Category: Fruit


May
2024

Witness For The Proscuitto and Melon

categories: Dining With The Dame, Finger Food, Prosciutto, Rockmelon, Starters

Hello crime readers, foodies and lovers of terrible puns!  Today’s Dining With The Dame comes to us via another short story, Witness For The Prosecution.  This story appears in the Hounds of Death collection.  We have already featured The Red Signal from this collection. I also have a French version of this story!  Today, I am pairing the story with a classic starter, Proscuitto and Melon.  We love a twofer here at Dining With the Dame so later this week, we will also be celebrating a very special occasion with a cocktail also inspired by this story.  

Proscuitto and Melon 1

 

Witness For The Prosecution- The Plot

“Supposing I tell you that he did not come in that night at twenty past nine, but at twenty past ten?  You say that he tells you he knew nothing about the money coming to him.  Supposing I tell you he knew all about it, and counted on it, and committed murder to get it?”

Agatha Christie – The Witness for The Proecution

Young, handsome but hard up, Leonard Vole finds himself accused of murdering the elderly lady, Emily French, in order to inherit her wealth.  The facts seem stacked against Leonard.  Mr Mayherne his solicitor is certain that Leonard is innocent.  The only person who can provide an alibi for Leonard is his wife Romaine. 

My Mayherne goes to see her, despite knowing that a court is unlikley to give much credence to the evidence of a devoted wife.  He gets the a terrible shock when Romaine not only tells him she detests her husband but that he is not actually even her husband!  She was married to another man in her home country of Austria but he was locked away in a madhouse so the two could not marry. 

Therefore double jeopardy does not apply

She also says that Leonard committed the murder and confessed so to her. 

How can Mr Mayherne save Leonard when even his own wife is determined to see him hanged?

Proscuitto and Melon 2

The Witness for the Proscution – The Covers

WFTP Collage (1)

I could not find many covers for Witness for The Prosecution as it is usually part of a collection such as The Hound of Death.  We’ll look at some of the playbills and movie posters next time and talk a bit more about the 1957 movie next time.  

The Recipe: Proscuitto and Melon

I’m not entirely sure we need a recipe for somerthing as simple as this, but our old friend The A-Z of Cooking has one so here it is!  

Proscuitto and Melon4

I decided to sit my melon slices on some Romaine lettuce in honour of Leonard’s wife!


Proscuitto and Melon 3

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find but please let me know if you spotted any!

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Witness for The Prosecution

  • Brandy

Our June read will be Taken at the Flood.  Yay, it’s a Poirot! 

Have a great week!

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Apr
2024

April 2004 – The Letter L

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Breakfast, Delicious, Drinks, Fruit, Lamb, Lemon, Magazines, Mango, Meat

 

Hello, retro food lovers!  Today’s post features the letter L and Delicious Magazine from April 2004.  Our meal today has a slightly Indian feel with a lassi, some lamb and a lovely lemony dessert!  But before we get to the food, let’s set the scene.

The Da Vinci Code was the best-selling book of the first half of April.  Quelle surprise!  However, for the remaining two weeks, Glorious Appearing stole the number-one spot!  Before you get excited, this book sounds dreadful!  I would rather read The Da Vinci Code!  Toxic by Britney was number one on the charts and Hellboy was number one at the box office. 

April 2004 (2)

 

Hopefully more on the side of glorious, rather than toxic or hellish is our menu for April 2004!

April 2004 menu

Mango Lassi

I am starting my L themed meal with a Mango Lassi.  Lassis are yogurt-based drinks often containg spices. Think of it as a Punjabi smoothie.  Lassis boast a long history, dating back to 1000 BC!  People believed they had healing properties.  Drinking lassis could improve your digestion and your skin and reduce bloating just to name a few!  

Lassis can be sweet or savoury.  The mango here makes this one quite sweet so it would have been an equally nice way to end the meal!  This also takes less than a minute to make so quick as well as delicious.  I used frozen mango in mine so you do not have to wait until mangoes are in season to make this!

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi Recipe

Mango Lassi Recipe

Spiced Lamb Lollipops with Korma Sauce and Toasted Almonds

This, like the Mango Lassi above comes from an article called “Curry on Jamie”.  No surprises for guessing that the Jamie is one Mr Oliver, who seems to be featuring in thee 20 Years Ago posts rather a lot.  The Lamb Lollipops were a version of a curry.  The twist was that instead of the meat being cooked in the curry, it was grilled and served with a curry sauce for dipping.  It was absolutely delicious!  I served my Lollipops with a radish and coriander pickle from the same article and some bought paratha.  

