Category: A-Zof Cooking

Spinach Pancakes

Hello friends and welcome to a return to the wonderful vintage cookbook, The A-Z of Cooking. The last time I visited this book was back in 2016/17 when I cooked a LOT of recipes from it. There were only a few recipes left that I wanted to cook and this one for spinach pancakes with tomato sauce was top of the list! I love the combination of spinach and cheese – in spanakopita, in cannelloni and these pancakes did nothing to change my mind!

Spinach Pancakes 1

 

The finished pancakes looked very much like cannelloni!  And to be honest, while the taste was great, this was a lot of work.  The sauce needed to simmer for a few hours, the pancakes took some time to cook, the wrapping and rolling was fiddly.  Alas, no two of my rolled pancakes were the same size!  By the time these came out of the oven I was almost too tired to eat.  It was only the day after that realised this recipe was in the “Night Before” chapter of the A-Z.  It would have been far less tiring to make the sauce and pancakes the day before!  

Spinach Pancakes 2

Maybe because I was thinking of cannelloni, the method of cooking seemed a bit odd to me.  The recipe says to fill the pancakes, place them in the baking dish and then sprinkle cheese over the top. You were then meant to serve the sauce on the side.  

Spinach Pancakes 3

I did this but about half way through the cook, I gave into to the urge to pour the sauce over the top!  I then added more cheese.

 

Spinach Pancakes 4

Deeelicious!

Spinach Pancakes with Tomato Sauce – The Recipe

Spinach Pancakes Recipe

My notes on the recipe

  • I used frozen spinach
  • I subbed ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese
  • Leave yourself plenty of time – this took me around 3 and a half hours all up.  

 

And, if l like me you can’t get enough spinach and cheese, here are some other ways you can spin these flavours!

Have a great week!

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Coeur A La Creme – Murder on The Orient Express

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!

Coeur a la Creme1

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.

Coeur A La Creme 2

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

Coeur a la Creme recipe3

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!

Coeur a la Creme4

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!

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Savarin Au Rhum – Dining With The Dame 8

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  Today we are boarding a luxury train (No, not the Orient Express…but we will get to that one eventually) for murder, robbery and other hijinks.  Luckily Poirot is on hand to bring justice to all.  And, even better, while we read we can munch on some cake.  Tbook is The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie, first published in 1928 and it features a Savarin Au Rhum.

Savarin au Rhum

The Mystery Of The Blue Train – The Plot

Heiress Ruth Kettering is taking the luxury “Train Bleu” from Paris to Nice.  Also on the train is Katherine Grey, a young girl who is on her first trip out of England after inheriting a large amount of money.   When they meet in the dining car  Ruth tells Katherine that she is unhappily married and that she is on the train to go to meet her lover.

The next morning Ruth is found dead, strangled in her sleeper compartment and the gorgeous and very expensive  “Heart of Fire” ruby which had been given to her by her father is missing.  Moreover, not only has she been strangled but her entire face has been bashed in.

Luckily for all, Hercule Poirot is also travelling on the same train and is engaged by Ruth’s father to find the murderer and the missing ruby.

Savarin au Rhum8

 

On top of murders and missing jewels we have

  • About to be ex-husbands with money issues
  • Ruth’s somewhat shady lover
  • Ex-lovers with axes to grind,
  • An infamous international jewel thief known as The Marquis
  • Shonky secretaries
  • Male impersonators

Ooh la la…Poirot’s little grey cells have to go into overdrive on this one!

The Covers

Many of the covers feature versions of trains, murdered women etc.  I particularly like the skulls and bones level crossing!  Then there are the covers that take a less obvious route.  These are of course my favourites!

Mystery of The Blue Train Collage

The Recipe – Savarin Au Rhum

For the recipe for Savarin au Rhum, I turned back to one of the vintage cookbooks I looked at a few years back, The A-Z of Cooking.  The Savarin is a French cake which is why I chose it.  Who knows, a Savarin of Rhum may well have featured on The Blue Train’s menu back in the day!.

The Savarin would be a great recipe to serve guests who claim not to like cake (although why are you friends with people like that?) as it is not overly sweet.  The recipe says it is meant for  6-8 people.  We are 2 people but the Savarin did keep nicely in the fridge for close to a week.  Once it got a teeny bit stale, it made a lovely scone substitute if you toasted a slice or two and added some jam and a dollop of cream!  So, even even if you have fewer than the required number of people, it will not go to waste.

Savarin Recipe

The Comte de la Roche had just finished dejeuner, consisting of an omelette fines herbes, an entrecote Bearnaise and a Savarin au Rhum. Wiping his black moustache delicately with his table napkin, the Comte rose from the table.  He passed through the salon of the villa . noting with appreciation the few objet’s d’art which were carelessly scattered about.

Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train

Savarin au Rhum 3

Other Food Mentioned in The Mystery of The Blue Train’

This book mentions so much food it was hard to decide what to choose!

