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!
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!
I was doing some reading the other day and, no, not an Agatha Christie, even though I am about half way through Hercule Poirot’s Christmas for the next Dining with The Dame. I was reading some poetry (because in my head I am the cool intellectual girl who reads untranslated French poetry whilst drinking black coffee at a cool café in the hippest arrondissement in Paris).
In reality I was likely lying on my couch in dirty sweatpants, shoving salt and vinegar chips into my face. Regardless of the setting though, whilst I was reading came I across a poem by Edith Sitwell called “When Sir Beelzebub” The opening lines of which are
When
Sir
Beelzebub called for his syllabub
in the hotel in Hell
Where Proserpine first fell,
Blue as the gendarmerie were the
waves of the sea,
Which got me thinking…why aren’t there more poems about dessert? And why have I never made a syllabub? I’m still waiting for an answer on the first question. But as for the second?
No trip to hell required!
What is Syllabub?
Syllabub is a gorgeous British dessert which originated in the 16th century. It is a whipped cream dessert, originally flavoured with sweet wine or cider. My version uses rosé as the wine and pairs the rosé flavoured cream with a rhubarb and rosewater compote.
I really like the word syllabub. It sounds so slinky and smooth. But with a hint of bite with that last b. Which pretty much describes the syllabub. The silky smooth cream has a little kick of rosé and the rhubarb compote is tangy with hints of orange and rose. Layer it into your prettiest vintage glasses so you can see the contrast of the cream against deep crimson rhubarb.
It also looks very pretty when you put your spoon in and the layers get all mixed up and marbled. Maybe I have been reading too many Agatha Christie’s but my first thought was a rather macabre “like blood in the snow”! 😂 I could totally imagine Miss Marple eatiing syllabub too!
Place rhubarb, sugar, orange juice and zest into a saucepan.
Add rosewater to taste (please see note below).
Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb is soft but is keeping it’s shape. If the mixture starts to stick you can add a tablespoon or so of water but you don’t want the rhubarb mixture to be too wet.
Allow to cool
For the Cream
Add the rosé and sugar to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, over a high heat stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and allow the mix to reduce by a third.
Allow to cool.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Fold in the rose mixture.
Layer the rhubarb and cream mixtures into a glass.
Top with a strawberry and some flaked almonds for crunch!
Notes
Rosewater can be overpowering. Start with half a teaspoon before cooking the rhubarb and add more after cooking if you want to boost the flavour.
A Very Brief Side Note on Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell, the writer of “When Sir Beelzebub” was a fascinating woman. Six foot tall, she had a distinctive dress style – turbans and the most amazing jewellery. She was also an innovative poet. One of her poems, Gold Coast Customs was written in jazz rhythms and she wrote a wrote poems to music in a show called Facade which was performed behind a curtain pained with a face. The words were read through a megaphone via a hole in the mouth. (This to me sounds very Mighty Booshy…I wonder if they might have been inspired by her.
She was also not one to mince words and had some scathing things to say about people including the critic F.R Leavis (For those fans of Bridget Jones out there Yes, “the F.R. Leavis who died in 1978.”) whom she called a “a tiresome, whining, pettyfogging little pipsqueak”. She also called D.H. Lawrence a “a plaster gnome on a stone toadstool in some suburban garden”. So in 1953, some bright spark had the idea for Dame Sitwell to interview Marilyn Monroe, assuming, oif course that they would hate each other and the Sitwell’s scathing critique of Monroe would create a commotion and of course increase circulation!
I’m sure, much to the chagrin of a features editor, the two liked each other!
via The Guardian
The meeting between the two occurred in the Sunset Tower in Hollywood which is certainly not a hotel in hell! I wonder if they might have eaten some syllabub!
For most people of my age the word flan conjures up the episode of Friends where Monica makes a birthday flan.
Monica Geller : We’re not having cake. We’re having flan.
Chandler Bing : Excuse me?
Monica Geller : It’s a festive custard Mexican dessert.
