Greetings Friends and welcome to October. I am celebrating the start of the spookiest month of the year with some Spaghetti Diable. The recipe for our Devil’s Spaghetti comes from The Australian Hostess Cookbook. This book, which is fast becoming one of my favourites, also gave us the Ginger Tingle a while back.
The Life of The Grazier’s Wife
Both of these come from the menu of the same Australian Hostess in a chapter called A Grazier’s Wife Entertains. For those not familiar with the term grazier it refers to a person who has farms sheep or cattle. But maybe I’ll let the grazier’s wife tell us a little bit more about her life.
When planning my menu I consider the conditions out here is in the Austalian Bush. Our nearest town is 56 miles away and the mail lorry, with my ingredients aboard, has to spend a whole night on the dusty dirt road before it finally arrives at our door early the next morning. Fruit and vegetables travel 300 miles in a goods train before they reach the mail lorry
It astounds me how anyone survived under those conditions let alone was able to be sufficiently organised to throw dinner parties! And not just any dinner parties either. Here is the grazier’s wife describing the ambiance of her dinner party.
When dinner is ready I light the candles and limit the lights in the dining room to a corner lamp. The stereo set continues playing soft mood music all evening. My large dining table will be set with a plain lilac linen tablecloth and moss green linen table napkins. The main decoration will be a small bowl of lilac sweet peas with deeper mauve candles inserted into the centre of the float bowl. On each woman’s napkin there will be a freshly picked pink rosebud tied with a narrow lilac velvet bow”
How delightful does all of that sound!!!! Who doesn’t now want to get an invitation to dinner at the grazier’s wife’s house?
My own table settings for the Spaghetti Diable were not nearly so fancy.
Spaghetti and Chicken?
As I was making the Spaghetti Diable I realised that I had never eaten chicken and spaghetti together before. Growing up, we had Spaghetti Bolognese and Lasagne (both Beef), Carbonara (Bacon), Marinara (Various Seafood), and Canneloni which was spinach and ricotta. There was some sort of Tuna Pasta Casserole which is best not spoken about but we NEVER had chicken with pasta. And even as an adult, they are two things I would not even think of combining. It even felt weird to be making it. I realise this says more about me than about the combination of chicken and spaghetti which I’m sure is very normal.
Is The Devil In The Details? Spaghetti Diable – The Recipe
Is hard to see why this is called Spaghetti Diable. Diable or Devil in a dish usually indicates the presence of chilli. And quite a lot of it. Even allowing for the delicate palates of countrified Australians in 1969, a mere dash of cayenne powder seems a little tame!
Also, I used fresh mushrooms which I sliced and sauteed with the onion and garlic. I however have the luxury of being able to pop into the local green grocer or supermarket for fresh mushrooms whenever I please without having to wait for them to come over 300 miles on a goods train and then overnight on a mail lorry!
I also added some parsley as a garnish.
Tell me, are there food combinations that you think are strange but other people think are normal? Or combos that you think are normal but other people find weird?
“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane”…so begins the fabulous REM song, “It’s The End of The World As We Know It”. And for me, this year actually began with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake when we were holidaying in Darwin. Last month we celebrated my birthday in absolute chaos (more on that later) whilst on holiday in Port Douglas. And when I say chaos, I mean a total f*cking nightmare. So when the random number generator chose “Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom! I thought it might be a good chance to reset and have a little party to make up for the day that was ruined! The vehicle of choice for this month is Super Food Ideas, from September 2003 and I went in search of party food.
But first, let’s take a little wander down the memory lane to the heady days of September 2003. R Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) was #1. Less said about that the better I think. Finding Nemo was top of the box office and The Da Vinci Code was still the most popular book!
The Menu – September 2003
Margarita
Now, I can’t think of a much better way to kick of any birthday celebration than with a classic Margarita! And this one was perfection!!!!! I
The cocktail napkin you see in the above photo was one of a set of napkins I bought in Port Douglas. They are all super cute and also an inspiration to make the rest of the cocktails featured on them!
