Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears: Devils on Horseback Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁
/Beguiling, Romantic, Exciting
Year Released: 2020
Directed by; Tony Tilse
Starring: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Isabella Yena, Khaled Abol Naga
(Not Rated, 101 min.)
Genre: Mystery and Suspense, Action and Adventure
“No one worth possessing can be quite possessed.” Sara Teasdale
If you’ve missed those Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries since they stopped filming 5 years ago, welcome back with her delicious new feature length film. We’ve always known she has a little James Bond in her, but to our delight in this film she goes Indiana Jones on us, absent his hat and bullwhip.
And our lovely detective is no longer in Melbourne. Miss Fisher (an always radiant Essie Davis) has left the Down Under city and Detective Inspector Jack Robinson’s (Nathan Page) half-broken heart behind for adventures in Jerusalem, of all places. And as always, she’s into trouble there, perhaps even more so than in Australia. There to set free the niece of a friend, she has already been cited for dancing in the street with “undesirables” after hours. To which she replies in typical Phryne Fisher fashion:
“Actually, I thought some of the undesirables were quite desirable.”
After tracking down the friend’s niece, Shirin Abbas – with an interim of escaping some bumbling British justice herself – Phryne frees her from prison in broad daylight, hopping first a motorcycle and then a train out of town. Only to ostensibly meet her end as it enters a too narrow tunnel while she is still atop it.
Jack, his half broken heart torn atwain now, journeys all the way to London for her memorial service, only to be buzzed by Phryne as she crashes her own funeral. Alighting from her single engine with her usual panache, she kisses all her bereaved hosts, laying one right on the lips of handsome Jonathon Lordhouse (Rupert Penry-Jones) before noticing a disapproving Jack at the edge of the crowd.
Things are rather rough between them for a while, to say the least:
Miss Fisher: Do you know the quickest way to escape me?
Jack: Tie you up and dump you in that river?
Miss Fisher: Or you could help me with this case.
I will not try to explain the complex, or less charitably, the convoluted plot that follows, but it involves an ancient curse by none other than Alexander the Great, a huge emerald the size of a flattened football named “The all-Seeing Eye,” treks across the desert sands, complete with treacherous guides and quicksand, and a race to an underground crypt in a lost village.
Add to those, some British Gothic touches like a mysterious hooded assassin, lightning lit skies amidst thunder and rain, and the requisite racing though dark and narrow underground passages.
Not to mention the the vaulted ceiling splendor of an empty Baroque church at midnight, or a manor house with its textured tiled floors, polished mahogany and motor cars. And in and around Jerusalem, we have a cascade of colors on the camels and their riders standing out like jewels themselves against the ochre desert sands and cobbled streets.
Phryne continues to go against the grain of British authority, but she also manages to get in the last word:
Vincent Montague: You may have the trappings of British wealth, but you were born in Australia, the filthiest gutter of the realm, and intend to send you back there.
British Police: Wherever you go, Miss Fisher, trouble follows.
Miss Fisher: I prefer to think of it the other way around.
But now Jack is in trouble, too.
London Police Officer: A lady detective and a police officer happen to meet up about 12,000 miles from home at the seat of a murder of a complete stranger.
Jack: Not unusual in my experience.
Of course, Jack cannot help be drawn in into at least three murders not to mention a 10-year-old mysterious massacre, but what really draws him in is Phryne herself. Although along the way, she certainly has to explain her current marriage to a Maharaja, as well as her apparent seduction of the camel guide almost as hot as the coals of the campfire next their entangled bodies.
And as we saw in the original Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,
Phryne is a hero, just like James Bond or the Saint, but with fewer product endorsements and a better class of lovers. I decided to try a female hero and made her as free as a male hero, to see what she would do. –Kerry Greenwood
That connection with Bond is especially apparent in the trailer, which features a very 007 soundtrack, “Nothing But Diamonds” by Atomic Overture.
Yes, she enthralls the feminists, but Phryne has something too few of them have. She is entirely charming, beguiling, and feminine, and not all afraid to use these qualities in any way possible to catch her culprits.
