Fruit - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Fruit

10
Jun
2023

Summer Berry One Two Buckle My Shoe

categories: Berries, Cake, Dining With The Dame, Poirot

Hello food lovers and crime readers! Today on Dining with The Dame, we are taking a look into the Hercule Poirot novel One Two Buckle My Shoe. And to snack on while we read, we have a lovely fruit filled cake called a Summer Berry Buckle. Yes, not much food in this one so again, I had to use some creative thinking for the food component. And the Summer Berry Buckle is a delight! I loved that you got a different berry in each bite!

One Two Buckle My Shoe -The Plot

Leaving his dentist’s office, Hercule Poirot bumps into the delightfully named, Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, a former actress. He picks up a buckle that has fallen off her shiny new shoe and gives it to her.

Before you can even start to get any creepy dentist vibes aka Norman Gale in Death In The Clouds, we find out via Inspector Japp that sometime after Poirot’s visit, the dentist Hector Morley apparently killed himself. Morley’s clients between Poirot and his death included Ms Sainsbury Seale, a banker called Alistair Blunt and a rather shady Greek gentleman called Mr Amberiotis. Another man, an American activist called Raikes leaves the office without a visit to Morley’s Partner (who is a bit of a drunk).

We have

Mr Amberiotis dying not too shortly after Dr Morley from an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine – both commonly used by dentists. Are the death’s connected?
A secretary called away from work on false pretenses. Was it so she did not recognise the killer?
A fiance annoyed with Morley’s interference in his love life – did he kill Morley?
Mabelle going missing
A body in a trunk with her face bashed in.
Two murder attempts on Alistair Blunt, one supposedly by the aggrieved fiancé. Has he moved from killing dentists to bankers?
And what of the left-wing activist? The one who left before seeing the drunk dentist?He has no love of bankers or members of the bourgeoisie. Might he be the murderer?
And what of that drunk dentist? Did he bear a grudge against his more successful partner?
We also have Poirot revealing himself to be a leg man! How else would he know that a ten-inch stocking equates to a size six shoe?

Good thing we have Poirot around to sort out who did the deed! We also have Inspector Japp in his last appearance in a novel. 😔

There is a lot going on in this book and the plot seems quite convoluted at times. The nursery rhyme felt far more wedged in than in “And Then There Were None” too. While this was not my favourite novel it did give an insightful look into power and privilege and the importance of one life versus another.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe – The Covers

I was able to find a lot of covers for this one, primarily I think because it has three names. It was originally called The Patriotic Murders in the US but they changed this to An Overdose of Death in 1953.

So many great covers here. I think my favourite is the shoes second row second from the right which also is our very first Finnish cover!

The Recipe – Summer Berry Buckle

I used the recipe from the New York Tmes as my recipe and I can highly recommend it.

I served my Buckle with some labne that I had made for something else and wanted to use up and some fresh raspberries.

Whipped cream or yoghurt could easily sub in for the labne.

Poirot shrugged his shoulders. He said:

I t would seem that death selected, most inartistically, the wrong man. The Mysterious Greek, the Rich Banker, the Famous Detective – how natural that one of them should be shot! For mysterious foreigners may be mixed up with espionage and rich bankers have connections who will benefit by their deaths and famous detectives may be dangerous to criminals”.

Whereas poor old Morley wasn’t dangerous to anybody, ” observed Japp gloomily.

“I wonder.”

Agatha Christie – One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Links to The Christieverse

Poirot speaks of Countess Vera Rosakoff who we last saw in The Big Four and is the closest thing we come to Poirot having a love interest

The Case of The Augean Stables is mentioned. We haven’t got there yet but it is one of the stories in The Labours of Hercules

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Bacon
Coffee (multiple mentions)
Breakfast cereals
Sandwich
Tea x2
Pot of Chocolate
Sugar Biscuits
Brandy
Whiskey Soda

Also, apologies for this post being nearly a week late! I dropped my laptop, and thankfully whilst nothing major was damaged, the pin on the charger bent making it impossible to charge so I had to wait for the replacement charger to arrive. I’m going to try really hard to get the post that is due tomorrow out on time or just a little late to get back on posting track!

July’s read is Evil Under The Sun which is a great read and I have something very special planned for it.

Have a great week!

31
May
2023

Food For Lovers Redux

categories: Devilled Eggs, Food For Lovers, Prunes, Rice, Salad, Soup

Hello friends, and welcome to a special series I will be running over the next 12 months. A while ago, I realised I had totally missed the 10th birthday of this blog. In fact, I was thinking about how to celebrate this and wanted to check the exact date of the first post which I thought was in 2013. Nope. It was 17 May 2012! There didn’t seem much point in celebrating eleven years but twelve sounds impressive. So in the 12 months leading up to my 12th birthday I will be featuring one of the old books I blogged about in the early years. Those old posts are mostly dire but the books are quirky and fun or just plain good. Sometimes all three. To get this party started I am revisiting one of the most bonkers books I own – Kelly Brodsky’s Food for Lovers from 1971.

Food For Lovers – The Book

Food for Lovers is broken into 15 chapters, each of which is devoted to a particular type of man and the food that their beloved should cook to keep them interested. As the old adage goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! This may make it sound like this is a very conservative, conventional cookbook – the type of book you might have seen in the 1950’s on how to please your husband. But this my friends was not the conservative 50s, this was the 1970s and the birth of women’s liberation so the tone is definitely tongue in cheek. At least I hope it is because each of the men mentioned sounds awful (although also somewhat recognisable). To introduce you to the book and its characters I thought it might be fun to do a little speed dating with the gents of Food for Lovers!

