Given my love of Aggie, cocktails and puns was there ever a world where I was not going to make a Murder on The Orient Espresso Martini? And yes, in my head I call her Aggie. I am sure Dame Agatha is turning in her grave at the thought! But, once I started I could not stop! Just like you might not be able to stop at just one of these delicious Espresso Martinis!
I have always been a bit wary of an Espresso Martini as I thought the caffeine would keep me awake. Also, the last coffee flavoured cocktail I made was from Cantina and was disgusting. It convinced me that I did not like coffee flavoured cocktails. I now think that the awfulness of that cocktail was probably more due to the many problems with that book rather than an aversion to coffee cocktails per se. I really enjoyed the Espresso Martini!!! Drinking it felt very luxuriant and sophisticated which ties in nicely with the glamour and opulence of the Orient Express.
Poirot might have sipped one instead of the luminous green cocktail he drinks in the film had they been invented back then!
Express Martini History
London bartender Dick Bradsell created the Espresso Martini in the 1980s. He mixed it up for a young model who asked him for something to “wake me up and f**k me up” Rumour has it that the model was Kate Moss but this is unconfirmed!
It would however dovetail very nicely into my narrative as Kate Moss famously dated Johnny Depp in the 1990s. And he played Ratchett in the Kenneth Brannagh version of Murder on the Orient Express!
This brings us back to doh-oh-oh!
(Don’tcha love it when something works out so neatly!)
Espresso Martini – The Recipe
I used the recipe from 365 Days of Cocktails by Difford’s Guide. The recipe on their website has a very intriguing sounding dash of salt solution in it which I really want to try!
Here’s the recipe I used:
via 365 Days of Cocktails
The November book if you are reading along will be “Three Act Tragedy” which was actually written before Murder on the Orient Express but which I skipped in order to do the collab with Jenny. Whilst it is not as well known as Murder it is a cracker of a read and unlike a few recent books is jammed full of food references.
Hello crime readers and food lovers! Welcome to part two of my Murder on The Orient Express Trilogy! We started last week with the fun collab with Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers. Today is a regular Dining with The Dame and next week we will have an added bonus. For now though, let’s focus on my recipe of choice for Dining with the Dame which is a classic French dessert – a Coeur A La Creme, the recipe for which comes from my old favourite, The A-Z of Cooking!
And just to be clear, this dessert is French, not Belgian!
Murder on The Orient Express – The Plot
We touched on this last week but here is a quick recap. Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express in Istanbul, the train is unexpectedly crowded for the time of year. On the first night, Poirot is approached by an American, Samuel Ratchett who offers Poirot money to protect him as he has been receiving death threats. Poirot does not like him and refuses. Later that evening, after a course of events that either awake him or keep him awake, Poirot learns that the train is stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of Yugoslavia.
The next morning, Poirot wakes to find that his neighbour, the odious Mr Ratchett has been stabbed 12 times and is now resoundingly dead! With no one able to get on or off the train, due to the snowdrift, the murderer has to still be on board. As the police can also not reach the train, Poirot takes on the job of hunting down the killer.
We have:
A mysterious red kimono
A burned letter with the words “member Daisy Armstrong” still legible
A handkerchief bearing the letter H
A pipe cleaner and a box of matches different to those used by Rachett
And twelve passengers who may not be entirely who they seem!
This book is so amazingly plotted, so well written that it brings my obsessive little heart joy to think about it. Every little detail in this is plotted to the nth degree, and yet when you are reading it, it feels effortless.
Murder on The Orient Express- The Covers
The American version of Murder was called Murder on the Calais Coach. Not quite as catchy is it? I love the pulp fiction cover with the woman in the red kimono and am completely baffled by the one on its right. What are those things? They look like some weird brass band instruments!
The Recipe – Coeur A La Creme
Murder on the Orient Express has a surprising lack of food. I was hoping we would have some Turkish food from the Istanbul scenes and then some very posh French food while onboard. No such luck! My choice of a Couer a la Creme came from this passage:
‘Poirot sat down and soon found himself in the favoured position of the table which was served first and with the choicest of morsels. The food too, was unusually good.
It was not until they were eating a delicate cream cheese that M.Bouc allowed his attention to wander to matters other than nourishment. He was at the stafge of the meal when one becomes philosophic”
Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
Coeur A La Creme is my take on that delicate cream cheese. And I am so glad I chose it. It is absolutely delicious!!! Next to that Ingrid Bergman Trout that I made last week, it is one of the most gorgeous, delicate, delicious things I have ever eaten. Think the lightest most delicious cheesecake you have ever eaten and you are nearly there! And it comes from something as gross as cottage cheese!
Coeur a la Creme is traitionally associated with romantic occasions such as Valentine’s Day. But as we are talking Murder on The Orient Express and we are in spooky season, I hope all those romantics out there will forgive me for making it a bit stabby!