And as with the margarita, the first four days of our holiday were wonderful. Port Douglas is such an amazing place. Rainforest, reef and beach – great restaurants, perfect weather….the only downside is the crocodiles…and the murder birds!
Margarita Recipe
Seafood Pizza
As you may have noticed, I love my seafood! This nicely leads me to where our holiday turned paradise into a nightmare. Day 5 of our holiday, which was my actual birthday we had planned to move from our PD central apartment to a house around 10km out of Port Douglas. It was also the night of The Matildas v England final of the Women’s World Cup. We had been out for a lovely dinner the night before so the plan for my birthday was to grab a seafood platter from Port Douglas when we left and then enjoy the evening in our house. Dip in our private pool, , bit of football on the telly, champagne on ice, and our gourmet seafood platter…could life get any better?
Better? No. What we hadn’t figured was that it was about to get a whole lot worse!
We turned up at the house, for which we had a confirmed booking from one of the largest, if not the largest booking agencies in the world. The Fussiest Eater sends a text to the owner asking for the keypad number as the gate is locked. We are there for about 5 minutes when a woman comes out of the house. “Can I help you?” she asks. “Oh, yes, you probably just got our text. We’re here for our holiday”
Apparently we weren’t.
In the time that we had made our booking and our actual holiday, the house had been sold. It was no longer holiday accommodation.
It was now 3:00pm on a Saturday, we had no place to stay for the next four nights and we had a rapidly warming seafood platter on the back seat of the hire car.
Seafood Pizza Recipe
Party Pies
You know this is an Aussie Meat Pie because the secret ingredient is a spoonful of Vegemite! I made mini versions of this pie – in Australian we call these Party Pies so they were perfect for my Birthday Party Menu!
Now back to Port Douglas. The Fussiest Eater began calling the owner of the house. He confirmed that he had sold the house and had told the booking agency to cancel all future bookings. I started trying to find us accommodation. The first place I found wanted $15,000 for the four nights. The second $6000. Finally, we were able to find a studio room back in Port Douglas for the four nights for a price that we could actually afford. And that had a fridge in which we could put the seafood platter! From there we called the booking agency who offered to not only refund the cost of the house but also to pay for the emergency accommodation.
The following day we were also able to move into a one-bedroom apartment in the same complex which was a lot better than the studio but still how we had wanted to spend the last few days of our holiday.
As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Meat Pie Recipe
Chewy Almond Crescents
We now turn to the sweet part of our birthday party menu. These were great! Really tasty and not overly sweet. You couldn’t really taste the apricot jam which was a shame. When I make these again, I will maybe add some chopped-up dried apricots into the mix. Or maybe add a glaze with the jam. They were delicious regardless. These would be great with a cup of tea or coffee or equally with a little glass of Baileys! This was probably my favourite thing on the menu. I also loved the butterfly cakes but they were similar to cakes I had made before. These were all new and I was so happy to discover them!
Accomodation saga continued….As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Chewy Almond Crescents Recipe
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes
These were so pretty and also delish. I loved the tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cupcake!
The one-bedroom apartment was great. However, on the first night, I was woken at around 2 a.m. by the sound of what sounded like a woman screaming. Channelling my inner Nancy Drew, I got out of bed and looked out the window but the side street the room looked out on was deserted. I was just getting back into bed when I heard it again. This time I went to the main room to look out of the front windows but the main street which we overlooked was also quiet. I went back to bed. I heard the same noise once again at around 5 a.m. This time I wondered if maybe someone in the neighbouring rooms was having an argument as again there was no movement on either street.
There was no mention of any attack on the news the following day so I went about my business. As we were walking back to the apartment from dinner I heard the same noise. This time though I was able to see that it was coming from a bird that we had just walked past. A quick Google Search identified these murder birds as Bush Stone Curlews. Thankfully no Nancy Drewing needed for me on the second night. Or thereafter.