Bachelor #1 Come on down!

Freddy Finikin

“Freddys who dislike food are an asexual lot who seem to get a perverse kick from driving the women in their lives to a frenzy in search of something to tempt their appetite…the woman who falls for such a man is either unaware of his finickiness, or trapped, or mad, or maybe she prefers to read in bed”

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Should you find either the picture of Freddy or his blurb attractive, or you are mad, trapped, or prefer to read in bed here is a recipe to keep your Freddy happy!

Zakusi

You’ll notice I have changed the recipe so that rather than filling the egg whites “liberally” with caviar, I have made a more traditional and certainly more economically viable devilled egg. These were AMAZING. So tasty!!!!

Let’s move on to Bachelor #2

If fussy eaters aren’t your style, maybe this likely lad is more your speed!

Joe De Go

A man with the Midas touch, Joe usually has his fingers in many pies. Often in the guise of pop star, P.R, ad-man, disc jockey, TV star or such, he wizzes from one assignment, luncheon or deal to another with a slick show of competence that belies his lingering adolescence. Bright and on the ball he mostly shoes away from anything that smacks of more than superficial know-how, for he hates to be caught out of his depth

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Intrigued by the sound of Joe? Why not tempt his palate with some

Creamed Leek and Potato Soup

This soup was delicious!

Still not found your ideal man? Let’s take a look at Bachelor #3

Champers Chas

With the carefully cultivated air of an educated debauchee and a fascinating, if largely fabricated family history to back it, Champers provides an inexhaustible supply of gossip. Whether on or off the boards, he delights in titillating his ever present audience with spicy, often malicious anecdotes and ribaldry

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Fancy chatting with Chas? Tempt his tastebuds with some

Pistachio Nut Pilau

This was really nice, the rice was light and fluffy and went perfectly with last week’s Chilli Crab!

Still not found the love of your life? Maybe you like your men a little more sleazy and possibly criminal? Bachelor #4 may be more your style!

Professor Repressor

If the name doesn’t say it all, here’s Kelly’s description

Repressor exudes the coldness of a tree frog, his sang-froid masking some Lucifer-like leanings. One kinky chink in his armour is his obsession with the Lolita-type nubiles on his campus – who usually run for their sweet lives when they see the kind of red-hot light they inspire in his eyes. Inevitably, he is forced to turn his attentions to any neglected wives of his colleagues

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Ok. We might need a palate cleanser after that so how about some

Watercress and Orange Salad

This was great and just the refreshing hit I needed after writing about the pervy professor! Let’s swiftly move to Bachelor #5!

Gad About Guy

Gad about Guys come in all shapes and sizes with ages and egos to match. They usually hover round fellow Gads with a few of the uninitiated thrown in as audience. “Remember that night in Singapore when we strolled along Bugis Street – and those fantastic little roadside stalls with the delicious Satay? ….”Lord, yes! And will you ever forget that Lamb Solanka in Moscow last winter.”…And on and on it goes, the name dropping, the reminiscences and regurgitations of past splendours”

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

If the well-travelled man is your bag, why not whip up a lovely breakfast for him with some

Wine and Song Prunes

I LOVED these. I feel so bad that prunes have such a bad rap! This was so delicious. And what a fabulous name! I served mine with a little bit of labneh, some orange zest and some pistachios left over from the pilaf and it made a heavenly breakfast!

And because all good things must come to an end, we come to our lucky last Bachelor…who out there fancies

Jack Snack

He’s strictly a non-event up to his neck in dreary day to day existence, blissfully unaware of anything outside his tight little domain…his every move as predictable as the plainness of his sitting-room with it’s enormous brick veneered fireplace above which some gypsy flamencoes wildy within a heavy gilt frame

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

I laughed out loud when I read this because growing up, we had possibly that very same flamenco dancer painting on our wall at home! I thought it was incredibly beautiful and have always wanted to learn to flamenco as a result of it!

Now, I have also not made Jack’s Snack, mostly because I quite like my life and don’t fancy being taken down by a premature heart attack any time soon. But should you wish to share your life with this homebody and are not afraid of death by overindulgence, here is the recipe for a Veal Scallopine Sandwich that will melt Jack’s heart whilst simultaneously clogging his arteries!

Okay, food lovers, I hope you have enjoyed my second journey into Food For Lovers…I LOVED revisiting this book!!! And there are so many more delicious-sounding recipes and terrible men in it that we may have to take a third look somewhere down the track!

I have searched online for other books by Kelly Brodsky and Kelly Brodsky herself and have drawn a big flat blank! At the moment there also appear to be no other copies of Food for Lovers for sale so, sadly you cannot share my delight in this book. Kelly, if you are out there, and I hope you are, I hope you read this and know that fifty-two years after the publishing of your book, you have a number one fan in me!

Have a wonderful week friends and please let me know if you make that Veal Scallopini Sandwich! Or any of the other recipes!

08
May
2023

Passionfruit Flummery

categories: 1950's recipes, Australia, Desserts, Jelly, Passionfruit

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.

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!

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

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!

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!

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:

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!

12
Mar
2023

Pineapple and Spice Financier – Murder is Easy

categories: Cake, Dining With The Dame, Pineapple, Stand Alone

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?

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.

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.

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

The Recipe – Pineapple and Spice Financier

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

“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

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

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!

20
Feb
2023

Admiral Highball – Appointment with Death

categories: Bourbon, Cocktail, Dining With The Dame, Pineapple, Poirot

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!

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?

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!

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

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 Case

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!