Category: Drinks

Malice In The Hollow

Hello, cocktail lovers and Agatha Christie readers. While this post might not be our usual “Dining With The Dame” feature for March, fret not! Instead, consider it a literary aperitif, a tasty prelude to the main course.  Today’s recipe is a cocktail called “Malice in The Hollow.” This concoction is a playful riff on Hedda Hopper’s recipe titled “Malice in Hollywood,” which I found in the fantastic book “Recipes for Rebels” by a friend of the blog,  Greg Swenson. Greg, being the good sport he is, I’m sure won’t mind a little tampering with Hedda’s, original recipe!  The Hollow, a 1946 novel by Agatha Christie is our current Dining With The Dame read.  

Malice in The Hollow1

Hedda Hopper and Agatha Christie

Hedda Hopper, an American gossip columnist and actress, was born in 1885. This makes her a contemporary of Agatha Christie, who was five years younger. Intrigued by a possible connection between the two, I began to research. Perhaps, I thought, Hedda had starred in a film adaptation of one of Christie’s acclaimed novels. Sadly, this was not the case.  

However, the Wikipedia article for the 1965 version of “Ten Little Indians” (also known as “And Then There Were None”) cites an article by Hedda Hopper. This tantalizing detail sparked my curiosity. Did their paths ever cross beyond this single reference?  Calling all Agatha Christie and Hedda Hopper superfans! If you have any information about a deeper connection between these two ladies, please share it!

Now, let’s shift gears. “Malice in Hollywood” is a fitting description for Hedda Hopper’s career. She wielded her pen with a vitriolic touch, becoming one of the most feared figures in Hollywood. Furthermore, her staunch conservative views fueled her column during the McCarthy era, where she relentlessly denounced those with leftist leanings.

Hedda Hopper

The Malice In Hollywood Cocktail

In Recipes for Rebels, Greg says that Hedda was said to have created the Malice in Hollywood Cocktail in the 1940’s.  The OG recipe is below.  

Hedda Hoppers Malice in Hollywood

 

The Malice In The Hollow Cocktail

I am not fond of Bourbon so I have changed the ratios and added some lemon juice to balance out the sweetness of the Apricot Brandy.  

Malice in The Hollow2

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Malice In The Hollow

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A bourbon sour, based on Hedda Hopper’s Malice in Hollywood

Ingredients

Scale

2 parts Bourbon (ideally Jim Beam black)

2 parts Apricot Brandy

1 part lemon juice

Dried Apricot and Lemon peel to garnish

Instructions

Combine the bourbon, apricot brandy and lemon juice in a shaker

Shake over ice then strain into a cocktail glass.

Garnish with dried apricots and a twist of lemon

Malice In The Hollow3

Next week’s post will be our Dining with The Dame for The Hollow, so there is still plenty of time to read it if you so desire!  

Also, why not pop over to Amazon and buy a copy of Recipes For Rebels?  It is a beautifully curated book of celebrity recipes which I am sure you will love!

Have a great week!

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Jan 2004 – Pretty in Pink?

Hello, retro food lovers and welcome to 2004!  This month the random number generator chose Pink as the theme for our menu via the pages of Good Taste Magazine. Before we start though, maybe let’s throw around some phrases usually more prevalent in corporate speak than around here…

  • Maybe we just need to redefine what success looks like
  • It was a learning experience
  • And fun.  Don’t forget how much fun it was.

All of this means if the success of this menu lies in its pinkness…this month was a disaster. 

If we redefine success to mean did it taste good?  We are not quite in the pink but certainly faring a bit better than colour alone.  

Gravlax Salsa1

So back in January 2004, we were all shaking it like a polaroid picture to Ooutkast’s Hey Ya, some of you were still watching The Return of the King and people on mass were still reading the Da Vinci Code.  Surely by January 2004 we had reached peak Da Vinci? 

So, in a new year, where pop culture looks very much like the old year, let’s take a look at a pink-inspired menu.  