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes Recipe
My Nigella Moment – Passionfruit Glazed Shortbread
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 but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!
I love shortbread and passionfruit so these were high on my list of things to make. They would have also fit in nicely with my birthday party theme but I ran out of time and had to choose between the Almond Crescents and these. In the end, I have eaten Passionfruit Shortbreads before whilst the Almond Crescents were something new to me so I chose them. These though? High on my list of things to make! And believe me, when I do…I will definitely be popping back to the biscuit tin, Nigella Style, for just one more!
Super Food Ideas really came through for my birthday-themed menu! As did Port Douglas for my birthday holiday. Despite the…ahem…hiccup with the accomodation, PD remains one of my favourite holiday destinations!!!!
Hello Yogis and retro food lovers. Today we are revisiting “Eat Your Way To Love and Beauty” by Swami Saravati. Today we are focussing on the beauty side with a Beauty Bean Salad. There is no indication as to what the Herb S(w)izzle is good for. Let’s say hydration and move on. As with last time, before we get to the recipes, let’s take a moment to marvel at the cover of this book.
This is probably one of my all favourite covers of any book I own. The swami looks young and gorgeous, she has perfect skin, is lithe and limber and is rocking an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow flowered bikini. Seeing that cover and how great she looks, who wouldn’t want to get her recipes? I will add that nowadays doing the camel pose over over glass containers probably breaks all sorts of OHS laws but back in the freewheeling days of 1971…you could do what you wanted! Just on that, and how good she looks? There was no photoshop back in 1971. She actually looked like that!
Hmm…maybe I need to cook a few more recipes from this book
Beauty Bean Salad
This was really tasty! And it also looked very pretty with the different shades of green and then pops of purple from the red onion. I ate this for dinner one night and made enough to have for lunch the following day. One of the great things about this salad is that the ingredients are all fairly robust so will not wilt overnight. Good thing really because after I had taken the photos from the night, I realised I had left out a key ingredient.
I used green beans, edamame and sugar snap beans for my fresh ingredients. However, the recipe also calls for some dried beans. I had a can of chickpeas in the cupboard so when I had these for lunch, I threw in some chickpeas.
The chickpeas changed this from a side salad to a more filling meal. I’m not sure if the Swami would entirely agree with this but if you wanted to bulk this out even more, some feta or goat’s cheese or a can of tuna or some grilled salmon would be great with this!
Beauty Bean Salad – The Recipe
I used lemon juice and olive oil as my dressing and dill as my herb.
I find it really interesting to see the differences between night light and daylight and the passage of time on the color of this salad.
The Herb S(w)izzle
This drink is actually called a Herb Sizzle. There is nothing sizzled in it so in my head it is the Herb Swizzle as you have to stir the ingredients together! Whatever you call it, it is a fancy and very tasty apple juice! I used Rosemary as my herb but you could use your favourite herb instead.
The Herb S(w)izzle Recipe
This was really refreshing and went very nicely with the salad!
It was really fun revisiting Eat Your Way To Love and Beauty. I also still want to go to the Swami’s Yoga Retreat! Sadly Swami herself passed away in 2009. I have a candleholder very much like the one by her left knee on the book cover. So let’s light a candle and raise a Herb Swizzle toast to the Swami and her legacy of eating our way to love and beauty!
Hello crime readers and food lovers. Today we are tucking into a delicious Chicken Ruby as we read The Body in The Library. The Body in the Library didn’t mention much food, so I improvised. Having said that, I am actually enjoying the improvisations as they are making me seek out recipes I may never have cooked otherwise! This time, in honour of poor Ruby Keene who is one of the murder victims, I decided to cook Dishoom’s Chicken Ruby.
Chicken Ruby?
