Month: February 2023
Cocktails With Christie: Clarified Milk Punch
Inspiration: One day, whilst wandering down a rabbit hole of tangentially related shows on my cable box’s menu screen, I stumbled upon Alton Brown’s show Good Eats — not the original version but The Return.
And I’m hooked!
His blend of history, skits, culinary hints-tips-& tricks, and very clear recipe walk-thrus made me an instant fan.
Now, while binge-watching Good Eats The Return, our host featured a low-ABV beverage my husband and I found fascinating — A Clarified Milk Punch. (Don’t know what low ABV is? click here to find out.) Generally speaking, neither of us are fond of mixing alcohol with moo-juice. However, we figured if Charles Dickens enjoyed the beverage — we might as well.
At this point, after watching ‘Holiday Spirits’ again and locating the written recipe on Alton Brown’s website, we had a good-ish handle on the process of making this fortified punch.
Now I say process, because one of the key ingredients is an Allspice Dram, which, unless you’ve got the address of one heck of an eclectic liquor store in your hip pocket, you’ll need to make it yourself. But don’t fret. It’s a straightforward recipe but takes ten days to steep properly.
After we finished creating the dram and swearing a bit, plus some spillage, we managed to produce a punch that looked exactly like the one Mr. Brown made!
And it’s delicious!
Helpful hint: In Alton Brown’s demonstration, he’s got a colossal sized sieve, industrial-sized coffee filters, and a large container to strain the milk punch through.
We didn’t have any of those things.
So we came up with a workaround, which calls for two regular-sized metal sieves, several standard coffee filters, and a canning funnel. And set it up like the picture below.
Now here’s the trick, you only pour a potion of the curdled mixture into the sieve at a time — careful not to fill the sieve above either the line of the coffee filter or the edge of the canning funnel. Otherwise, you’ll end up with the unfiltered liquid on your counter or small bits of milk stuff in the punch mixture.
Ask me how I know.
After the first small bit filters through, you top up your contraption again, again, and again until all you’re left with is a clear cranberry-colored liquid!
Learn From My Mistake: This will take some time as the filter grows slower and slower with each pour. However, unless you’ve got another two sieves sitting around, don’t give in to temptation and change out the coffee filters. Inevitably you’ll get a bit of milk stuff into your perfectly clear punch, which will force you through the whole process again!
Christie: I can see the Grande Dame herself enjoying this punch during the festive season! I think even Poirot and Miss Maprle would appreciate a small sip of this low-ABV drink if it appeared on a drinks table!
The finished product is so very lovely!
Cooking With Christie: Revisiting Pita Bread
Inspiration: A few months back, I had a hankering for chicken gyros. Everything turned out great….save the pita bread.
Despite my misgivings, I followed the pita bread recipe to the letter, and they turned out misshapen, tough, and not at all pillowy. The problem? The instructions called for me to roll out the pita, set them aside to rise for an hour-and-a-half — and then place them on the lined baking sheets without “stretching them too much”.
Apparently, this instruction was outside my skill set.
However, as you can see from the above picture, I’ve cracked the code! First, I used a dumpling rolling pin to roll out the bits of dough into generally circular shapes. Due to its diminutive size, a little larger than the width of my hand, the dumpling rolling pin is way easier to control hence the better shape. Second, I followed my initial instinct and proofed the rolled-out bread on the parchment paper lined pans I was going to bake them on — so no extra moving required.
And they turned out perfectly poofy — just as they should!
Christie: I do believe Miss Marple and Tuppence would know a thing or two about trying and trying again until you get a bake (or investigation) just right!
Round-Up Mystery Reviews
Things I’ve loved watching/reading recently but are so popular they practically sell themselves!
First Up: The Glass Onion
The second installment in the Knives Out universe is absolutely awesome. Though I must admit, I was worried when I first started watching it. Very, very worried. All the cameos of well-known actors felt a bit gratuitous…but I’d looked forward to the movie for months — so I stuck with it, and boy, was my patients rewarded. The cameos enhance the feel of the billionaire jet set cast of suspects we are watching and make complete sense by the end of the movie. An end that I gotta say is one of the very best I’ve seen in a whodunnit….since the original Knives Out movie.
