Category: Fruit

Passionfruit Flummery

Hello friends and welcome. Today I am featuring another recipe with a wonderfully evocative name – Passionfruit Flummery. The name flummery makes me think of something that is light and fluttery, like a gorgeous butterfly. And also something summery and maybe even a little bit shimmery! Now, I can’t promise fluttery or shimmery but this is a delicious summery dessert!  This recipe for Passionfruit Flummery comes from 250 Quick and Easy Recipes which also contained the recipe for the wonderful Savoury Upside Down Pie.  

Passionfruit Flummery

So what exactly is a flummery.  Very simply it is a whipped jelly confection.  The whipping makes it feather-light and it almost melts in your mouth!  The one odd, I thought ingredient was that you needed to add some flour to the jelly mix.  I am not sure why – it did turn the jelly mix opaque rather than the normal clear colour but I can’t figure out if it serves another purpose as well.  If we have any flummery experts out there, please let me know!

Passionfruit Flummery2

The other nice thing about this dessert is…you know those people who don’t like desserts that are too sweet?  I personally am not one of them.  I love a sweet dessert, however my flavour profile also runs to sweet / sour as being right in my wheelhouse.  This is definitely a dessert for those people who do not like desserts that are overly sweet.  The passionfruit and the citrus juices keep it fresh, zesty and light!  

Passionfruit Flummery – The Recipe

Passionfruit Flummery

 

The flummery will keep in the fridge for about a week  – if you can make it last that long!  It is very more-ish!  I went in for a spoonful and ended up making a dent this big!  I really could not stop!

Passionfruit Flummery3

Flummery Fun “Facts”

I found some facts about flummeries when I was researching this post.  Now some of these seem to be more “ïnternet” facts than factual facts but let’s see how we go…

  • Flummerries started out as a sour porridge-like dish in 17th Century England
  • The name comes from the Welsh word “llymru” meaning sour oatmeal jelly boiled with the husks
  • The name was also spelt thlummery and flamery
  • In Australia and New Zealand, the name flummery was given to a mousse like dessert that used gelatine instead of cream which was more expensive

So far so good.  However, I’m less convinced about this:

  • Flummery was a fall-back dessert in the New South Wales Town of Forbes in the 1950s.

Huh…weirdly specific.  When I was in school we had to learn a song called The Streets of Forbes which is about the death of the bushranger Ben Hall. And that is pretty much all I know about Forbes.  So maybe, there and nowhere else, people were scoffing down flummery like there was no tomorrow in the 1950’s.  But I’m dubious.

I’m even more dubious about this one:

  • In the Queensland town of Longreach, it was staple food in the 1970s

Yep, right up there with flour, rice and corn…flummery!

Flummery 4

Longreach

Of course then, I had to Google Longreach to see if there was any reason why it might be the whipped jelly capital of Australia.  And I swear this is true…the very first question that pops up is:

Longreach

Which is intriguing…what is the smell in Longreach?  Is it something to do with the overconsumption of flummery?

According to this article the lanes of Longreach “were always foul with the rank and unpleasant smell of goats’ faeces and urine”.

.And based on that we can whip through the rest of the questions pretty quickly:

2) Zero is the number of days you need in Longreach.  Unless you have no sense of smell.  Then, stay as long as you like. 

3) Longreach is famous for the stench of goats. 

4) Whenever the wind is blowing those goaty fumes away.

Well, this post took a turn…we started with pretty butterflies and ended with dead bushrangers and stinky goats! 

Have a great week, I hope it doesn’t end up with stinky goats!

 

 

 

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Pineapple and Spice Financier – Murder is Easy

Murder is Easy Collage

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  This month’s read is Murder Is Easy, and I have a LOT to say about it!  Starting with a rant about how I ended up choosing a Pineapple and Spice Financier (which does not appear in the story at all) to represent the novel.  Murder is Easy contains very few food references.   This really annoyed me!   I kind of get it when AC doesn’t mention food in the novels set in foreign climes.  Back in the day, there would likely have been some good old-fashioned British reserve (ie thinly veiled racism) against foreign food.  But Murder is Easy is set in an English village and features multiple old ladies!  Where are the scones?  Where are the high teas and finger sandwiches?   The village fete with cake stalls galore?

