Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce with Recipe by Lee Majhen-Todd
The Author
Growing up in Edinburgh, Harriet Tyce wasn’t always an author.
She studied English at Oxford University before going on to work as a barrister for the first 10 years of her working life.
It wasn’t until having children and completing an MA in Creative Writing-Crime Fiction (2017) that her writing skills was realised with her first novel, Blood Orange, Foodie Book Clubs April Read.
A lover of Agatha Christie and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and when growing up, poetry with Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin, described as her influences.
Harriet Tyce, author of this months read
When writing her Blood Orange, Harriet was very clear about who she wanted the main character, Alison, to be.
She wanted to explain what it would be like staying at the Bar after having children, but even though she knew about the character, she was less sure about where the story was going to go, only knowing that she wanted to put a lot of difficulties in her path.
Harriet wrote in an interview that she knew the beginning and the end of the story and hoped the middle would work itself out.
Harriet has written four novels, and lives in north London with her husband, children and two dogs.
This months read!
The Book
Alison, the main character, is a barrister who drinks too much after work, smokes with cigarettes that aren’t hers and finds it a challenge being a mother to her daughter.
Having an affair with Patrick, a work colleague, its Carl, her husband, who initially seems to be the steady reliable one in their relationship.
Getting her first murder case, Alison slowly begins to see the parallels between her married relationship and her clients’ circumstances.
It soon becomes apparent that Alison feels that if she can save her client, she can save her own marriage, but nothing is quite what it seems in her marriage or in her clients’ story about why she murdered her husband.
With twists in the book in both her criminal case and her marriage, is it a book that ends with a plot twist worth staying up past bed time discover?
My Thoughts
I listened to this book and thought it was read well, which may sound like a basic requirement for an audio book, not the case.
There are many audiobooks I’ve listened too which I’ve wished I’d read because the readings were so bad and took away from the story rather than was part of it.
Alison, the central character, is flawed, human, unreliable and vulnerable in a very human way.
It wasn’t difficult to get in to the book, being drawn in to Alison’s world pretty quickly, and I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.
As her life spiralled out of control, with Alison forgetting about her daughter on more than one occasion, her lover dying after being accused of rape and her marriage looking as though it was coming to an end, it was still difficult for me to like her.
Even as the book ended, I wasn’t in love with her character, thinking her selfish and not the victim that I feel I was supposed to think she was.
But I also thought that may have been the point, no real person is one dimensional, and this is the way the author wanted the readers to see her.
Similarities between her client and her are pretty obvious, but to Alison, as a wife and at times, reluctant mother, she is unaware of the similarities and to me, feels so caught up in her own life, she is oblivious to other people’s needs.
I did think that there were some characters in the book who weren’t fully formed, leaving me wanting more from them.
The lack of character build-up of her husband throughout most of the book, left me wondering firstly why he was there and then as I read on, I began waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And drop it did with a twist that although I knew that there was one, was surprised to know what it was.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and understand why it is a success.
Although it wasn’t obviously ‘a murder mystery’ once it kicked in, it had enough twists to keep me interested.
I’d definitely recommend this book to others and give it a 4 egg rating.
I give this book a 4 egg rating
Food
This recipe is one I like a lot and fits in with the title of the book.
Making this Orange and Lemon Custard Tart isn’t difficult but it does require a little bit of time.
Blind baking the pastry is the thing that will take a little time, but once this is done, making the orange and lemon custard is next to get in the oven.
It’s a delicious tart and not too sweet, so perfect for an after dinner dessert that everyone will enjoy!
Orange & Lemon Custard Tart
What You Need
Pastry
350g Plain Flour plus extra for dusting and preparing tin.
250g Cold Butter – Cut into cubes
100g Castor Sugar
Margarine or butter to prepare tin
Filling
5 Large Eggs
150ml Double Cream
200ml Orange & Lemon Juice – See Tip Box
140g Castor Sugar
Zest from 2 Fresh Lemons & 2 Fresh Large Oranges
How It’s Done
Prepare the Tin
Rub margarine or butter around the inside of a 23cm loose bottomed tin to coat it– See Tip Box
Once the inside is coated in the margarine, dust the inside with flour so that it’s all covered.
Set it aside until needed.
Heat the oven to 180c
Blind bake the pastry
Pastry
Place the flour and sugar in the food processor
Give it a whizz to mix it up
Add the butter a piece at a time to the flour mix, and let it keep running until it comes together into a soft dough
Remove from the food processor, and spend only 30 seconds to bring it together into a ball with your hands
Wrap the pastry in cling film and set it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Once it has rested, remove from the fridge.
Dust the work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about the thickness of 3mm
Gently line the tin with the rolled-out pastry, pushing it into all of the tart corners – See Tip Box
Run a sharp knife around the top of the tin to remove the hang over pastry
Set it back into the fridge for 30 minutes to set up
After 30 minutes, remove the tin from the fridge, line the tart cake with non-stick baking parchment
Pour in some baking beans or uncooked dry rice.
Place the tin onto a baking tray, and into the hot oven to bake for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove the parchment and baking beans and return the tart tin on the tray, into the oven for another 10 minutes – See Tip Box
Once the tart base is a pale golden brown, remove it from the oven and let the pastry case cool for 5 minutes before adding the filling for baking.
Filling
Zest the fruit and set the zest aside
Juice the fresh oranges and lemons.
Pour the juice through a sieve to remove all of the pulp and pips.
Do this until there is 200ml of the combined orange and lemon juice
Add the zest of the fruit to the juice and mix to combine
In a separate bowl or large jug, add the double cream, eggs and castor sugar.
Use a hand whisk and whisk gently just to break up the eggs and mix everything together.
Pour the fruit juice into the egg mixture and give it another mix
Set it aside in the fridge until needed
Thin pastry with the perfect custard
Cooking
Once the Pastry has cooled for 5 minutes, to allow it to set up a little, place the tart tin on an oven tray and take it to the hot oven
Open the oven door, put the tray halfway into the oven
Pour the mixture into the tart shell, as full as possible
Gently slide the tray into the oven and close the door
Let it bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard has risen and set, but there is still a small wobble in the centre – See Tip Box
Remove it from the oven and let it sit and cool on the tray.
Let the tart cool in the tin, and once completely cool, gently remove from the tin onto a serving plate.
Tip Box
Prepare Tin – When rubbing margarine around the inside of the tin, make sure to get it into all of the crevasses and with the flour, make sure there is a dusting all over the inside, to avoid the pastry sticking to the tin.
Roll Out Pastry – To get the pastry to go into all parts of the tin, roll a leftover piece of pastry into a ball, and use this to press the pastry into the tin
The Rise of the tart – Because the tart is a custard base, it will rise during cooking, but as it cools, it will fall back into the pastry case.
Baking - All ovens are different so adjust baking ties accordingly
one slice or two?