The name Chicken Ruby is a nod to cockney rhyming slang (Ruby Murray = Curry). Ruby Murray was a very popular singer in the 1950’s. The Body in The Library was published in 1942, so Ruby Murray would not have described a curry then. However, curry has been known in Britain since the 17th century. Wikipedia also tells me there was a surge in the popularity of curry in the 1940s so it is quite possible that Miss Marple and the Bantry’s may well have sat down to a “ruby murray”. Not that they would have ever called it that, even if the term had existed because this book is not only about murder it is also very much about class differences.
The Chicken Ruby was delicious. It was a mild curry but packed with flavour! I make quite a few curries and this came closest to tasting like a restaurant curry that I have ever eaten! Chicken Ruby is also the first recipe I cooked from the Dishoom Cookbook. This always puts me in a dilemma – do I make it again because it was so good? Or do I try other recipes from the book hoping that they too will be delicious? It’s a nice dilemma to have. What is not a nice dilemma is finding a dead body in your library, so lets find out how the Bantry’s deal with it.
Class in The Body In The Library
Actually, before we get to the plot, I will preface my discussion of the novel by saying that there is a tone in this book that I did not enjoy. There is an almost universal lack of care for Ruby Keene. Dolly Bantry is almost giddy with excitement about having a murder in her house. There is a mass of victim-blaming and disparaging remarks being made about Ruby being “cheap” “tawdry”, and “not a lady”. Another example, this time from the POV of Superintendent Harper:
“Ruby Keene. so he admitted privately, might have asked for what was coming to her, but Pamela Reeves was quite another story. A nice kid if ever he saw one. He’d not rest until he’d hunted down the man or woman who’d killed her.”
The lack of compassion shown to Ruby really rankled with me and spoilt my enjoyment of the book as a whole.
The Body In The Library -The Plot
We start with a series of discussions that reminded me of the AA Milne poem The King’s Breakfast:
“The King asked the Queen and the Queen asked the dairy maid…”
Only this time it is the maid waking Dolly Bantry and then Dolly waking Colonel Bantry, not to ask for some butter for the royal slice of bread, but to exclaim that “There’s a body in the library”. And indeed the dead body of a young woman with dyed blonde hair, lots of makeup, and a spangled satin dress is lying in the library. Whilst Colonel Bantry summons the police. Dolly sends a car to fetch her old friend Miss Marple. Because she’s “very good at murders.”.
Ruby Keene, a young dancer from a nearby hotel is reported missing. The character of Ruby made me think of the Copacabana song
“Her name as Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
Then another girl is reported missing. Pamela Reeves does not return home after a Girl Guides rally
Could the two disappearances be connected?
And just who is the body in the library?
We have:
Early on, Dolly Bantry says ” All these girls with their make up and their hair and their nails look so alike” which reminded me of Poirot’s quote in Evil Under The Sun about all dead bodies looking the same. Keep this in mind as you read!
A louche young man called Basil Blake who has been known to keep company with a platinum blonde woman and who is also known to run fast and loose
Some incongruously bitten fingernails
A wealthy invalid who had a little crush on Ruby. Might his family have done away with Ruby in order to ensure they inherit his money?
George Bartlett, Ruby’s last dance partner on the evening she went missing. Might he have wanted to take things a bit further and events went horribly wrong?
George’s car going missing
A burnt-out car found in a quarry with traces of a body in it
Luckily we have Miss Marple on hand to figure out what actually happened to our two young victims!
The Body In The Library – The Covers
Not too many surprises here – lots of bodies, lots of libraries. There seems to be a fondness for foreshortening the body or showing only the feet of the body. I am surprised that one of them chose to show a policeman and not Miss Marple!
Here is a close-up of some of the detail from the Tom Adams cover which is the one I own. There are two little flies crawling over the foot of the dead girl.
In Tom Adams Uncovered, John Curran says:
Once again the image of a fly is put to effective use to indicate death and decay. The suggestion of luxury in the rug, counteracted by the cheap beaded dress and the gaudily painted toenails, perfectly captures the juxtaposition of the ostentatious young body in the library of staid Colonel Bantry.
The Recipe – Dishoom’s Chicken Ruby
At the trisk of repeating myself, this was amazing! I marinated the chicken in yoghurt and spices then I grilled it. I then added the grilled chicken to a tomato-sauce laced with spices. At the end, I added a good dollop of cream. The recipe calls for cubes of chicken, however, I realised a little too late that what I had taken out of the freezer were chicken cutlets. I didn’t really mind as cooking meat on the bone usually only improves the flavour!
Here is my chicken just after I added the cream
I wish I’d made more of this!
“Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid spinsterish face, and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it as all in the day’s work. Her name’s Miss Marple.”
Agatha Christie – The Body In The Library
Links to The Christieverse
Dolly Bantry tells Miss Marple that she is very good at murder, referring to her past cases.
In a little bit of name-dropping a young boy, Peter Carmody who is a fan of detective novels says “I read them all and I’ve got autographs from Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie and Dickson Carr and H.C. Bailey”.
An Ariadne Oliver novel, called The Body In The Library, is mentioned in Cards on The Table.
Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Body In The Library
Tea
Bacon for breakfast
Expensive Wines
Other Christie News
Agatha Chrstie’s birthday was this past week. She was born 15 September 1890.
Summer Lovin’ had me a blast! Hello, retro food lovers! Today as you may have guessed from the header and my musical intro we are taking a tour back to August 2003 via Australian Table. The aim is to see if that magazine can provide us with a super summer feast!
Now I know that some of you might be thinking…what’s hard about that? Surely all mags, twenty years ago would be showing seasonal recipes.. Well, don’t forget readers that in Australia is it winter! Now it may surprise some of you but in the south of Australia, where I live it gets cold! Not Canada cold or Northern European cold, but definitely cold enough for this season to be recognisably winter. The magazine cover promises Shepherd’s Pie, Bangers and Mash, Beef Stroganoff and Roast Chicken. Will we be able to find some summery food in the midst of this hearty winter fare?
First, to put us in the mood let’s see what was on the pop culture in August 2003! The Da Vinci Code was still topping the book charts, S.W.A.T was killing it at the box office and Breathe by Sean Paul featuring Blu Cantrell was the number 1 song.
The Menu – August 2003
Chargrilled Prawns with Coriander and Lime
For me, the best summer food is eaten outdoors so these prawns, which would be amazing cooked on the BBQ were my choice of a starter.
The marinated prawns were super delicious! I did not like the dressing and, come summer when I make these on the barbie I will leave the dressing out completely. Whilst I don’t mind sherry as a drink I felt it gave the dressing on what was a very fresh and lively dish a kind of fusty taste which I found unpleasant. If you want to try it with the dressing, I would suggest serving it on the side!
Chargrilled Prawns Recipe
Satay Chicken Skewers
Another dish which would be ideal cooked on the BBQ. I love a chicken satay and this one is super easy because it uses a bought satay sauce!
I served this with a cucumber and red onion salad, which is, my Malaysian friends tell me, a traditional accompaniment to Chicken satay. You could also, of course serve rice or noodles with the chicken satay skewers as well.
Perfectly grilled chicken, dipped in a satay sauce with some salad! Heaven on a stick!
Satay Chicken Recipe
Ice Cream with Rocky Road Sauce
I didn’t have time to make this due to holidays, Pieathalon, work, cooking for our Foodies Cookbook club, a date with my mum to see A Haunting In Venice all of which amounts to life in general. However, it’s a really simple recipe which I am sure tastes absolutely delicious! Please let me know if you give it a try!
Watermelon and Vodka Cocktail
This cocktail was pretty much identical to this one that I made back in February.
My Nigella Moment – Thai Beef Noodles
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 but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!
This time round it was some Thai beef noodles. I’m hoping that sherry will redeem itself in this recipe as it sure didn’t work in the prawns! These look delicious and fun!
Australian Table was able to dish up a lovely summery meal despite being an issue from the middle of winter! The prawns and satay were also nice in winter and were lovely reminders that summer is on it’s way!
Have a great week!
