June, 2001
Want a beach (or hammock or lawn) book for summer? People Magazine came up with a suggestion: Sticks and Scones, by Diane Mott Davidson (Bantam $23.95: 301 pages.) Which seems like a good excuse, it being summer, to look at a couple of what are known as ‘culinary mysteries’. Here you get a mystery wreathed with recipes so when you finish the book you’ll have something to remember it by. On your hips.
Davidson’s heroine is Goldie Schultz, Colorado caterer, single mother
of an almost-teenage boy; ex-wife of a doctor who has to be the trashiest
m.d. ever to practice. In Sticks and Scones Goldie has a
contract for a series of meals at Hyde Castle, authentic Elizabethan meals
for a castle that was
brought over stone by stone from England by a gentleman who hopes to promote
its use as a conference center. On the morning she’s to serve her first
meal, Goldie is awakened by a shotgun blast which has shattered her front
picture window. Which effectively moves her and her hockey-playing son
to Hyde Castle for the duration. Between deducing who is out to get Goldie
and why, we are treated to a feast of mouth-watering recipes beginning
with the eponymous scones of the book’s title.
Lou Jane Temple has
had a varied career in the food world. She’s owned restaurants; been a
guest chef at the Culinary Institute of America; written
about food and wine and now has written four culinary mysteries featuring
Heaven Lee. The Cornbread Killer (St. Martin’s Paperbacks;
$5.99; 260 pages) is the latest, in which a jazz festival is coming to
Kansas City, Heaven’s base. She is hired to provide soul food for these
festivities celebrating the city’s renewal of the Eighteenth and Vine
district of the city. Many good recipes here, and much special information
about jazz and Charlie Parker, and the Negro Baseball league’s past and
the Museum celebrating this past. Before you begin reading make up Heaven’s
Chutney-Cream Cheese Spread, which you can serve yourself with crackers
(keeps in the fridge for up to five days) as you read. In The Cornbread
Killer the head of the Festival turns up dead—a rather theatrical
end, and since she’s made more than a few enemies, it will take
time to sort it all out. Meanwhile, there’s also cornbread…
In The Trouble With Moonlighting, New York fashion stylist Simona Griffo returns to her Italian roots in Camilla Crespi’s series with titles that begin “The Trouble With…” Though the book is out of print, Crespi gave Miss Pym this great summer main course from its pages. In the book you get some international fashion dish along with Italian recipes and a murder or two. The recipe for fish salad is a perfect one for summer. Buon Appetito!
Chutney Cream Cheese Spread (from The Cornbread Killer)
1lb.
Cream cheese
1jar Major Gray’s chutney, or any good mango chutney
2bunches scallions, sliced thin with some of the tops included
1small can crushed pineapple, drained
½cup golden raisins
½cup chopped roasted peanuts
1Tmild curry powder
Combine all ingredients,
checking to be sure pieces of mango aren’t too large.
Form into ball, wrap with plastic wrap, chill at least two hours in fridge.
Serve with crackers.
Castle
Scones (from Sticks & Scones)
½cup currants
2cups all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1 T baking powder
½teaspoon salt
4 T well-chilled unsalted butter cut into four pieces
1 large egg
¼cup whipping cream
½ c milk
2 t. sugar (optional)
butter, jam, lemon curds, marmalades, whipped cream
Place currants in
a medium-sized bowl and pour boiling water over them just to cover. Let
stand for ten minutes, then drain the currants, pat them dry with paper
towels.
Preheat over to 400F.
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a food processor
fitted with a steel blade. With the motor running, add butter
and process until the mixture looks like cornmeal. Beat egg in separate
bowl with cream and milk. With motor still running pour egg mixture in
a thin
stream into the flour mixture until the dough holds together in a ball.
Fold in the currants. On a floured surface, pat the dough into 2 circles,
each
about 7 inches in diameter. Cut each circle into 6 even pieces; place
each on a buttered baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 15 minutes,
or until scones are puffed, golden and cooked through. Serve with butter,
whipped cream, and jams.(makes 12)
Sicilian
Good Fish Salad (from The Trouble With Moonlighting)
1 19oz. Can of cannelloni beans
1 15oz. Can of corn kernels
1heart of celery, sliced very thin
1bunch of scallions sliced, green part included
½red pepper sliced small (for color)
3 hearts of palm sliced (optional)
11-inch tuna steak or two cans of light meat tuna
4 large basil leaves
Drain the beans and
the corn and put in serving bowl. Add celery, scallions, red pepper, hearts
of palm. If using tuna steak, sear it in a tbsp of oil in
a very hot skillet three minutes per side. Cool, slice, add to bowl. If
using canned tuna, drain and add. Tear basil leaves into small pieces,
add
to bowl. Serves 4.
Dressing: 1 ½ tbsp.
Balsamic vinegar or 1 tbsp lemon juice. 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
Salt and pepper; clove of garlic, minced. Mix salt,
pepper, and garlic with lemon juice or vinegar. Add olive oil. Whip together
well, pour in tuna bowl, mix all ingredients. Serve at room temperature.
Miss Pym likes to save on calories when she can. Where does she conserve them? In her summer refresher drink. She uses Crystal Light Lemonade, to which she adds ice and thin slices of lime, lemon and orange, with a sprig of mint if some wanders by her doorstep.