Second: Desperation In Death by J.D. Robb
A page-turning, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller didn’t disappoint. Action packed from the first page to the last, if you’re looking for a good vacation read, you won’t go wrong with this installment. Though there is a trigger warning I must warn other readers about — the plot revolves around human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and young girls. While Robb does a good job of balancing the horror of the subject matter with the mystery (without getting overly graphic), if this is something that you struggle with, I’d skip this installment and wait for Encore In Death which is due out on February 7, 2023.
Third: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
Jane Austen meets pirates meets magical flying houses — this is the best summary I can give. An amusing read full of action, swashbuckling, betrayal, and books, The Wisteria Society was a fun read. Though, if you’re well versed in steam-punk and fantasy, it’s not quite the groundbreaking book the New York Times made it out to be.
Lastly: Wednesday
A Netflix original that expands the Addams Family universe — is an exceptional show. Of course, all the traditional elements of an Addams Family story are present. Still, the writers have done a singular job of sprinkling them through the series and keeping them fresh (rather than simply regurgitating them in a cringe worthy fashion). Full of secrets, multiple mysteries, and interesting characters, this show is well worth your viewing time. And I am so very excited that Netflix renewed Wednesday for a second season!
Cooking With Christie: Lemon Sugar Cookies
Inspiration: In an effort to improve my skills, I decided to tackle cookie-cutter cookies. Something I’ve never managed to make successfully without supervision from either my mom or grandma.
And….well….these Betty Crocker Lemon Sugar Cookies were absolutely delicious (I added an extra teaspoon of lemon zest) and held the general shape I used….but….they did spread a bit, making my vision of creating a tower of decorated snowflake cookies untenable.
However, if you stick to simple shapes like diamonds, circles, or hearts, this dough will work out great!
FYI: If you use powdered sugar, instead of flour, to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and cookie cutters — it helps keep them tender and coats the work surface easier.
Christie: If whipped up with a slightly more skilled hand than mine, I can see these decorating a holiday treat table or given as a gift to a neighbor in St. Mary Mead!
Mystery Review!
A Christie Bookshop Mystery: Dead and Gondola — Ann Claire
Okay, so the pull of this mystery title is obvious. Whilst not about Dame Agatha directly, the tangential tie intrigued me, so I settled down for a read….and found myself enjoying the book rather a lot.
Ann Claire, our author, does a great job of keeping the mystery focused on the mystery. Knitting tidbits about the famous authoress in seamlessly and as needed — by using a Mary Westmacott book as a critical clue, naming the bookshop cat Agatha, and occasionally invoking our sleuth’s inner Miss Marple to help push the story forward.
The characters are well-rounded and interesting, as is the town of Last Word itself. The mystery, a variant of a Patricia Moyes plot I once read, works well.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries set in a bookshop, around a ski town, or with a strong family vibe. Seriously, I cannot wait until the next book in the series, Last Word To The Wise, comes out in October!
Cooking With Christie: Butter
Inspiration: I know this will come as a shock…I’m a fan of the Great British Bake Off! Not only has it imparted countless tips and tricks to help my bakes, but it’s also given me the courage to try new and intricate recipes. (Whilst it may’ve helped my nerve, that doesn’t mean said creations always turn out flawlessly.)
In any case, while rewatching the show, my husband and I saw the bakers make butter. Recalling the butter churn from an elementary school exposition on turn-of-the-century homesteading, the GBBO method didn’t match up with the forever-taking wooden churn I tried — an alarming number of years ago.
So we decided to give butter making a go….and discovered it was dead easy to make.
With a food processor, at least.
Seriously, you pour heavy cream into the food processor (ours is tiny, about four or five cups) and let it zip along until it turns yellow and solid. (Well, as solid as warm butter ever gets.) Then you squeeze the liquid from the butter using cheese cloth or a sieve, which is buttermilk you can use in other recipes, then rinse the lump of butter off.
And that’s it.
You can put it back into the food processor and add herbs, honey, salt, or whatever you’d like to flavor your butter with, or leave it plain! Plus, it sounds impressive when you tell people you made the butter they’re spreading on their bread! (Because of the uncertainty of the amount of fat in the butter — using it IN your bakes is dicey at best.)
BTW: You don’t need a food processor to make butter. It’s simply what we had on hand. You can use a stand mixer (as the GBBO contestants did), blender, or a bottle with a marble inside.
Need a recipe? Here’s one from the BBC!
Christie: I can see a whole host of Christie’s detectives making this simply delicious spread!
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
You must be logged in to post a comment.