The Menu – January 2004

Pink Menu - Jan 2003

 

Pretty Pink Drink

Well, how can this go wrong?  There’s pink in the title and for people doing dry January (or Feb fast), it’s non-alcoholic too.  It’s lovely and refreshing.  In fact the only thing wrong with it is…

Pretty Pink Drink

 

It’s not overly pink is it?  I mean on a scale of one to Barbie..I’d give it a 5 out of 10. The Pretty Pink drink looks like the liquid lovechild of the two candle holders behind it. It is a pretty colour though, if not as pink as I would have liked.  It was tasty although having to buy three drinks to make one seemed a little unnecessary.  

Pretty Pink Drink Recipe

zz Pretty Pink Drink

Open Ham Sandwich

Open Ham Sandwich

Is there a sufficient amount of actual pink in this?  Yes!  Is it weird to have an open sandwich as a starter?  Also yes. 

I thought this challenge would be an absolute lay down misère.  Apparently, I vastly underestimated the prevalence of pink foods! 

I was a bit worried about the combination of chutney and avocado in this sandwich but they worked well together.  This was a very nice sandwich. 

Open Ham Salmon Recipe

zz Open Ham Sandwich

Salmon Ravioli With Fresh Tomato Sauce

Salmon Ravioli

I may have used the wrong sort of wonton wrapper for these because, not only was the “pasta” rather thick it was also not nearly as translucent as the one in the picture.  This was not only not overly pink but also a bit meh…the ravioli were hard to make and bland.  The sauce is pretty accurate though!  I also liked that they used the same colour plate as my bowl!

I am certainly alone in not liking this though, the comments on the recipe are all highly complimentary

Salmon Ravioli Recipe

Salmon Ravioli Collage1

 

Peach and Rosewater Sorbet with Peach Schnapps

Peach.  I mean, the clue is right there in the name.  And we’ll leave it to the picture to show exactly how well this met the brief of pink.

Peach Sorbet

Having said that, the peach sorbet was delicious.  I almost wish I had made it back in 2004 so it could have been in my life for the last twenty years.  As a bonus though, last year my mum gave us a…what do you call a really tiny tree?  This was basically a knee-high-to-nothing stick in the dirt when we first got it.  This summer though, we had our first three peaches from it.  So I foresee many summers of peach sorbet in my future life.  And that can only be a good thing. 

It wasn’t anything like pink though!

Peach Sorbet Recipe

zz Peach Sorbet

My Nigella Moment  – Gravlax Salsa

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.  

I almost had this as the starter but I felt it was a bit cheaty in a pink challenge to have a salmon starter and main.  This, and the sorbet are the things I will take away from this month to be the things I make again and again.  The recipe for the gravlax salsa came with some caraway wafters – I don’t like the taste of caraway so I made my wafers with everything bagel seasoning.  I won’t make them again.  They were ok but for the time and effort they took I would rather buy some.  I haven’t included the recipe for the wafers.   You also do not need the mustard dill sauce for the salsa.

Gravlax Salsa Recipe

Gravlax Salsa2

 

Gravlax 1

Gravlax 2 (1)

So January 2004 was a total failure in terms of meeting the brief, but also gave me two amazing recipes!  And the drink wasn’t bad either.  Let’s see what February brings!

If you were making a pink menu, what would you include?

 

 

Zero Waste – Basil Bellini

Greetings friends! Today is a quick post on a variation to the Rosemary Bellini I posted a few weeks ago.  The Basil Bellini came about as I had a few peaches leftover from making the Rosemary Bellini.  Rather than letting them go to waste, I thought I would make some of  Kylee Newton’s Peach and Basil Lemonade with them. Basil Bellini2Kylee’s recipe is delicious peachy basil-y lemonade that is so refreshing on hot days!  However, in her recipe (below) you need to strain out and discard the solids after blitzing.   But, those same solids are actually a delicious puree of peach and basil!  In my opinion, it was far too tasty to go to waste…y. (Sorry)

And so I made it into a hasty Basil Bellini! 

Basil Bellini

I added a spoonful of that peach and basil mix into a glass of sparkling and voila…a Basil Bellini!  