Well, today we having Flan de Café which is a coffee flavoured Mexican custard dessert direct from the South American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. Now, I know Mexico is not in South America, and I know you know that Mexico is not in South America. Good Housekeeping? Maybe not so much!
To amp up the coffee-ness of my flan, I baked them some vintage tea cups.
What did not need to amped up was the coffee flavour. I used the lower level of coffee suggested by the recipe which was 6 tablespoons and thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest for about an hour after eating it! I was WIRED! Talk about a major flan high!
I would probably halve the amount of coffee for future makes. Outside of a power punch of caffeine, the flavour was lovely, the light touch of orange added a refreshing note and the custard was silky and smooth. The Brazil nuts added a nice crunch as well as some garnish. I added some extra orange zest to the top of the flans to brighten them up. I chose not to use the recipe’s serving suggestion because I have a bit of a yecchh factor with raw eggs and I could not find guava jelly anywhere.
Flan De Café – The Recipe
Festive Flan Fun
As I was making the flans, I remembered something I heard wayback one of those science shows for kids. They said that there was enough oil in a brazil nut to act as a candle. For some weird reason, that piece of trivia has stuck in my head! Well, I had Brazil nuts and I had a flan which, after all is a festive dessert!
I really didn’t expect this to work particularly as the nuts kept breaking when I tried to chop them into anything resembling a taper. However….
Success!!!! Now that’s a really festive custard dessert!
Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading (and eating) our way through another short story from the Murder in The Mews collection. On the menu is a lovely and light lemon soufflé. Also, an apology for the long break between posts – we had a lovely week away but pretty soon after we got home, I fell ill. I had an old-school non-covid flu that lasted nearly two weeks and left me with infections in both ears! A lingering cough from that same flu also lead me to putting my back out! All up, September has been a month of me either being ill or in pain, neither of which has left me with much energy for cooking or writing. However, I read this Poirot short story when away and in the small gap of time between my return home and getting ill, I cooked the soufflés.
The Incredible Theft- The Plot
.Air Marshal Sir George Carrington calls Poirot to come to the country house of Sir Charles Mayhew where some plans for a new bomber have been stolen. The bomber will give Britain unparalleled power in the air should war eventuate. The theft of the plans is a great blow to Britain’s military power. Attending a house party on the night of the theft was Mrs Vanderlyn, a much-married vamp who is described as being “a very useful person to….a European power – and perhaps to more than one European power”. Given her marriages have been to an Italian, a German and a Russian, we are not only given the start of a joke where three men walk into a bar but the possible European powers to which Mrs Vanderlyn might be useful!
Perfect Poolside Reading!
Apart from the seductive Mrs Vanderlyn we have
A mysterious figure in the shadows
A screaming maid
A woman with gambling debts
A spoiled son in need of some cash
Britain’s likely next Prime Minister with something to hide from the populace
Good thing we have Poirot to sort it all out. Only…do we? This story is somewhat of an anomaly because only after the denouement do we realise that Poirot actually does very little – all the work is done by….ah…that would be telling! 🙊
The Incredible Theft- The Covers
I could only find two covers for The Incredible Theft – neither of which are very exciting:
Instead, I thought we could all crush on the divine country manor that features in the Poirot version of The Incredible Theft
And, whilst we are in full drool mode, how about we take a look at Mrs Vanderlyn (and also some more house porn)
That same dress also does not disappoint from the back!
Here is another very glam outfit!
No wonder half of Europe seems to be gaga for Mrs V!
Lady Carrington also knows how to rock a sparkle and lace combo!
As much as I could dote on the fashions and locations of Poirot all day, we need to move on to another gorgeous little number, my lemon soufflé!
Trim the base of the lemon so they sit flat. Cut off the top third of each lemon and, using a teaspoon, remove the pulp from the lemons (this takes a while) over a bowl lined with a sieve.
Squeeze the juice from the pulp and reserve. Discard the pulp.
Place the lemon shells on the prepared tray.