Pineapple and Spice Financier5

Murder Might be Easy but Menu Decisions Aren’t!

So, what do you do when there is no food mentioned in the novel? My first thought always goes to puns.  Murder is greasy?  Murder is cheesy?  Chowder is Easy?  Humlebeetroot Salad?  I dismissed all of these as cornier than the chowder! I was very nearly set on the idea of making Olivia De Havilland’s Salad Niçoise.  (She played Honoria Waynfleet in the 1982 version of Murder is Easy).  However, when I looked more closely at the recipe on Silver Screen Suppers I saw that it contained both red and green capsicums.  Long-time readers will know that these do not agree with me at all.  I thought about inventing a Hit and Rum cocktail, which was going to be my take on a pineapple mojito, and spoke to two of the murders in the novel.  However, I felt there have been a lot of cocktails in my recent Dining with the Dame posts so I wanted to shy away from them.

Finally, I decided I wanted to use pineapple which, features as a murder weapon, in the story combined with the country feel of a freshly baked cake.  I chose the  Pineapple and Spice Financier as I  felt that the spices (cardamom and ginger) were a nod to Luke Fitzwilliam’s time in the Mayang Straits.  Whilst this is an entirely made-up place in my mind it is a reference to Malaysia which was still under British rule in 1939 when this book was written.

Pineapple and Spice Financier 1

Phew…that was a long intro!  So let’s get into Murder is Easy!

Murder is Easy- The Plot

Luke Fitzwilliam is home to England from his work as a policeman in the Mayang Straits.  On his way to London, he meets an elderly lady called Lavinia Pinkerton on the train.  They get to talking and Ms Pinkerton confides to him that she is on her way to Scotland Yard to warn them that there is a serial killer operating in her small country village.  She names several people who have already been a victim of said killer and also names who she thinks will be next.

Now, if you want my honest opinion of Luke Fitzwilliam?  To put it nicely, he’s no Hercule Poirot.  He’s not even a Miss Marple.  In the words of Smashmouth he “ain’t the smartest tool in the shed”.  However, his lack of perspicacity comes later.  Right now, we can’t really fault him for thinking he has sat down next to some batty old lady and so he doesn’t really take her seriously.

Until, the next day, he reads in the paper that she was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

And a week later, he reads that Doctor Humbleby who Miss Pinkerton said was the next victim, has also died.  Luke’s spidey senses start tingling and he heads down to Wychwood under Ashe to do some investigating.

Pineapple and Spice Financier3

We have:

  • Several mysterious deaths in the town Wychwood-Under-Ashe
  • A chauffeur killed by a stone pineapple
  • Dirty deeds going on with the local antique dealer
  • A cat called Wonky Poo who becomes involved in the murders in a totally disgusting way.
  • One of the suspects strangling a canary
  • Inspector Battle who we last saw in Cards on The Table (also in The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery) making an appearance!

Unfortunately,  we don’t have Poirot around to solve the mystery.  Instead, we have Luke Fitzwilliam (cue Smashmouth quote above in your head) making what seems like interminable lists of suspects and motives and still not honing in on the killer faster than his new girlfriend Bridget.  Oh, and if we’re going to cue Smashmouth whenever Luke is mentioned, then the signature tune for Bridget is The Eagles Witchy Woman!  So many references to Bridget being witch-like.  All of which come to nothing.

Murder is Easy – The Covers

Murder is Easy Collage

 

The Recipe – Pineapple and Spice Financier

My recipe comes from the November 2022 issue of Delicious Magazine.

Pineapple and Spice recipe

 

“Luke – Luke – what’s that…?”

The moon had come out from the clouds.  Luke looked down to where Bridget’s shoe trembled by a huddled mass.