A side advantage of the basil bellini is that you can have the kudos of making your kids homemade peach and basil lemonade and also have quiet mummy (or daddy) juice on the side!  You could also add some of the strained mixture into your sparkling wine but then you would miss that little frisson of smug of also being zero waste!

Peach and Basil Lemonade Recipe

This comes from Kylee Newton’s book The Modern Preserver which I cannot recommend highly enough!

Peach and Basil Lemonade

I hope your week is just peachy!

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Dec 03 – Make Mine A Double

Hello, retro food lovers and Season’s Greetings from 2003!  This month I am using Delicious Magazine from December 2003 to prepare a menu where…well let’s see if you can guess…Hint..there’s a big clue in the title. 

The whole time I was cooking this month I also kept thinking back to my early twenties when we used to play a drinking game called “I’m going to the moon”.  The person who starts says “I’m going to the moon and I’m taking (for example) an apple”.  Then the next person says “I’m going to the moon and I’m taking a pear”.  The first person who is the game controller tells them if they can come to the moon or not.  If they can’t go, they need to stay on earth and have a drink.   There are many variations on this game but my personal favourite was based on the same theme as this month.  Let’s move away from my sozzled past to see what was happening in December 2003.  Although come to think about it, that was probably the same time as I was playing the game!

The Lord of The Rings:  Return of the King was the big movie of December 2003.  The Last Samurai was the next biggest.  And, quelle surprise, The Da Vinci Code was still the best-selling book.  Which all kind of explains why I was playing drinking games instead of partaking in pop culture.  Although the soundtrack to those drinking games would have been good with Here Without You and Hey Ya! being the number one songs that month!  

Moorish Champagne Cocktail1

The Menu – December 2003

Moorish Champagne Cocktail

Moorish Champagne Cocktail

I am always very happy to be able to start these menus with a cocktail.  The Moorish Champagne Cocktail was both easy to make and also very more-ish!  

Moorish Champagne Cocktail2

 

Moorish Champagne Tart Recipe

Dec 2003 - Moorish Champagne Cocktail Recipe

Salad of Dried Pears, Proscuitto, Blue Cheese and Walnuts

AKA a salad of a few of my favourite things!  If this hadn’t fit the theme, it would have surely been my Nigella item for this month!  And it was divine!

Salad of Dried Pears

Salad of Dried Pears, Proscuitto, Blue Cheese and Walnuts Recipe

Salad of Dried Pears recipe2

 

Salad of Dried Pears 2

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto

I apologise for the photo of this which is not great.  Having said this, the photo from the mag (which follows the recipe) is also not great.  Neither photo does this dish, which was amazing any justice!  But, trust me, it is worth taking a punt on as it was delicious! Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto

 

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto Recipe

Grilled Salmon with Thai Green Risotto recipe (1)

 

Mulled Wine Sorbet With Clove Biscuits

This was so nice and refreshing.  It is summer in Australia so this is a nice nod to wintry flavours but adapted for summer.  The sorbet mixture was very soft, for me it was more like a slushie than a sorbet so my recommendation is either not to serve it on a very hot day or to eat it quickly as it melts in moments.  Speaking of melting, the clove biscuits just melt in your mouth!  I am usually a bit wary of cloves – I’ve bit into them accidentally when eating things like curries and find the flavour a bit too much!  So, for the first few biscuits, I ate, I picked the cloves off. Since then, I have eaten them with the clove in and the flavour of them seems to be less powerful in the biscuits than in say a curry.  So, even if you don’t love cloves, give these a try with them!

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits Recipe

Mulled Wine Sorbet with Clove Biscuits recipe (1)

My Nigella Moment  – Crispy Herbed Potatoes

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.  

You had me at crispy potatoes!  And then when I saw how pretty these were, I knew they would be my Nigella item for this month.  If I hadn’t already bought what I needed to make Katrina Meynink’s Roasted Taters with Horseradish and Tapenade for Christmas Day, the Crispy Herbed Potatoes would have been on the menu.  (As an aside, I have just bought the aforementioned book From Salt to Jam and am absolutely loving it).  