You may have to suspend a little disbelief here, but this light suspense adventure is the tonic we all need now. It’s almost enough to make you subscribe to Acorn to catch the previous 3 seasons.
–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁
Trailer
Enjoy every delightful minute.
Film-Loving Foodie:
One of the pivotal scenes in our film is a luscious banquet at Lofton Manor in London. Phryne and Jack –looking quite dapper in a coat and tails – munch on the banquet goodies as they eavesdrop to find out more about a mysterious killing, only to be witness to another one right in their midst.
Our recipe goes back to the ancient curse invoked 10 years earlier by a triad of horsemen galloping into a Bedouin village. They are up to no good, of course.
This Devils on Horseback recipe is easy to make with only three ingredients. It is a sweet, smoky and salty appetizer served hot out of the oven.
Many current popular versions include strong cheeses, blue cheese or Stilton, which I’m sure are also delicious however not everyone loves those cheeses (and they take extra care to cook them successfully).
When cooked, the bacon becomes chewy, with a smoky, salty flavor that compliments the sweet dates.
The almond, which one might imagine would add too much smoky flavor, softens when cooking; adding a different type of flavor and still delivering a little crunch. –Toni Dash
Different Drummer is also throwing in a recipe for this companion appetizer, Angels on Horseback, which consist of Shucked oysters wrapped in crispy double-smoked bacon topped with cocktail sauce and horseradish. The perfect combination of salty, briny, smokey and sweet, these tend to disappear within minutes of touching the table. I love them so much that on one visit with a friend, I ordered a second round as my "dessert." –Alejandra Ramo
Ok, she is not a native Brit, but her first name Alejandra is linked to the cursed treasure going all the way back to Alexander the Great’s time in the Mideast.
Devils on Horseback
Ingredients
· 20 pitted Deglet Dates
· 10 slices Smoked Bacon (regular thickness) cut in half horizontally
· 20 Smoked Almonds
· Wooden Toothpicks
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cover a metal rimmed baking sheet with foil, dull side up, and fit with a baking/cooking rack; spray with non-stick spray.
2. Using kitchen scissors insert the lower blade of the scissors into the pitted area of the date (see photos) and cut a vertical opening (note: a paring knife can also be used but do not cut through the entire date, just one side). Inset an almond into the cavity.
3. Holding the date together, wrap 1/2 slice of bacon around the date (will will wrap around twice) and secure the end of the bacon with a wooden toothpick.
4. Place the Devils on Horseback on the prepared baking sheet leaving room between them. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or until the bacon is done to your liking. The bacon will crisp further when out of the oven. The broiler can be turned on for a few minutes at the end if crisp bacon is desired however leave the pan in the middle of the oven and watch closely. Serve hot.
Angels on Horseback
Ingredients
§ 16-32 small oysters (or scallops), or larger ones cut in half, shucked
§ 8-16 slices of thin-cut bacon
§ 16-32 wooden toothpicks
§ 3-4 limes or lemons
Directions
1 Pre-cook the bacon slices: Working in batches if necessary, cook the bacon slices on medium low heat in a large frying pan, until only about halfway cooked, but not crispy.
You need to pre-cook the bacon a bit or else when you cook them with the oysters the oysters will be overcooked by the time the bacon is crispy. Set the bacon aside to cool.
2 Heat the grill: Get a grill or broiler good and hot while you wrap the oysters.
3 Wrap bacon around oysters: To make an angel on horseback, you wrap 1/2 a piece of bacon around the small oyster and secure it with the toothpick. Overlap the edges of the bacon by about an inch if you can.
4 Grill or broil: Grill or broil over high heat to cook the oyster and crisp the bacon, about 5-6 minutes on the first side, another 2-4 once you turn them over. You will need to turn them once or twice to get a good crispiness on all sides.
5 Sprinkle with lemon or lime juice: As soon as they come off the heat, squirt with the lemon or lime juice and serve hot.
