Month: March 2024


Mar
2024

March 2004 – No O’s

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Custard, Delicious, Desserts, Magazines, Potato, Prawns, Salad, Steak

Hello, retro food lovers! Today we are stepping back in time for a fun theme.  Remember the childhood book “Ghosts and Crows and Things With O’s?  Well, today is the opposite. My aim today was to create a menu where none of the recipes contain the letter O in its name.  Weird?  Yes but so is Omicronphobia which is a fear of the letter O.  Just in case you ever happen to be entertaining someone suffering from this affliction, here is a menu for you.  Also, please don’t tell them I called them weird!  Our guide today is the March 2004 issue of Delicious Magazine.

Blue Cheese with Walnuts and Honey2

So, what else was happening in March 2004?  Well, a fire crew in a hurry to get to a fire in Melbourne Florida left a fryer on in the firehouse.  A little later they got a call to come and put out another fire…at their firehouse!  In popular culture, the Da Vinci code was still top of the best seller lists and The Passion of  The Christ was number 1 at the box office.  Yeah by Usher was the number one song.

Now, that we have set the scene, let’s get to the menu

The Menu – March 2004

No O Menu

Prawn Caesar Salad

This was not strictly a Caesar Salad as the dressing was more of a Marie Rose-type thing but it had a Caesar-ish vibe about it.  It was also delicious! You can find a more classic Caesar Salad here. 

Prawn Caesar Salad

Prawn Caesar Salad Recipe

Prawn Caesar

Teriyaki Steak with Wasabi Mash

I loved this, it was my favourite dish on the menu and so easy to make as well.  I often found bought teriyake sauces much too sweet for my palate but this was perfect. And the wasabi mash was a perfect accompaniment.  I also served some edamame and pickled veg alongside. 

Teriyaki Steak with Wasabi Mash

Teriyaki Steak with Wasabi Mash Recipes

Steak Teriyaki (1)

Crème Brulée

March has been a very custard and caramel month around these parts.  Last week I made caramel custard and this week, its more sophisticated cousin, Crème Brulée.  I will say though that I cannot recommend this recipe.  For a start, the cooking time was completely out.  I had to cook my custards for about double the time they suggested! I was also intrigued by their suggestion of grinding the sugar to make it easier to torch.  It did not. All it did was add to the time taken to cook the recipe, and burn the sugar when I torched it.  After the first two, I went back to my usual way of using normal caster sugar and it was fine.  Just listen to this.  This is the sound of a good Crème Brulée. 

Crème Brulée Recipe

It was a bit of a dud but I am including it for compleness sake.  And having said that, the custard was delicious.  And once I reverted back to my usual non-powdered white sugar, the bruleed top became perfect!  

creme brulee recipe

My Nigella Moment  – Blue Cheese, Honey and Walnuts

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 have long said that cheese is my love language so this recipe immediately called to me.  So simple and so delcious.  And if you wanted to bring this recipe up to date?  Sub out ordinary honey for some hot honey.  This is a perfect after-dinner cheeseboard for one, or many.  I served mine with  a green salad and a croissant for a delicious lunch.  This recipe is proof that the simple things in life are often the best!

Blue Cheese with Walnuts and Honey

 

Blue Cheese with Walnuts and Honey Recipe

Blue Cheese with Walnuts and Honey recipe

 

Apart from a few hiccups with the Brulee, I loved this month.  Delicious Magazine has allowed the Omicronphobes (and me) have some beautiful vibrant and tasty meals!  

Have a great week! 

 

 


Mar
2024

Caramel Custard – The Hollow

categories: Custard, Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  Today’s Dining With The Dame novel, The Hollow, contains many references to food so I did not have to resort to any terrible puns.  The novel was published in 1946 which makes me wonder if, despite rationing continuing well into the 1950s, there was a sense of post-war abundance that fuelled so many food references!  I chose Caramel Custard as my menu item for The Hollow as not only it is referred to in the novel but it is also one of my favourite desserts! 

Like me (and Poirot) many of you will be more familiar with the French name for this dish, Crème Caramel.  My recipe for this classic French dish came from the amazing cookbook by thriller author Len Deighton, The Action Cookbook.

Caramel Custard

The dedication for the The Hollow reads:

For LARRY and DANAE

With apologies for using ther swimming pool as the scene of a murder

And for my mind, the best scene in the Poirot episode features that pool.  It reminds me of a Slim Aarons pool shot…with a little murder thrown in!

the-hollow

SLim Aarons

 

The Hollow – The Plot

Of course, say what you like, a murder is an awkward thing—it upsets the servants and puts the general routine out

Agatha Christie – The Hollow

Who killed Doctor John Christow?  His wife Gerda stands by his dying body holding a revolver. But his last word was “Henrietta”, the name of his mistress.  He has also just recently spurned his former fiance, actress Veronica Cray.  

Could one of these three women be reponsible for his death?  Or could someone else have done it?