Other Food Mentioned in Murder on the Orient Express
Perrier
Coffee (Multiple times)
Eggs – Eggs always make an appearance in these books! I wonder if writing about Poirot’s egg-shaped head so often made Dame Agatha hungry for them!
Orange juice
Mineral Water
Chicken no sauce
Boiled fish
Tea and biscuits
Cognac
Stay tuned next week for the third and final instalment of the Murder on the Orient Express Extravaganza!!! If you are reading along, next up is Three Act Tragedy so get reading!
Breaking news!
Dining with the Dame now has its own instagram page so if you are reading along or cooking along or just want to share Agatha Christie related recipes or book posts you can now hit me up there too!
All aboard! Welcome friends to a cooking and murder collab between Silver Screen Suppers and Retro Food For Modern Times. Jenny and I have been tallking about doing this literally for months! I am breaking my usual Dining with the Dame Format to cook recipes by the stars of the 1974 version of Murder on The Orient Express and half a world away in London Jenny is doing the same. Jenny provided the recipes and we agreed to watch the film on the same day!
Murder on The Orient Express 1974 – The Film
As with the Kenneth Brannagh 2017 film, the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express is a star-studded affair! The rather schlocky trailer describes it as the “Who’s who in the whodunnit”.
Others in the cast include Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Sir John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Michael York to name but a few! Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar as best supporting actress for her role in this. Albert Finney was nominated but missed out to Art Carney from Harry and Tonto.
The film follows the story of the Agatha Christie novel with the luxurious Orient Express train stuck in a snow bank with no one being able to get on or off the train. One of the guests is stabbed to death in the night. It is up to Hercule Poirot to discover whodunnit!. He soon learns that the victim is connected to the kidnapping of Daisy Armstrong 5 years before. And the group of seemingly disparate strangers on the train may not be all they seem!
The stroy is based on two true events, the first being the very famous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby i n 1932, the second was an incident when the Orient Express was trapped for 6 days in a blizzard in Turkey in 1929.
But now, we would like you to head over to the buffet car to sample today’s menu,
The Menu
Trout in Cream Saice
For your dining pleasure on today’s journey from Istanbul to Caiais, we are delighted to be serving Trout with Cream Sauce, a recipe by Ms Ingrid Bergman.
This was delicious! Trout is such a delicate fish and the lemony cream sauce was a perfect accompaniment to it. I served mine with chips (very un Orient Express), beans, broccolini and some cherry tomatoes. It was also incredibly easy to make!!! Without the chips, it is an elegant and light dish which would be worthy of the Orient Express!
The whole time I was making the trout I was singing the Billy Bragg / Wilco song :
Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman
Let’s go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman
And I deft anyone who knows this song to do otherwise!
Ingrid Bergman plays Greta Ohlsson in the film and she won the Academy Award for best-supporting actress for her role. I would give her an Oscar for that trout recipe because it was chef’s kiss mwah!!!
Prune Fool Syllabub
To end your meal, we are serving Prune Fool by Ms. Wendy Hiller. Wendy plays Princess Dragomiroff in Murder. I feel that the Prune Fool, despite its name has the hint of gravitas equal to such a grand dame!
I LOVED the Prune Fool! The prunes and currants (I didn’t have sultanas in the red wine combined beautifully with the cream and shortbread. Eating this made me feel like a grownup. for something that is so simple to make, the end result is sophisticated.
I feel both of these dishes would meet Poirot’s approval!
Just as an aside, it appears as if, whilst on the Orient Express, Poirot has eschewed his normal tisanes and sirops for a little glass of…creme de menthe? Drunk via a straw no less.
But, I digress, back to the Prune Fool.
I know I am biased but how pretty is it?
Here’s the recipe:
Cooking for this was so fun! I loved the film as well! And it is always fun to have a shared project. Thank you Jenny for the recipes and for joining in particularly on one of the big hitters like Murder on The Orient Express. (Let’s not wait 6 months before we do another!!!) And if anyone else would like to Dine with the Dame and me, please let me know!!!
If you would like to see what Jenny cooked and how she celebrated Murder Sunday, head over to Silver Screen Suppers for a look!
I’ll be back next week with a more traditional version of Dining with the Dame – Murder on the Orient Express 2 (Electric Boogaloo).
Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are Dining not only with Dame Agatha but also with Vincent Price. What a combo!! And it’s not the first time these two have met either. But more about that later. On the menu is Sole au Vermouth from Vincent Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes. And top of our reading list is Lord EdgwareDies. This is another absolute cracker of a novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lord Edgware Dies is a novel, where if you pay close attention and you know some Christie tropes you can, I think, quite easily figure out whodunnit it. I won’t mention the specific trope here because spoilers but let’s just say that people of a certain profession are quite often the villains in the novels so far!
