France - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: France

03
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.

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:

Is a Provençal Sauce
Is Hard to pronounce – its Roy-ee btw
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….

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

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

Have a wonderful week!

10
May
2023

Salmon Rillettes: Sad Cypress

categories: Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot, Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Starters, Uncategorized

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Welcome to Dining with the Dame for May and my take on Sad Cypress. I loved this one! And I also loved the Salmon Rillettes so this was a win-win for me! Now it may be a bit risky to base my recipe on the supposed murder weapon (poisoned salmon paste sandwiches) but the rillettes were absolutely delicious!

Sad Cypress -The Plot

First up, the name comes from a quote from Shake’speare’s Twelfth Night:

Come away, come away, death,

And in sad cypress let me be laid.

Fly away, fly away, breath;

I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

The beautiful Mary Gerrard is dead. Prior to her death, Mary had been the gardener’s daughter in an estate owned by the Welman family. Elinor Carlisle, niece to the recently deceased Laura Welman stands accused of her murder.

Her motive? Elinor had recently been jilted by her fiance (and kind of cousin) Roddy for Mary.

Her means? Salmon paste sandwiches laced with morphine.

Her opportunity? Tea time whilst clearing out the Welman estate.

All fingers are pointing to Elinor being the murderer. But did she do it? Luckily the local doctor who has a bit of a crush on Elinor brings in Hercule Poirot to determine who is guilty.

We have:

A poison pen letter
Some missing morphine
An elderly aunt possibly bumped off before her time
A very large fortune left to Elinor.
A mysterious figure lurking in the bushes
A possibly perfidious cousin
A strange mark on a nurse’s wrist
Secrets from the past impacting the present
Poirot hilariously calling himself a “pukkah sahib”

Such a good story!!

Sad Cypress – The Covers

There are some great covers here – many of which contain aspects of things we have mentioned, the roses, the morphine, the poison pen letter. We also have our first Japanese cover, some French covers, a Spanish cover and a German which may actually be my favorite. Here it is in full:

I also want to call out this one because…what?

I understand the rose and the tea set. The weird green guy? Not a clue! It reminded me of Dumb Witness when Emily Arundell, who had been poisoned with phosphorus was said to have a luminous haze around her head.

The Recipe – Salmon Rillettes

I based my recipe for Salmon Rillettes on the recipe for Rainbow Trout Rillettes, Rye, Cucumber and Watercress Sandwiches from Food for Friends by Hardie Grant Publishing. That recipe is by Philippa Sibley and her book New Classics. I swapped out the trout for Salmon and used white bread for my sandwiches.

Elinor went across the hall and brought back from the pantry a big plate of sandwiches. She handed it to Mary saying:

“Have one?”

Mary took one. Elinor stood watching her for a moment as the girl’s white, even teeth bit into the sandwich”

Agatha Christie – Sad Cypress

Links to The Christieverse

Peter Lord, the doctor who is crushing on Elinor tells Poirot that he was recommended by Dr Stillingfleet. He is a character in a short story called The Dream which appears in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Sad Cypress

Raspberries
Fish Paste Sandwiches (multiple references)
Cocktails
Tea (multiple references)
Doughnuts
Pink Sugar Cakes
Milk
Salmon and Shrimp Paste
Salmon and Anchovy Paste
Beer
Fresh Fish for lunch

June’s read will be One Two Buckle My Shoe

Have a great week!

05
Nov
2022

Petits Pois à la Française- Murder in The Mews

categories: Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Greetings crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading and eating our way through the titular novella in the Murder in the Mews collection. Murder in The Mews begins on Guy Fawkes Night, which is today (if you are reading on the day I posted it)! To go with this most English of nights, we are eating a very French dish of petits pois à la française. Now, I’ll be absolutely honest here. I am not a great lover of peas. But, there is not a lot of food mentioned in Murder in The Mews. Indeed, I was thinking this might be the day I share the recipe for Golf Pie, when, in the very last paragraph, a meal is mentioned containing the aforementioned little peas!

Murder in The Mews- The Plot

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

We open with a street urchin (think Oliver – please sir, can I have some more?) asking Japp and Poirot if they will give him a penny for the guy. Japp sends him off and the two resume their walk. In an act of foreshadowing, Japp muses that it would be a good night for a murder. The fireworks would mask sound of a gun shot. In an even greater act of foreshadowing, they then move on to the topic of Poirot committing a murder. We’ll get to that one in time!

More immediately though, the following morning Poirot learns that woman has been found dead in the very same mews they walked through the previous evening. Poirot wonders why Japp, a high ranking police officer, would be called to a suicide but agrees to meet him at the home of the deceased.