Creme Caramel 2

Poirot cannot rid the feeling that the murder scene is staged

For what he was looking at was a highly artifiical murder scene.  By the side of the pool was the body, artistically arranged with an outflung arm and even some red paint dripping gently over the edge of the concrete into the pool.  It was a spectacular body, that of a handsome fair haired man.  Standing over the body, revolver in hand, was a woman…

And there were three other actors.  On the far side of the pool  was a tall young woman…she had a basket in her hands full of dahlia heads. A little further off was a man, a tall inconspicuous man in a shooting coat, carrying a gun.  And immadiately on his left with a basket of eggs in her hand was his hostess, Lady Angkatell.  

It was clear to Poirot that several different paths converged here at the swimming pool and that these people has each arrived by a different path. 

It was all very mathematical and artificial

Agatha Christie – The Hollow

Luckily Poirot is around to cut through the artifice to find out whodunnit!

The Hollow – The Covers

The Hollow Collage (1)

I believe we have our first Japanese cover in the mix today! And possibly the first Polish cover too! Most of these stick to the elements of the swimming pool, the gun, the house. A few also nod to Henrietta being a sculpturer.  But bless the French for their brightly coloured pool float flamingo!

The Recipe: Caramel Custard

The Len Deighton Acion Cookbook was first published in 1965  It was a compilation of “cookstrips” also drawn by Deighton and originally published in The Observer.  It is a truly wonderful cookbook!

Creme Caramel Recipe

 

After the ducks there was a caramel custard which, Lady Angkatell said showed just the right feeling on the part of Mrs. Medway.  Cooking, she said, really gave great scope to delicacy of feeling.  

“We are only, as she knows, moderately fond of caramel custard.  There would be something very gross, just after the death of a friend, in eating one’s favourite pudding.  But caramel custard is so easy – slippery if you know what I mean”

Agatha Christie – The Hollow

Creme Caramel 3

Links To The Christieverse

Lucy Angkatell says that Poirot was in Baghdad “solving something” when her husband was the High Commissioner there but I could find no reference to speciifc cases.  

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in  The Hollow

Our March read is The Labours of Hercules

Have a great week!

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Mar
2024

Malice In The Hollow

categories: Apricot Brandy, Bourbon, Drinks

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

Print

Malice In The Hollow

Malice in The Hollow1
Print Recipe

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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Mar
2024

Fresh Asparagus with Rouille

categories: 1980's recipes, Asparagus, France

Hello friends and welcome to another post on what posh people ate in the 1980s. Spring has sprung in many parts of the world. I have been holding over the recipe for Fresh Asparagus with Rouille for months as I think it is a perfect dish for the season. 

Asparagus with Rouille

Why Is Fresh Asparagus with Rouille Posh Food?

We’ve long considered asparagus a high-end vegetable. 

A scene in The Crown was reshot because the etiquette advisor noticed Dominic West using a knife and fork for asparagus. The proper way is to pick it up with your fingers! This is exactly how I used to eat it back in my single days. Sometimes, when too tired to cook after work, dinner became microwave hollandaise sauce and steamed asparagus dunked straight from the jar.  I just thought I was being lazy!

And I suspect that the inclusion of the word “Fresh” in the recipe title was further 1989 code for “Not that tinned garbage the hoi poiloi eat darling, we only want the real deal”. 

Rouille accompanies the asparagus. This: 

  1. Is a Provençal Sauce
  2. Is Hard to pronounce – its Roy-ee btw
  3.  Contains saffron, a very expensive spice

Any of which would send the Poshometer into overdrive.  All of them?  This could be the poshest recipe ever!  

Finally, this recipe comes from an article called Polo Partying Shot.  Now, I don’t know if you know any polo-playing people?  One of my friends once dated a polo player and he and his buddies were universally vile.  They truly believed that having more money than God entitled them to be arrogant, rude, dismissive, sexist and racist.  They were the worst!  

Asparagus with Rouille2
Dunking with Glee..not a knife in sight!

Fresh Asparagus with Rouille – The Facts According To Me

This was amazing!  It was so tasty!  I love asparagus.  My Nana’s asparagus sandwiches (made with tinned asparagus) were one of my favourite things to eat!!!! And, as above, it was one of my lazy single-girl meals.  So, I am already a fan of asparagus.

But the Rouille?  

OMG….

Asparagus with Rouille4

The Rouille was a game-changer!  I always thought nothing could be better than Hollandaise with asparagus.  The Rouille blew my mind.  Not only was it a beautiful deep, rich yellow but it also had a deep rich flavour that was nothing short of superb.  It’s thick and lemony and garlicky with a little kick from some mustard and cayenne but you could also definitely taste the saffron.  But whilst it is punchy, it doesn’t overwhelm the asparagus.  

Finally, this was ridiculously easy to make! And certain to impress your friends at your next dinner party, picnic or night on the couch!

Fresh Asparagus With Rouille – The Recipe

via the pages of Vogue Entertaining Oct/Nov 1989

Asparagus with Rouille recipe (2)

Asparagus with Rouille6

 

For another lovely take on Spring Asparagus recipes, why not check out my Easter Lily Sandwiches?

Have a wonderful week!

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