Lord Edgware Dies – The Plot
Jane Wilkinson aka Lady Edgware wants a divorce. She asks Poirot to speak to her husband about granting her one. Although reluctant to do so, Poirot speaks to Lord Edgware, only to find that he says he has already agreed to a divorce. Then…wait for it….Lord Edgware dies (quelle surprise!). He is murdered in his home. His butler and housekeeper claim that Lady Edgware was the last person to see him alive as she visited the house that evening. However, 12 people swear to her having been at a dinner party with them at the time of the murder.
It is up to my beloved trinity of Hastings, Japp but mostly Poirot to figure out who did him in!
On top of a dead Lord we also have :
An actress who died from an overdose of veronal
A mysterious gold case
A dead actor
Altered letters
A mysterious American widow
An impoverished nephew who stands to inherit the Lord’s considerable wealth
Lord Edgware Dies – The Covers
Finding non-English Christie covers has become quite an obsession of mine. Here we have a Farsi version, a Russian edition, two French versions, and another possibly Eastern European edition. Dead centre is the Tom Adams version which eschews the normal symbolism for a pretty graphic knife in the head. It is not a corn knife, which was the murder weapon in Lord Edgware Dies but in “Tom Adams Uncovered” Tom Adam says that it was “nice little paper-knife of mine”. He also says he thinks Agatha Christie was not happy with the cover.
It is also definitely of a piece with Adams’ illustration for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd:
The Recipe – Sole au Vermouth
‘We will dine first Hastings. And until we drink our coffee, we will not discuss the case further. When engaged in eating, the brain should be the servant of the stomach.”
Poirot was as good as his word. We went to a litlte restaurant in Soho where he was well known, and there we had a delicious omelette, a sole, a chicken and a Baba au Rhum of which Poirot was inordinaltey fond”
Agatha Christie, Lord Edgware Dies
Disclaimer, we do not have sole in Australia so I cooked flathead. It tasted lovely and I very much liked VP’s idea of browning the sauce.
Other Food Mentioned in Lord Edgware Dies
Champagne, cocktails and old brandy in an immense goblet
A Baba au Rhum – I was tempted to make one of these but given I have already made a Savarin of Rum which is very similar I felt I would hold off. Given Poirot is said to be fond of them, I’m sure I will have another opportunity.
Next chronologically in the Christie canon is 1934’s Three Act Tragedy. But we may be skipping that one for the moment as we have a very special Christie collab coming up…stay tuned!
Have a great week, and for another great collab, here is something else combining Vincent Price and Agatha Christie.
When life gives some people lemons, they make lemonade. We, here at Retro Food For Modern Times never like to follow the crowd so we made lemon barley water. As previously mentioned, our backyard lemon tree is laden and because we are now in our sixty-fifth year of lockdown (or our 240th day – which feels like 65 years) we can go nowhere nor can anyone visit us so the opportunities for giving away our lemon crop are few. Other people in the area have cornered the market in setting boxes of lemons on the pavement for walkers by to pick up so we can’t even give ours away to strangers.
I was contemplating setting up my own Lucy Van Pelt-esque lemonade stand. And then, as if we don’t have enough to contend with, on top of the 240 days of lockdown already mentioned, we also had an earthquake! I now think the idea of the psychiatric stand is a better option. I mean how much more are we expected to put up with?
If you would like to see the most Australian response to the earthquake watch this. If you are offended by profanity and you watch it, that’s on you. I gave you fair warning.
Anyhoo, we were talking about Lemon barley water. It is a very old-fashioned drink. They used to serve it at tennis tournaments when I played as a teenager and I remember it as being refreshing and not too sweet. It is also the perfect drink to serve in this delightful fruit-inspired jug and glasses that I found the last time I went antiquing.
Benefits of Lemon Barley Water
You might be wondering why make lemon barley water and not just good old-fashioned lemonade? Well, I had some barley that had been sitting in the pantry for a while….
I suspect that some of these benefits are not as prevalent in this version which contains quite an amount of sugar but it is also probably no worse for you than many sweet drinks. The slight nutty barley flavour with the lemon is very pleasant.
I used the recipe for Lemon Barley water that was on the back of the pack of barley. You can also find it here. I added the juice of an extra lemon juice into my mixture to give it a bit more zing as I thought the initial end product was a bit bland.
What to do with the leftover barley
The making of lemon barley water does cause one issue – what to do with the barley. Some other recipes I looked at suggested it could be served unstrained in which case you would get more of the health benefits of the barley. I was not in the mood for a lemon barley bubble tea so I rinsed the lemon and sugar off the strained cooked barley and made a tabbouleh-like salad with more lemon juice, a heap of parsley and some tomatoes with some of it. I also mixed the rest of the rinsed barley with the dogs’ food so none of it went to waste! And we were all pretty happy!