Lamb Lollipops

Lamb Lollipops Recipe

Lamb Lollipops Recipe

Lamb Lollipops2

Lemon Posset with Lemon Crunch

Apart from the letter L, there is another linking factor between today’s recipes.  The lassi dates back to ancient times, Korma is believed to be created in the 16th century for Shah Jalan at the inauguration of the Taj Mahal and our dessert also has it’s roots in history.  The OED traces posset back to the 15th century where, like the lassi, it was known for it’s healing properties.  I liked the lemon crunch because it added some texture into what was otherwise a very soft dessert.  The texture of the posset was panna cotta-esque.  An almond biscotti would have also gone down a treat with this…and created a link with the lamb dish!

Lemon Posset Recipe

I found the quantities here made for quite a sweet mix so l added more lemon juice, specifically as I also knew the crunch would also be sweet.

lemon posset recipe

 

My Nigella Moment  – Breakfast Almond Croissants

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 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 it in because it is too good not to share.  

One of my favorite bakery treats is an almond croissant so I was delighted to find a recipe where I could do a cheats’ version at home.  These were delightful.  And also went nicely with some mango lassi!

Breakfast Almond Croissants

Breakfast Almond Croissant Recipe

Breakfast Almond Croissant recpe

 

 

Oh, I just realised another link.  These meals all belong in a spectrum from yellow to brown…the posset is light lemon yellow, the mango lassi is a pale orange, the korma sauce was a deep orange and the croissants were brown.  These colours are also all autumnal so maybe I was also channelling the seasons with my meal!

The colours of my menu

colours

 

Have a great week! 

 

 

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Apr
2024

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

categories: 1980's recipes, Avocado, Starters, Tomatoes

Hello friends!  Get ready for a delicious trip down memory lane, fueled by none other than guacamole-stuffed tomatoes! As a quirky only child, I spent a lot of my time lost in the magical worlds found between book covers. Every week, the local library became my wonderland. It was on one of these adventures that I stumbled upon a treasure – “The Complete Avocado Cookbook.”

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

I became obsessed with this book and borrowed it over and over.  This book, and the food contained within it seemed like the height of sophistication to my younger self.  This book was my future!  I could not wait to grow up and have Breakfast At Tiffanys-esque parties complete with drunks wearing lampshades on their heads, women with foot long cigarette holders and, of course, some amazing avocado-based food!

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

Given this history, you can only imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a copy of “The Complete Avocado Cookbook” in a charity shop a few years ago! I snatched it up so quickly, you’d think it was the last book on earth. However, the fact that it’s taken me years to actually cook from it might be a good indicator that “you can’t dip your toe into the same river twice.” Take the recipe for Crusted Stuffed Avocado, for example. For twelve-year-old me, this was the absolute star attraction, the shiny gold ornament on the Christmas tree of “The Complete Avocado Cookbook.”

For this recipe, you take an avocado, cut it in two and scoop out the flesh.  You then mix that flesh with Camembert cheese, garlic and herbs and pile all of that back into the avocado shells.  Then, you put the shells back together and crumb and fry the rejoined avocado.  Try very hard not to sing Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again as you do this!  Finally, you then serve your crusty stuffed avocado with an almond butter sauce!

Here it is:

Crusty Stuffed Avocado

And here is my childhood reaction to reading this recipe:

And here is adult me:

  1. I now know that I don’t actually like the taste of cooked avocado.
  2. Nowadays, the heart attack-inducing power of a deep-fried avocado stuffed with Camembert cheese, served with a butter sauce, terrifies me!
  3. Why would you leave the skin of the avocado on?  
  4. Finally…why are they using a Shepherd when everyone knows the Hass avocado is far superior!

Guacmaole Stuffed Tomatoes – The Recipe

All of which leads me to the Guacamole Stuffed Tomato – let me tell you, it was absolutely delicious.  I wouldn’t normally add olives to my guacamole but they were a nice salty addition!  I could not really taste the coriander powder either and would probably sub in fresh coriander (cilantro) next time.   Having said that, my twelve year old self, as well as my… ahem somewhat older self were both delighted!  I was also delighted to take this photo of the original picture of the book and my homage to it!

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes2

Guacamole Stuffed Tomatoes

And, if like me, you have aslo been hunning Whole Again this whole time, I’ve linked it in below.  I will now look lovingly at my copy of The Complete Avocado Cookbook and sing along:

Looking back on when we first metI cannot escape and I cannot forgetBaby you’re the one, you still turn me on

Have a great week!

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Sep
2023

August 2003 – Summer

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Chicken, Prawns, Vodka, Watermelon

Summer Lovin’ had me a blast!  Hello, retro food lovers!  Today as you may have guessed from the header and my musical intro we are taking a tour back to August 2003 via Australian Table.  The aim is to see if that magazine can provide us with a super summer feast! 