Preheat your oven to 180C
Combine the yolks, half the sugar, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the flour in a heatproof bowl. Beat until thick and pale.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and beat for another 8-10 minutes until the mixture is the thickness of a thick custard. Remove from the heat but continue to beat until the mixture is cool – about another 2-3 minutes.
Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, add the remaining salt and the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Whisk one-third of the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture. Fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture with a large metal spoon. Be as gentle as you can here. You want to preserve as much of the lightness and air from the whipped whites as possible.
Spoon the mixture into the lemon shells, filling to the rims.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the soufflés have risen 2-3 centimetres above the rim of the lemons and are golden.
Transfer to serving plates, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.
Notes
Leftover lemon juice can be frozen into ice cube trays to use as you need.
Or seeing as life has given you lemons, make lemonade!
If you accidentally poke your spoon through the bottom of the lemon as you are removing the pulp, never mind. Wrap the base of the lemon tightly in aluminium foil for cooking and remove it for serving. This will prevent any souffle mixture oozing out the bottom!
As the butler handed round the souffle, Lord Mayfield leaned confidentially towards his neighbour on the right, Lady Julia Carrington. Known as the perfect host, Lord Mayfield took trouble to live up to his reputation. Although unmarried, he was always charming to women.”
– Agatha Christie, The Incredible Theft
Links to The Christieverse
Nothing that I could find.
Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Incredible Theft
Dessert
Port
Breakfast
October’s read will be another short story from Murder in the Mews. Get out your sunblock and get ready for some fun and murder in the sun with Triangle at Rhodes.
You may be thinking that the recipe for Saratoga Totre comes from the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It does not. I found this recipe in the October 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide I had never heard of Saratoga Torte and assumed it was an American dish. I was very surprised to learn that it is actually an Australian recipe. There is a small town called Saratoga on the Central Coast of New South Wales so it may have originated there.
Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte
Technically this recipe is called Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte however, as there is no mention of who Madelaine is or how her Saratoga Torte differs from anyone else’s, I am taking the liberty of dropping her name. The recipe comes from an article entitled “Anyone for Tennis?” focussing on mother and daughter entertainers Maria and Helena Law.
This is also the same edition of Vogue Entertaining that gave us this recipe for crumbed lamb cutlets.
Sao Biscuits
Sao (Say-O) biscuits are key to making Saratoga Torte. These are a savoury cracker biscuit that have been made by Arnott’s biscuits since 1906. Sao is possibly an acronym for Salvation Army Officer as one of the Arnott’s Brothers was indeed an officer in the Salvation Army.
Via Arnotts.com
If you are not in Australia and you want to make a Saratoga torte I would suggest substituting water crackers. However Sao’s are quite large so I would use double the number of water crackers.
Also, if you happen to be researching Sao biscuits stay away from any mentions of the soggy Sao. This is a practice apparently indulged in by groups of teenage boys. As with most things done by groups of teenage boys it is highly unsavoury.
You have been warned. Proceed down that path and anything that comes at you is on you. Which is potentially a very bad choice of words.
Let’s swiftly move on!
What is Saratoga Torte?
Imagine if you made a meringue mixture and you added crushed-up crackers and crumbled walnuts to the mixture. Then you baked that and topped it with whipped cream and flaked chocolate.
That, in essence is Saratoga Torte.
And it is delicious!!!
The nutty meringue with a little hit of salt every now and again from the crackers is so good! And the cream and little hints of chocolate are the perfect foil. A little hit of Amaretto or Frangelico in the cream would also not be entirely out of keeping.
This was a bit sweet, the next time I make this I will drop the sugar down to 3/4 of a cup and not a whole cup. The key to a lovely thick and glossy meringue is to add the sugar quite slowly and to make sure that each spoonful melts before you add the next one.
The Recipe – Saratoga Torte
Saratoga Torte is utterly delicious, very easy to make and also a little bit out of the ordinary. Why not make it as part of your New Year’s festivities?
Also, if anyone knows the origin of Saratoga torte or who Madelaine might be, please drop me a note in the comments!
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!
I’m on holiday from work so hope to have another post for you before the new year. Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a wonderful week!
