Fruit - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Fruit

11
Aug
2024

Crooked House – Tarte Tatin

categories: Apples, Dining With The Dame, France, Puff Pastry, Stand Alone, Tarts

Hello, crime readers and food lovers! Today’s Dining With The Dame delves into “Crooked House,” which is an absolute belter of a read! Typically, I prefer the Poirot or Marple novels, and standalone novels often fall short for me. However, this one is a delightful exception! The storyline is captivating, and Christie truly outdoes herself in crafting the villain.

Speaking of captivating, let’s transition to our culinary companion for this episode: Tarte Tatin. I selected this classic French dessert for a few reasons. Firstly, apples, a prominent motif in “Crooked House,” provided a thematic link. And, dare I say, there is a bad apple in the crooked house! Also, with the Paris Olympics in full swing, a touch of French flair seemed fitting. And finally, a well-executed Tarte Tatin is magnifique!

Crooked House – The Plot

“I think people more often kill those they love than those they hate . Possibly because only the people you love can really make life unendurable to you”

Agatha Christie – Crooked House

The plot of Crooked House is somewhat similar to Taken At The Flood which I covered last month. This time, we meet the Leonides family, the patriarch of which, Aristide Leonides has just been murdered. Someone, swapped his insulin for Eserine, a deadly poison contained in his eye medicine. Aristide had built up considerable wealth and members of his family stand to inherit a lot of money.

The family, and list of suspects include:

Brenda, Aristides young second wife, who may or may not be romatically involved with the tutor of his grandchildren, Laurence Brown
Roger and Clementine Leonides, one of Aristides brothers and his wife
Phillip Leonides and his wife, Magda West a (tryhard but largely unsuccessful actress played by Gillian Anderson in the 2017 adaptation)
Edith de Haviland, the sister of Aristides first wife who has lived with them since her sister’s death in order to take care of the children (played to perfection by Glenn Close in the 2017 adaptation)
Sophia Leonides, Aristides eldest grandchild and daughter of Phillip and Magda
Eustace Leonides the teenage son of Phillip and Magda
Josephine Leonides, the 12 year old daughter of Phillip and Magda
Laurence Brown, Eustace and Jospehine’s tutor

Charles Hayward, Sophia’s fiance is our amateur detective, working closely with Chief Inspecor Taverner and Detective Sergeant Lamb to find the killer.

Before we get there though, many things happen including

A missing will
Embezzlement
Josephine being attacked
Hidden love letters coming to light
The children’s nanny being poisoned by some deadly hot chocolate
The wrong people being arrested
A missing notebook that may hold the key to everything

It might not be a good thing that we have Charles trying to discover (as one of the covers below asks) who put the poison in the hypo. He is not, as they say, the sharpest tool in the shed. Despite the abundance of clues scattered throughout the text, he repeatedly overlooks them.

In fact, I found myself uncovering an unusual number of clues while reading “Crooked House,” far exceeding the usual number in Christie’s works. This abundance of hints led me to speculate on whether it was a deliberate strategy on Christie’s part. Given that “Crooked House” was published in 1949, I imagine the revelation of the villain must have been a truly shocking experience for readers of the time. It’s possible that Christie meticulously planted these clues to soften the impact of the eventual reveal for contemporary audiences. If you have read this, please let me know your thoughts on this!!!!

Crooked House – The Covers

I was very happy to be able to include a Greek cover here as the Leonides family are Greek in origin. I was also very glad to see that one of the covers featured an apple. This, vindicated my somewhat unusual choice of dish! There are lots of crooked houses which are to be expected, including one growing out of a ladies head, which is not. I don’t understand the rather scruffy looking chicken. And as for the creepy hell clown? No. Just no.

