Category: Vegetables

Pebbles on A Peruvian Beach

Hello friends and retro food lovers! Remember back in your school days when you got marks/grades for effort? Alternatively, does the phrase “the soul was willing, but the heart was weak” resonate with you? Well, they will indicate how I feel about the recipe for Pebbles on The Beach, which I’ve renamed Pebbles on a Peruvian Beach.

I understand what they were trying to do here…it just didn’t work! This recipe was also an anomaly because, so far, everything else I’ve made from Marguerite Patten’s 500 Recipes for Quick Meals has been great!  Remember the Sardine Toadstools?  (It’s still my favourite thing from last year)!

Pebbles on a Mexican Beach

Pebbles on The Beach – The Intent (I think)

So, I assume that in this recipe the tops of the eggs and the potatoes would poke out of the cheese sauce like pebbles on a beach! If pebbles were white and pink and the sea was a cheese sauce.  So, even then, the analogy has problems.  Pebbles on the moon?  Pebbles in the desert?  These may have been more accurate visual descriptions of this dish. 

Pebbles on a Mexican Beach2

Pebbles on The Beach – The Actuality

Without it’s Peruvian flavour bomb, this dish was as bland as could be.  Potatoes don’t have much flavour nor do eggs.  Don’t get me wrong, I love both of these ingredients but even combined with a cheese sauce this was dull.  My best description would be nursery or invalid food.  It even looks dull without its garnish!

The second is that the recipe requires you to take eggs that are already hard-boiled and then cook them for another 20 minutes.  Those eggs were rock-hard! 

Oh! 

Surely that was not why they called this dish pebbles?

The cure for the blandness was to serve the Pebbles on the beach with some Peruvian Salsa.  We last saw this salsa paired with some Croquetas de Carne almost exactly two years ago, in January 2023. 

The cure for the eggs?  Maybe keep them raw and cook them in the cheese sauce?  I don’t quite know how to fix that one.  And, to be honest, it wasn’t tempting enough, even with the Peruvian Salsa to give it another go!  Honestly, if you want a really good tasty combination of potatoes and eggs, then I would recommend Roseanne Cash’s Potato Salad over this any day of the week!  

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all….here’s the recipe in case you have any bright ideas or want to feed a three-year-old or an invalid.  

aa Pebbles on The Beach

Have a great week! 

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Zuurkoolstamppot

Hello friends and welcome! Today we are taste testing Zuurkoolstamppot, a wonderfully named Dutch dish featuring mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and bacon! I made this quite a while ago but kept it in reserve in case I was desperate for something for a Dining with The Dame post. I figured if push came to shove, I could make some sort of pun out of Zuurkool / Hercule.  But I am feeling brave. Thus far, the books from the 1950s have been laden with food, so I have decided to post this one now. Famous last words? We’ll see.

What didn’t go wrong was the Zuurkoolstamppot.  If you haven’t already noticed, I also really like saying Zuurkoolstamppot! 

Zuukoolstamppot1

What is Zuurkoolstamppot?

Although the name might be complicated, I mean, look at all those double letters; Zuurkoolstamppot is very easy to make! The name translates to “sauerkraut mash”, and it is exactly that – fancy mashed potatoes.  It resembles Irish Colcannon, which combines sauteed cabbage with mashed potatoes.  Think of it as Colcannon’s cool, edgy cousin! Or “kool” edgy cousin if you prefer!

Zuurkoolstamppot is traditionally served with smoked sausages but would be equally good with any other hearty meat dish.  This is pure comfort food, to be eaten in the depths of winter to warm the soul! The combination of creamy mashed potatoes, tangy sauerkraut and crispy salty bacon is a delight in taste and texture!

 

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Zuurkoolstamppot

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A flavourful Dutch alternative to regular mashed potatoes.  

Ingredients

Scale

750g starchy potatoes, peeled and cubed

250g sauerkraut, drained

100g smoked bacon, diced

1 onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup milk

Butter (as much as you like)

Pepper

Instructions

In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crispy  Remove from the pan but leave the bacon fat in in the pan. 

Add the onion to the bacon fat and sauté until soft. 

Add the garlic and cook for another minute until that is also soft.  Add the sauerkraut and cook for another minute to warm it through.  