Now I know that some of you might be thinking…what’s hard about that?  Surely all mags, twenty years ago would be showing seasonal recipes..  Well, don’t forget readers that in Australia is it winter!  Now it may surprise some of you but in the south of Australia, where I live it gets cold!  Not Canada cold or Northern European cold, but definitely cold enough for this season to be recognisably winter. The magazine cover promises Shepherd’s Pie, Bangers and Mash, Beef Stroganoff and Roast Chicken.  Will we be able to find some summery food in the midst of this hearty winter fare?

Table 0803

 

First, to put us in the mood let’s see what was on the pop culture in August 2003!  The Da Vinci Code was still topping the book charts, S.W.A.T was killing it at the box office and Breathe by Sean Paul featuring Blu Cantrell was the number 1 song.  

The Menu – August 2003

Summer Menu 1

Chargrilled Prawns with Coriander and Lime

For me, the best summer food is eaten outdoors so these prawns, which would be amazing cooked on the BBQ were my choice of a starter.

Chargrilled Prawns

The marinated prawns were super delicious!  I did not like the dressing and, come summer when I make these on the barbie I will leave the dressing out completely.  Whilst I don’t mind sherry as a drink I felt it gave the dressing on what was a very fresh and lively dish a kind of fusty taste which I found unpleasant.  If you want to try it with the dressing, I would suggest serving it on the side!

Chargrilled Prawns Recipe

Chargrilled Prawns Collage2

Satay Chicken Skewers

Another dish which would be ideal cooked on the BBQ.  I love a chicken satay and this one is super easy because it uses a bought satay sauce!  

Chicken Satay 1

I served this with a cucumber and red onion salad, which is, my Malaysian friends tell me, a traditional accompaniment to Chicken satay.  You could also, of course serve rice or noodles with the chicken satay skewers as well. 

Chicken Satay 2

Perfectly grilled chicken, dipped in a satay sauce with some salad!  Heaven on a stick!

Satay Chicken Recipe

Chicken Satay 1 (1)

Ice Cream with Rocky Road Sauce

I didn’t have time to make this due to holidays, Pieathalon, work, cooking for our Foodies Cookbook club, a date with my mum to see A Haunting In Venice all of which amounts to life in general.  However, it’s a really simple recipe which I am sure tastes absolutely delicious!  Please let me know if you give it a try!

Ice Cream with Rocky Road Sauce Recipe

Watermelon and Vodka Cocktail

This cocktail was pretty much identical to this one that I made back in February.

Watermelon Vodka

My Nigella Moment  – Thai Beef Noodles

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 it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!

This time round it was some Thai beef noodles. I’m hoping that sherry will redeem itself in this recipe as it sure didn’t work in the prawns!  These look delicious and fun!

Thai Beef Noodles

 

Australian Table was able to dish up a lovely summery meal despite being an issue from the middle of winter!  The prawns and satay were also nice in winter and were lovely reminders that summer is on it’s way!

 

 

 

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Aug
2023

Wine and Song Prune Canapés

categories: Canapes, Prunes

Hello retro food lovers and welcome to a surprise mid-week edition of Retro Food for Modern Times.  Today we are taking a teeny little step back into the amazing book that is Kelly Brodsky’s Food For Lovers and making some canapes from her wine and song prunes. When we last spoke about them, it was in the context of breakfast but these little beauties are nothing if not versatile.  My favourite food is finger food so I decided that I would turn these into a canapé based on the vintage hors d’oeuvre Devils on Horseback.  

Wine and Song Canapes1

I have taken the key ingredients from Devils on Horseback and popped them on a round of grilled bread.  

As a reminder, here is the recipe for the Wine and Song Prunes.  These are the starting point for our canape’s.

Wine and Song Prunes

 

Wine and Song Canapes2

Here’s the recipe…if you can even call something so simple that!

Print

Wine and Song Prune Canapés

Wine and Song Canapes1
Print Recipe

A delicious canapé for your next retro party.  Or for eating all by yourself!

Ingredients

  • Wine and Song Prunes (as many prunes as canapés you are planning to make)
  • Rounds of chargrilled bread or bought crostini (as many rounds as canapés you are planning to make)
  • Proscuitto – (1/ 3 the number of slices as the number of canapes you are planning to make)
  • Goat’s cheese 
  • Watercress – 1 bunch

Instructions

  • Top your rounds of bread with a sprig or two of watercress, then 1/3 of  a slice of proscuitto.
  • Top this with a piece of goat’s cheese and one of the prunes.
  • Enjoy!

 

 

Wine and Song Canapes3

I’ll get my timing back on track with an N and M adjacent post. The actual post for the Agatha Christie thriller will be posted the following week. It’s a quick read so there’s still plenty of time if you wish to read it. Have a great rest of the week!

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