With a startled exclamation he dragged his arm free and knelt down.  He looked from the shapeless heap to the gate post above.  The pine-apple was gone. “

Murder is Easy – Agatha Christie

Pineapple and Spice Financier4

Links to The Christieverse

  • As mentioned above Inspector Battle makes an appearance in Murder is Easy.
  • The Bells and Motley. is a pub in Wychwood under Ashe.   A pub by the same name features in the Harley Quin short story called “At The Bells and Motley”.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Murder is Easy

  • Plum Pudding
  • Tea (multiple times)
  • Coffee (multiple times)
  • Bacon and eggs  (I will make these one day!)
  • Kidneys (I will never make these)
  • Liqueur Brandy
  • Beer
  • Sherry

Pineapple and Spice Financier 2

Other Related News

  • A boomslang features in the  Bullet Train. We, of course, know all about that particular snake from Death in The Clouds.
  • The BBC has announced a new adaptation of l Murder is Easy.   (The Olivia de Haviland / Bill Bixby version is available on You Tube.  The Miss Marple version is not great and I would not recommend it, except Benedict Cumberbatch plays Luke).)
  • This month marks the 100th anniversary of Murder on The Links…why not celebrate by making an Omelette Berrichonne?

April’s read is Sad Cypress.

Have a great week!

 

 

 

Admiral Highball – Appointment with Death

Hello food lovers and crime readers!   Today we have not only an Appointment with Death but also a meeting with an Admiral!  An Admiral Highball that is! As mentioned in my previous post on Manakish, there is no food mentioned in Agatha’s Appointment with Death.  There is however a mention of the cocktail called a Highball. I searched through my cocktail recipes and decided that an Admiral Highball would be my drink of choice for this book.

Why you ask?  Well…Admiral Highball sounds like he might be a character in a Golden Age murder mystery.  Or one of the potential murderers in a game of Cluedo.  “It was Admiral Highball in the boatshed with a fishing rod” sounds almost too good to be made up!  More importantly, though, the Admiral Highball contains bourbon and I thought that was a nice nod to the American Boynton family who feature in this story!

Admiral Highball 1

Also, welcome to the RFFMT family, the gorgeous Carmen Vaseranda!  She’ll be popping in now and again to give her verdict on fruity concoctions. She is an absolute beauty isn’t she?

Appointment with Death – The Plot

You know how sometimes you may feel your mother is a little overbearing and/or demanding?  I hear you.  But believe me.  None of our collective issues prepares us for Mrs. Boynton. She’s Flowers in the Attic level mad in her control over her family! Formerly a prison warden, Mrs. B treats her adult children like her former prisoners!  Their touring party consists of her adopted adult children Raymond, Carol, Lennox, her own daughter Ginevra, and Raymond’s wife Nadine.

They are all somewhat psychologically scarred by their years under their mother’s control – some more than others.  Then Mrs Boyton is found dead.  She was taking medication for a heart condition so was her passing from natural causes?  Or something more sinister?  Admiral Highball 2

We have

  • Poirot overhearing the following words through an open window on his first night in Jerusalem.  “You do see, don’t you, that’s she’s got to be killed?”
  • Raymond Boynton catching feelings for Dr. Sarah King, a member of their travelling party.
  • Nadine on the verge of leaving Lennox due to his mother’s control over them
  • Ginevra Boyton increasingly losing hold of reality
  • A number of missing hypodermic needles
  • Some missing digitoxin
  • A tiny mark on Mrs Boynton’s wrist.  Could it be from the prick of a needle?
  • Pretty much everyone lying because they think someone they love did the evil deed

It’s a tangled tale.  Good thing we have Poirot on hand to bring the wrongdoer to justice!

Appointment With Death – The Covers

This, even if I do say so my self is an amazing collection!  Three Italian and one Vietnamese for a start!  I know I always gush over the colours but each and every one of these is amazing!