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender (about 15-120 minutes).  Drain then tip back into the pan.  Add milk and butter.  Mash throughly. 

Add the bacon, onion and sauerkraut mix and sitr through.  Add pepper to taste.  I don’t think this dish needs additional salt but taste and add some if you like. 

Enjoy!

Zuukoolstamppot2

If you wanted to add some variations to this recipe, I can heartily suggest adding some wholegrain mustard into the mashed potato mix.  You could also add a spinkle of chives or parsley as a garnish.  

My grandfather once traced our family ancestry back to Holland in the 18th century.  I wonder if my Dutch ancestors back in the day enjoyed tucking into a dish of Zuurkoolstamppot as much as I did!

Have a great week!Signature2

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – Bloodstained Beans

Hello, crime readers and food lovers! Today’s Dining with the Dame sees us partaking of some Blood Stained Beans alongside Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver.  The Poirot / Ariadne Oliver novels are among my favourites.  I adore her grumblings about her Finnish detective, Sven Hjerson and the travails of being a mystery writer!   But also, it was this volume of stories that, back in 2020, gave me the idea to start these posts.  Like so many people I was a little bit bored during covid and decided to read an anthology of Agatha Christie novels I had bought from my local library 6 months previously.  Halfway through Cards In The Table, an idea that I later called Dining with The Dame was born!   The recipe for the Blood Stained Beans is my version of Sabrina Ghayour’s Spiced Green Bean and Tomato Stew which comes from her wonderful book Feasts.  

Blood Stained Beans 1

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – The Plot

James Bentley, a rather odd and unlikeable young man, has been found guilty of the murder of his landlady, Mrs. McGinty. Convicted based on the evidence that he was short of money and knew where Mrs. McGinty hid her meager savings of £30, Bentley’s fate seemed sealed.

However, Sergeant Spence, a detective who played a crucial role in Bentley’s conviction, harbors lingering doubts. Unsure of Bentley’s guilt, Spence turns to the renowned Hercule Poirot, hoping that his keen intellect can shed light on the mysterious case.

Poirot, intrigued by the challenge, travels to the quaint village of Broadhinny. Securing a room at the Summerhayes’ guest house, Poirot finds himself immersed in a world of chaos and inefficiency. Indeed, the comical chaos of the guest house provides one of the many humorous moments in “Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.”

“With great distaste, Hercule Poirot looked around the room in which he stood.  It was a room of gracious proportions but there its attraction ended.  Poirot made an eloquent grimace as he drew a suspicious finger along the top of a book case.  As he had suspected – dust! ….The latch did not hold, and with every gust of wind it burst open and whirling gusts of cold wind eddied round the room. 

“I suffer” said Hercule Poirot to himself in acute self pity.  “Yes, I suffer”.  

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

What Happened to Mrs McGinty?

During his investigations Poirot discovers that just before her death, Mrs McGinty had clipped a “where are they now” article from the Sunday paper about a number of females who had been involved in infamous crime cases in the past.  Turns out Mrs McGinty, who also operated as a charwoman for several families in Broadhinny had found a photo that resembled one of these women.  And, with that, her fate was sealed.

Blood Stained Beans 3

We have:

  • Several people who could be any of the women in the article
  • Anonymous letters
  • Another murder
  • Poirot pushed off a train platform
  • A mysterious blonde
  • Lipstick on a teacup and expensive scent in the air
  • A sugar hammer with a mysterious past and some tell tale stains on it
  • Lots of people with secrets they do not want revealed

It’s a good thing we have Poirot on hand to save the innocent and make the guilty pay for their misdeeds.  However, even Poirot is severely tested by the personality of James Bentley.

“There were  moments when Hercule Poirot found the personality of James Bentley so irritating that he heartily wished that he could believe Bentley guilty of Mrs McGinty’s  murder.  Unfortunately, the more Bentley annoyed him, the more he came round to Spence’s way of thinking”.

And, of course, we have Ariadne Oliver being utterly delightful!

