccoli.  Not in the fridge, not misplaced in the cupboard.  Not in the car.  Just a black hole of broccoli.

And yes, I could have gone and bought some but I was already in my pyjamas and Doctor Who was about to start.

This week I am looking forward to cooking:

Tasty Reads is coming up, I am going to make the Chicken, Cheese and Corn meatballs and the Raw Tuna Meatballs from the meatball cookbook. I found the Turkey Cran meatballs I made a little too sweet for my taste.  I will try these again but instead of the dried sweetened cranberries required by the recipe I will use fresh (frozen) cranberries.  They will bring a much needed touch of tartness.  Also place the balls in the freezer for maybe 15 minutes so the cheese doesn’t ooze out everywhere.

Black and Blueberry Almond Crumble2In Other News I Am

Listening To

  • I know I spoke about this last week but OMG Episode 3 of Limetown sent shivers up my backbone.  The last ten minutes?  Possibly the scariest thing I have ever listened to.
  • In the same creepy vein, Mark had never heard of Jonestown until this week.  Reminded me of this other creepy, but this time true, pod.  

Reading/Listening

I finished A Rush Of Blood on audio,  It was ok. I think the author drew a long bow for the reasons for the murders.

Am about to start Life After Life.

Watching

We saw William Shatner’s Stage Show the other night.  Briilliant.  We have started marathon watching Boston Legal on the back of it. It’s still immensely watchable!

Also A Beautiful Lie on ABC.  This is a modern day version of Anna Karenina which so far has been superb.  Except for one teeny thing…the Vronsky character is not at all good looking.  In fact, Mr Karenina is waaay more handsome.  Despite this, absolutely loving it.

 

Print

Green Sauce – From Meatballs The Ultimate Guide by Matteo Bruno

Green Sauce 2
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 50g (a large bunch) flat leaf (Italian) parsley, leaves picked
  • 50g (a large bunch) basil, leaves picked
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 35g blanched almonds
  • 10g anchovies
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 120ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 25 parmesan cheese, finely grated

Instructions

  1. Blitz the herbs, garlic, almonds, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor for around a minute or until a smooth sauce has formed.
  2. Add the parmesan and blitz for another minute.

What’s going on in your life / kitchen?    What was the best thing you made this week?

What are you looking forward to making next week?

What are you reading, watching, listening to?

Please share!

Have a fabulous week everyone!

Happy Cooking!

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