We have

The gun found in Barbara Allen’s hand held in such a way that she could not have possibly shot herself with it
No suicide note
Jane Plenderleith, Mrs Allen’s flatmate behaving suspiciously
Poirot fascinated by a series of seemingly disparate objects – a watch, a writing set, a fireplace and the contents of a locked cupboard and the smell of a room
A shady Major

Poirot and Japp (but mostly Poirot) need to figure out – was it suicide? Or murder?

My favorite part of the story has nothing to do with the plot. It is the moment when Poirot answers the call from Japp with “Allo, Allo“. Now if, only Poirot had been in a certain café in Nouvion during the war, he might have been able to help Rene in solving the mystery of the painting of the Fallen Madonna. I would pay money to see that mash up!

Murder in The Mews- The Covers

Yesssss!!!! After a slew of short stories, we can finally get back to looking at the cover art on books. And Murder In The Mews does not disappoint.

I love the cover with the green mirror image woman looking alarmed. It is so brilliantly menacing! If like me, you are a little bit confused Anubis on one of the covers, I believe it is because he was the God who took care of the dead. Bottom left is a Portuguese edition which translates literally to Murder in the Alley.

The Recipe – Petit Pois À La Française

I used the recipe for Petit Pois À La Française from Manu Feildel’s book Manu’s French Kitchen.

Japp looked at his friend for some moments in silence. Then he rose, clapped him on the shoulder, and burst out laughing.

“Not so bad for an old dog. Upon my word, you take the cake! Come out and have a spot of lunch?”

“With pleasure my friend, but we will not have the cake. Indeed, an omelette aux champignons, blanquette de veau, petits pois à la française, and to follow a baba au rhum.”

– Agatha Christie, Murder in The Mews

Other Food Mentioned in Murder In The Mews

December’s read will be Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. Because who hasn’t wanted to murder an annoying family member at Christmas?

Happy reading!

25
Apr
2022

Vogueing A Ham and Cheese Croissant

categories: 1980's Food, 1980's recipes, Bread, France, Magazines

Now you might be wondering why on earth am I featuring a recipe for a ham and cheese croissant? Surely that’s not even a recipe? Well, we are cooking from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986 which means we are making easy food complicated because that’s what posh people wanted back then.

You or I or most normal people would make a ham and cheese croissant by placing ham and cheese inside a croissant and toasting it. If I was feeling a bit fancy I might grate the cheese. I always add a bit of mustard because I love the ham, cheese, and mustard combo. That’s as fancy as I normally get.

But Vogue in 1986 would have us melting the cheese with some cream and pouring it over the top of the croissant. And if that’s what Vogue wanted me to do, that’s exactly what I did! I feel that someone at Vogue HQ back in 1986 thought making a sauce, somewhat akin to the bechamel used in a traditional Croque Monsieur would make this more…French? Sophisticated? Elegant?

Or, none of the above.

It was messy and made the croissant soggy. And no one likes a soggy croissant!

But there was something here I didn’t want to let go of. And I’d bought a multipack of croissants

I also had some of that cheese sauce left.

So why not give it a little twist?

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 2 – Better In Than Out

The problems with Day One (apart from having to make a cheese sauce) were the sogginess and the mess. I want to be able to eat my ham and cheese croissant without utensils. However, pouring sauce over the top of the croissant made this impossible.

But….instead of over the croissant, what if I put the sauce in the croissant?

This was a lot less messy. I could pick it up and eat it without having to use a knife and fork which was a bonus and it also meant that the outside of the croissant stayed crispy and flaky. But it was a bit messy, the sauce leaked out onto my hands a bit so it was still not ideal.

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 3 – The Bruléed Croissant

So the issue with making this with cheese sauce instead of plain cheese is the sauce. For day 3 I thought about how to make the sauce less, well, saucy. Which is how I got to the idea of the bruleed croissant. Same as Day 2 but instead of serving the croissant as soon as I added the cheese, I popped it back into the oven and under the grill for a few minutes.

This was the best so far. The croissant was crispy and flaky. The sauce was not too runny and it took on that lovely flavour of grilled cheese.

Day Four – A Break Day Bagel

Day Four I went into the office and bought a bagel for breakfast from my favourite place. I was getting a little bit sick of ham and cheese croissants. However….

It. Was. Terrible.

Possibly the worst bagel I have ever eaten.

I’m not naming and shaming them because pre-covid they were superb. But I also will not be buying a bagel from them for a while. I have sourced a new bagel place not too far from home which I will try out during the week. As well to the traditional salmon and lox, they also have some combos like a chicken katsu, a miso mushroom and a labneh and za’atar bagel. All of which I cannot wait to try!

Day 5 – The Classic Ham and Cheese Croissant

Sometimes you just have to go back to basics and tell Vogue to take a hike.

Swap out the sauce for a slice of cheese and place your croissant under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. I used a slice of Jarlsberg but feel free to to use whatever melting cheese you have.

Oozy cheese, flaky croissant, no cutlery required to eat. Perfection!

