One Good Bid Deserves a Murder

Murder, She Wrote - S2:E17

Sep 06, 2023

Yay, Harry McGraw is back! The fact that he’s got a black eye, just like the first time they met, amuses Jessica greatly.

J.B. is at a police station under suspicion of murder!

Harry immediately offers to help. We can tell how fond Jessica is of this rough diamond,

and naturally, they end up working the case together. McGraw and Fletcher - it’s the dream team.

Being in Boston, she is not as familiar to the local law enforcement team as she is in Cabot Cove. When she happens to be on the scene of a second murder, the Lieutenant in charge expresses feelings that many fans of the show will find familiar. “Every time I find a body, you seem to be in the neighbourhood!” Jessica protests her innocence, and he follows up with, “If murder were a disease, you’d be contagious!”

Harry and Jessica spend time together in a hotel reading through a movie star’s tell-all diary.

Searching for clues, they order room service as it will be a long night. J.B. orders a sandwich and a “nice pot of tea”, so this could be a fitting accompaniment to a screening of this episode.

I love it when Harry accuses the Lieutenant on the case of having “baked beans for brains”, and he calls the diary a “hot potato”, so why not have a jacket potato with beans?! But if you are going the whole hog and cooking up a proper dinner, this 10-Minute-Tomato-Beef-Chinese Number is a winner.

Karen Black is magnificent as a paranoid psychiatrist,

and her recipe is good for calming the nerves. If you fancy a dessert after this dish, why not have Jerry Orbach's Tough Guy Dessert, which you'll find in the entry for Tough Guy's Don't Die.

Karen Black’s 10-Minute-Tomato-Beef Chinese Number

1 cup celery, cut in thin, bias strips

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 small onion, chopped or a couple of tablespoons scallion/spring onion chopped

1 pound top quality, lean boneless Porterhouse or sirloin, cut into thin, bite-size strips

½ green pepper, diced

1½ cups cherry tomatoes, stemmed and washed

2 tablespoons tomato sauce*

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Cooked brown rice

Pre-cook the celery quickly in salted boiling water until barely tender. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and brown the onion and meat quickly on all sides. Add the celery, green pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce and soy sauce. Boil quickly, stirring often. Taste to correct the seasonings. Add in additional soy sauce and black pepper to taste. Serve very hot over cooked brown rice.

Serves 4

* For readers not in the USA, tomato sauce wouldn't refer to ketchup here, but to a thick sauce made from tomatoes, sometimes with olive oil, garlic, and maybe a few herbs. A jarred pasta sauce would be an appropriate substitute.

Next time on Murder, She Cooked a recipe from the kitchen of Robert Sterling.

I’m going to be doing an Instagram live on Monday 18th September at 7pm BST chatting about Murder, She Wrote and the recipes of Angela Lansbury and her co-stars. Do join me - I am @silverscreensuppers on Instagram - you will see my new kitchen! As I chat with you all, I’ll be casting on - for all you knitters out there, join me in the Jessica Fletcher Knitalong. All the details can be found here - everyone is welcome. We’ll be making J.B.’s legendary fish jumper.