Dec 2003 - Crispy Seared Potatoes3Crispy Seared Potatoes Recipe

Crispy Herbed Potatoes (1)

Overall a great month from Delicious December 2003.  If you have not yet guessed the theme, no going to the moon for you!  But in the interest of your liver, it was to find recipes with double letters.  Until I did this, I had never really thought about how many food items had these.  I was absolutely spoiled for choice with options:

(Update 6/1/24 – I had originally included links to items below that are still on the Delicious.com.au website.  Those links have been blocked but anything I have asterisked is available should you want to check them out.)

Starters

  • Baked eggs
  • Bruschetta with grilled artichokes and roasted garlic
  • B’stilla*
  • Cheese Crock
  • Chilled pea soup with lobster and risoni salad*
  • Goat’s curd in grappa*
  • Prawn and fattoush salad
  • Schiacciata*
  • Spanner crab chowder
  • Peppered Beef Salad
  • Smoked Salmon with clementines and cress
  • Terrine with microwave cranberry chutney

Mains and Sides

  • Beef fillet with spicy potatoes and horseradish
  • Butternut pumpkin with tasty stuffing
  • Cheeky Christmas turkey with braised leeks and the best wine gravy
  • Chicken noodle salad
  • Chicken with pepperoncini
  • Cinnamon and sultana couscous
  • Cold turkey salad with mango and honey dressing
  • Country chicken and mushroom pies
  • Chicken coconut curry pie
  • Crispy skin coral trout with roasted pineapple, coconut salad and rosti potato
  • Fillets of John Dory with olives, capers and rosemary
  • Flame grilled tuna with wasbi cake, bok choy and lime ponzu
  • Fricassee of chicken with mustard and grapes
  • Grilled coral trout with asparagus, red capsicum and sugar snap peas
  • Rice paper rolls with turkey
  • Seared barramundi with garlic skordalia, asparagus and creole salsa
  • Traditional Barossa ham in verjuice jelly
  • Turkey with saffron butter and preserved lemon and olive stuffing
  • Baked zucchini tarts with stuffed vegetables
  • Frisee, watercress and witlof salad
  • Goat’s cheese tarts with roast peaches and vincotto
  • Moroccan carrot salad
  • Open lasagne of asparagus with rocket tortellini
  • Roasted eggplant and tomato salad
  • Savoury Summer puddings
  • Sweet potato briks
  • Truffled potato mash

Sweets

  • Baked lime cheesecake
  • Boozy puddings with cheat’s custard*
  • Cherry clafoutis*
  • Choc-mint raspberry sundae
  • Chocolate and strawberry tartines*
  • Chocolate and brandied prune terrine*
  • Christmas morning muffins*
  • Christmas pudding ice cream with sweet cranberry sauce
  • Cinnamon ice cream with red wine poached figs*
  • Chocolate cake with plum pudding vodka*
  • Coconut and passionfruit slice
  • Eggnog custards*
  • Flourless Hazelnut roulade
  • Free-form berry trifles
  • Middle Eastern fruit cake*
  • Pannettone with berries and brandy sauce
  • Passionfruit panna cotta*
  • Raspberry ice cream sundae
  • Snowballs*
  • Starry night tarts*
  • Star-topped mince pies
  • Strawberry sundae*
  • Tutti Frutti ice cream*
  • Vanilla sponge with raspberries
  • White Chocolate and chilli ice cream with tropical fruit

Other

  • Hettie Potter’s suet-free mince meat
  • Easy cranberry sauce
  • Peanut Butter sauce
  • Raspberry sauce
  • Strawberry sauce
  • Irish coffee with orange rind and vanilla

 

Sorry for the massive laundry list but I really wanted to show how many items had double letters!  I was honestly astounded! 

So, my question to you lovely readers is – if you were making your own double-letter dinner, what would you choose? Either from the extensive list above or things that have not been mentioned – baguettes, beetroot, jelly, waffles, green beans, toffee, frittata, dill, mayonnaise, cabbage, spaghetti, mozzarella…the list goes on!

Couscous which is in the list above is the only thing I could think of with the same series of letters twice.  Can you think of any others?