“How do I know?” asid Mrs Oliver crossly.  “How do I know why I ever thought of the revolting man?  I must have been mad!  Why a Finn when I know nothing about Finland.  Why a vegetarian.  Why all the idiotic mannerisms he’s got?  These things just happen.  You try something – and people seem to like it – and then you go on – and before you know where you are, you’ve got someone like that maddening Sven Hjerson tied to you for life…fond of him?  If I met that bony gangling vegetable eating Finn in real life, I’d do a better murder than any I’ve ever invented”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Mrs McGinty’s Dead – The Covers

Mrs McGinty's Dead collage (3)

 

The Recipe: Blood Stained Beans

“Oo,” said Mrs Summerhayes, her attention diverted from Poirot to the basin in her lap.  “I’m bleeding over the beans.  Not too good as we have to have them for lunch.  Still, it won’t matter really because they’ll go into boiling water.  Things are always all right if you boil them, aren’t they?”…

“I think, ” said Hercule Poirot quietly, “that I shall not be in for lunch.”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

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Blood Stained Beans

A recipe for a delicious side, inspired by both Sabrina Ghaylour’s Spiced Green Bean and Tomato Stew and the Agatha Christie novel, Mrs McGinty’s Dead.  

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika    
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 400g chopped Italian tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp chipotles in adobo sauce
  • 1 heaped teaspoon caster sugar
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 400 grams green beans, topped and tailed

To Serve:

  • Greek Yoghurt or Labneh
  • 1 tbsp chipotles in adobo
  • Crispy fried shallots for sprinkling

Instructions

Roast the tomatoes:

  • Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
  • Toss cherry tomatoes with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper on a baking sheet.
  • Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly charred and softened.

Make The Sauce:

  • Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan over a medium heat.
  • Lower the heat and saute the onions until soft (about 10 minutes)
  • Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. 
  • Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika and chipotle in adobo and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. 
  • Add the sugar, tinned tomatoes and salt and pepper.  
  • Cook for 20 minutes until thickened. 
  • Taste and add more chipotle, salt or pepper as required.  

The Beans:

  • Steam the beans for 3-4 minutes.  

Serving:

  • Place the beans on a serving platter.  
  • Pour over the spicy sauce and top with the cherry tomatoes.  
  • Add dollops of yoghurt and splatters of chipotle sauce.  
  • Sprinkle with crispy shallots
  • Enjoy!

“He walked slowly up the hill towards Long Meadows.  He hoped devoutly that the contents of the bulged tin and the bloodstained beans had been duly eaten for lunch and not been saved for a supper treat for him”

Agatha Christie – Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Blood Stained Beans 4

Links to the Christieverse

  • In one of her hilarious rants about her novels, Ariadne Oliver talks about using a blowpipe as a plot device in one of her novels.  An African blowpipe was featured in Death in The Clouds.  And of course wecan’t help but draw the parallel between Agatha Christie and her infuriating Belgian and Ariadne Oliver and her “bony gangling vegetable eating Finn”.
  • We last saw Superinendent Spence in Taken at The Flood.
  • Ariadne Oliver speaks of Mr Shaitana, the victim in Cards on The Table.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  Mrs McGinty’s Dead

It’s really interesting to see how much more food is mentioned now that we are well and truly in the post war period!

  • Escargot
  • Afternoon Tea
  • Coffee x2
  • Hot chocolate and croissants 
  • Grenadine, Creme de Menthe, Benedictine, Creme de Cacao
  • Whisky x2
  • Beer
  • Bread x2
  • Margarine
  • Kippers x2
  • Omelette / eggs x2
  • Spinach x2
  • Brandy
  • Stew
  • Vegetable Marrows
  • Jam
  • Sherry
  • Orange Juice
  • Box of Chocolates
  • Oxtail Stew ( under cooked)
  • Potatoes (watery x1) (hard x1)
  • Pancakes (peculiar)
  • Apples (it is an Ariadne Oliver novel after all)
  • White Lady
  • Gin x 2
  • Pudding (burnt)
  • Raspberries (mouldy)
  • Macaroni
  • Custard and plums
  • Egg nog x2
  • Rabbit stew
  • Pudding (peculiar)
  • Steak and Chips

December’s read will be After The Funeral. 

Have a great week!

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Feb 2004 – From the Garden

Hello dear readers!  I was updating the index for the Twenty Years Ago Today posts this week and I realised I had not actually posted this one from way back in February!  Given that today’s post was just a little teaser for Murder is Announced which will be released on Tuesday, I thought why not post this today so you also get some real content.  Enjoy!  

Hello, retro food lovers! Buckle up for a delicious journey back in time! Today, we’re using the magic of Australian Table magazine to teleport ourselves to February 2004, and build a menu that celebrates the vibrant bounty of the garden. Talk about perfect timing, with our own gardens bursting at the seams right now! But before we whip up some culinary magic, let’s take a nostalgic stroll down memory lane and see what was buzzing in pop culture back then.

First up, music: Australia was rocking out to Shannon Noll’s powerful cover of the Moving Pictures classic “What about Me?”. Fun fact, this very song just gave me some serious bragging rights in a pub quiz! So, while it might have retired from the charts, it’s clearly not forgotten.

Now, onto the literary world: can you guess the top-selling book of the first half of February 2004? Drumroll please… yep, you guessed it, it was the phenomenon that was The Da Vinci Code. And if you think its grip on pop culture was about to loosen anytime soon, think again!  Speaking of cultural giants, Jesus himself made a big splash on the big screen, with The Passion of the Christ becoming the highest-grossing film of the month. So, get ready for a menu that’s not only fresh and seasonal, but also infused with a touch of early 2004 nostalgia. 

Fun Fact From Australian Table February 2004

I found this little timeline of how food evolved in Australia over the last 70 years fascinating  I particularly liked it that they did this by looking at old magazines.  Hmm…now what does that remind me of?

Feb 2004 70 years

Now, let’s take a look at our menu.  

The Menu – February 2004

Feb 2004 Menu

Summer Cocktail

Garden ingredient : Mint

This was a take on a Classic Pimms Punch combining gingerale, lemonade, Pimms, cucumber, mint and orange.  Many of these recipes often also contain strawberries which we also have growing but this one didn’t.  It was however delicious.  This was summer in a glass! 

 

Summer Cocktail

Summer Cocktail Recipe

Feb 2004 Summer Cocktail

 

Seared Scallop Salad with Macadamia and Coriander Pesto

Garden Ingredients, Mint, Lime

Seared Scallop Salad

While I am not a huge scallop fan this was delicious!  Next time I make it I would use prawns.  Confession: I took some liberties with the salad, swapping out the red capsicum and beansprouts.  I can’t eat red capsicum and I could only find huge bags of beansprouts at the greengrocer.  Bean sprouts aren’t bad, but buying a giant bag just for a few felt wasteful! I opted for cherry tomatoes (home grown) and red onion instead.   This dish is colourful and pretty and the macadamia and coriander pesto is divine!

Seared Scallop Salad with Macadamia and Coriander Pesto

Feb2004 Seared Scallop Salad

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken with Mint Dressing

Garden Ingredients:  Rosemary, Lemon, Mint

This was a great quick and easy midweek meal.  Nothing elaborate but relatively quick and tasty. 

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken

 

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken with Mint Dressing – Recipe

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken Recipe (1)

Potato Salad with Garlic and Caper Mayonnaise

Garden Ingredients:  Lemon, Parsley

I love potato salad.  Roseanne Cash Potato Salad remains one of my favourites but the Garlic and Caper Mayo on this one was superb!

Potato Salad with Garlic and Caper Mayonnaise

Potato Salad with Garlic and Caper Mayonnaise – Recipe

Feb 2004 Potato Salad with Garlic and Caper Mayonnaise

Angel Cheesecake

Garden Ingredients:  Limes

I am not 100% sure why this is called an Angel Cheesecake.  Maybe because there are egg whites in the filling to make it lighter?  Maybe because the combination of lime and passionfruit is divine?  

Angel Cheesecake

We have a passionfruit vine in the garden but it is only tiny so has not had any fruit on it yet.  I am looking forward to making this again with some homegrown passionfruit sometime in the future!  

Angel Cheesecake – Recipe

My Nigella Moment  – Barbecued Green Rice

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.  

This month I chose a recipe that used a technique that was new to me.  I have never thought of putting rice on the bbq.  But I made the sushi with crispy rice out of the book Eat California by Vivian Lui (highly recommended BTW) and I loved it.  And this gave me the same vibes.  It was really tasty and I did get the crispy rice I was after but this recipe really needed some salt to make it a 10/10 instead of an 8/10!  We also do not have a bbq at the moment so I made this in a pan on the stove.  

