Meet the food writer who recrea NOVEL REC To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

GRACIOUS alive, Cal, what’s all this?” He was staring at his breakfast plate.

Calpurnia said, “Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.”

“You tell him I’m proud to get it – bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House. What are these?”

“Rolls,” said Calpurnia. “Estelle down at the hotel sent ‘em.” KATE SAYS: What better timing than to return to this, my favourite summer book, one I turn to each year as the temperature increases?

This breakfast, laid before Atticus Finch is a veritable feast. Serves 4 for breakfast INGREDIENTS 4 chicken thighs, bones in, but without their skin, 250ml buttermilk, 100g flour, pinch sea salt, pinch ground black peppercorns, pinch sweet paprika, 500ml vegetable oil. ROLLS 1tbsp fast action yeast, 125ml tepid water, 125ml milk, 1 egg, 2tbsp vegetable oil, 1tsp sugar, large pinch salt, 425g plain flour, 1tbsp butter. 1. The night before you fancy this for breakfast, place the salt, chicken and buttermilk in a bowl, squelching it around to ensure the chicken is covered. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge. 2. To make the rolls, combine the water and yeast in a jug and whisk to combine.

In a bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil, sugar and salt. Add the yeast mix, then the flour and mix with your hand to combine.

Tip the dough you have created on to the bench and knead until smooth and elastic – around ten minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough back in and cover it, then allow the dough to double in size. This will take around an hour, depending on how warm your kitchen is. 3. Tip the dough out on to your bench and split into 12 evenly sized balls. I found that weighing the dough and dividing by 12 allowed me to divide the dough evenly, but you do not need to be this precise.

Shape into balls and then place them a centimetre or two apart in a roasting tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Leave for 40 minutes to prove again. During this time, heat your oven to 180C. 4. Once risen again, melt the butter and paint it over the tops. It is fine if the sides of the rolls are now touching – that is what you want. Bake for 15 minutes until risen and golden.

Remove from the oven and leave on a cooling rack while you finish with the chicken. 5. While the rolls are cooking, you can cook the chicken. Heat 2cm of vegetable oil in a wide frying pan or saucepan with a lid.

Mix the flour, paprika and nd pepper together in a shallowow dish. Remove the chicken from the fridge and take pieces outt of the buttermilk, wiping as you do. Turn them in the flour until covered.ered. 6. Once the oil is at 170C – or is hot enough to brown a small piece of bread in a few seconds – lowerower the chicken thighs into the oil, , ensuring you do not put themhem on top of each other.

Put the lid on the pan, turnurn the heat down and cook for seven even minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook for five minutes on the other side.

If the coatingng does not look goldenen brown by this point, turn the heat up for a minute or twot at the end. d. Remove the chicken hicken from the pan and allow to cool slightly on some kitchen paper. HERCULE Poirot was a little late in entering the luncheon car on the following day.

Monsieur Bouc, who was already seated, gatedd a greeting and summoned d his friend to the empty place opposite him.

Poirot sat down and soon found himself in the favoured position of beingg at the table which was served first and with the choicest morsels.

The food, too, was unusually good. KATE SAYS: Agatha Christie fails to describe any of the food consumed during Murder on the Orient Express so I have had to take some liberties with this recipe.

And so, armed with pistachios and rosewater – sourced in the Spice Market in Istanbul, I made a cake I imagine could easily have a home in the dining car on the Orient Express. Serves 10 INGREDIENTS CAKE 250g butter, 250g caster sugar, 3 eggs, 100g shelled and peeled pistachio nuts, 100g ground almonds, 1 orange, 1tsp rosewater, 60g spelt flour, or you can use gluten-free flour. ICING 100g icing sugar, 2tbsp lemon juice, rose petals and chopped pistachio nuts to decorate 1. Preheat the over to 160C and grease and line the bottom of a 20cm loloose bottomed cake titin with greaseproof ppaper. 2 2. Cream the butter and sugar together uuntil light and creamy. Beat the eggs in, one at a time.

Blitz the pistachio nnuts in the food pprocessor until fine, ththen fold into the batter along with the almonds. 3. Grate the orange zest into the batter then juice the orange and add it to the mixture along with the rosewater.

Finally fold in the flour. 4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and place in the oven for 50 minutes.

Cover the top of the tin with foil for the last ten minutes if it is browning too quickly.

Check the cake is cooked by placing a skewer into the centre – it should come out clean. 5. While the cake is cooling, beat the icing sugar and lemon juice together until smooth and then pour over the cooled cake.

Decorate with the rose petals and pistachio and leave to set for half an hour.