And one last thing.  Thank you all for reading and commenting through the year!  Best wishes for an amazing 2024!

 

 

 

Sparkling Cyanide – Rosemary Bellini

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  This month our menu is a tribute to the late Rosemary Barton, one of the characters in Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide.  We are remembering Rosemary with a Rosemary Bellini.  We’ll get to her in a moment but first let’s take a moment to ponder the US title which was Remembered Death.  Now, why on earth when you have an AMAZING title like Sparkling Cyanide, would you change it to something as humdrum as Remembered Death? 

Sparkling Cyanide Photo 1

 

Sparkling Cyanide – The Plot

“Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago…”

Agatha Christie – Sparkling Cyanide

A year before the novel is set the lovely Rosemary Barton and six of her family and friends gathered for dinner at the swanky Luxembourg Hotel. Rosemary collapsed and died during the dinner.  The coroner’s verdict was that she committed suicide due to depression after a bout of flu. (I was quite surprised to hear that depression from the flu was considered a thing back in the day.  I guess now with long covid, we are seeing much the same thing but under a different name).

Six months before the novel is set, Rosemary’s husband, George gets a series of anonymous letters saying that Rosemary was murdered.  George hatches a plot to find her killer by having another dinner at The Luxembourg exactly one year after Rosemary’s death with the same people attending.

Dumb idea?  Totally.  Because George dies of cyanide poisoning on the night.  

Making one of the dinner guests the murderer of both people.  If George was killed because he was getting too close to the truth,  who, at the table wanted Rosemary dead?  Turns out, everyone has a motive!

We have:

  • Iris Marle, Rosemary’s sister.  She stood to inherit her sister’s considerable fortune
  • George himself may have killed Roseary as he had discovered she was having an affair.  Did he do himself in out of guilt?
  • The enigmatic Anthony Browne threatened Rosemary with death.  Did he poison her to keep her quiet about his shady past?
  • Stephen Farraday, a politician whose career was on the up was having an affair with Rosemary.  Did he kill her to avoid a public scandal if she revealed their dalliance?
  • Lady Alexandra (Sandra) Farraday, Stephen’s wife had a great reason for wanting Rosemary dead.  She wanted to keep her husband. 
  • Ruth Lessing George’s secretary who has a crush on George and hates Rosemary

Good thing we have Co lonel Race on hand to bring the killer to justice!

Sparkling Cyanide Photo 2

The Moving Finger – The Covers

Sparkling Cyanide collage
Sparkling Cyanide collage

 

I was so happy to find a load of covers for Sparkling Cyanide and so many non-English covers!   However…Portugal and France both seem to have confused champagne for martinis as covers from both countries feature glasses containing olives. 

 

The Recipe – Rosemary Bellini

Print

Sparkling Cyanide – Rosemary Bellini

A lovely twist on a traditional Bellini

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 peaches (I like white peaches but you can use yellow if you prefer them)
  • 6 springs of rosemary
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar plus more for garnish
  • 1/2 glass white wine, prosecco, sparkling wine, orange juice or water
  • 1 bottle champagne

Instructions

  • Halve the peaches
  • Place the peach halves and two of the rosemary sprigs into a saucepan with the sugar and the 1/2 glass of wine / prosecco / juice water
  • Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted and the peaches are soft. 
  • Cool the peach mixture then puree.

Frosted Rosemary Garnish

  • Lightly beat the egg white
  • Take the 4 remaining rosemary sprigs and dip them in the egg white then dredge them in the caster sugar.
  • Set aside.

Assembly

  • When you are ready to serve, place a dollop of the peach puree into the bottom of a cocktail glass.  
  • Top with champagne and give a light stir.
  • Garnish each glass with a frosted rosemary spring.

Enjoy!

 

Every murderess was a nice girl once

 Sparkling Cyanide – Agatha Christie

 

 

Links To The Christieverse

None that I could find but Colonel Race appears in:

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  Sparkling Cyanide

January’s Read is Death Comes As The End

      SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS

 

We are told twice that a certain character has no pity in them.  I.e. is the type of person who may resort to murder…

Whose name might indicate that they are this type of person?