Here’s the recipe from Vogue October 1986. Why you might want it is another question entirely!

For slightly more successful dishes from Vogue October 1986 you could check out the following:

Have a wonderful week my friends!

27
Feb
2022

Death in the Clouds: Chicken Chaud-Froid

categories: Chicken, Chicken & Poultry, Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Welcome aboard crime readers and food lovers! Today on Dining with the Dame we are reading 1935’s Death in The Clouds. Our menu option includes a rather fancy-sounding French dish called Chicken Chaud-Froid. James Beard describes it as follows:

“Chaid-froid is a thickened sauce of butter, flour, broth and cream which may be mixed with geliatin and is used to cover poultry…use this sauce to dip the bird…Decorate with truffles, tarragon, blanched almonds, mushroom caps, sliced olives or vegetables”

Well, my budget doesn’t run to truffles but I have made you a Chicken Chaud-Froid inspired by Death in The Clouds!

Death in The Clouds – The Plot

The stewards on a plane from London to Calais are shocked to find one of the passengers, Madame Giselle, dead in her seat. Some marks on her neck indicate that she may have had a reaction to a wasp sting. A dead wasp is also found on the plane. However. Hercule Poirot who is also a passenger on the plane discovers an African blow dart on the floor and deduces that Madame Giselle, a moneylender to the rich and famous, has been murdered. But who on the plane wanted her dead?

We have:

Lady Horbury, formerly an actress, who is addicted to both gambling and cocaine
Venetia Kerr, a member of the aristocracy and childhood friend of Lord Horbury
Jane Grey, a hairdresser’s assistant coming home from a holiday funded by a large win on a horse
Norman Gale, dentist and admirer of Jane Grey
Armand Dupont and his son Jean, French archaeologists
Doctor Bryant of Harley Street
James Ryder, a businessman who has failed to make a deal that could keep his company afloat
Mystery writer Daniel Clancy

Eleven passengers in the cabin including Poirot plus two stewards (no spoilers here but none of them did it). The twelfth passenger was murdered by a blowdart. And no one saw a thing.

This is a classic closed circle mystery. We know one of the passengers did Madame Giselle in. But who? Poirot figures out who by page 70 in my edition. He just doesn’t understand why! I also figured out who on my first read BUT it was more about me disliking the character and WANTING them to the murderer rather than any true detecting. However, I read this book again last week to refresh my memory of it and the clues are there in plain sight so a careful reading could get you there!

Death in The Clouds – The Covers

I would like to call out the pulpy looking cover on the bottom row second from the right. Madame Giselle’s ugliness is mentioned several times in Death in The Clouds. If that lovely blonde lady is someone’s idea of hideously ugly (Christie’s words, not mine) then that person’s standards are ridiculously high!!!

The Recipe – Chicken Chaud Froid

I’ll be very honest here. The chicken Chaud froid was not to my taste at all. I ended up scraping all the cold jellied velouté off the chicken and making a sandwich with the chicken breast. If cold creamy gelatine chicken is your thing…go for it! For the rest of us….let’s all have a little giggle at my ridiculous attempts to make a wasp out of olives and tomatoes and a plane out of carrot and olives and forget this recipe ever exists.

The recipe I used which is from the 60th Anniversary edition of the James Beard Fireside Cookbook doesn’t actually tell you how to cook the chicken. So, let’s start you off with a basic recipe for poached chicken. And take it from there.

Here’s Jame’s Beard’s take:

And here is his veloute recipe:

From Mr Clancy’s house they took a taxi to The Monseigneur, where they found Norman Gale waiting for them. Poirot ordered some consommé and a chaud-froid of chicken.

-Agatha Christie – Death in the Clouds

The Monseigneur was actually a restaurant in Jermyn Street London in the 1930’s. Here is a picture of the interior.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Death In The Clouds

Cold Tongue
Soda Water and Thin Captain Biscuits
Coffee (several mentions)
Cheese and Biscuits
The meal served on the plane included soup, meat and vegetables, salad, dessert, tea and coffee. (All on a journey from Calais to London which is all of 151 km. These days on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney which is 713 km you’d be lucky to get a pack of peanuts!)
Soup
Tea
A “frenchified” meal at Poirot’s apartment. I would LOVE to know what this was!
Irish Stew
Omelette aux champignons
Sole a la Normand
Port Salut Cheese
Kidneys at breakfast
Orange Juice
Tea and Muffins
Bananas and Beer
Consommé
Sausages and Mash
Sherry / Aperitifs

There is a lot more to say about Death in The Clouds but they would be out of place in a regular Dining With The Dame post like this. This is why next week, we are going to have a Death in The Clouds recap. With a cocktail of course.

Our March Read will be The ABC Mystery which is another Poirot mystery but a lot darker than Death in The Clouds.

Happy reading and eating!