Appointment with Death Collage

Just as quck aside, you may be wondering why both my photo above and one of these pics has a Buddha when the story is set entirely in the Middle East?  Well it’s because at least once Mrs B is described as a Buddha:

“here, like an arch priestess of some forgotten cult, like a monstrous swollen female Buddha, sat Mrs Bonyton”

But none of above covers  prepares us for the mec plus ultra of covers for Appointment for Death which is, of course, the Tom Adams cover.  Just imagine you have heard the above plot points and seen the covers that came before you.  And instead of using motifs like an older, fat woman, scenes of Jordan, or a  threatening Arab (not even remotely featured in the story but back in the day apparently no one cared about casual racism) you come up with this!

Bravo and a standing ovation for Tom Adams.  I have no idea what your cover means, it bears no relevance to the script.

But I love you for creating it!!!

And hate you for giving me nightmares because of it!  I mean what the hell is that  coming out of that woman’s head?

The Recipe – Admiral Highball

Admiral Highball 3My recipe for the Admiral Highball came from The Mammoth Book of Cocktails by Paul Martin

Admiral Highball Recipe

Mr Jefferson Cope took another sip of highball and went on:

“I’d like to tell you, Dr Gerard, just a little of the Boynton family history”

Appointment with Death – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

I was able to find three references to other books in Appointment with Death:

  • Colonel Race and the Shaitana murder are mentioned by Colonel Carbury (Cards on The Table)
  • Nadine speaks of Poirot’s accepting the official version of the truth in the case of the Orient Express
  • Miss Pierce says she read all about the ABC CaseAdmiral Highball 4

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Appointment with Death

  • Coffee (twice)
  • Whisky Soda (twice)
  • Tea (Twice)
  • Soda Water

As I said at the top – not a huge amount to choose from!

Last time I posted I was heading to Darwin, later this week I am doing a two-day work trip to Adelaide.  My reading material on the flights will be next month’s selection, Murder is Easy. Adelaide is considered the weird murder capital of Australia so goodness only knows what I’ll find there!  Actually, maybe I won’t take Murder is Easy – I don’t want to give some nutter any ideas!

Have a great week!

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Girl’s Night – February 2003

Hello Friends! This week we are stepping back in time to February 2003 via Delicious magazine. It just so happened that the topic that came up in my random generator was Girl’s Night.  So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to tie this into Galantine’s Day.

Before we get into that, let’s set the scene for February 2003.  The month started with “Beautiful” by  Christina Aguilera topping the charts.  This was replaced by Avril Lavigne with “Im with you” for the remainder of the month.  Number one in the box office was “How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days” and the best-selling book this week was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Watermelon Vodka

My menu has somewhat of a pink theme which seems fitting for a Girl’s night but the content is definitely adult, starting with a watermelon vodka cocktail!

Watermelon Vodka

 

Watermelon Vodka Cocktail

This was so simple!  I added a little squeeze of lime into the watermelon and vodka mix as I felt it was a bit too sweet / one note without it.  It was super refreshing and made the most of our lovely summer produce!  Be careful though…too many of these and you’ll be slurring

I am beautiful no matter what they sayWords can’t bring me downI am beautiful in every single wayYes, words can’t bring me down, oh noSo don’t you bring me down today

into a pretend mic and telling all your gal pals how much you love them before dessert!

Watermelon Vodka Recipe:

Watermelon Vodka Recipe

Beetroot Confit and Marinated Goat’s FetaTarts

I didn’t make these because I pretty much hate beetroot.  To me, except for one Beetroot Tzatziki which I love, it tastes like dirt.  The funny thing is though, it is something I really want to like.  So I keep trying to make things with it in the hope that I will find the magic recipe that turns that switch in me from off to on.  In this instance, I love the look of the pastry dotted with poppy seeds, the shape of the tiny little black dots echoed in the round of the goat’s cheese, and the gorgeous crimson of the beetroot in between.

Beetroot Tarts Picture

Confit Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Tarts Recipe:

Confit Beetroot Tarts (1)

 

Tuna Carpaccio

Tuna Carpaccio

I loved this!!! It was so good!  (one thing, I completely forgot to add the cucumber to this!). Also, I had no mixed baby cress so I subbed in watercress.  When I was in Darwin recently, we went to a restaurant called Pee Wee’s at the Point for the Fussiest Eater in the World’s birthday.  There, I had a buffalo carpaccio which was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life!  That dish came with a Hot English Mustard Mayo which inspired me to add my own mayo to this carpaccio.  I made a Wasabi Mayonnaise (you can see a little dab of it front and centre in the above photo).