Bbqed Green Rice

Barbecued Green Rice Recipe

Feb 2004 Barbecued Green Rice

 

I really enjoyed this month, it just felt very lemon and mint-heavy in terms of garden produce!  There were some absolute winners in the taste department too – the pesto, the potato salad, the cheesecake, and the rice are things that will become part of my repertoire!  

 

 

September 2004 – Feeling Fruity

Hello friends and welcome to September 2004. Today, we’ll be exploring a fun fruit-forward menu via Delicious Magazine. But as usual, before we dive into the menu, let’s take a look at what we were watching, reading, and listening to in September 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t rushing to the Cinema in September 2004. Resident Evil: Apocalypse was #1 at the box office, followed by Hero with Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow at number 3. However, all of these titles are drawing total blanks for me! On the other hand, I am very well aware of the number one book on the best seller lists – it was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which I think has been number one on the charts since I started doing these Twenty Years Ago posts!

While I may not have been greatly enamoured with the books and films of 2004, the music was another matter. 1985 by Bowling for Soup was #7, and American Idiot was #8. Finally, something for me!”

Raspberry and Strawberry Mousse Cake

Speaking of other things for me, let’s get it started in here (BTW, that was #2 in September 2004) with our feeling fruity menu!

The Menu  – September 2004

Feeling Fruity Menu:  September 2004

I designed my September 2004 menu using AI. It was a hard slog, and there were times when I was ready to throw my laptop against the wall. However, in the end, it was worth the effort. Even if I do say so myself!

Wicked Champagne Cocktail 

This Jamie Oliver recipe was very simple – pomegranate juice with sparkling wine. But it was also a great way to start our fruity theme for September 2004!

Wicked Champagne Cocktail

Wicked Champagne Cocktail Recipe

AACHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

Prawn, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

This was divine!!!  All my favourite flavours! 

Prawn, Grapefruit, Avocado Salad

Prawn, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad Recipe

Prawn, Avocado Grapefruit Salad Recipe

Duck Breast with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Another winner!  I had some pink pickled onions from something else I had made in the fridge and I added them to this recipe.  I think they worked well with the rest of the ingredients but, they could easily be left out.  

Duck Breast with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Duck Breast with Raspberry Vinaigrette Recipe

Duck Breast Recipe (1)

Raspberry and Strawberry Mousse Cake

Oh.  My.  Lord.  This was heaven!!!!  And for something that looks so gorgeous was very easy to make!  

Raspberry and Strawberry Mousse Cake2

Raspberry and Strawberry Mousse Cake Recipe

AA Raspberry and Strawberry Mousse Cake

 

Orange and Rosemary Tisane

Drinking this made me feel very Poirot!  The blend of orange and rosemary was very pleasant and refreshing.  

Rosemary and Orange Tisane

 

Tisane

My Nigella Moment – Asparagus Maltaise

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 may not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share. 

This month’s Nigella dish actually fits the theme.  It is an Asparagus Maltaise.  Now I only learned recently that Hollandaise was the OG way of saying that the sauce came from / was isnpired by Holland!  It’s kind of in the name when you think about about it, but I had never put the two together before.  So…Maltaise is a Hollandaise with Orange.. inspired by…Malta?

Asparagus Maltaise

If you’re wondering why my sauce is pink…well the recipe called for Blood Orange and the Blood orange I bought (not on purpose, I literally grabbed the first blood orange I saw at the supermarket) were the darkest I have ever seen!   

Blood Orange

The juice looked like red wine!

Blood Orange Juice

It was that depth of colour that turned my sauce pink!  I thought this looked spectacular!   Pink and green are one of my favorite color combinations. And the flavour of that blood orange was spectacular!

Asparagus Maltaise2

This was delicious!!!!  One of the dishes that makes me so glad I am going back and exploring these magazines!

Asparagus Maltaise Recipe

AA asparagus maltaise (1)

What a month!!!!  I loved cooking these recipes!  They were all amazing!!!  And helped me to get my seven a day!   Have a great week! Signature2