Episode 3 - The Green Mill Murder

I've lashed out and bought the novel this time, so with six days to research and plan the menu Friday's 1920s dinner should have a less tenuous connection to the action. There's a dancehall, and a death, so while it could be a late night supper it's really time Phryne had a proper meal. And in the novel, at least, she doesn't go hungry.

After an unpleasant encounter, Phryne treats herself to a "large and indigestible" luncheon of lobster at the Ritz, a restaurant or cafe that fortunately does not seem to have existed. A few pages on her cook, Mrs Butler, produces vegetable soup and breaded veal cutlets for dinner, followed by apple pie and cream.

But the meal that appeals most of all is a clear soup followed by Mrs Butler's "masterpiece", a steak and kidney pudding, made especially for Phryne's sidekicks, Bert and Cec, returned soldiers and red-raggers. Much as she disapproves of their politics, Mrs Butler is impressed by their requests for more: "One [helping] is politeness, two is hunger, but three is a true and cherished compliment".

Mrs Butler makes her steak and kidney in a large, light-filled kitchen with every modern appliance, but other cooks would have made do in flats with a tiny kitchenette and a Primus stove. If they could turn out a velvety stew perfectly encased in suet in those conditions, it can't be that hard.

Currant and Apple Tart

In the late 1920s the Victorian Dried Fruits Board ran a series of advertisements in the Argus encouraging housewives to add sultanas, raisins and currants to common recipes. Their Dried Fruits Recipe on 6 March 1928 - recipe number 36 - added both raisins and currants to apple tart. Rather than giving the tart a pastry lid, I'm using fewer apples and covering them with a cream filling adapted from an Alsatian Apple Tart.


Pastry

1 1/2 cups plain flour
3 tbsp sugar
90g butter
2 egg yolks

Rub butter into flour and sugar until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolks and knead until pastry is elastic and can be formed into a shiny ball. Cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins.

Filling

3-4 small Granny Smith apples
1 tbsp currants
3 dessertspoons sugar
1 whole egg
1 dessertspoon plain flour
150 ml cream
1/2 teasp ground cinnamonWhen ready to assemble the tart, roll pastry thin enough to line a greased 23cm flan tin.Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Arrange apple slices in two concentric circles on pastry base. Fill any gap in the middle with small apple slices. Scatter currants on top.

In a bowl, whisk sugar and egg, add flour and blend until smooth. Stir in cream and sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour cream mixture over apples.

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 35-40 minutes. Dust with icing sugar if desired. Serve warm or cold.

Episode 2 - Murder on the Ballarat Train

Like Cocaine Blues, the menu for Murder on the Ballarat Train is being created in advance of Friday's episode and is somewhat hampered by the fact that I haven't actually read the novel. I won't even attempt to recreate the refreshments, if any, offered by Victoria Railways on the Ballarat train in the 1920s. Instead, I'll turn to the big hotels that accommodated and fed train travellers.

In the 1920s Melbourne's "most modern hotel", the 12-storey Hotel Alexander opposite Phyrne's departure point for Ballarat, Spencer Street station, advertised "200 rooms and 200 bathrooms". The main dining room offered "discriminating travellers who want the best Australia can provide" a 10-course table d'hote menu for 7/6: hors d'oeuvres, potage, poisson, entree, roti, legumes, entremets, savoury, dessert and cafe. The restaurant also had a la carte menu with continuous service through breakfast, morning tea, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.

After the pallid piece of toast she waved around in Episode 1, I hope the promise of country air will do something to sharpen Phyrne's appetite. 

Tonight's menu is inspired by the Hotel Alexander's table d'hote on 22 February 1928: 

Oysters a la Mornay

Filet de Boeuf Roti

Currant and Apple Tart