Have a wonderful week!

Next book in the list, if you want to read along, is The Seven Dials Mystery.

 

This Paté is a Turkey!

Welcome to the end of the world.  Or at the very least the end of The A-Z of Cooking (1977).

Prepare to feel robbed.

Turkey Pate2

Dear A-Z of Cooking,

Look…listen…over the past few years we’ve had joy, we’ve had fun, we’ve had seasons in the sun.

There’ve been many good times.

Remember the Mushroom Cakes?

And the Brioche?

The Profiteroles?  They were awesome!

Okay, so it wasn’t always smooth sailing.  There were downs with those ups.

There was this:

Still one of the scariest pictures I have ever seen in the pages of a cookbook.

And lets not forget this delightful looking salad:

 

 

Or this suggestion for punishing people who drop in without notice:

 

But on the whole, it’s been good times.

And this is how you end it?  With a Turkey Paté that looked like cat food until I slapped a few sage leaves and pomegranate seeds on top?  And, I might add, tasted of nothing?

And whilst we’re at it…right from the start you promised me an A-Z.

So…ummm…why are we done after Yesterday’s Leftovers?

Where’s my Z, you dick?

A-z

And a really bad turkey paté.

And no Z.

 

 

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Moules Marinieres

Today we are heading back into The A-Z of Cooking to the chapter called Wine For a Change.  And on the menu is the classic French dish of Moules Marinieres.  This is one of my favourite dishes.  I probably make this around once a month – it ticks all my boxes – it’s healthy, it’s quick and it’s cheap and so, so, tasty!  Over the years my recipe has evolved so now I have my favourite version of Moules Marinieres which I will list below alongside a more pared back version from The A-Z.  
Moules Marinieres
Before we get into the Moules lets talk about this chapter.  Wine for a Change.  Not around here it isn’t. Around here it’s a basic food group.  So there goes that title.  There are some good recipes in this section.  The Moules, Coq au vin, Peaches in Wine….oh and veal kidneys with Marsala.

You can’t win ’em all. (Sigh)

If the thought of veal kidneys with anything isn’t off-putting enough on its own, the picture is truly unsettling (It’s also at the very bottom of this post if you are brave enough).

Moules Marinieres loosely translates as Sailor’s Mussels.  Be careful of your spelling if googling this.  You could end up with this:

Hot damn! Ladies (and possibly gentlemen), don’t ever say I don’t give you anything.  Merry Christmas.  Happy Birthday and Goodnight Irene!

Where were we?  I seem to have lost my entire train of thought.

Oh yeah, mussels.  The thing that takes the longest with the Moules Marinieres is all your prep work.  First you have to debeard and scrub all of your mussels.

Then cut up your veggies for your mirepoix  I use carrot, celery, fennel and onion in mine.  And for seasoning salt (I used the Port infused salt I bought in Portugal) peppercorns, a pinch of chilli flakes and a smashed garlic clove.

Mirepoix2

 

Cook these down then add some white wine and a splash of Pernod (optional but goes really well with the fennel and the mussels).  Cook these down a bit – the longer the better! Then add wine, Pernod if using and stock and bring to the boil.  Add the mussels.  Add a lid.  Shake the pan occasionally and in all of about 5 minutes you will have a piping hot bowl of mussels with a deliciously tasty broth.

Moules Marinieres are great with bread to soak up all that broth.  And if that bread happens to be a tasty warm loaf of crusty garlic bread?  Heaven…I”m in heaven….

This time though I made mussels other best friend…frites.  With aioli.  Hard to tell from the pictures but there were three types of frites – potato, sweet potato and parsnip.

Frites

 

The great thing about this recipe is that it is amenable to all sorts of changes.  Don’t like cream?  Don’t add it.  I quite often will throw in a can of tinned tomatoes.  Also, (and this is where i am sure I will have the purists tutting at me) if you can’t be arsed debearding and scrubbing the mussels, most supermarkets now sell frozen mussel meat.  I  always have a pack of this in my freezer so can whip this up at any time.  One codicil on that though.  The shells on fresh mussels do seem to add some extra flavour.  If using mussel meat alone be sure to use a really good fish stock in your broth!

Here is the original recipe from The A-Z of Cooking and the original picture.  I cannot tell you how much I  love and covet that terracotta mussel pot.  Straight to the top of my list of kitchen must haves!!!

Moules Recipe

Moules A-Z

And here is my slightly fancier version:

[yumprint-recipe id=’107′]So, there is only ONE Chapter left in The A-Z!  Will I be able to get it out before Christmas?

Absolutely not because one of the key ingredients will be a Christmas leftover.  And yes, I will be slapping people’s hands away from the plate if there is even the remotest chance of there not being enough leftovers to make it!

Will there be another post of any sort before the big day?

Almost definitely!

See you in a couple of days!

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Oh and for the bravest o the brave?   Here are those veal kidneys: