Tag: Creme caramel

Caramel Custard – The Hollow

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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Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

Happy Caramel Custard Day everyone!  Yes indeed there is a day for every sort of food imaginable and October 3rd is Caramel Custard Day!  I am celebrating with a Moroccan twist on the classic French dish with an Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel.

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

No one in my family, except me, is a great lover of sweet things.  As a result, I didn’t have too many desserts growing up.  The one thing we did have and which my mum cooked to PERFECTION was a creme caramel.  So, I know what a good creme caramel looks and tastes like.  The caramel needs to be a nanosecond away from bitterness, the custard smooth and silky, the top a shiny mirror glaze and the almost ombre effect of the darker caramel soaked custard at the top and the paler pure custard at the bottom.

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

My problem is, I have, up until now been absolutely terrible at making it myself!  I tried to make a creme caramel recipe from Cantina THREE times.  Twice the caramel went all crystally.  Another time there was no sauce only a hard set toffee that was stuck to the bottom of each of the serving dishes!

Not so with this recipe which came from Lousie Frank’s Winter which is a fabulous book.  I’ve made many great dishes from it and, as it was a Tasty Reads selection will no doubt pop up here again!

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel4

 

The Recipe

This version of a creme caramel was lovely.  The cinnamon came through quite strongly, the orange not so much.  When I make this again, I will sprinkle some orange zest over the top of the completed desserts to really ramp up the taste of the orange.  You could, of course, leave one or both of them out completely if you are not a lover of orange or cinnamon and this would still be a damn fine Creme caramel.

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

 

So on October 3rd what do we say to Caramel Custards?  We say…

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel5


Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel6(2)

Have a great weekend  everyone!