Here is a pic of that buffalo carpaccio.  Just looking at it makes we want to go all the way back to Darwin so I can eat it again!

Buffalo Carpaccio

Tuna Carpaccio Recipe:

Tuna Carpaccio collage 2

Baby Tiramisu

These look adorable!  And despite not being pink, they are the perfect way to end the evening…or to snack on as you are settling on the couch to watch a dvd or two!  And because they are tiny, you can eat one and still fit into a dress just like Kate Hudson’s in “How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days”! 

Baby Tiramisu Recipe:

Tiramisu Collage 2

My Nigella Moment – Duck with Berries

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 does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it! 

This month, my Nigella dish is Duck with Berries which came from an article on romantic food to cook for Valentine’s day.  It was so good! Timing is so important when cooking duck and this recipe nailed it!

Duck with Berries

Duck with Berries Recipe:

Duck with Berries recipe (1)

Delicious Magazine certainly delivered on the Girl’s Night Menu!

Please let me know if you make the Beetroot Tarts. I am so intrigued by them! And also, if you are old enough to have had a girl’s night in 2003, would this have been the menu you would have chosen?

If you would like to contribute a theme, please let me know,  I’m up for any challenge you can throw at me!

And happy Valentines, Galentines or however you want to spend the coming Tuesday!

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Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

Hello friends!   Welcome to the latest post on “What Posh People ate in the ’80s”. This recipe for Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches comes from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986.  The article features a mother and daughter who love to entertain after a match or two on their private tennis court.  When I said posh I meant swish enough to have a house with its own tennis court!

Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

I would LOVE to be invited to a spot of doubles followed by an elegant afternoon tea!  (Note to friends – can one of you please get rich so we can do this?  And can we also wear gorgeous tennis dresses like these?)

Tennis Dresses

The whole thing reminded me very much of the John Betjeman poem called A Subaltern’s Love Song:

Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn,
Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun,
What strenuous singles we played after tea,
We in the tournament – you against me!

Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won,
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

Her father’s euonymus shines as we walk,
And swing past the summer-house, buried in talk,
And cool the verandah that welcomes us in
To the six-o’clock news and a lime-juice and gin.

Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches2

Rather than lime juice and gin, this article waxes lyrical about a boysenberry daiquiri served with the afternoon tea:

One of Helena’s specialties is the delicious boysenberry daiquiri which is smooth in texture, with a wonderful colour and just enough zing in it to revive tired tennis bodies

And even includes a large picture of said daiquiris:

Boysenberry Daiquiri

But, back in 1986, if you had a tired tennis body and needed the reviving properties of a boysenberry daiquiri, you would have been SOL as the Vogue Entertaining Guide did not give you the recipe for it!  It’s the opposite of Chekhov’s Gun.  Even today, with full use of the internet, the closest thing I could find is this recipe for a berry daiquiri from the BBC.  Never let it be said that I don’t give you something to soothe your tired tennis body! I mean it’s not boysenberries but what can you do?  Maybe boysenberry daiquiris only exist in the realms of people who have their own tennis courts and would never dream of publishing their recipe on something as mucky as the internet!

The Recipe – Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

The article made no mention of who Margie is/was so neither shall we.  These were very yummy and delicate sandwiches.  And whilst I don’t want to drag Agatha Christie into every post, they were certainly something I could imagine people eating after a hit of tennis in one of her novels.  Whilst someone was being stabbed in the drawing room.

Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches3

I added a sprinkle of chives from the garden and some chive flowers as a garnish for my sandwiches.

The Saratoga Torte which I featured a while back is from this same article.

I am now going to go dream of a life that includes

The traditional charm of a tennis afternoon tea expressed through the use of gleaming family silver and old lace

 

 

Have a wonderful week!

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