The Recipe: Tarte Tatin

There was no one in sight as we drove up to the front door. I paid the taxi and it drove away. I felt uncertain whether to ring the bell or to walk in. The front door was open. As I stood there hesitatiing I heard a sound behind me. I turned my head sharply. Josephine, her face partially obscured by a very large apple was standing in the opening of the yew hedge looking at me”

Agatha Christie – Crooked House

I broke off. Josephine had emerged from the door leading to the drawing room. She was eating the inevitable apple, and over its round rosiness her eyes sparkled with a kind of ghoulish enjoyment.

“Nannie’s been poisoned,” she said. “Just like grandfather. It’s awfully exciting, isn’t it?”

Agatha Christie – Crooked House

Links To The Christieverse

None that I picked up on – but please let me know if you found something!

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Taken At The Flood

Cocktails
Coffee x3
Whisky
Sweets
Wholesome nursery food
Queer rice dishes
Chocolate
Drinks
Scrambled eggs on toast
Apple x 2
Nourishing Soup
Cocoa
Ice Cream Soda

In September, we’re going Marple-ing. A Murder is Announced will be our next read.

Have a great week!

21
Jul
2024

Grapefruit Oat Brulee

categories: 1970's recipes, 500 Recipes for Quick Meals, Breakfast, Desserts, Grapefruit

Hello friends and welcome to a recipe which is top ten, maybe even top five of everything I have cooked this year! Grapefruit Oat Brulee is delicious, quick, has only four ingredients and is (mostly) a healthy snack/dessert/breakfast. You might even find yourself eating it for all of the above, it’s that good! The recipe comes from 500 Recipes for Quick Meals by Marguerite Patten (1972).

I mean really…how good does that look? These photos make me want to run out and buy a bag of grapefruit immediately just so I can recreate this dish over and over again. I made these a while ago, and even now, looking at the pictures is making my mouth water.

My only word of advice, apart from urging you to purchase your own bag of grapefruit without delay, is that this dish can be quite messy to eat. Consequently, I discovered that segmenting the grapefruit before broiling is the most efficient method. I want to give credit where credit is due: I’m actually grateful to Marguerite for omitting this step from the recipe. It unintentionally empowered me to experiment with several grapefruits to develop a user-friendly process for you, dear readers!

How To Segment A Grapefruit for Bruléeing

First, cut the grapefruit in half.
Then, to stabilize the grapefruit, cut a small slice from its bottom.
Next, use a sharp knife to carefully separate the pith from the grapefruit flesh, loosening the segments. Then, using the same knife, meticulously slice along each segment of the grapefruit.
This methodical approach will make eating your grapefruit a lot easier!

Grapefruit Oat Brulée – The Recipe

Grapefruit Oat Brulee

Print Recipe

A delightful recipe for breakfast or dessert – take your pick!

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

2 grapefruits
30g butter
2 tbsp rolled oats
2 tbsp golden syrup

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Halve the grapefruit, and prep as outlined above.
Melt the butter in a saucepan
Add the oats and golden syrup.
Mix thoroughly.
Sprinkle oat mixture over the grapefruit.
Place under a medium hot grill (broiler) until lightly browned and crisp on top

Notes

Adapted from a Margeurite Patten recipe found in 500 Recipes for Quick Meals (972)

For a a less oaty version of this, you can check my recipe for Bruléed Grapefruit here.

Next week in the July 20 years ago Today post, there will be one…actually….maybe even two recipes that are also in my Top Ten things I’ve cooked this year! July has been a good month for recipes! Speak you then!

11
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.

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?

The Witness for the Proscution – The Covers

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!

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

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!

21
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.

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

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 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 Recipe

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.

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 Croissant Recipe

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!

Have a great week!

14
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.”

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:

And here is my childhood reaction to reading this recipe:

And here is adult me:

I now know that I don’t actually like the taste of cooked avocado.
Nowadays, the heart attack-inducing power of a deep-fried avocado stuffed with Camembert cheese, served with a butter sauce, terrifies me!
Why would you leave the skin of the avocado on?
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!

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!