Well this one was a pleasant surprise! I thought this would be a soufflé affair, but actually it turned out to be a much more veggiecentric dish which was surprisingly delicious. This was on the “to test” list because Julia McKenzie is one of the Miss Marples I want to write about in Cooking the Detectives.
A big Agatha Christie fan I spoke to recently was very much Team Hickson on the moving image personification front, but even though I love Joan Hickson AND Julia McKenzie AND Geraldine McEwan AND Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, I will always be Team Rutherford.
There is much to say about Marple, but for now, I present Julia’s recipe with some cooking notes.
Battenburgbelle came round for dinner and I made half of Julia’s recipe as there was only two of us. This made for a thin, fritter-esque courgette dish and as I had buttered the cooking tin, it was lovely and crispy on the bottom as well as the top.
I’d been a bit heavy handed with the pepper, using Bart’s Coarse Ground Black Pepper because it happened to be in my eyeline rather than grinding it via a pepper mill.
I was surprised at how PEPPERY the resulting dish was. We both liked the pepperiness but it did make me wonder whether the cooking process intensifies this kind of pepper? I am someone who LOVES black pepper and Mr R is always saying things like, “Do you want any potato with that pepper?” – replacing the word potato with whatever I am endlessly grinding pepper over. I’m going to be using these little pepper bombs much more in future when I want a good pepper hit.
We had this as a main dish with some garlic smashed potatoes and a green salad. It was really good. I think this would be a great side dish, as Julia recommended, maybe even with Christmas dinner or as part of a Thanksgiving spread.
Next morning, due to the fact that we hadn’t managed the “moderate drinking” we had planned I woke up with a raging hangover. This sorted that out! A new kind of bubble and squeak…
A chef once told me black pepper was meant to be used sparingly during cooking and primarily on finished dishes, as the heat does release more oils and stronger flavors. The coarse grind makes it even more potent. The oils can also cause digestive discomfort for some people.
Ooh Elody, thanks for this info! Yes, my sister-in-law is actually allergic to black pepper so always replaces it with white pepper in recipes. I can see how in this case the heat released the stronger flavour. As a pepper addict, I loved it!